Major Victory for family farmers, sustainable agriculture: Food Safety
Bill Passes with Family Farm Protections
Posted by Dave on November 30, 2010
Clear Lake, IA - Food Democracy Now!, a national sustainable agriculture
advocacy organization, is thanking their members for making 12,000 phone
calls to the U.S. Senate in helping pass the Food Safety Modernization
Act (S.510) with the inclusion of the Tester-Hagan and Manager's amendments.
The bill passed early Tuesday morning by a vote of 73 to 25, garnering
broad bipartism support for a piece of legislation that has been called
"the best opportunity in a generation to improve the safety of the
American food supply" by food experts and authors Michael Pollan and
Eric Schlosser, who wrote a compelling defense of the controversial bill
in a New York Times editorial that appeared the day of the expect vote
in the Senate.
"The passage of the food safety bill, which grants the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) mandatory recall authority and includes provisions
that protect family farmers engaged in direct sales of local foods is an
historic victory for family farmers and the local food movement, said
Dave Murphy, founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!. "In
overcoming the backlash of agricultural giants who desperately fought to
kill these protections for family farmers, the sustainable agricultural
movement has shown that it is a political force to be reckoned with."
"The bill is far from perfect, but the inclusion of these protections
guarantees that farmers that sell directly to consumers, farmers
markets, grocery stores and restaurants with sales under $500,000 and
sell in state or within 275 miles of their farm or facility are exempted
from expensive regulations that could drive them out of business,"
continued Murphy.
The key now is to get the House to reconcile the Senate version and get
the bill on President Obama's desk as soon as possible. Food Democracy
Now! will continue to watch for how the FDA and other federal agencies
implement the new food safety rules so as not to harm family farmers
that make up the backbone of the growing local food movement, the most
vibrant sector in the agricultural economy.
[permaculture] Major Victory for family farmers, sustainable agriculture: Food Safety Bill Passes with Family Farm Protections,
Lawrence F. London, Jr., 11/30/2010