Archives for the 'Take Action Alerts' Category
Revised Senate Food Safety Bill Includes Important Amendments
Friday, August 13th, 2010
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee released a copy of the “manager’s amendment” to the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) which is, in essence, the bill as reported out of the HELP Committee late last year as modified by a long and arduous set of negotiations that have taken place since that time to work out particular issues.
The manager’s package has the support of HELP Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Ranking Member Mike Enzi (R-WY) as well as the four lead sponsors of the underlying bill, Dick Durbin (D-IL), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Richard Burr (R-NC).
The manager’s amendment will be adopted if and when the bill comes to the Senate floor in September when Congress returns from its summer recess.
The full manager’s package is available at http://help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/WHI10337.pdf.
The Congressional Budget Office has scored the Manager’s package version of the bill as costing $1.6 billion over the next five years.
In releasing the new version of the bill, Senator Harkin said, “For far too long, the headlines have told the story of why this measure is so urgently needed: foodborne illness outbreaks, product recalls and Americans sickened over the food they eat. This 100-year-old plus food safety structure needed to be modernized. I am pleased that after a great deal of time and effort from members on both sides of the aisle, we have a strong, bipartisan proposal that will overhaul our current food safety system – a system that right now fails far too many American consumers. I am confident that the remaining details will be worked out and am hopeful that the measure will come to the Senate floor as soon as possible.”
Most sustainable agriculture and family farm groups think the Senate bill is a very significant improvement over the companion bill passed by the House of Representatives (HR 2749) last year. We’ve been able to help make substantial improvements in the Senate bill through the HELP markup and in changes that will be adopted as part of the manager’s amendment when the bill comes to the Senate floor. Assuming the Tester amendment (see below) can be worked out and agreed to before Senate floor action, we will be able to support the Senate bill. However, we strongly oppose the companion House measure, and stand ready to defend the Senate bill in conference with the House should that prove necessary.
The Managers package includes the following important improvements to the bill as reported out of committee last year:
- The amendment sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) pertaining to farms that engage in value-added processing or that co-mingle product from several farms. It will provide the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the authority to either exempt farms engaged in low or no risk processing or co-mingling activities from new regulatory requirements or to modify particular regulatory requirements for such farming operations. Included within the purview of the amendment are exemptions or flexibilities with respect to requirements within S. 510 for food safety preventative control plans and FDA on-farm inspections.
- The amendments sponsored by Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) to reduce unnecessary paperwork and excess regulation. The Bennet language pertains to both the preventative control plan and the produce standards sections of the bill. FDA is instructed to provide flexibility for small processors including on-farm processing, to minimize the burden of compliance with regulations, and to minimize the number of different standards that apply to separate foods. FDA will also be prohibited from requiring farms and other food facilities to hire consultants to write food safety plans or to identify, implement, certify or audit those plans. With respect to produce standards, FDA will also be given the discretion to develop rules for categories of foods or for mixtures of foods rather than necessarily needing to have a separate rule for each specific commodity or to regulate specific crops if the real food safety issue involved mixtures only.
- The amendment sponsored by Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) to provide for a USDA-delivered competitive grants program for food safety training for farmers, small processors and wholesalers. The training projects will prioritize small and mid-scale farms, beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers, and small food processors and wholesalers. The program will be administered by USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture. As is the case for all of the provisions in S. 510, funding for the bill and for this competitive grants program will happen through the annual agriculture appropriations bill process.
- The effort championed by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to strip the bill of wildlife-threatening enforcement against “animal encroachment” of farms is also in the manager’s package. It will require FDA to apply sound science to any requirements that might impact wildlife and wildlife habitat on farms.
- An amendment proposed by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) to amend the traceability and recordkeeping section of the bill that will exempt food that is direct marketed from farmers to consumers or to grocery stores and exempt food that has labeling that preserves the identity of the farm that produced the food. The amendment also prevents FDA from requiring any farm from needing to keep records beyond the first point of sale when the product leaves the farm, except in the case of farms that co-mingle product from multiple farms, in which case they must also keep records one step back as well as one step forward.
