An important letter for High Country Growers from Carolina Farm Stewardship: Friends of Sustainable Agriculture, Over the last couple of months you have more than likely seen posts on social media, in the CFSA newsletter and throughout various media outlets about the Food Safety Modernization Act, commonly referred to as “FSMA” - the most sweeping set of food safety regulations in 70 years. All farms want to take care of their customers and avoid causing foodborne illness. But, these rules will unfairly burden small farms, forcing many of them out of business, in turn decreasing our access to fresh fruit and vegetables and further consolidating our food supply in this country. The deadline to voice your opposition to FSMA is November 15, 2013 14 days from today! The FSMA rules cover just over 1,500 pages, with a slew of new costs and regulatory burdens littered throughout – costs and regulations that seem reasonable to scientists who have never seen a farm, but not to the farmers who have been supplying their communities with healthy food for generations. FDA admits that the rules will reduce the number of new farms in the US and discourage new food businesses from opening. Unfortunately, the rules are unlikely to result in comparable reductions in foodborne illness. A US Department of Agriculture analysis concluded there was no evidence that FSMA-like food safety procedures actually prevent disease. It is no wonder that all the state departments of agriculture in the US have unanimously called for FDA to dump these proposed rules and go back to the drawing board. FSMA also puts an unfair burden on small-scale food processing facilities, such as Eastern Carolina Organics and GrowFood Carolina. FDA’s own calculations show that 73% of the total costs of the new rules for food processing facilities will be borne by businesses with 20 or fewer employees, even though these businesses produce just 4% of the food consumed in the US. For those of you who support growers at your local farmers markets, under the FSMA rules, farmers who package, label, wash, and transport their goods to a location off their farm (a.k.a. farmers markets) could be regulated under the same standards as factories that actually manufacture foods. While large factories are able to afford employees to take care of the regulatory paperwork, small-scale farmers don’t have that luxury, and they certainly don’t have the time to do it themselves. Furthermore, with their low profit margins, many farmers will either go out of business or simply choose to stop farming. FSMA would also: · Discourage farmers from conserving wildlife habitat around their farm, thus decreasing biodiversity on farms and pollinator habitat; · Force farmers to use expensive and often environmentally dangerous fertilizers to prepare soil for planting, instead of organic manure and compost; · Shut down a farm if a farmer fails to produce records of up to weekly water tests, or if its water has traces of animal excreta, regardless of whether there is any actual scientific proof that the water is unsafe. Ultimately, FSMA rules will force many farms out of business, discourage young farmers from starting their own farms, further consolidate where we get our food in the US and open the market for imported food to fill the needs otherwise filled by local farmers. Make Your Voice Heard – Comment Today! carolinafarmstewards.org/fda-comments-how-to/ Everyone in the food chain, from the farmer to the consumer, has a role in reducing foodborne illness risk, and farmers want access to the best science to help them do their part. But FDA’s proposed rules aren’t about education, they’re about random inspections and sterile farmscapes. The rules will disproportionately hurt local food and organic farming, and so will only cause more health problems, not fewer. Thank you for your support of sustainable agriculture in the communities where you live. CFSA exists because of you, and because of your efforts toward growing a healthy food system - good for the farmer, good for the eater, and good for our air, water and land. To learn more about the specific issues, please visit the CFSA Food Safety Page. To learn more about how to comment, please visit our How To Comment Page. For a Better Food and Farming Future, Roland McReynolds CFSA Executive Director
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 19:04:40 +0000
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