What is the Hype About Bill S510?
Does This Law Kill the Small Local Farmer?
Because this affects me as someone who raises chickens for eggs in the hopes of someday being able to turn a profit (We just got started in chicken farming and have not yet sold any eggs), I decided to do a little digging into this issue and what I found is a bit of good news mixed with not-so-good news for chicken owners, such as myself and my husband.
First, the good news: The law was not passed without an amendment called "The Tester Amendment." The Tester Amendment, sponsored by Montana Senator Jon Tester, is supposed to protect small food producers like me from having to be subject to expensive tests we cannot afford. This law still will have an impact on whether or not we wish to pursue expanding our egg production to include public sale.
Furthermore, this amendment allows very small farms to be exempt from the new regulations, so long as the farm does not generate more than $500,000 in a three-year period, is within 275 miles of where the food will be sold directly to consumers, can demonstrate to the FDA that it is in compliance with all state and local food safety laws, and demonstrate it has identified potential hazards and implementing controls of those hazards.
Now the not-so-good news: Should an investigation of a food-borne illness arise from the exempt farm, the exemption can be withdrawn at anytime and the FDA has complete jurisdiction over the investigation. You can read the complete bill here.
In addition, some see this as another big government takeover and an infringement on Americans' right to buy local produce and grow our own food. Will this law kill the small local farmer, or will it prove to make our food supply much safer? I think more research needs to be done and some scenarios need to play out before anyone can make an affirmative judgment.
Sources:
CNN.com (2010). S. 510: Food Safety Modernization Act - the basics
Published by Stacy Fisher
I am a stay at home mom and wife to a youth pastor. I am also a senior at Liberty University and completing a BS in Religion. HONORS: Dean's List student continuously since Fall 2009. GPA--3.86 In my sp... View profile
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4 Comments
Post a CommentThis BS! Before america became so involved in technology and reasearch, we grew and raised our own food. Do we really know that the deemed safe food provide is indeed safe? Look at medications. You take one med for an allergy but the side affect is depression. So now you got a med for that. I think its time to go back to basics. Back to when America was the land of the FREE!
Stacy,
I hope you understand that as a potential egg farmer, the rules you'll need to be concerned with are the newly implemented (July 2010) FDA Egg Rule. Unless you have an operation with over 50,000 laying hens, you would even be exempt from that. I don't know what your definition of "small" is and that was one of the problems with the Tester amendment as it was originally written (it has been improved) it would have pretty much exempted everyone. I just don't understand why small producers don't think they should have to be accountable. How many more people have to die from foodborne illnesses? Yes, the breadth of the problem is more expansive with large producers but, it doesn't mean that small producers haven't had problems -- they are just underreported. You can find the egg rule here:
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm218461.htm
Hi Charlie,
Thank you for reading my article! I have a link at the end of this article you can read through in about 10 minutes that overviews the bill.
Thank you, Stacy. That's the first balanced thing I've been able to find on the subject. I considered reading the bill, but at 248 pages, I decided I didn't have time.