Not in the package but still under serious negotiation for inclusion in the bill when it reaches the floor of the Senate is an amendment by Senator John Tester (D-MT) to exempt food facilities with under a certain annual gross sales threshold from preventative control plan requirements and to exempt farmers who primarily direct market product to consumers, stores or restaurants from the bill’s produce standards regulations. Our expectation is this amendment will be successfully negotiated over the coming weeks and will be accepted as part of the final bill once the bill reaches the Senate floor.
We also continue to note and emphasize the additional provisions NSAC helped secure when the bill was marked up in Committee last year. Those changes included:
- requiring FDA and USDA coordination (including with respect to organic farming);
- limiting recordkeeping for farmers to just the initial sale to the first purchaser of the crop; and
- language in the produce section directing FDA to create rules that are appropriate to the scale and diversity of the farm, that take into consideration conservation and environmental standards established by other federal agencies, that do not conflict with organic certification standards, and that prioritize high risk crops.
Still pending is an amendment from Senator Feinstein (D-CA) banning the use of Bisphenol A (BPA) in all food and beverage containers. The Grocery Manufacturers Association and other industry groups have come out strongly against the measure. Negotiations are ongoing to work out compromise language, but it is unclear to us what the status is of those talks.
Take Advantage of the Summer Congressional Recess
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
ACTION ALERT
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SUMMER CONGRESSIONAL RECESS TO
TELL YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES TO SUPPORT
USDA’S PROPOSED RULES FOR FAIR PLAY IN LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY MARKETS
You don’t have to go all the way to Washington DC to meet with your Congressman, Senators or their staff. Five times a year your legislators come home to you! This summer the House and Senate are in recess from August 9th through September 10th. During a recess your legislators will head for their home state or district to meet with constituents, attend public events and fundraisers and generally reconnect with the locals. Town hall meetings and other public events are great opportunities to ask questions and to inform policy makers and their staff of your concerns.
This is your opportunity to tell your Senators and Representatives that you support USDA’s proposed rules to strengthen and clarify the protections for farmers and ranchers under the Packers & Stockyards Act. The new rules promise to outlaw preferential pricing, expand producer rights to sue over unfair and deceptive practices and compel greater contract fairness for poultry and livestock producers.
The rules have been praised by NSAC and by many major farm organizations including the National Farmers Union, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund-United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) and more than 60 other organizations who signed this letter in support of the new rules. The Packers and Poultry Processors, however, are strongly opposed to the new rules.
Ask your legislators to stand with family farmers on fair competition and fair contracts.
- Respectfully urge your legislators to support the USDA proposed rules that restore competition and contract fairness to livestock and poultry markets. Tell them we need a level playing field for family farmers and ranchers.
- Urge them to Contact USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and let him know they support the proposed rule.
Find your legislators’ public meetings schedules by calling their district office. Go to Congress.org and type in your zip code. Click on the legislator’s name, and then on the contact tab for the phone number for the district office. Call and request a schedule of any town hall meetings or public events. Let them know you would like a moment at the event to speak to your legislator about the USDA fair competition and fair contracts rules.
Background
The Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 makes it unlawful for meat and poultry packers and processors and companies that contract with farmers to raise hogs and poultry from engaging in any “unfair, unjustly discriminatory, or deceptive practice or device,” or to “make or give any undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to any particular person or locality in any respect, or subject any particular person or locality to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage in any respect.”
But until now, USDA has never issued the regulations necessary to define these broad prohibitions, in order to adequately enforce the protections for livestock and poultry farmers. In the 2008 Farm Bill, a majority of the full Congress voted to include directives to USDA to issue the regulations to define these prohibitions. In addition, Congress told USDA to clarify how the Act should be applied to give individual farmers and ranchers a fair shake when dealing with the large corporate entities that control our nation’s meat and poultry processing.
