Senate likely to vote on food safety legislation soon, while FDA moves forward with regulatory process
Russell Libby, Executive Director, March 15, 2010
Last week I spent several days in Washington meeting with a number of Senate staffers on food safety legislation, along with other farm group representatives from around the country. We focused on S. 510, “The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.”
After a year of meetings and conversations, with the House, the Senate, FDA and USDA, and with consumer groups, it’s clear that we’re approaching the end of this process. The Senate is planning to vote sometime after they return from their April recess.
Our most recent conversations were slightly encouraging. The staffers were all aware that the bill could have an impact on many farmers, particularly those doing value-added activities on their farms. They want to do something to ameliorate that impact, but so far nothing has showed up in the final language. Brian Snyder from the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture wrote language that would provide some protection for farms/businesses that produce ‘identity-preserved’ products that move all the way from farm to final consumer. We’re supporting that in our conversations with Senate staff.
Meanwhile, FDA has released a request for comments on how they should go about regulating the produce industry. We have about 45 days to get a response in. We’ll be drafting language from MOFGA, and we’ll give you information about how you can send your own comments. Look for something from us next week—we know that the growing season is almost upon us, so it will be good to get comments in before you have to get outside and work on planting.
If you’re interested, I pulled together a table that estimates how many farms across the country will be affected by the various Congressional proposals. For the country as a whole, it could be as many as 314,000 farms; for Maine, over 3,000.
Download table.
FDA Request for Comments: Link http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-3409.pdf
If you have a chance, please contact your Senators’ offices and encourage them to be aware of the potential impact of S 510 on your farm. (More details in prior posting, here==1.24.10 update: http://www.mofga.org/Programs/PublicPolicyInitiatives/MOFGAPositionStatements/FoodSafety/tabid/1102/Default.aspx
For more information, please feel free to contact me directly: Russell Libby rlibby@mofga.org 207.568.4142
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