NSAC's Blog
Alert: Stand up for your farmer, stand up for your food
October 24, 2013
All across the country today, communities are celebrating Food Day 2013, a day to support and celebrate healthy, affordable, and sustainable food.
But much of the progress we’re making towards a better food and farm system is being threatened by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) regulations – new rules currently proposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that could make sustainable agriculture and local food collateral damage if we don’t take action.
Everyone wants safe food, but we need to speak up to save sustainable food systems threatened by costly new food safety regulations tailored for industrial food production.
If we don’t fix these draft rules:
- It will be harder for children, schools, and families to get fresh, healthy produce from farmers that use sustainable practices,
- The high costs of compliance will deter beginning farmers from starting to farm, and could put farmers and food entrepreneurs out of business, and
- Farmers will be less able to use sustainable and organic practices on their farms.
If you haven’t spoken out against these industrial food rules yet, make this day of celebration a day of action!
We’re asking the FDA to:
- Allow farmers to use sustainable farming practices, including those already allowed and encouraged by existing federal organic standards and conservation programs,
- Ensure that diversified and innovative farms, particularly those pioneering models for increased access to healthy, local foods, continue to grow and thrive without being stifled, and
- Provide options that treat family farms fairly, with due process and without excessive costs.
We’re glad so many have come together today to celebrate sustainable food. Now it’s time to fight. We need everyone speaking out to ensure that these new FDA rules don’t trample on sustainable and organic agriculture, local food, and conservation, and there are three critical steps you can take today:
- Get Informed – Our FSMA Action Center has detailed issue pages on core FSMA issues and guidance for farmers and businesses on determining how they may be affected by the rules.
- Take Action – Got 2 minutes? Start by signing NSAC and Farm Aid’s FSMA petition! Next – the single most effective action you can take is to submit a comment to the FDA. Find sample comments for farmers and consumers here, along with detailed instructions on how to use Regulations.gov.
(If you work for an organization and would like sample organizational comments, contact us! ) - Spread the Word – Simply share our comment page, post about it on Facebook or Twitter (using our hashtag #fixFSMA if you can!), or include info in an email or newsletter.
Thank you for joining the movement for safe food and a better, more sustainable food and farm future:
— The NSAC Food Safety Team
Categories: Action Alerts
Public input is an important step in this process.