Rescue local and organic farming in the food safety bill

In the next few weeks, the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a sweeping overhaul of federal food safety law -- S. 510. The House food safety bill passed last year (HR 2749) included several measures that threaten small-scale organic producers, including a registration fee of $500 and blanket application of complicated monitoring and traceability standards--regardless of one's farm size.

The vast majority of recent food safety scandals in the U.S. -- E. coli on fresh spinach, melamine in dairy products, Salmonella in peanut butter -- were all linked to industrial agribusiness practices, and these large-scale operations clearly warrant more federal food safety oversight and strict enforcement action. What is NOT needed is a "one-size-fits-all" approach that poses unfair costs and onerous reporting on local and organic farmers.

There's no doubt that industrial agriculture needs better oversight. But family-scale local and organic farms are probably the safest in the nation -- they are part of the solution, not part of the problem -- and need to be protected!

Fortunately, Senator Tester (D-MT) is a certified organic farmer himself, and he's proposed an amendment to S. 510 that would exempt small-scale farmers and food processors from the most burdensome regulations.