permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-04/food-legal-fund/6671404

Small producers start legal fund to fight food safety authorities
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-04/food-legal-fund/6671404

Farmers selling food at their farm gate say they have been forced to start
a legal fund to protect themselves from government authorities.

Two groups, the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance and Regrarians
Australia, are planning to launch a new legal hotline to give farmers
immediate advice when it is needed.

They say farmers wanting to sell meat or dairy products from small farm
stores are being unfairly restricted by governments misinterpreting the law.

Tammi Jonas, president of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance, says
the fund will help producers as similar programs do overseas.

"In America, they have one called the 'farm to consumer legal defence
fund', and what that fund does largely is provide a 24/7 hotline for
farmers and consumers," she said.

"They ring up and get advice when they're not sure what to do, especially
in the case where a regulator rolls up their driveway and tries to destroy
their meat or their eggs or, in the case of raw milk, the milk."

She believed that regulators, like meat regulator PrimeSafe in Victoria,
were overstepping their boundaries and becoming a hindrance to producers
selling their produce on the farm.

A number of lawyers and legal workers have already offered their expertise
to assist with the hotline.

PrimeSafe Victoria released a statement defending its treatment of
small-scale farmers and its control of food safety in the state.

"Victoria has a international reputation as a leading food producer that is
based on food safety, which underpins consumer confidence in the food we
eat, and the overall economy," PrimeSafe Victoria said.

"It is everyone's interest that food safety and consumer confidence is
maintained, and everyone has a responsibility for ensuring that our food is
safe to eat.

"PrimeSafe fully supports innovation and growth of meat and seafood
businesses.

"PrimeSafe has issued guidance material in areas where there is an apparent
lack of understanding about requirements of the Australian food safety
standards, or where management of high risk activities is inconsistent.

"PrimeSafe does not comment on operational regulatory activities, or
individual licensees. However, businesses that comply with Australian food
safety standards have nothing to fear from PrimeSafe.

"Anyone that needs assistance with understanding food safety requirements
in the meat and seafood sectors should contact PrimeSafe’s Information and
Support function."

There are plans to have the hotline for producers fully operational by the
end of the year, but already producers are starting to help each other.

"We're fledgling, we've just begun," Ms Jonas said.