Inching Closer to a Healthy Food Safety Bill
Apr/101
After months of work behind the scenes and strong grassroots pressure, we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel in the fight for sensible protections for local food systems in new federal food safety law. And it’s not a train. CFSA has been out front on this issue for more than a year, and that work is bearing fruit.
The Status of the Legislation
Negotiations are still ongoing, but so far sustainable agriculture has won agreements from the bill managers that:
1. FDA will be able to exempt low-risk farms and food businesses from the onerous paperwork burdens and compliance costs imposed on high-risk operations. In other words, FDA will have to prove that local food producers are a food safety risk before dictating food safety practices for them.
2. FDA will have to actively minimize compliance burdens for small farms and businesses. In other words, it will not be able to impose regulations that local food producers cannot afford.
3. Any FDA safety standards for growing produce must be compatible with the National Organic Program and USDA resource conservation programs. In other words, FDA will not be able to prohibit organic practices such as manure-based fertilizers and vegetative buffers around production fields.
4. FDA will have to prove the actual risk of pathogen transfer from wild animals and livestock to produce crops before regulating animal controls on farms. In other words, diversified farms will be protected, working dogs will be protected, and no farm will have to put walls and ceilings around their fields to keep out wildlife.
5. FDA and USDA will establish and fund a food safety training program for small farms and businesses. In other words, producers will have access to the latest scientific evidence on best management practices to take care of their customers.
Additionally, we are pushing for a provision on food traceability that would exclude products directly marketed by farms and products where the identity of the farm that grew a food product is preserved all the way to the end consumer (farm-identity preserved products). This issue is still being negotiated as I write.
Together We’ve Made a Difference
These are important victories, and Carolina farmers have helped us get this far. NC Senator Richard Burr’s staff has been actively involved in re-writing the bill, and I met with those staffers last week, along with NC farmers John Vollmer and Chris Hardin. We shared information about how healthy local food systems are providing jobs, increasing farm incomes, saving farms, and providing nutritious, safe food for Carolina consumers. CFSA’s Campaign for Truly Safe Food has organized grassroots action on S.510 at more than 20 farmers markets across the state. Thousands of citizens have contacted Senators Burr and Hagan to demand they protect local organic food from bad regulations.
All this information has helped convince Sen. Burr to fight for the improvements listed above. We are grateful for this support, and encourage you to thank Sen. Burr’s staff for working on behalf of sustainable agriculture. We’re also grateful for the efforts of Senators Bernie Sanders (VT), Michael Bennet (CO), Debbie Stabenow (MI) and Barbara Boxer (CA) to champion these changes.
Call’s to Sen. Hagan’s office are still needed to encourage her support for these changes. Her staff have not fully understood the potential negative impacts on small farms and local food from the original version of S.510.
CFSA also supports Sen. John Tester’s Amendment to S.510, which would exclude farms and food businesses with revenues below $500,000 from the new produce standards and preventive controls in the bill. These entities would continue to be regulated under existing local, state and federal law. We are hopeful the amendment will succeed in a floor vote, as it will provide insurance against one-size-fits-all rules.
What’s Next in Washington
It now looks like the bill might come up for a vote as early as next week, or it may be pushed back another week or two—the Senate has decided to fight over Wall Street reform next week, which may delay them from moving to the bipartisan issue of food safety. Any delay gives an opening to those who oppose our commonsense reforms:
- Rep. Rosa DeLauro yesterday complained at an Organic Trade Association meeting that the Senate is “watering down” the bill, even though she has not apparently read the new language.
- Consumer groups, who have intransigently opposed accommodations for small food producers in their push for tough regulation, have made a big ad buy in the Charlotte area promoting S.510. I’ll be posting to this blog later on the top mistakes, misstatements and misdirections in the consumer group campaign to prevent pro-local food amendments to S.510.
- Big agribusiness lobbyists like David Acheson, who, while head of FDA under the Bush Administration called for “zero tolerance” of pathogens in all foods, and the Grocery Manufacturers Association, are insisting that all producers meet the same standards, regardless of size, market, or risk. http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/04/farmers-make-gains-in-senate-battle/
So this campaign is not over, and we all must stay engaged.
Heroes in the Fight
I want to single out Chris Hardin, John Vollmer, Harry Hamil and Debbie Hamrick for thanks for their work on this issue.
· Chris wrote an excellent opinion documenting the compliance costs of S.510 for a small producer (it’s in Appendix II of CFSA’s report “Hurting NC’s Local Food Harvest: The Unintended Consequences of Federal Food Safety Legislation on North Carolina’s Small Agricultural Enterprises”, on our website here).
