Market Farming

[Leigh Hauter <lh AT pressroom.com>]

At 12:01 -0500 8/8/04, Adriana wrote:
> Don't be misled by the use of the term "guidance" by the FDA.  "Guidance"
> has the full force of law.  I've seen it in writing and had it confirmed
> verbally by an FDA official.  "Regulations" are what they are and should be
> called.Why they chose such a loosey-goosey term is beyond me.
>
>  > And the new one which is a 'guidance' called
> >  "sampling and Microbial Testing of Spent
>  > Irrigation Water During Sprout Production"

Exactly right.

 Another question we should be asking ourselves is why the FDA and 
USDA promulgate rules that put small producers out of business.  Is 
it that they don't care, and don't think of the implications on small 
farmers  (often they could think of cheaper ways of doing things that 
would have the same or better results)?

Or is it, like my wife says (and she works on these issues on a 
professional basis) that the USDA is anti small producer and would 
seemingly like nothing better than to put small producers out of the 
food production business. Her observation is that these rules are 
designed for large corporations and the rules are often more strictly 
enforced on small producers  (look at slaughterhouse rules, 
regulations and enforcement for a prime example).

I hate to say something so obvious, but small farmers in the USA need 
to learn a little French (and I'm not talking about the language) and 
start protecting their own interests like French small farmers do.

I'm not talking about dumping manure in front of McDonalds either but 
I do mean organizing and lobbying for rules that are small producer 
friendly.   You know darn well that the large producers spend 
millions defending their interests.  That's probably why USDA and FDA 
'guidances' are so skewed.

 It would be interesting to see if the above 'guidance' was first 
vetted with the lobbyist for some of the large packers of sprouts.