To All Who Value Small Farm (Not Corporate) Foods

Although it has been delayed many times, the Food Safety Modernization Act (S.510) continues to be a threat. This bill greatly expands FDA’s authority over both processed foods and fresh fruits and vegetables, and would give FDA authority to impose extensive, burdensome requirements on even the smallest processing facilities and farms who sell to local consumers.

While the latest version of the bill included some provisions for flexibility and scale-sensitivity, the provisions do not go far enough to protect the small-scale local food businesses that could be destroyed by the new federal regulations.

Please Take Action.

S.510 could be voted on in the next couple of weeks without much notice. So the time to call your Senators is NOW!

You can find your Senators contact information at www.Senate.gov or by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or toll-free at 877-210-5351. When you call your Senators offices, ask to speak to the staffer who handles food safety issues, and tell them these two things:

1) Support the Tester-Hagan amendment to exempt small-scale, direct marketing farms and facilities from some of the most burdensome portions of the bill. This common-sense amendment is critical to protecting local food sources.

2) Oppose criminal penalties for violations that do not endanger human health or safety: Although it is unclear, there may also be an amendment introduced to combine S.3767 (introduced by Senator Leahy) with S.510, which would create criminal penalties for knowingly introducing adulterated or misbranded food into interstate commerce. Adulterated or misbranded food could mean simply that the farmer or producer did not have all his paperwork in order or made a technical violation of some kind that does not endanger human health or safety.

Comments

  1. This bill already contains amendments that protect small-scale farms and facilities, direct marketers, and organics.

    http://thehill.com/images/stories/blogs/smallfarms.pdf

  2. It doesn’t protect small producers enough.