ACTION ALERT!
September 15, 2010
FOOD SAFETY LEGISLATION MUST PROTECT
FAMILY FARMS, SUSTAINABLE & ORGANIC AGRICULTURE
CALL YOUR SENATORS TODAY AND URGE THEM
TO SUPPORT THE TESTER AMENDMENT
The Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) could reach the Senate floor
as early as tomorrow. NSAC has been able to win several
improvements to the bill but more changes are needed to avoid serious
harm to family farm value-added processing and the emergence of local
and regional food systems.
S.510 would considerably ramp up FDA regulation on farms that even
minimally process their crops and sell them to restaurants, food coops,
groceries, schools and wholesalers. An amendment sponsored by Senator
Jon Tester (D-MT) would exempt small farm and small food processing
facilities as well as small and mid-sized farmers who primarily direct
market their products to consumers, stores or restaurants within their
region.
Please call your Senators today
and ask them to support the Tester Amendment.
It's easy to call:
Go to Congress.org
and type in your zip code. Click on your Senator's name, and then on
the contact tab for their phone number. You can also call the Capitol
Switchboard and ask to be directly connected to your Senator's office:
202-224-3121. Once connected ask to speak to the legislative staff
person responsible for agriculture. If they are unavailable leave a
voice mail message. Be sure to include your name and phone number.
The message is simple. "I am a constituent of Senator___________
and I am calling to ask him/her to support the Tester Amendment and
to include the Tester language in the Manager's Amendment to the food
safety bill. The Tester Amendment will exempt small farm and food
facilities and farmers who direct market their products to consumers,
stores or restaurants. We need a food safety bill that cracks down on
corporate bad actors without erecting new barriers to family farms and
the growing healthy food movement. Our continuing economic recovery
demands that we preserve these market opportunities for small and
mid-sized family farms.
Report your Call:
Click here
to tell us how your call went.
Learn More:
Most sustainable agriculture and family farm groups think the Senate
bill with changes won by NSAC is a very significant improvement over
the companion bill passed by the House of Representatives (HR 2749)
last year. The changes listed below will be included in the bill that
goes to the Senate floor for a vote. We can't support the Senate bill,
however, unless the Tester amendment is also adopted. We strongly
oppose the companion House measure, and stand ready to defend the "good
amendments" to the Senate bill when it goes to conference with the
House later this year.
The best way to ensure that the
Tester provision is included with the final bill that emerges from
conference is for it to be included in the Manager's Amendment as it
goes to the floor of the Senate. The Manager's Amendment includes all
of the language that has the support of the three Democrats and three
Republicans who are sponsoring the bill. Please call your Senator and
request that the Tester language be added to the Manager's Amendment.
The Manager's Amendment to S.510 already includes the following
important improvements to the bill that have been backed by NSAC:
- Sanders (D-VT) amendment (requiring FDA to write
regulations to determine low risk on-farm processing activities that
can be exempt from regulatory requirement);
- Bennet (D-CO) amendment (to reduce unnecessary paperwork
and streamline requirements for farmers and small processors);
- Stabenow (D-MI) amendment (to create a USDA-delivered
competitive grants program for farmer food safety training);
- Boxer (D-CA) amendment (to eliminate anti-wildlife habitat
language from the bill); and
- Brown (D-OH) amendment (on traceability requirements,
including exemptions for direct marketing and farm identity-preserved
marketing).
For more information on the Senate
Food Safety bill, read our latest information alert here
and our Food Safety Policy Brief here.
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