Here are just some of the measures in the proposed rules that help level the playing field for farmers and ranchers:
1. For poultry growers, the proposed rules prohibit a poultry company from
- requiring growers to make equipment changes if the existing equipment is in good working order, unless the company provides adequate compensation to the grower;
- canceling a grower’s contract or reducing the number of birds placed on their farm based solely on the failure of the grower to make equipment changes, so long as existing equipment is in good working order.
- interfering with a grower’s ability to sell their farm by requiring large upgrades to their poultry houses after the grower has announced their plans to sell their farm;
For more information on how the GIPSA rules help poultry producers, go to the Rural Advancement Foundation International USA (RAFI) website.
2. For livestock producers, the proposed rules would:
- prohibit packers from selling livestock to each other and restrict livestock buyers from acquiring cattle for more than one buyer – both these practices can be used to manipulate the markets and lower prices for farmers and ranchers; and
- end discrimination against producers based only upon the volume of cattle sold, rather than on real differences in the cost to the packers and processors.
For more information on how the GIPSA rules help livestock producers, go to the Western Organization of Resource Councils website.
3. For both livestock and poultry farmers and ranchers, the proposed rule would clarify that when a farmer or rancher shows individual harm because of unfair or deceptive practices by livestock and poultry processors, the farmer and rancher does not also need to a show harm to competition throughout the livestock or poultry market. USDA has the authority under the Packer & Stockyards Act to clarify for the courts that farmers and ranchers do not need to show this “competitive injury” to the market as a whole, in order have the legal protections for fair play provided under the Packers and Stockyards Act.
Time Running Out for a Healthy School Lunch
Friday, July 9th, 2010
ACTION ALERT
July 9, 2010
Urge Your Representative to Move Forward Now on
Farm to School Funding in the Child Nutrition Bill!
If your Congressman sits on the House Education and Labor Committee – See Chart Below – please make a call in support of a healthy school lunch. Time is running short for Congressional re-authorization of the federal school lunch and breakfast programs. The House must take action soon to ensure this critical first line of defense against childhood hunger doesn’t expire on September 30th.
The Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act (H.R. 5504) includes $50 million in mandatory funding over five years for Farm to School program connecting local farmers to school lunch programs nationwide, as well as many other important improvements to child nutrition programs.
The House Education and Labor Committee will likely consider the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act next week. Please call your representative and urge him or her to move this bill forward now, with the $50 million in mandatory funding for the Farm to School program included.
An investment in Farm to School programs will help schools to serve fresh and healthy food produced by local and regional farmers. That’s an investment that will pay dividends in improved child health, scholastic achievement and farm and rural economic vitality.
CALL TODAY!
Please tell your Representative on the Education and Labor Committee that it is important to you that the Committee act NOW to pass this crucial piece of legislation.
It’s easy to call. Please call or fax your representative at the numbers provided in the chart below. Ask to speak to the staff person listed. If the staff person is unavailable leave him or her a voice mail message that includes your name and phone number, or simply leave a message with the receptionist.
The message is simple. “I am a constituent of Representative _____________, and I am calling to ask him/her to move forward now on the Child Nutrition bill — H.R. 5504, the Improving Nutrition for America’s Children Act. Tell him/her that you particularly support the provision in the Act providing $50 million in mandatory funding for Farm to School programs as a wise investment in our children and our local and regional farm economy.”
Background
If funded, the Farm to School Program would offer competitive grants to schools or non-profit organizations to develop purchasing relationships with local farmers, plan seasonal menus, start school gardens, develop hands-on nutrition education, and provide solutions to infrastructure problems including storage, transportation, food preparation, and technical training.
Farm to School grant program was authorized in the 2004 Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act, but USDA has never requested any funding for the program. Congress now has an opportunity to fund this important program when it reauthorizes the Child Nutrition Act in 2010.
- Farm to School initiatives around the country have demonstrated that Farm to School is a win-win-win for children, schools, local communities and farmers — providing abundant reasons why this initiative should be available to schools throughout the country.
