Leigh:
This is great information - thank you very much for finding out about
this. It affects small farm producers like me - we produce value-added
sauces, salsas, etc. - so I've been tracking this!
This is good info, all in one place!
Thanks again -
Robert Farr
The Chile Man
http://www.thechileman.com
rbfarr AT erols.com * (540) 668-7160 (w) * (703) 431-6734
"Work is love made visible." - Kahlil Gibran
Leigh Hauter wrote:
food safety legislation
I asked around at the great consumer group Food and Water Watch
about the food safety legislation and how it would effect people like
me (I farm a relatively large CSA). this is what I got.
This memo is written by the staffer that does nothing else but follow
legislation like this.
Subject:
Re:
problems for small producers in House FS bill
1. Farms are exempt from the
registration fee in the bill. For those farmers who process
value-added products (like jams, jellies) and sell more than 51% of
those products in interstate commerce, they will be subject to the
$500 registration fee being proposed in the bill for food processors.
We have tried to convince FDA to have a sliding scale on the
fee, but they have resisted claiming that it would be too difficult to
administer, so that is why there is a flat fee. The fee is
needed to help defray the $2.2 billion cost of the bill primarily to
bolster domestic and import inspections of processing
facilities.
Here is the language in the
bill:
''(B) Such term does not include
farms; private
residences of individuals;
restaurants;
other retail
food establishments; nonprofit food
establishments
in which food is prepared for or
served
directly to
the consumer; or fishing vessels
(except
such vessels
engaged in processing as defined in
section 123.3(k)
of title 21, Code of Federal
Regulations,
or any suc-
cessor regulations).
''(D)(i) The term 'farm' means an
operation in
one general physical location devoted
to
the growing
and harvesting of crops, the raising
of
animals (in-
cluding seafood), or both.
''(ii) Such term
includes-
''(I) such an operation that packs or
holds
food, provided that all food used in
such
activi-
ties is grown, raised, or consumed on
such farm
or another farm under the same
ownership;
''(II) such an operation that
manufactures
or processes food, provided that all
food
used in
such activities is consumed on such
farm
or an-
other farm under the same
ownership;
''(III) such an operation that sells
food di-
rectly to consumers if the annual
monetary
value of sales of the food products
from
the
farm or by an agent of the farm to
consumers
exceeds the annual monetary value of
sales of
the food products to all other
buyers;
2. There is misinformation going
around that the bill does not take into account conservation
practices, organic production methods, wildlife habitat in the
development of produce safety standards. Here is the language in
the bill:
'(7) shall take into consideration,
consistent
with ensuring enforceable public
health
protection,
the impact on small-scale and
diversified
farms, and
on wildlife habitat, conservation
practices, water-
shed-protection efforts, and
organic production
methods.
In addition, there is this
language:
(D) SMALL BUSINESSES.-The
Sec-
retary-
(i) shall consider the impact of
any
guidance or regulations under this
section
on small businesses; and
(ii) shall issue guidance to assist
small
businesses in complying with the
require-
ments of this section and the
amendments
made by this section.
3. There is misinformation going
around that there will no coordination with USDA on the development of
food safety standards. This is what the bill actually
says:
'(a) STANDARDS.-The Secretary, in
coordination
with the Secretary of Agriculture,
shall
establish by regu-
lation scientific and risk-based food
safety standards for
the growing, harvesting, processing,
packing, sorting,
transporting, and holding of those
types
of raw agricul-
tural commodities-
''(1) that are a fruit, vegetable,
nut, or fungus;
and
''(2) for which the Secretary has
determined
that such standards are reasonably
necessary to
minimize the risk of serious adverse
health con-
sequences or death to humans or
animals.
'(c) EDUCATIONANDCOMPLIANCE.-The
Secretary
shall coordinate with the Secretary
of
Agriculture to pro-
vide for effective implementation of
education and compli-
ance activities. The Secretary may
contract and coordinate
with the agency or department
designated
by the Governor
of each State to perform activities
to
ensure compliance
with this section.''.
4. There is misinformation going
around about the impact of the traceability provisions of the bill.
Here is what the bill actually says:
'(C)
COORDINATIONREGARDINGFARMIM-
PACT.-In issuing regulations under
this
para-
graph that will impact farms, the
Secretary-
''(i) shall coordinate with the
Sec-
retary of Agriculture; and
''(ii) take into account the nature
of
the impact of the regulations on
farms.
''(4)
EXEMPTIONSANDLIMITATIONS.-
''(A) DIRECTSALES BYFARMS.-Food
is
exempt from the requirements of this
sub-
section if such food is-
''(i) produced on a farm;
and
''(ii) sold by the owner, operator,
or
agent in charge of such farm directly
to
a
consumer or to a restaurant or
grocery
store.
''(B) FISHINGVESSELS.-Food is
exempt
from the requirements of this
subsection
if such
food is produced through the use of a
fishing
vessel as defined in section 3(18) of
the
Magnu-
son-Stevens Fishery Conservation and
Manage-
ment Act until such time as the food
is
sold by
the owner, operator, or agent in
charge
of such
fishing vessel.
These seem to be
the
main concerns I have heard.
_______________________________________________
Market-farming mailing list
Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming
|