· John’s voice as a past-President-of-the-NC-Tobacco-Growers-Association-turned-organic-farmer carried tremendous weight with Senate staff.
· Harry’s research and advocacy have exposed the dangers of S.510 to thousands of influence-makers across the country.
· Debbie’s tireless criss-crossing of North Carolina to solicit small farmers’ views on reasonable food safety practices has provided crucial data for regulators.
Work Left to Do
Here’s what still needs to be done:
1. Keep up the pressure on the Senate. Call NC Senators Burr and Hagan, and SC Senators DeMint and Graham to tell them you support the Sanders, Bennet, Boxer, Stabenow and Tester amendments to S.510. Thank Sen. Burr for supporting the Sanders, Bennet, Boxer and Stabenow amendments and for supporting local food producers on the traceability issue. Here are the phone numbers:
Sen. Burr (NC): (202) 224-3154 Sen. Hagan (NC): (202)-224-6342
Sen. DeMint (SC): (202) 224-6121 Sen. Graham (SC): (202) 224-5972
2. Call your U.S. House Representative to tell them that S.510 is far superior to HR.2749, the food safety bill the House passed last year. Ask them to support the Senate Bill in negotiations between the two chambers. Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard, (202) 224-3121, to be connected with your Representative’s office.
3. If you see articles and statements claiming that “special interests” are watering down the bill with “exemptions for small farms,” set the record straight. Make comments, blog, tweet, Facebook (is that a verb?)… whatever channels you use to connect with your community, help us get the healthy food story out there.
4. Share CFSA’s report, Hurting NC’s Local Food Harvest, with media and decision makers in your community, to let them know how much is at stake in the fight for commonsense food safety rules.
As with the 2008 Farm Bill, the sustainable agriculture movement is elbowing its way to the table to protect and promote healthy food and farming for all. Your support is what makes these successes possible. Thank you.
Roland
4/30/10 UPDATE: Sen. Hagan has now endorsed the Tester proposals! Thanks to Sen. Hagan for stepping up on this important issue, despite the complaints of Big Ag.
Hurting NC’s Local Food Harvest
Apr/100
CFSA is publishing today a new report, “Hurting NC’s Local Food Harvest,” that looks at the negative impacts that one-size-fits-all food safety legislation will have on healthy local food in North Carolina. Among our findings:
Fueled by overwhelming consumer demand for healthy, local food, North Carolina has experienced significant growth in small-scale value-added agriculture over the last decade. The state has made this sector an economic development priority, and through its tobacco Master Settlement Agreement funds and other programs, North Carolina has invested at least $42 million since 2000 in local food and value-added agriculture.
S.510, The Food Safety Modernization Act, clearly increases FDA authority over small-scale value-added agriculture businesses. The potential impact of that oversight may be considerable, even though small businesses are not the source of the vast majority of illnesses that S.510 targets:
1. Costs to comply for North Carolina small businesses could exceed 150 hours in labor and as much as $20,000 in consulting and testing expenses per year. These and other costs for complying with one-size-fits-all food safety rules could force many small farms and food businesses to abandon value-added markets.
2. Farms that do some food processing on the farm contribute almost 8,500 full-time and seasonal jobs to NC’s economy. FDA regulation of these entities will result in lost jobs and continued losses of farmland.
3. NC has seven government-supported shared-used food processing facilities in operation or development that will lose most or all of their clients under new FDA regulations. These facilities create millions of dollars in sales of NC-grown agricultural products—$3 million-worth of annual sales in Asheville alone.
To avoid this outcome for NC agriculture and rural communities, it is vital for the legislation to include sensible protections for these small value-added businesses. Those protections must include: (a) requirements for FDA to develop safety-related rules specifically tailored to small farms and food businesses that reflect the lower risk profiles of those operations; (b) creation of a USDA training program for those lower risk businesses to enhance their capacity to protect customers.
During April the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association’s Campaign for Truly Safe Food is mobilizing customers at farmers markets across the state to ask for their support of commonsense protections for local farms and food producers. For more information on the threat to local food from federal food safety legislation and the changes to S.510 that the Association supports, visit www.carolinafarmstewards.org, or find us on Facebook.
The Town that Food Saved
Mar/100
So today I began reading The Town that Food Saved by Ben Hewitt, the recently published book that promises to profile the efforts in the small rural town of Hardwick, VT to build economic vitality and food security through local food system development. Hewitt, who first wrote about Hardwick in the pages of Gourmet, now farms there. The drive-by description of the town’s diversity of new ag enterprises, and the young entrepreneurs driving them, is stirring — from seed companies to shared use kitchens to locally-owned food manufacturers to local retailers to composting operations. I am intrigued to read on because this snapshot makes Hardwick look like a test case for the power of local food systems to improve rural quality of life.
