[Pollinator] KAPTUR-FARR FOOD SAFETY PROPOSAL

Wed Jul 29 08:25:17 PDT 2009

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.

ACTION ALERT!
July 28, 2009
Please CALL your representative and urge them to support the KAPTUR-FARR 
FOOD SAFETY PROPOSAL

Thanks for your support.

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. 

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.      

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.

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.

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

PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IMMEDIATELY!

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. 

MESSAGE:

The message is simple.

"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."  

Background

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.

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. 

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:

     •     Directs the FDA to ensure new produce standards focus on the 
highest-risk problems in the fresh produce sector;
     •     Protects wildlife and biodiversity by emphasizing animals of 
significant risk as FDA develops produce standards;
     •      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;
     •      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;
     •      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.
     •      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.

The Wild Farm Alliance promotes a healthy, viable agriculture that helps to
protect and restore wild Nature.

Visit our website.

Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Pollinator Partnership
423 Washington Street, 5th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 362 1137 (p)
415 362 3070 (f)
LDA at pollinator.org
www.pollinator.org
www.nappc.org

Join the Pollinator Partnership working to protect agriculture and 
ecosystems - visit www.pollinator.org

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