Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg (far left), Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (middle left) and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (far right) speaking with local people at Eastern Market on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, before a town hall meeting there, July 31, 2009
Food Safety Regime Changing – Hopefully Improving
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill and in the Obama administration are taking steps to improve the safety of our food supply, which is clearly good. But the potential consequences—unintended or not—are raising concerns among some small-scale food producers, particularly the microenterprises that typically provide for “real people eating local.” Ensuring that the needs of locally oriented family-scale producers are taken into account in the new laws is critical for the survival of the local food movement, they say.
On the White House side, administration officials are emphasizing prevention as well as more inspections. This message came across loud and clear July 31, as Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Margaret Hamburg held a “town hall meeting” at Eastern Market. In the just-reopened market (which had been severely damaged in a fire), Vilsack officially announced an increase in inspections during the production of ground beef, while Sebelius and Hamburg highlighted new draft guidance on leafy greens, tomatoes and melons.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Congress are also tackling food safety, with the House passing a broad new food safety bill July 30 that would strengthen the FDA, give it mandatory recall authority, and step up food inspections, among other things.
Individuals at the grassroots level and some farming advocacy organizations at first raised concerns about provisions that would harm small-scale farming operations, such as locally oriented farmers with direct marketing operations and microenterprises that deal in value-added products like jam and cheese. But, overall, locavores and small farmers can feel relieved their voices were heard.
“There were many successes for us in the process of putting this bill together, enough so that we can consider its passage to be a ‘good’ thing,” noted Brian Snyder, executive director, of the Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), in a letter to his membership.
The consumer advocacy groups Consumers Union, and Food and Water Watch expressed general satisfaction with the bill.
Yet PASA and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) noted there were still elements of the potential law that could adversely affect certain small-scale farmers. One bone of contention, for example, is the $500 flat fee (intended to help support better inspection) that will be required of all food “facilities.” NSAC notes in a response letter to Representative John Dingell, “While H.R. 2749 bill exempts facilities that sell over 50.1% of their (value-added) processed products directly to the consumer, it still imposes a fee on those who primarily sell wholesale.” It goes on to add: “The direct marketing exemption while welcome is not sufficient, and we would also call attention to the practical consideration of implementing the provision given FDA’s or even USDA’s inability to ascertain on a year-to-year basis in a continuously changing and evolving marketplace which farmer is 50.1% retail and which is 50.1% wholesale.” Another concern has to do with the attempt to eliminate wildlife (like deer) from farms and the impact that effort would have on buffer zones and hedgerows intended to boost biodiversity and overall environmental protection. Yet another potential problem relates to laws that could end up forcing certified organic producers duplicate their record-keeping and/or fees.
These concerns and others can be addressed when the bill is discussed in the Senate, where it was officially “received” Aug. 3. Discussion is expected to resume after the August break. Once the Senate passes a bill, the two versions will move to a conference committee, where discrepancies can be worked out. Consumers and farmers alike will again have an opportunity to voice their opinions on food safety to their lawmakers at these junctures.
Town hall meeting at Eastern Market in Washington, DC with FDA Commissioner Hamburg, USDA Secretary Vilsack and HHS Secretary Sebelius
Food safety panel discussion with FDA Commissioner Hamburg, Secretary of HHS Sebelius, USDA Secretary Vilsack and Jerold Mande, Deputy Undersecretary for Food Safety at USDA
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