S.510...Why is it stagnant?

This is another guest post that I am writing for "Farm to Fork" the new online newsmagazine that is attempting to investigate agriculture and ever facet of the food industry. If you enjoy this "in the works" story, check out the above link for more articles and multimedia projects.

This piece is written as an op-ed

What’s the hold up, Washington?

In a time where outbreaks of the fatal and disgusting e. coli bacteria are as common as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hold the salmonella, the District and its 100 part time residents, members of the 111^th Senate of the United States of America, should be buckling down and trying to fix the food safety situation in our country that only seems to be getting worse.

The not-so-recently proposed (March of 2009) S. 510 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act is trying to do just that.

If adopted, this bill will expand the jurisdiction of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, currently Kathleen Sebelius and allow her and her staff to oversee many of the operations of the “big business” food industry. The biggest companies tend to be the same companies who have to recall millions of dollars worth of their products and forever leave a bad taste in their former buyers’ mouths.

The Secretary will begin to wear many more metaphorical hats. Her responsibilities will grow, allowing her to re-inspect any food facility that is deemed necessary, manage food recalls, and oversee the qualified importer program.

Other requirements that will be added to the Secretary’s job description are (1) identify preventive programs and practices to promote the safety and security of food; (2) promulgate regulations on sanitary food transportation practices; (3) develop a policy to manage the risk

of food allergy and anaphylaxis in schools and early childhood education programs; (4) allocate inspection resources based on the risk profile of food facilities or food; (5) recognize bodies that accredit food testin

g laboratories; and (6) improve the capacity of the Secretary to track and trace raw agricultural commodities.

All of this legal jargon basically means that the secretary’s new job will supersede the authority of other organizations that at one point had control on these issues. The secretary, acting on behalf of the President, will now be the chief order giver in the food industry, especially over large operations.

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dition to the Secretary’s new responsibilities, all food facilities will be required to assess all hazards and ensure that preventive controls are implemented in order to give the public the highest quality and safest food that it truly deserves.

Although this bill sounds like it is just what the doctor ordered, after he prescribed an antibiotic to clean up the food poisoning, some organizations are not pleased with the current version.

Judith McGeary is the executive director of one of those organizations, The Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance.

“As the bill is currently written, it would be very damaging to small farmers and feed producers who provide safe and healthy food,” she said, referencing the vast amount of new paperwork that would be soon be required to verify the safety and contamination levels of their products.

“Small operations are the ones that are in the most danger from the bill,” McGeary said, “The bill composes regulatory paperwork and the small businesses get driven out.”

To me, the paperwork is a very trivial reason to hold up such a major bill, but the FARFA does have a point. The smaller organizations should be held to the same standards of other operations, but without a room full of pencil pushing bureaucrats it can be challenging to crank out extensive amounts of paperwork everyday.

McGeary said that FARFA would begin supporting the bill if the Tester Amendment, written by organic farmer, Senator John Tester (D-MN).

One of the provisions that the new amendment contains would greatly help small farms.

Any farm that grosses less than $500,000 annually would not be subjected to the same quantity of paperwork and meticulous record keeping that is currently required in the bill. The Tester version reads, these farms will be “limited to records regarding the immediate suppliers and immediate subsequent recipients of such facility.”

This measure would be extremely helpful for the farms that FARFA and McGeary worry about.

Now that a good piece of legislation has been introduced, it’s time to pass something. Over a year of waiting since it’s introduction has left the American public wanting that extra level of safety and confidence knowing that their peanut butter, spinach, and other products are safe, healthy, and poison free.