Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of this amendment. The author is an organic grower. She knows how people care about what is in their food. I represent one of the most successful agricultural counties in the United States--Monterey County. I challenge anybody to find a county in this country that makes $4.5 billion a year by growing over 100 different crops in one county. Food is just like politics--it is all local. What the underlying bill does is strike local control--local control where people care about the methodology of growing. My area is the area that blossomed into creating the California Organic Standards Act, which I authored in the California State Legislature, which became the model for the Federal Organic Standards Act. This preempts some of the regulations in there. That is not a good thing to do. Although the Federal Government may have the authority on interstate commerce, I don't think that people want the Federal Government to preempt the ability for them to know their farmers, to know their food, and to have it be labeled as they so choose in a local area. Labeling is really important, but what you do is change the definition of labels here to one size fits all. That is not the way this country works. That is not the way farming works. And it is certainly not the way that consumers want it to be. It is too early for the Federal Government, for Congress, to jump in and try to mix up this field. Allow local politics to exist.…”