As a member of NC’s Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council, I’m really interested to learn from Hardwick’s example. At the Council’s first meeting back in February, long-time organic farmer John Vollmer of Bunn, NC, www.vollmerfarm.com/, spoke movingly of our capacity here in the Carolinas to exceed Vermont’s achievements in increasing access to healthy local food and in growing jobs through sustainable agriculture.
I am also worried at the threat posed in pending federal legislation like S. 510 to the ability of local foodsheds to survive and expand. Look for an update on S.510 in our e-News next week. What, you’re not on our e-News list? Don’t waste a minute, sign up here (scroll down, it’s on the lower left): www.carolinafarmstewards.org. There’s more info on S.510 here: http://www.carolinafarmstewards.org/alert_foodsafety_mar10.shtml.
Roland
Roland McReynolds is Executive Director of the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, and serves on the North Carolina Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council. There is a new CFSA-powered iPhone app at helps foodies find sustainable farms in the Carolinas, check it out here.
Got a Voice?
Mar/082
Last week the North Carolina Dept. of Agriculture and the North Carolina Farm Bureau teamed up to announce an initiative to save the state’s dairy industry. The program, Dairy Advantage, comes in the form of a 28-page report on options and strategies for small dairies to compete in the modern milk marketplace. Search the entire document and you know how many times the word “organic†comes up? Zero.
That’s right, zero. There are at least seven dairies in NC that have been certified organic in the last year, all of them small conventional family dairies that converted to organic with the help of the Organic Valley Family of Farms and the CROPP Cooperative. Here are seven success stories, living proof that organic milk can be produced in our region, and that our dairy farms can take advantage of the growing market for this healthy, wholesome milk. These dairies are role models for other family farms, especially in the mountains and foothills of the Carolinas where farm and herd sizes naturally tend to the optimal size for organic operations.
And yet the Dept. of Ag. and the Farm Bureau don’t even mention organic dairying as an alternative for saving our dwindling supply of family dairies. Not to mention raw milk options, which are verboten under the state’s antiquated public health dogma.
Why the disconnect? It’s tempting to assume a conspiracy, and yet it’s really more likely that the reason is somewhat less sinister, if no less disturbing. The agriculture establishment in the Carolinas is just not used to thinking in terms of sustainability. The (mostly) men and women who run that establishment have been trained in a conventional system, based on conventional agribusiness wisdom, for a generation. That wisdom predicts that only a food system modeled on industrial processes can survive. They’re not used to thinking about an agriculture that isn’t dependent on massive subsidies, synthetic controls, concentration and monoculture.
When I met Larry Wooten, President of the NC Farm Bureau Federation, for the first time, he said to me that he wasn’t opposed to organics: “Consumers should have a choice,†he said. The leap that hasn’t been made in the Carolinas’ ag establishment is that farmers should have a choice, too; that there’s hope for sustaining, and renewing, our dwindling supply of farmers and farmland in the new sustainable ag paradigm.
That’s why CFSA is dedicated to being a Voice for Sustainable Ag, and we are putting more of our resources into the effort. When policy-makers hear the stories of sustainable ag success in our communities first-hand, when they learn about the income that local food systems can provide Carolina farmers, they want to get involved. There’s no stigma attached to organics anymore—the market ($17 billion in the US) and the consumer participation (52% of Americans bought organic food last year) and the buzz (“locavore†was Oxford’s “words of the year†in 2007, http://blog.oup.com/2007/11/locavore/) are impossible to ignore. So that’s why CFSA and its members are working on policy at the local level, to help more officials and opinion-shapers understand how to bring the benefits of sustainable local food systems to their communities.
Our website redesign, this blog, and even the new online food guide are all ultimately geared toward bringing more consumers, farmers and business into the sustainable food movement, and activating them to press for change. So spread the word about this site and CFSA, and help our collective voice grow louder.
To learn more about NCDA’s “Dairy Advantage†plan, visit http://www.agr.state.nc.us/markets/commodit/dairy/dairy_advantage.pdf.
For an interesting exchange on the prices paid to organic milk producers, check out this recent series of posts over at Grist, http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/3/10/6475/66460
For the latest update on Monsanto’s efforts to upend the market for hormone-free milk, see http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/ng.asp?n=84227&m=1FNU326&c=mdxcfimlghpcovs. (This is actually a case of sinister motives!)
And if you are interested in the raw milk issue in North Carolina, keep tuned to these pages for an announcement of a bill to overrule NCDA’s requirement that raw milk sold for pet food be dyed gray.
Roland