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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2">Wild Farm Alliance has been working with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and has another request for you to take action today on important food safety legislation.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="2"><BR>
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ACTION ALERT!</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="2"><BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3">July 28, 2009</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="2"><BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3">Please</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="4"> CALL</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3"> your representative and urge them to support the</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="4"> KAPTUR-FARR FOOD SAFETY PROPOSAL<BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3">Thanks for your support.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="2"><BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3">There is no question: our food system needs to be safer. But Congress is currently debating food safety legislation (Food Safety Enhancement Act - H.R. 2749) that could impede conservation-based agriculture. If approved, certain provisions could lead to the dismantling of important conservation practices and wildlife habitat, hinder beginning, sustainable, and organic farmers' access to markets, and require expensive fees. <BR>
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HR 2749 is scheduled to go to the floor of the House on Wednesday July 29. With negotiations underway this evening, however, it seems reasonably likely that a vote could be pushed to Thursday. <BR>
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Representatives Marcy Kaptur (OH-9), Sam Farr (CA-17), Maurice Hinchey (NY-22), Jesse Jackson Jr. (IL-2), Peter Welch (VT-at large), Chellie Pingree (ME-1) and Earl Blumenauer (OR-3) last week submitted a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee with specific proposed changes to HR 2749 that addresses many of the concerns raised by the conservation and organic agriculture community.<BR>
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At the same time, the House Agriculture Committee majority concluded negotiations on Tuesday, July 28 with the sponsors of HR 2749 that secured one of the changes proposed in the Kaptur-Farr et al request - namely, a greater role for USDA in all the farm-related portions of the bill. That was helpful as far as it went, but it did not directly address other critical concerns.<BR>
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It is important that you call your Representative by Wednesday midday, and ask them to join the effort to protect small and mid-sized family farmers, the environment, and consumer choice by supporting the provisions in the Kaptur-Farr proposal to HR 2749. Please see the background section below for more information<BR>
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PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IMMEDIATELY!<BR>
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It's easy to call. Please call or fax your Representative's office and ask to speak with the aide that works on agriculture. If you don't know your Representative's name, please click here http://www.house.gov/ and enter your zip code in the top left-hand corner of the screen. Then call the Capitol Switchboard and ask to be directly connected to your Representative's office: 202-224-3121. </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="2"><BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="4">MESSAGE:</FONT><FONT COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="5"><BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><BR>
</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3">The message is simple.<BR>
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"I am a constituent of Representative ___________ and I am calling to ask him/her to support the Kaptur-Farr proposal to HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. I am also asking him/her to vote against HR 2749 unless the proposals included in the Kaptur-Farr letter are included in the final bill." </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="2"><BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3">Background<BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3">On June 17, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved a manager's amendment to the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. While the bill did incorporate some changes proposed by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and National Organic Coalition, HR 2749 does not specify the positive role that conservation practices can play to address food safety concerns, and also fails to provide guidance so that new food safety standards are harmonized with those specified in the Organic Foods Production Act. In addition, it retains a flat $500 registration fee per facility, thus failing to incorporate a scaled fee system. This means that a small processor (even on-farm if selling mostly wholesale) would pay the same annual fee as a facility run by Tyson, ADM, or any other large food manufacturer.<BR>
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As of Monday July 27, the House Agriculture Committee members have concluded their negotiations with the Energy and Commerce Committee that resulted in some positive changes to the Manager's Amendment--including increased coordination between USDA and FDA and an exemption for grain and hay farmers from full-scale electronic traceability requirements--these still do no substantively address the concerns of the sustainable and organic agriculture communities. <BR>
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The bill is scheduled to go to the floor of the House on Wednesday, July 29. We are asking the Energy and Commerce Committee to include the provisions outlined in the Kaptur-Farr proposal that:<BR>
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• </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3">Directs the FDA to ensure new produce standards focus on the highest-risk problems in the fresh produce sector;</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="2"><BR>
• </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3">Protects wildlife and biodiversity by emphasizing animals of significant risk as FDA develops produce standards;</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="2"><BR>
• </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3"> Expands the direct marketing exemption so that farmers selling directly to school cafeterias and other institutions or whose farm identity is preserved on products all the way to the consumer, are not required to establish an expensive tracing system;</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="2"><BR>
• </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3"> Ensures that new food safety regulations are consistent and coordinated with the federal organic standard administered by the USDA National Organic Program (NOP) which already has traceability and other measures that support food safety;</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="2"><BR>
• </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3"> Establishes a sliding scale for facility registration for farms that qualify as 'facilities' based on their on-farm processing activities so that small and mid-sized family farmers are not forced to pay the same fee as multinational companies.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="2"><BR>
• </FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3"> Requires farmers to maintain paper records of farm sales receipts to the first buyer of the product rather than electronic records of all sales through the entire food supply chain.</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="2"><BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#000000" FACE="Verdana" LANG="0" SIZE="3">The Wild Farm Alliance promotes a healthy, viable agriculture that helps to<BR>
protect and restore wild Nature.<BR>
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</FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><A HREF="h ¯~(">Visit our website.<BR>
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Laurie Davies Adams<BR>
Executive Director<BR>
Pollinator Partnership<BR>
423 Washington Street, 5th Floor<BR>
San Francisco, CA 94111<BR>
415 362 1137 (p)<BR>
415 362 3070 (f)<BR>
LDA@pollinator.org<BR>
www.pollinator.org<BR>
www.nappc.org<BR>
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</A></FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><I><A HREF="h ¯~(">Join the Pollinator Partnership working to protect agriculture and ecosystems - visit www.pollinator.org</A></I></FONT><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Geneva" FAMILY="SANSSERIF" SIZE="2"><A HREF="h ¯~("><BR>
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