HR2749 Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009

[lenny]

Is to be the end of our home gardens, raising our food sources of milk and meat? Is this the end of going to your neigborhood farm market to buy fresh food for your family?
This bill is on the fast track on be becoming a federal law and needs to be stopped. I'm tired of having to peel paper stickers from produce saying they came from Mexico or some other country. What I don't raise I know in my rural community someone is and I can buy or barter for-that is my freedoms right for now. I don't want that right to be taken away from me.
Lenny

[PA Katahdins]

I am required to label EVERY ear of sweetcorn I sell to wegmans. Sucks especially when they want about 250 dozen at a time. I personally think it's stupid that you have to label it grown in the USA when its during the buy local produce period.

[Narshalla]

Lenny, could you provide a link to the bill, please?

[Slugmar]

I think this is the govtrack link

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill...bill=h111-2749

I don't see where it say's it is the end of farmers market and home gardens. In all it mentions farms 8 times in the bill. The only thing I can see in the bill is a part about inspection and record keeping, which I have no problem with them inpecting me making sure I'm producing my food correctly and safely for human consumption. There is a part about tracing of food, this does sound like a great idea if it allows for the goverment to trace where a batch of bad food came from faster. It does look like direct sales from the farm to consumers and resturents are exempt in this part.


I could see it raising the cost of food though if big AG has to higher more people to meet the requirments of the bill they have to offset that cost some how.

Now with all tht said I could be wrong since it is my first time reading a bill so dont hold me to any of the above look for your self.

[bloogrssgrl]

I'm not sure if it goes against any of the rules about copy and paste. If it does, please feel free to delete it.

I belong to the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture and this organization has been keeping a close watch on this bill. Yesterday I received and email with a general update from the executive director of the organization. Perhaps it might help clear some things up.

It reads as follows:

Dear PASA members,

Food safety legislation is moving forward in Congress, most recently with the passage of HR 2749 out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. This is a bill that has evolved over the past couple of months, and continues to evolve as it moves toward consideration by the full House of Representatives. There are some things for us to like in this bill, and some things to worry about, though I don’ t think the worry at this point should rise to the level of panic.

Representative Henry Waxman is chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee and the bill is now generally referred to by his name. For the record, and as reported before, no one from the sustainable and/or organic farming communities had consulted with Waxman’s staff about this bill until PASA made an initial contact back in late March. An initial meeting was held at that time involving some of our partners, and I later attended the committee hearing held in Washington on June 3rd. We are now working in concert with over twenty organizations across the country – mostly through the National Sustainable Ag Coalition (NSAC) – in giving feedback to the committee on specific issues. They have accepted some of our suggestions and rejected others, but the discussions are ongoing.

I have attached a full copy of the bill being considered. If you are so inclined, please read it and let me know what you think – though I don’t recommend trying to read this while operating heavy equipment! J The principle gain so far has been inclusion of language under the food Traceability section that would exempt farms from registering with FDA if they are direct marketing to individual consumers, including through restaurants and grocery stores. That exemption language is quoted as follows for your convenience: (found on pages 57-9 of the bill)

‘‘(4) EXEMPTIONS.—

‘‘(A) DIRECT SALES BY FARMS.—Food is exempt from the requirements of this subsection if such food is—

‘‘(i) produced on a farm or fishery (including an oyster bed, a wild fishery, an aquaculture facility, a fresh water fishery, and a saltwater fishery); and

‘‘(ii) sold by the owner, operator, or agent in charge of such farm or fishery directly to a consumer or to a restaurant or grocery store.

‘‘(B) OTHER FOODS.—The Secretary may by notice in the Federal Register exempt a food or a type of facility, farm, or restaurant from, or modify the requirements with respect to, the requirements of this subsection if the Secretary determines that a tracing system for such food or type of facility, farm, or restaurant is not necessary to protect the public health.

‘‘(C) PREVIOUS SOURCES AND SUBSEQUENT RECIPIENTS.—For a food covered by an exemption under subparagraph (B), the Secretary shall require each person who produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports, or holds such food to maintain records to identify the immediate previous sources of such food and its ingredients and the immediate subsequent recipients of such food.

