The U.S. Senate has been working on S.510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, and they hope to have it on President Obama’s desk by Easter. The Act tries to address the worst problems in U.S. agriculture, but as it stands, the bill threatens to undermine the best things in U.S. agriculture—small farmers producing for local markets.
S.510 is a well-meaning attempt to address the genuine problems of contamination from food-borne pathogens and complications in prevention and intervention caused by large, industrialized food distribution systems. All of the well-publicized incidents of contamination in recent years—spinach, peppers, peanuts, hamburger—occurred in industrialized food supply chains that span national—and even international—boundaries.
An exciting development in agriculture and rural economies in recent years is the growing desire and enthusiasm of consumers for buying food direct from farmers and producers, and with that, new businesses and new farmers are entering agriculture. S.510 will effectively kill this positive trend.
Industrial Hog Operation
Instead of effectively protecting us from the filthy conditions inherent in factory farming, the “one-size-fits-all” regulatory policy in S.510 would undermine the rapidly growing local foods movement by imposing unnecessary, burdensome regulations on small farms and food processors—everyone from your local CSA, to the small bakers, jam makers, and people making fermented vegetables to sell at the local farmers market.
The Act casts a shadow over farms that even minimally process their crops and sell them to individuals, restaurants, food coops, groceries, schools or to wholesale markets. Many farmers unable to bear the costs of compliance will be shut out of these important new markets.
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) is focusing on four main problems:
- Farm facilities which do value-added processing or which co-mingle product with neighboring farms will be subject to a proposed new, extensive and expensive FDA regulatory regime, regardless of risk and regardless of scale.
- Proposed new requirements for crop traceability beyond the farm gate and related record-keeping requirements will make it difficult or impossible for farmers to comply. This also lays the groundwork for passage of the very controversial National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
- A produce standard provision threatens wildlife and biodiversity, and is antithetical to organic and agroecological farming practices. These regulations would be particularly problematic for practitioners of traditional farms that combine the synergies of grass, livestock and crops to minimize chemical inputs and maximize building soils and recycling nutrients.
- Lack of training or technical assistance on food safety appropriate for small and mid-sized value added producers and small scale processors and wholesalers exacerbates the challenges these operations will face to comply with new regulation. It would take a desk-bound administrative staff working full-time just to keep up with the bare minimum requirements of this bill. Small farmers are operating on a very thin edge as it is, and this bill will force many of them to throw in the towel.
By failing to focus FDA regulation on processing activities that present the most risk for food borne pathogen contamination, this bill could needlessly throttle an increasingly important engine for rural economic development and rural revitalization. In its zeal to protect consumer health, Congress could instead stifle a healthy shift in diet to more fresh and local foods.
Longstanding state and local health and sanitation laws are in place, and they continue to provide oversight for the small processors and local farmers market vendors. The emergence of deadly pathogens that are difficult to trace are a function of a long and complex industrial food chain, which should be the focus of this legislation—not small, local food.
Food safety is something we all care about. It is not compromised by the growing trend toward healthy, fresh, locally-sourced vegetables, meats, fruits, and small processing companies that is reinvigorating local food systems.
Local foods businesses are not the same as animal factories or mega-farms that sell products into industrial scale national and international markets. Local food systems are inherently safer and traceable.
What You Can Do
The FDA Federal Food Safety Modernization Act tries to fix a problem at one end of the agricultural spectrum, but it will create a host of problems at the other end. Clean, simple language should be added to remove the small, local direct-market farms and processors whose primary sales are direct to consumers, hotels, restaurants and institutions.
Contact your Senators today and ask them to vote for amendments to fix the FDA Federal Food Safety Modernization Act (S.510) so it does not take away one of the bright emerging spots in wholesome, healthy food and local jobs and income.
Ask your Senators to:
- exempt small farmers selling directly to consumers, and
- exempt small-scale processors.
You can also sign this petition.
Your favorite small farmer is counting on you!
Image credit: Farm Sanctuary
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
the government do anything useful to help us? When they are allowing harmful additives in our food and in things like immunizations and pushing us to take them or give them to our kids? And then when our children fall ill they are often denied state assistance from the government.
The government won’t be happy until everyone is eating only mass produced, genetically modified foods and foods that are packaged and produced by the major food companies.
Soon everyone will have food allergies.
The US is already taking some steps in the right direction, they have recently banned a chemical additive that had been in so-called “organic” food for years. Hopefully they will step up the enforcement of products do not conform to the 100% organic label they claim to carry.