Making Sense of HR 875 - Food Modernization 2009

Okay ... I panicked! -- Take away my heirloom seeds --- NEVER!!!

So I sent out a quick blog -- based on other blogs -- Yikes.... this is like playing telephone at a party.... what's true? what's not? Thankfully a Talking Farm friend (check out the link) http://www.thetalkingfarm.org/
e-mailed me this information which she received..

She had her doubts about HR 875 as well.

We both feel that we can trust Heifer International's Policy Specialist .... Here is what he says.....

Dear all:

This HB 875 has made the rounds of several national sustainable agriculture list servs over the past few weeks. The consensus from organizations well regarded in promoting and protecting local and sustainable farming and food is this bill is NOT cause for immediate alarm (Congress will not act on the bill for several months) and will NOT have the many negative impacts listed on other e-mails in this chain.

If folks want to stay current on this and other issues I recommend they pay attention to several of these sustainable agriculture and organic food organizations who have active presence in Washington, DC and are invested in protecting small, organic, and local farmers and food systems. I trust them to give good information about what bills are problematic or beneficial and will require lobbying by folks like us to their congress people. A co-worker of mine was in DC a week ago for meetings with many of these organizations and none of them were very concerned about this bill.

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition<http://sustainableagriculturenet/>
Food and Water Watch <http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/>
Community Food Security Coalition <http://www.foodsecurity.org/>
National Family Farm Coalition <http://www.nffc.net/>
Organic Consumers Association <http://www.organicconsumers.org/>

There are SEVERAL food safety bills under consideration in Congress, some of which may be consolidated into whatever eventually gets passed. These are designed to address the issue of food contamination (salmonella and e-coli for example) highlighted by the recent peanut, bagged spinach, tomato, school beef and now pistachio recalls. Anyone who is concerned go to
Thomas http://thomas.loc.gov/ and from the home page there do a Bill
Number search on:
H 875
H 759
H 814
H 1332
S 510

Food & Water Watch has a good backgrounder, which I suggest you read in full:
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/food/foodsafety/background-on-h-r-875

Here's an excerpt:
"Here are a few things that H.R. 875 DOES do:
- It addresses the most critical flaw in the structure of FDA by splitting it into 2 new agencies one devoted to food safety and the other devoted to drugs and medical devices.

It increases inspection of food processing plants, basing the frequency of inspection on the risk of the product being produced – but it does NOT make plants pay any registration fees or user fees.

It does extend food safety agency authority to food production on farms, requiring farms to write a food safety plan and consider the critical points on that farm where food safety problems are likely to occur.

It requires imported food to meet the same standards as food produced in the U.S.

"And just as importantly, here are a few things that H.R. 875 does NOT do:

-It does not cover foods regulated by the USDA (beef, pork, poultry, lamb, catfish.)
- It does not establish a mandatory animal identification system.
- It does not regulate backyard gardens.
- It does not regulate seed.
- It does not call for new regulations for farmers markets or direct marketing arrangements.
- It does not apply to food that does not enter interstate commerce (food that is sold across state lines).
- It does not mandate any specific type of traceability for FDA-regulated foods (the bill does instruct a new food safety agency to improve traceability of foods, but specifically says that recordkeeping can be done electronically or on paper.)

"Several of the things not found in the DeLauro can be found in other bills – like H.R. 814, the Tracing and Recalling Agricultural Contamination Everywhere Act, which calls for a mandatory animal identification system, or H.R. 759, the Food And Drug Administration Globalization Act, which overhauls the entire structure of FDA. H.R. 759 is more likely to move through Congress than H.R. 875. And H.R. 759 contains several provisions that could cause problems for small farms and food processors:

- It extends traceability recordkeeping requirements that currently apply only to food processors to farms and restaurants – and requires that recordkeeping be done electronically.

- It calls for standard lot numbers to be used in food production.

- It requires food processing plants to pay a registration fee to FDA to fund the agency’s inspection efforts.

- It instructs FDA to establish production standards for fruits and vegetables and to establish Good Agricultural Practices for produce."

The upshot is:

- H.R. 875 is not the biggest problem small farmers have in Congress right now.

- Calling your Representatives about saving your heirloom seed from Monsanto is not going to help because they won't know what you're talking about. Use your energy and your breath effectively.

Rodger Cooley
Heifer International
Policy Specialist

Thank you, Rodger, for illuminating us....
and now, I think that I will go back to planting my heirloom seeds for this year's garden.