‘‘(D) RESTAURANTS AND GROCERY STORES.—For a food covered by an exemption under subparagraph (A), restaurants and grocery stores shall keep records documenting the farm that was the source of the food.

‘‘(E) FARMS AND FISHERIES.—For a food covered by an exemption under subparagraph (A), farms and fisheries shall keep records, in electronic or non-electronic format, for at least 6 months documenting the restaurant or grocery store to which the food was sold’’.

As compared to previous drafts of the bill, this one has lowered the annual fee to be paid by food “facilities” from $1,000 to $500, which made the thing more palatable to the committee as a whole, but unfortunately also focused the burden of paying for an inspection system more clearly on the backs of small businesses (i.e. for big companies, this is mere pocket change). That pricing system – still a significant controversy in the bill – is a major focus of our input to the process right now, as is an effort to determine a more exact definition of “facility.” We are very concerned that farms may be considered a facility, needing to pay the fee, even if they are only minimally processing food for sale to the public. We will continue to follow these issues and try to gain clarity, but it’s worth noting that the Senate version of food safety legislation has no fee involved . . . so this point may end up being moot, notwithstanding the need to find another way to fund a more thorough inspection system.

There are many other details of this bill that may be of concern to various people or businesses, including a tricky portrayal of the relationship between FDA and USDA in ensuring the safety of our food supply. But our focus has been to get clear with legislators about the potential negative impacts on local/regional food systems in general. For the most part, we believe the threats that exist to be in the form of “unintended consequences” of legislation that is aimed at solving big problems with big food processing and distribution systems. I fully realize that some groups and individuals out there have theorized that this bill, and those that preceded it, were in fact designed by big ag/industry representatives with the intent of putting the small guys out of business (like even backyard gardeners by some accounts). We do not take that view, and are not ready to give up on the “system” just yet.

Let me say as clearly as I can that the only thing I know absolutely for sure is there’s a lot we don’t know about legislative matters in general, but for the most part I’m sensing that this and other bills we’ve seen are aimed at preventing more problems like what happened with Peanut Corporation of America and various other imported and/or widely distributed food products in recent years. I suspect that many larger companies do not in fact want this legislation to pass, and may be helping to stoke the rumor mill. In other words, I’m not ready to condemn this effort just because it’s coming from elected officials who are themselves imperfect in what they do. That said, we will proceed with eyes and ears wide open for anything, whether intentional or inadvertent, that might damage the tremendous progress we’ve all made over the last two decades in developing food systems that are healthy for the environment, farmers and consumers alike.

More updates to come. In the meantime, your comments and questions are always welcome.

Brian Snyder

Executive Director, PASA

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

Thankyou blue grass girl

thats what i was looking for the if your the source and the seller or sell directly to the seller then you are exempt

that takes care of most of us here.

[uyk7]

Here is some more information: http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/200...e-food-supply/

Remember, those in power (or with the power) are the one's that interpret what this Bill is stating. Another thing to keep in mind is who will be in charge? From what I have read so far it appears to be big agri-business lawyer from Monsanto (?). I wonder whose side he will be supporting the most.


Here are just two points from the link above:

* HR 2749 would give FDA the power to order a quarantine of a geographic area, including “prohibiting or restricting the movement of food or of any vehicle being used or that has been used to transport or hold such food within the geographic area.” [This - "that has been used to transport or hold such food" - would mean all cars that have ever brought groceries home so this means ALL TRANSPORTATION can be shut down under this. This is using food as a cover for martial law.] Under this provision, farmers markets and local food sources could be shut down, even if they are not the source of the contamination. The agency can halt all movement of all food in a geographic area. [This is also a means of total control over the population under the cover of food, and at any time.]

* HR 2749 would impose an annual registration fee of $500 on any “facility” that holds, processes, or manufactures food. [isn't this every home in the US, every garden?] Although “farms” are exempt, the agency has defined “farm” narrowly. [What is the definition?] And people making foods such as lacto-fermented vegetables, cheeses, or breads would be required to register and pay the fee, which could drive beginning and small producers out of business during difficult economic times. [Yes. There are laws against this corporate-size-destroys-the-little-guy policy, aren't there? Are home bread or cheese or lacto-fermented vegetable makers who make for their own families included in this?]

As pointed out in the second example, what is the definition of "farm" in this Bill?


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