Can someone explain some things about the new food safety bill for me?

[Robyn66]

Is it going to make it cost prohibitive to sell food in farmers markets?

Will sharing seeds be illegal?

Will it cost too much money in licencing to sell canned goods, eggs. etc

I run coodinate workshops on gardening and help people prepare for Farmer's markets and I need to understand exactly what this means for the regular folks without spin.

THanks!

[elocs]

1. It pretty much involves dropping food and the 5 second rule. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. go here:

this site will tell you what you need to know and/or link to what you need to know.
The page will show you all related legislation, all amendments.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510

Status of the bill now is not certain.

"This bill has been passed in the Senate. The bill now goes on to be voted on in the House. Keep in mind that debate may be taking place on a companion bill in the House, rather than on this particular bill."

[PoliticAverse]

6. That Bill was superceded by H.R. 2751

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-2751

[pinto]

3. Myths/Facts H.R. 875 Food Safety Modernization Act (localharvest.org)

Myths/Facts H.R. 875 Food Safety Modernization Act

Websites, list-serves, and emails have been flooded with fear based proclamations on H.R. 875, The Food Safety and Modernization Act. I've received a couple emails that have shed light on the Congressional bill and have posted a those excerpts below. The first is a letter from the office of Rep. Rosa Delauro, who introduced the bill; the second is from a clarifying email by Tracy Lerman, policy organizer - Organic Farming Research Foundation.

I. Letter from the office of: Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)


• MYTH: H.R. 875 "makes it illegal to grow your own garden" and would result in the "criminalization of the backyard gardner."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would regulate, penalize, or shut down backyard gardens. This bill is focused on ensuring the safety of foods sold in supermarkets.

• MYTH: H.R. 875 would mean a "goodbye to farmers markets" because the bill would "require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections, licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally - a fruit stand, at a farmers market."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would result in farmers markets being regulated, penalized any fines, or shut down. Farmers markets would be able to continue to flourish under the bill. In fact, the bill would insist that imported foods meet strict safety standards to ensure that unsafe imported foods are not competing with locally-grown foods.

• MYTH: H.R. 875 would result in the "death of organic farming."
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would stop organic farming. The National Organic Program (NOP) is under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Food Safety Modernization Act only addresses issues under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

• MYTH: The bill would implement a national animal ID system.
FACT: There is no language in the bill that would implement a national animal ID system. Animal identification issues are under the jurisdiction of the USDA. The Food Safety Modernization Act addresses issues under the jurisdiction of the FDA.

• MYTH: The bill is supported by the large agribusiness industry.
FACT: No large agribusiness companies have expressed support for this bill. This bill is being supported by several Members of Congress who have strong progressive records on issues involving farmers markets, organic farming, and locally-grown foods. Also, H.R. 875 is the only food safety legislation that has been supported by all the major consumer and food safety groups, including:
-- Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention
-- Center for Science in the Public Interest
-- Consumer Federation of America
-- Consumers Union
-- Food & Water Watch
-- The Pew Charitable Trusts
-- Safe Tables Our Priority
-- Trust for America's Health

more at - http://www.localharvest.org/blog/1706/entry/myths_facts_h_r_875

[PoliticAverse]

5. The Bill that passed was H.R. 2751

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-2751

[pinto]

10. Yeah. iirc, items from HR 875 were "rolled into" the final version, 2751.

:hi:

[Robyn66]

7. Thank you!

This is a real help!

[PoliticAverse]

4. Start with the actual bill and amendments...

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-2751

[Robyn66]

8. Thank you! (nt)

[midnight]

9. Family Farm defender thinks the whole process is more complicated and more expensive.

ohn Peck, the executive director of Family Farm Defenders…thinks the bill is an attempt by big companies like Monsanto, Kellogg and General Mills to shift liability for infected food products from their production facilities back to farmers.
“There are four companies that control pretty much every food item that you eat,” Peck said in a phone interview. “There’s no free market in food. The only place you really find a free market is at the farmers market.”
Peck thinks SB 510 is being pushed on purely factory-farming motives, but said Family Farm Defenders is okay with the bill now that the Tester-Hagan amendment is attached. He doubts, though, that excess costs will end up hitting consumers, saying that he instead expects big companies, with economies of scale, to force any excess costs from the regulation back onto the backs of farmers.
It remains to be seen how the FDA’s new powers will play out on the entire food industry. 70 years is a long time to go without updating the federal regulatory system–food production simply wasn’t the same in the 1940s as it is now. If the newly muscled FDA can stop contamination from spreading, more power to it.
The one thing that bugs me about this bill, and every new bill the government introduces, is that it doesn’t take inefficiencies into account. Instead of examining the energy allocation consequences of its new laws, the government chooses to throw more red tape on top of existing bureaucracy, complicating the whole process and making it more expensive.http://www.businesspundit.com/food-safety-bill-is-necessary-but-what-about-the-bureaucracy/

[PoliticAverse]

12. Some comments about the Tester-Hagan amendment

http://farmandranchfreedom.org/Tester-Hagan-explanation
http://www.thecompletepatient.com/journal/2010/12/2/the-hidden-agenda-of-the-tester-hagan-amendment-hint-it-has.html

[pinto]

13. Thanks for the Tester-Hagan amendment info. A quick internet scan shows how much misinformation /

misconception about the Act is floating around... :thumbsup:

[PoliticAverse]

14. Laws like this are very complicated...

and are written by and for lawyers.
It will be awhile before people really know what the fallout is.

[NashVegas]

11. The Good News Is. ...

While some questions still remain, according to the Center for Food Safety, the following amendments have made the bill friendly - or friendlier - to smaller producers:

# PROTECTING SMALL PRODUCERS & PROCESSORS – Incorporated into the final bill are a number of important amendments that seek to support small farmers and processors who sell directly to consumers and end users, including the following amendments introduced by:

* Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) and Kay Hagan (D-NC) to exempt small farmers and processors who sell directly to consumers and end users from FDA’s new regulation (see below for summary of amendment)
* Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) exempting farmers from extensive and expensive traceability and recordkeeping requirements if they sell food directly to consumers or to grocery stores
* Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) providing 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.

# Other important amendments incorporated into the bill were introduced by:

* 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 Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to strip the bill of wildlife-threatening enforcement against “animal encroachment” of farms and require FDA to apply sound science to any requirements that might impact wildlife and wildlife habitat.
* Senator Bernie 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.



==========

All of those amendments were made possible because of food activists who refused to accept S510 and HR 875 as they were initially proposed, and demanded protections for the local, organic and small food/slow food producers.

Otherwise, I'll add we didn't really need this bill. We need current laws to be enforced.

[Recursion]

17. It's the greater regulatory scope for the FDA that seems to worry farmers

The FDA and USDA haven't exactly built up a lot of trust and goodwill with small farmers.

[jwirr]

15. I wish that there were classes like yours in my neighborhood.

[Recursion]

16. The farmers I freelance for say "yes, no, yes"

(I run a website for some direct-to-consumer small farmers.)

They say it will make it much more expensive for many of them to sell in farmers' markets (the sales radius limits most farmers to one city whereas they're used to going to 2 or 3 in the course of a week). Anything "processed" (canned, ground, even washed) becomes potentially subject to as-yet-unwritten-but-now-enabled FDA regulation, and FDA and USDA are notorious for abusing small farmers.