Food Safety Modernization Act
UPDATE NOON: It does appear as if an exemption for small farmers passed as part of this bill. From an eMaxHealth entry:
“S.510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, passed by a vote of 73 to 25 after an amendment to the bill was approved to exempt small farms and producers with less than $500,000 a year in sales from the legislation. Opponents of the bill were concerned that local farmers would go out of business because of the need for expensive food safety plans.
Currently, the FDA is responsible for safeguarding about 80% of the US food supply, but inadequate budgets and limited enforcement authorities have hindered the agency’s ability to prevent outbreaks. It also increases the ability of the FDA to monitor imported foods, as these comprise nearly a fifth of the US food supply.” END UPDATE
Don’t let Wikileaks overshadow one of the most important pieces of food legislation in decades. It is Senate Bill 510, otherwise known as the highly debated Food Safety and Modernization Act, and it just passed.
Watch live streaming of the voting on C-SPAN here.
Read the full summary of the bill here.
Read a Washington Post commentary by local food advocates Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser here.
November 30, 2010 - 10:39 AM
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This bill appears to be a horrible attempt to control food processing plants, despite the fact that there are already multiple regulations adequately addressing the issue that go unenforced.
While the initial bill doesn’t specifically address small production farmers, such as those you see with roadside stands and that create the local Farmers’ Markets, that is who will quickly suffer from this. Once passed into law, the parameters will change and the little guys will be the ones who are nailed.
I guess the lobbyists for ConAgra, ADM, etc. have earned their money, as well as having used their expense accounts well…
ab, this says excluding farms, see (2).
Section 101 –
Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) to expand the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to inspect records related to food, including to: (1) allow the inspection of records of food that the Secretary reasonably believes is likely to be affected in a similar manner as an adulterated food; and (2) require that each person (excluding farms and restaurants) who manufactures, processes, packs, distributes, receives, holds, or imports an article of food permit inspection of his or her records if the Secretary believes that there is a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to such food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.
I wonder how this will impact my desire to start a small GF bakery making a few products for a local coffee shop. If I have to jump through a ton of hoops and regulations just to start, I may never bother. I need to dig into the depths of the bill, which may put me into a paper-based coma.
Considering some of the food borne outbreaks we have had, I cannot say this is bad legislation. We will have to see what comes of it. The exemption should be more than enough to cover “the little guy”.
Speaking of, I enjoyed the best cake I have ever tasted in my life over Thanksgiving and they were from a little baker http://www.addie-cakes.com/ and I plan to get more when I go to Philly for a visit. This chick seriously rocks the cake world and I am not kidding. It is unlike anything I have ever eaten and cannot wait for more. Lindsey, I might even remember to bring one for you to try. Check out her website and let me know what flavor you would like. She is also on Facebook. I tried the Pineapple and the Peach and both were a taste of unearthly ambrosia IMO.
Debbie, I realize what the bill says now. My concern, and that of natural food producers such as Joel Salatin, is what the law will be amended into three years or less from now.
As I said, there is already a plethora of laws in place that SHOULD address these concerns. But then, the FDA goes years without conducting inspections at multi-million dollar food processing plants. Years. Emphasis here – YEARS, they go YEARS without even inspecting them. Yet they fine small farmers who sell less than 100 poultry a year, or less than 1000 gallons of milk a year?
Remind me again what good this bill will do when it is only enforced against the small producers and the corporate farms never so much as receive a visit, much less a fine from the FDA?
Not trying to be crabby, but I know bull manure when I smell it, and this bill is rife with bull manure.
Oh yeah, to add to that thought, this is the same FDA that is considering whether to approve genetically modified apples that will not brown, even as they spoil.
Anybody remember the days when you could buy a decent tomato in a grocery store? You know, back before the FDA allowed corporate farms to genetically modify the tomatoes to turn red before they were actually ripe? That way they could spend several days on a truck coming from Mexico or Peru or California to SW Va, and still look pretty. Buy one now and bite into it, it will crunch almost like an apple. Zero taste, but they sure do look pretty, don’t they? All nice and round and red with no blemishes.
