Food Safety

Take Action: Rescue Local and Organic
Farming in the Food Safety Bill!

The U.S. Senate will vote shortly on a sweeping overhaul of federal food safety law (S. 510).  The House food safety bill passed last year (HR 2749) included several measures that potentially threaten small-scale local farmers and organic producers, including a blanket application of complicated monitoring and traceability standards -- regardless of one's farm size — and a potential $500 fee for any farm engaged in onsite processing (i.e., maple syrup production, sun-dried tomatoes, salad mixes, etc.).
The vast majority of recent food safety scandals in the U.S. — E. coli on fresh spinach, melamine in dairy products, Salmonella in peanut butter — were all linked to industrial agribusiness practices.  There's no doubt that industrial agriculture and its international supply chain need better oversight.  But, family-scale local and organic farms are probably the safest in the nation -- they are part of the solution, not part of the problem -- and need to be protected!
What You Can Do
Now is your chance, as a supporter of sustainable family farming, to help fix these problems. Senator John Tester (D-MT), a certified organic farmer himself, is proposing an amendment to S. 510 that would exempt small-scale farmers and food processors from the most burdensome regulations.
Please contact your Senators today and ask them to support the Tester amendment to S. 510.  Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to find their phone number: 
For the more information on the amendment, go to:
http://www.cornucopia.org/2010/04/action-alert-rescue-localorganic-farming-in-the-food-safety-bill/
Your Voice Makes a Difference.   Thanks for your support of organic, local and sustainable farmers!