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  • From: Jack Moffitt <jackmoffitt AT gmail.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] A letter you can adopt and send to the Senate Committee
  • Date: Wed, 5 Aug 2009 22:04:15 -0500

Here is the body of a letter I sent to<help_comments AT help.senate.gov>
the Senate Committee considering HR 2749.

Feel free to plagarize!


Dear Members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions,

My name is Jack Moffitt. I am a small farmer in Cameron County, Texas.
The greatest danger to my operation at this time is not drought,
insects or market prices. The greatest danger to my operation is the
financial and regulatory burdens that H. R. 2749, The Food Safety
Enhancement Act of 2009, will place on me. I will have to either pay
$500 annually to register my farm and comply with the onerous
provisions of this law, or I will be required to stop sales to anyone
other than consumers. My market is a mix of farmers markets,
restaurants and businesses, and I need all sales to make it.

More importantly, treating vegetables like meat, milk, and poultry
will disrupt the farmers markets by causing some of my fellow vendor
farmers and those considering this lifestyle to opt out of farming or
never enter into farming. The ultimate effect of this law is to create
the same situation in America as exists in the poultry, meat, and milk
industries - the huge mega-firms will be favored as they will be the
only firms large enough to absorb the legal, accounting, and
regulatory expenses. Instead of eating from the local foodshed,
Americans will be driven to eat from the fare offered by the giants in
the industry, where one mistake could sicken or kill thousands. That
is the exact opposite of safety in our food supply.

Moreover, the security in our food supply will be compromised.
Well-placed strikes by terrorists can cripple an industry composed of
few, but are impossible when the food supply is spread across many
thousands of firms.

H.R. 2749 applies to a farmer who sells $500 in beans to his local
restaurant and $499 at the local farmers market. The drafters failed
to exclude small operations, and in that failure endangers that small
farmer.

I am philosophically opposed to government regulation of farming
techniques, but failing to exclude small producers makes this measure
draconian and un-American.

Government regulation has made the cost of selling my neighbor milk,
chicken, and meat, completely prohibitive. Please do not remove us
from the fruit and vegetable supply chain as well Thank you for
considering these points.

Jack



  • [Market-farming] A letter you can adopt and send to the Senate Committee, Jack Moffitt, 08/05/2009

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