Rumors on legislation spread like mulch

Let's all calm down.

Breathe in some lavender, brew some camomile tea.

Your organic gardens are safe, folks, despite the alarming spin.

I've received more than a few e-mails warning me that the U.S. House and Senate were about to shove through a bill that would outlaw farmers markets, and make it illegal to grow your own garden. Mercy.

And, according to the panicked e-mails and YouTube videos, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 was going to dictate which fertilizers and insect sprays could be used, and control which seeds would be available.

"Strange, right?" asked one person who passed it on to me.

Strange, yes. Also wrong.

"It's a bunch of bull," said Trudy Bialic, the director of public affairs for PCC Natural Markets, our 45,000-member Seattle-based co-op. "And yet, we are getting buried here in calls and e-mails. People are hysterical.

"But it is a straw dog."

Bialic, whose job is to make sense of dense legislation, was so deluged with frantic questions that she wrote an explainer for the May issue of PCC's Sound Consumer newsletter.

House Resolution 875 seeks to improve the safety of foods in supermarkets by tightening standards for labeling, enforcement and regulating all foods. It would also better oversee the safety of imported foods.

And it applies only to foods shipped in interstate commerce. Not your backyard basil.

The bill would also take food-safety issues out of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and create a Food Safety Administration (FSA), which would operate under the Department of Health and Human Services.

It's hard to argue against improved government scrutiny when we are having regular food recalls in this country. This week, it's pistachios. Earlier this year, it was peanuts. Meat and mad-cow disease. Spinach and E.coli.

"What the consumer wants is traceability, and this bill could be a step toward that," Bialic said. So much for the organic panic. And yet, Seattle seemed the place to spread the seed of misinformation.

This region's love for organic food — not only growing it, but building entire grocery chains, restaurants and communities around it — is one of the strongest in the country.

Adding to that are the times we're living in. People are out of work, and looking for constructive ways to use their time and feed their families.

So when word spread that the feds wanted to tramp through people's garden beds, you bet there was widespread worry.

Bialic's big concern is the USDA's proposed National Animal Identification System, which would require everyone with any livestock to register theirs with an ID number. Industrial-scale livestock operations would barely feel the impact, but the smaller, diversified farmer would have to give each animal an individual number, and notify the USDA each time an animal commingles with one from another place.

Makes sense, but Bialic worries that the cost could put small farmers out of business — and end access to sustainably raised meat and dairy products.

"We appreciate that well-intentioned people are watch-dogging these things," Bialic said.

But a failure to fully read bills, completely miss others, and spread panic is a pastime best put out to pasture.

"We have real problems," Bialic said, "Why waste energy on made-up ones?"

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Tuesday and Friday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

She's ready for a Victory Garden.