Apples will be next. Just sayin’…
Not to rant on this, but I’m going to continue to rant on this. A simple search – available through the links provided above – shows that the lobbying groups that provided millions of dollars of financial support to key legislators involved here comprise some of the largest corporate industrialized food producers – call them farms if you want – in the nation.
Those that opposed this? Groups that represent small farmers & ranchers, the family farmers that we all see in the romanticized picture. Not the corporate farms that so many of us ignore or have never witnessed. But the son of a son of a farmer who is just trying to make ends meet.
This is a bill that we’re told will address only the big corporate food production facilities? Yet the dozens of substantial lobbyists who have contributed to the legislators on this ALL come from the corporate farm klan?
Wolf in sheep’s clothing, anyone? Has anyone here ever read about a proposal in DC that was introduced as a supposedly noble concept, then turned out to be vastly different? Anyone? You can stop counting when you get to a hundred examples, because this will be 101.
Those prices aren’t bad for mailorder, Sandi.
abdnva, we need you in our Weston Price group!
I thought I was going to come on here and rant about how crappy the FDA is and the bill is going to run all our local producers out of business but abdnva has done it already!
here’s some video perspective on Senate Bill 510…
http://bytestyle.tv/content/joel-salatin-polyface-farms-food-safety-small-farms
One note to help explain some of my ranting on this is that the House version of this bill did NOT include any exclusion for small farmers & processors. Anyway, that means that some compromise between the versions will have to be accorded before it is presented to the President for approval. Thus, the very possibility that the exemption for small farmers disappears before the President even signs it.
I am very much in favor of improved food processing practices in this country, and in the vast number of foods we import from other countries. It is desperately needed. I just think that this will end up being a toothless document that does little except place financial burdens on the small growers & processors. When Monsanto, Cargill, ADM are among the supporters of this legislation, that makes me wonder…
It makes me wonder too, Ab.
Supposedly the House has agreed to accept the Senate version without changes. We’ll see.
The big boys can cope with the costs, the little guys can’t. So if this results in price hikes for the smaller producers, it stands to reason that some would close out their operations, others would raise prices, and the market share would shift even further to the multi-national food conglomerates that increasingly own the lion’s share of industrial food manufacturing and engineering.
Legislation and Bills being passed like this are a way for the government to raise taxes with out raising taxes. This articles first bullet point is, food prices will rise: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20101130/ts_yblog_thelookout/how-the-new-food-safety-bill-might-affect-you
High prices equal more tax revenues. Higher prices for food will be passed along to each and every one of us in so many different ways. What happened to smaller government? That is what was being preached this last election. I am all for safety but many many Americans will suffer because of this bill being passed. Food inflation is already out of control and this is going to make it even worse. How much more blood can they squeeze from a stone?
I may be crazy, but I’m right… This will kill the local food producers’ ability to market their products, just as I said all along.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/01/what-lame-duck-senate-passes-food-safety-bill-house-expected-to-follow/
Take special note of the comments by Adam Borten, managing partner for the equity food group in that link. Also note that Borten’s fund & other ‘food tech’ – doesn’t THAT sound wholesome, food tech? – groups stand to prosper from this. Yeah, food tech, as in the folks that engineer apples to not turn brown when they rot and tomatoes to turn red before they’re actually ripe, I told you people about this, I’m not as crazy (about this) as I seem!
Now, Borten says that local food producers will not be affected. he says that, should I believe him? Food producers and processors are going to be required to trace their food throughout all stages of its’ handling. So the FDA is going to be okay with Joe Bob’s truck farming for the Farmers’ Market? They’re going to sign off on him picking greens, rinsing them in the field, then trucking them to an open air market? They’re going to be okay with that when they’re talking about micro chip transmitters & radio wave frequencies tracking the greens of billion dollar production companies? Do you really think it’s going to work that way?
Oh yeah, speculation is even stronger that the House will not agree to passage of the Senate bill because it is considered a tax and thus must originate in the House – where the House bill DOES NOT EXEMPT SMALL PRODUCTION FARMERS FROM THE REGULATIONS.
What’s that? I told you so? Just sayin’…