Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - [Market-farming] The attachment about the Food Safety Vote..... not attached now.....quoted

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Mike Rock <mikerock AT mhtc.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Market-farming] The attachment about the Food Safety Vote..... not attached now.....quoted
  • Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2010 09:21:08 -0600

[1]Tell your Senators to pass the Tester-Hagan Amendment and the
Manager's
Amendment to protect family farmers!

[2][IMG]

[3]Click here to call your Senators to protect small farmers and organic and
local foods!

Critical Food Safety Vote in 24 Hours: Tell your Senators to protect family
farmers and local food today!

In the last two years alone America has witnessed some of the largest food
safety recalls in our nation's history, including the American Peanut
Corporation fiasco and more recently, Jack DeCoster's massive egg recall.

If one thing is clear from watching this news, it's the fact that
America's food system is broken and needs to be fixed.

During this same time, the sustainable food and agriculture community has
been gripped by the debate over food safety legislation. After countless
rumors, battles behind the scenes in DC and passage in the U.S. House of
Representatives, the Food Safety Modernization Bill (S.510) has languished
in the U.S. Senate until now.

Tomorrow (Nov. 17th) the Senate is finally set to vote on the
controversial bill, and small-scale and organic farmers urgently need two
important amendments so the new regulations don't place huge financial
burdens on small farmers.

Without these two important amendments -- currently opposed by all the big
names in agribusiness -- small farmers will not be protected from
inappropriate regulations meant to curtail the largest and most likely
culprits of food safety outbreaks in the U.S.: giant, consolidated
agribusinesses and their massive processing partners.

Please call your Senators and tell them it's time to stand up for family
farmers, farmers markets and restaurants that source their products
locally from small farmers and are driving the safe, healthy food
renaissance in America.

[4]Click here to call your Senators to ask them to protect small farmers
and local food economies today.

When you click, we'll provide your Senators' contact information and a way
to tell us how the call went. That way we can track our campaign's
progress.

For those who have followed this debate closely, one needs to only
consider that yesterday a Who's Who of Big Ag sent Congress a letter
demanding that your Senators not allow the Tester Amendment nor the
Manager's Amendments to pass.

The battle lines are drawn, with the American Meat Institute, National
Chicken Council, National Meat Association, National Pork Producers
Council and the National Turkey Federation once again railing against
small-scale family farms and local food production.

It's clear that we need food safety legislation. However, without the
Tester-Hagan Amendment, small farmers will be subject to "one size fits
all" food safety regulations that will unfairly subject them to the same
standards as Tyson, Smithfield, DeCoster and the worst food safety
abusers.

Sustainable Ag groups such as the National Sustainable Agriculture
Coalition (NSAC) have been hard at work for the past 18 months on this
bill, protecting the interests of small farmers and we need to support
their efforts.

Farmer Protections from The Tester-Hagan Amendment

The first and most important provision is the Tester-Hagan amendment,
which provides an exemption for family farmers who gross less than
$500,000 and sell direct to farmers markets, restaurants, customers and
local stores within 400 miles of their farm/processing facility. As the
only organic farmer in the U.S. Senate, John Tester has made sure that
this amendment protects the growing local food movement and allows small
and beginning farmers the opportunity to grow the most economically
vibrant part of agriculture, without excessive fees or paperwork that
could harm smaller-scale producers.

The Manager's Amendment

In addition, the Manager's Amendment, which includes 5 vital amendments,
would protect small-scale farmers from burdensome paperwork, offer farmers
competitive grants for food safety training, allow them to engage in
co-mingling of products from multiple farms in processing, reduce
paperwork and excessive traceability requirements, and protect wildlife
and wildlife habitat.

While we understand that there are fears from many members within the
sustainable food and agriculture community regarding S. 510, only the
Tester-Hagan Amendment and the Manager's Amendment stand to offer real
protections to small-scale local and organic farmers that are at the
center of a resurgence in agriculture today, while protecting all of
America's food consumers.

Tomorrow (Nov. 17th) this bill is finally set to come up for a vote in the
U.S. Senate and farmers need you to [5]call your Senators and tell them
it's time to stand up for family farmers, farmers markets and restaurants
that source their products locally from small farmers.

With the most recent elected officials set to take office next year, this
may be our last best hope of protecting consumers and small farmers alike
- please take a moment to make this important call today!

Thank you for participating in food democracy today!

- Dave, Lisa and The Food Democracy Now! Team

References

Visible links
1. Stand up for family farmers
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/275?akid=224.128592.BKZncT&t=1
2. http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/275?akid=224.128592.BKZncT&t=2
3. Stand up for family farmers
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/275?akid=224.128592.BKZncT&t=3
4. Urgent Don't Let Big Ag's abuses kill the local food movement
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/275?akid=224.128592.BKZncT&t=4
5. Urgent Don't Let Big Ag's abuses kill the local food movement
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/275?akid=224.128592.BKZncT&t=5

-- You can unsubscribe from this mailing list at any time: http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/cms/unsubscribe/unsubscribe/?akid=224.128592.BKZncT&t=1





  • [Market-farming] The attachment about the Food Safety Vote..... not attached now.....quoted, Mike Rock, 11/17/2010

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page