- The choice of healthier produce options in the school cafeteria through Farm to School results in children consuming more fruits and vegetables, leading to lifelong improvements in their diets.
- Schools report a 3 to 16 percent increase in school meal participation when farm-fresh food is served, bringing more school lunch funds to the schools.
- Working creatively with local producers, some schools have found ways to save money while supporting local agriculture by purchasing locally.
- The transaction from Farm to School keeps dollars in the local economy, strengthening local economies and creating jobs.
- Schools provide an important new market opportunity for small and mid-sized family farmers and ranchers.
111th CONGRESS: HOUSE EDUCATION AND LABOR COMMITTEE
Democrats
| Representative | Staff | Phone | Fax |
| George Miller (7th CA) | Denise Forte, Gabrielle Serra | 202-225-2095 | 202-225-5609 |
| Dale E. Kildee (5th MI) | Erin Ward | 202-225-3611 | 202-225-6393 |
| Donald M. Payne (10th NJ) | LaVerne Alexander | 202-225-3436 | 202-225-4160 |
| Robert E. Andrews (1st NJ) | Elisa Krobot | 202-225-6501 | 202-225-6583 |
| Robert C. Scott (3rd VA) | Carolyn Hughes | 202-225-8351 | 202-225-8354 |
| Lynn Woolsey (6th CA) | Jason Feld | 202-225-5161 | 202-225-5163 |
| Ruben Hinojosa (15th TX) | Rosa Garcia | 202-225-2531 | 202-225-5688 |
| Carolyn McCarthy (4th NY) | Kim Zarish-Becknell | 202-225-5516 | 202-225-5758 |
| John F. Tierney (6th MA) | Rachel Evans | 202-225-8020 | 202-225-5915 |
| Dennis J. Kucinich (10th OH) | Yonatan Zamir | 202-225-5871 | 202-225-5745 |
| David Wu (1st OR) | Scott Olson | 202-225-0855 | 202-225-9497 |
| Rush Holt (12th NJ) | Chris Gaston | 202-225-5801 | 202-225-6025 |
| Susan Davis (53rd CA) | Suzanne Swink | 202-225-2040 | 202-225-2948 |
| Raúl M. Grijalva (7th AZ) | Joseph Mais | 202-225-2435 | 202-225-1541 |
| Tim Bishop (1st NY) | Joanna Serra | 202-225-3826 | 202-225-3143 |
| Joe Sestak (7th PA) | Jason Marmon | 202-225-2011 | 202-226-0280 |
| Dave Loebsack (2nd IA) | Kara Marchione | 202-225-6576 | 202-226-0757 |
| Mazie Keiko Hirono (2nd HI) | Anne Stewart | 202-225-4906 | 202-225-4987 |
| Jason Altmire (4th PA) | Cara Toman | 202-225-2565 | 202-226-2274 |
| Phil Hare (17th IL) | Kemi Jemilohun | 202-225-5905 | 202-225-5396 |
| Yvette D. Clarke (11th NY) | Bridgette Dehart | 202-225-6231 | 202-226-0112 |
| Joe Courtney (2nd CT) | John Hollay | 202-225-2076 | 202-225-4977 |
| Carol Shea-Porter (1st NH) | Chris Hillesheim | 202-225-5456 | 202-225-5822 |
| Marcia L. Fudge (11th OH) | Clifton Williams | 202-225-7032 | 202-225-1339 |
| Jared Polis (2nd CO) | Spiros Protopsaltis | 202-225-2161 | 202-226-7840 |
| Paul D. Tonko (21st NY) | Becky Cornell | 202-225-5076 | 202-225-5077 |
| Pedro Pierluisi (Puerto Rico) | Anina Caso | 202-225-2615 |
202-225-2154
|
| Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (Northern Mariana Islands) | Ed Manglona | 202-225-2646 |
202-226-4249
|
| Dina Titus (3rd NV) | Sarah Cohen | 202-225-3252 | 202-225-2185 |
| Judy Chu (32nd CA) | Carlos Uriarte | 202-225-5464 | 202-225-5467 |
Republicans
| Representative | Staff | Phone | Fax |
| John Kline (2nd MN) | Molly Conway | 202-225-2271 | 202-225-2595 |
| Thomas E. Petri (6th WI) | Kevin James | 202-225-2476 | 202-225-2356 |
| Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, (25th CA) | Chris Perry | 202-225-1956 | 202-226-0683 |
| Peter Hoekstra (2nd MI) | Greg Van Woerkom | 202-225-4401 | 202-226-0779 |
| Michael N. Castle (At large DE) | Jessica Gross | 202-225-4165 | 202-225-2291 |
| Mark E. Souder (3rd IN) | Kristin Garesche | 202-225-4436 | 202-225-3479 |
| Vernon J. Ehlers (3rd MI) | Rachel Fenton | 202-225-3831 | 202-225-5144 |
| Judy Biggert (13th IL) | Griffin Foster | 202-225-3515 | 202-225-9420 |
| Todd Platts (19th PA) | Rebeccah “Becky” Wolfkiel | 202-225-5836 | 202-226-1000 |
| Joe Wilson (2nd SC) | Melissa Chandler | 202-225-2452 | 202-225-2455 |
| Cathy McMorris Rodgers (5th WA) | Kim Betz | 202-225-2006 | 202-225-3392 |
| Tom Price (6th GA) | Kris Skrzycki | 202-225-4501 | 202-225-4656 |
| Rob Bishop (1st UT) | Wayne Bradshaw | 202-225-0453 | 202-225-5857 |
| Brett Guthrie (2nd KY) | Megan Spindel | 202-225-3501 | 202-226-2019 |
| Bill Cassidy (6th LA) | Holly Booth | 202-225-3901 | 202-225-7313 |
| Tom McClintock (4th CA) | Kristen Glen | 202-225-2511 | 202-225-5444 |
| Duncan D. Hunter (52nd CA) | Joe Kasper | 202-225-5672 | 202-225-0235 |
| Phil Roe (1st TN) | Matt Meyer | 202-225-6356 | 202-225-5714 |
| Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (5th PA) | John Busovsky | 202-225-5121 | 202-225-5796 |
Hungry for a Better School Lunch?
Monday, April 26th, 2010
ACTION ALERT!
You Can Help Put Local, Fresh and Healthy Food on School Lunch Trays
Call Your Senators and Representative Today!!
For many of America’s children, school lunch is the most important meal of their day— making up a third of their daily nutritional intake. As rates of childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes skyrocket, we must reexamine what shows up in school lunches and explore ways of ensuring healthier, locally-grown foods are served to our nation’s children.
To get healthy food grown by local family farmers into school lunches, NSAC is urging Congress to include $50 million in mandatory funding over the next five years for the national Farm to School program as part of the Child Nutrition Act reauthorization. And we’re happy to report that we’re making progress!
Read on…
Food Safety Action Alert
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
If You Value Safe, Local, and Healthy Food
Please Make a Call!
Food Safety legislation headed for the Senate floor would considerably ramp up regulation on farms that even minimally process their crops and sell them to restaurants, food coops, groceries, schools and wholesalers.
The new regulations could erect new barriers to these important markets for small and mid-scale farmers unable to bear the expense of compliance.
Read on…
Sustainable Biofuels Alert
Friday, February 26th, 2010
ACTION ALERT
Help Make the Next Generation of Biofuels Sustainable!
COMMENTS TO USDA’S FARM SERVICE AGENCY ON
THE NEW BIOMASS CROP ASSISTANCE PROGRAM ARE DUE APRIL 9, 2010
The 2008 Farm Bill included a new program to provide incentives to farmers and foresters for the production of energy efficient and resource conserving bioenergy crops. Congress intended the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) to especially encourage the production of perennial crops and to shift bioenergy production away from corn and other food or animal feed crops.
Read on…