Page 6 - Sonoma County Gazette January 2016

OPINION
Say No to the Trans-Pacific Partnership
OPINION
Preserving Our Rural Character
By Rebel Fagin
Our ability to control the laws that govern our lives is in jeopardy if the
By Padi Selwyn of Preserve Rural Sonoma County
The continual flow of letters to the editors in all local publications shows
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is ratified by Congress this winter. We can stop it if we act now.
how deeply the community cares about the need to preserve our agricultural landscapes and rural character. Yet, at the recent county-sponsored public workshop on winery expansion issues, the Sonoma County Vintners stated that they will oppose any effort to restrict or limit winery activities and events. Subsequently, the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission urged their 1,800 members to write county officials with letters calling those who oppose any new limits on them, ‘liars and bullies.’
The TPP was secretly negotiated over six years between the U.S. and eleven Pacific Rim countries. 600 ‘trade advisors’ designed this corporate power grab. These lobbyists included representatives from Chevron, Monsanto, Halliburton, ExxonMobil, Walmart, Pfizer, Goldman Sachs, and other major corporations. Our elected representatives played no part in designing this binding treaty. Those few who were allowed to see parts of it were not permitted to discuss the details or record what they had seen.
On November 5, 2015, the text to the TPP was released on WikiLeaks. Here are some of the features of the TPP:
U.S. regulations concerning food safety, GMO food-like substances, and country of origin labels can all be challenged as illegal barriers to trade. Marin County and Mendocino County’s ban on growing GMO food-like substances will be overturned. We will be required to import meat and poultry that do not meet current food safety standards.
The Intellectual Property chapter extends patents on drugs so that more affordable generic drugs can be kept off the market for up to twenty years. People will die waiting for the medicines they need to become affordable.
The Intellectual Property chapter further requires internet service providers to monitor and report online activities for potential infringement of rights. Individuals will be treated as major for-profit violators, stifling freedom of expression and further destroying our right to privacy.
These statements stunned community groups who are working constructively with the County to develop balanced zoning standards that address local and cumulative impacts associated with the intensity, scale and concentration of visitor-serving and agricultural promotional activities, as required by the General Plan.
Jobs will be shipped overseas and workers will be insourced from member nations causing wages to plummet.
The Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) court will adjudicate all corporate claims of potential lost profits due to health, safety, or environmental laws. ISDS hearings are held in secret with three corporate lawyers rotating between being counsel for the corporations one day and passing judgments on the corporations the next. Who do you think they’ll favor? Secret evidence is permissible, there are no safeguards for human rights, and there’s no right of appeal based on the merits of the case. There are no corresponding rights for citizens and our communities as we have no standing in this court. Arthur Stamoulis of the Citizens Trade Campaign stated: “The Tribunals that adjudicate these cases and don’t have the power to literally demand that a government change its policies, but they can award payments worth millions, even billions of dollars, such that if a country doesn’t want additional cases brought against it, gets in line.”
Such negativity from the wine industry is an attempt to deflect the debate away from the real issues of the need for impact-based standards, mutual respect for neighbors and compliance with our laws.
A new commission of unelected international bureaucrats will be established to promote the TPP as a separate institution with an agenda independent of U.S. interests. It may make its own rules without input from Congress and is not bound to respect the U.S. Constitution.
We are not the enemies of the wine industry. We are your neighbors and customers. Land use conflicts and impacts are real. The Board of Supervisors tasked the Permit Department to develop standards for promotional activities and events on Ag lands given the exponential growth of wineries and event centers has reached a tipping point. The General Plan evaluated the impact to Ag lands from winery and tasting room development based on only 239 facilities by 2020; yet, 436 facilities exist today with 60 applications in the pipeline. And, the shift in the business model to one reliant on high intensity hospitality uses and food service has compounded the impacts and land use conflicts, requiring the County to act.
The TPP is a gateway treaty to the equally catastrophic Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership and the Trade in Service Agreement both of which will further entrench corporate control over our lives.
Preserve Rural Sonoma County supports a balanced, consistent development code that preserves rural lands and protects neighborhoods and communities from the impacts from hospitality and entertainment activities. It’s time to uphold, not undermine, the policies in our General Plan designed to steer tourism-related hospitality uses to our vibrant town centers and to preserve the integrity of our rural agricultural lands for future generations.
THIS IS NOT A DONE DEAL!
The TPP goes before Congress this winter for an up or down vote. There is a lot of opposition to this treaty ranging from Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Jill Stein to Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, and Ted Cruz. We each have three votes on this matter if we act now. Contact Senators Feinstein and Boxer as well as either Representative Thompson or Huffman (depending on your district). To learn more visit www.flushthetpp.org/national-tpp-resistance-calls
High impact hospitality uses, when sited in the wrong locations, have a negative impact on Sonoma County as a premier destination. Sonoma County has benefited from Napa’s over-development and its diminished tourist experience– let’s not make the same mistakes. In 2014, several national bicycle tour companies, who fill hotel rooms and restaurants mid-week, wrote to our County officials warning that the proliferation of more and more event-related traffic on narrow, winding country roads was creating road safety concerns. They said that they may have to curtail tours here, as they’ve already done in Napa, due to unacceptable traffic and safety conditions.
www.flushthetpp.org/national-tpp-resistance-calls. To get involved locally go to www.meetup.com/Trash_the_TPP www.meetup.com/Trash_the_TPP/ .
This corporate power grab is a threat to democracy. All go local movements and local legislation is threatened by the TPP. Now is the time to act! Contact your members of Congress today and tell her/him to vote NO on the TPP.
We support small farmers and family operations, yet the rights given through a use permit are passed on to new owners. We are concerned with
the rate our family operations are selling to large corporations and out of state developers who may not share our values regarding the long-term stewardship of the land.
Sources: WikiLeaks 3/28/15, 11/5/15, Washington Post 2/25/15, This Changes Everything © 2014 Naomi Klein, Censored 2015 © Huff & Roth, Democracy Now 4/16/15, Trash the TPP
Rebel Fagin writes for the Sonoma County Peace Press and dailycensored.com
Residents have every right to provide input on matters that affect our lives. Please make your voice heard by sending comments to Tennis.Wick@sonoma- county.org, Director of the Permit & Resources Management Department, whose team is crafting protective standards and criteria now.
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