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  • From: Leigh Hauter <bullrunfarm AT hughes.net>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Market-farming] Delete my last post and insert this in its place.
  • Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2010 23:37:33 -0500

My last post had some really confusing language. This one does a better job of explaining what's going on with this legislation as far as small,local farmers.


As I wrote in the previous e-mail the Tester language in the Food Safety bill exempts farmers with less than half a million gross business, who sold in state or within 275 miles of the farm.

However, half a dozen people wrote me off list saying "Yes but I heard it will still effect me by..... " So I went back and did some more research and found out that the truth is The Food Safety Bill exempts farmers who qualify as local, small farmers under the Tester language from most, if not all, provisions of the bill.

Here are other ways the food safety bill was amended to make sure farmers who fall under the Tester language will not be affected by this bill.

This list comes from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition's webpage (http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/)

* Senator Sanders (I-VT) providing FDA authority to either exempt farms engaged in low or no risk processing or co-mingling activities from new regulatory requirements or to modify particular regulatory requirements for such farming operations
.
* Senator Bennet (D-CO) to reduce unnecessary paperwork and excess regulation required under the preventative control plan and the produce standards sections of the bill, including instructions to FDA to minimize the number of different standards that apply to separate foods, to make requirements scale appropriate, and to prohibit FDA from requiring farms and other food facilities to hire outside consultants to write food safety plans.

* Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) to provide for a USDA-delivered competitive grants program for food safety training for farmers, small processors and wholesalers, with a priority on small and mid-scale farms.
and require FDA to apply sound science to any requirements that might impact wildlife and wildlife habitat.

* Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to exempt farmers from extensive and expensive traceability and recordkeeping requirements if they sell food directly to consumers or to grocery stores, to allow labeling that preserves the identity of the farm through to the consumer to satisfy traceability requirements, and to in most cases limit farm recordkeeping to the first point of sale when the product leaves the farm.

So my reading of this is that if you come under the tester amendment then Brown further amended the bill to exempt everyone from record keeping and labeling requirements. Bennet amended it to further cut down any paperwork, and to make what paperwork there is farm size appropriate and also prohibited the bill from forcing anyone to hire and outside consultant to meet the laws requirement. Sanders exempted farms that do low risk processing and co-mingling of if the FDA chose to modify the requirements in such a way that they wouldn't apply to small farmers. And finally Stabenow amended the bill to provide grant money to provide small and medium farmers, processors and wholesalers food safety training.

Of course the devil is always in the details (which the FDA will be writing up) but all in all these additional amendments further exempted small farmers from the food Safety Bill's requirements.

In other words, the requirements of the food safety bill has been written in such a way to make sure that it only applies to farmers and processors who gross over $500,000 and who are not involved in direct sales.

Leigh





  • [Market-farming] Delete my last post and insert this in its place., Leigh Hauter, 12/22/2010

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