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Letter: Small Farms Need To Be Regulated Under Food Safety Bill

By The Raleigh Telegram

Monday, August 2, 2010

RALEIGH - The Director of the Food Policy Initiatives at the Consumers Union organization says in a letter to the editor that the Food Safety Modernization Act should apply to small farmers to protect consumers.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Dear Editor:

Your article “Produce Safety Bill May Make Farmers Markets a Thing of the Past,” contains a number of errors about pending federal food safety legislation, S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.

The inaccuracies in your article reflect errors that have unfortunately circulated widely on the Internet.

You state that "One of the more contentious provisions of the bill would require farmers who sell to the public to get the contact information from every single customer." This is false. There is no such requirement anywhere in the bill.

The bill does requires FDA to study for two years how it can insure traceability back to the farm for products in interstate commerce, and get public input, after which it may set requirements to help track products before they get to a consumer, to be better able track the path of unsafe products. This is a far cry from the statement in your article.

Your article also says that "There are provisions in the bill that would require farmers to register with the FDA, paying a $500 yearly fee and also undergo safety inspections every year. Some media reports say that the inspections could cost up to $100 an hour." Again, there are simply no such requirements in the bill for farms.

There is a requirement in the bill that would require food processors--makers of peanut butter, breakfast cereal, canned chili, bagged salad greens, and the like--to register with FDA, and in the version of the bill passed by the House last summer, to pay a $500 fee.

But even this $500 fee in the House version of the bill only applies to food processing facilities – not farmers. And S. 510, the Senate bill, does not have a fee requirement for either processors or farmers.

Most importantly, both versions of the bill require FDA to inspect all high-risk processors--like the peanut butter manufacturer that caused nine deaths a year ago because salmonella-contaminated peanut butter left its facility --once a year.

This is critical to make sure more people do not get sick or die from something as simple as having a meal.

Consumers Union is a strong supporter of farmer’s markets and food produced sustainably and locally on small farms.

We therefore supported adding language to S. 510 that requires FDA to consult with USDA when setting food safety standards for farms, to consider protection of wildlife and biological diversity, and to insure that regulations are not in conflict with organic production rules. We do not believe that S. 510 poses a threat to farmers markets.

Meanwhile, however, some 5000 people every year die as a result of a foodborne illness.

In recent years, this has included deaths from e. coli 0147:H7 in spinach and salmonella in peanut butter and many kinds of produce.

The FDA needs to do a better job, and Senate Bill #510 will give it the tools to need, while protecting local and sustainable farms.

Jean Halloran

Director, Food Policy Initiatives

Consumers Union

(publisher of Consumer Reports magazine)

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