Food Safety Enhancement Act Off-Target

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, The Food Safety Enhancement Act (just passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in July, and in the hands of the Senate now) is surely filling in lots of potholes.

On its surface, the bill looks grand. It ostensibly gives authority to the USDA to regulate the safety of the food supply that falls under its jurisdiction. The bill mandates inspection frequency; tightens safety standards for some imported foods; mandates certification for product testers; gives recall authority to the FDA, among other things.

All these are terrific ideas, long overdue.

And so, the sponsor of this bill, John Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan, likely thinks if a little bit of law is good, more law must be better.

John Dingell is no farmer. If he were, he could not, in good conscience, sponsor legislation like this, which treats every food producer exactly the same. It surely sounds fair to do this, but let’s consider two particularly onerous provisions of the bill:

One, the bill requires all facilities operating within the U.S. or importing food to the U.S. to implement safety plans that identify and protect against food hazards. The FDA would have the authority to specify minimum food safety plan requirements and to audit food safety plans.

Two, the bill requires safety plans for fresh produce: Directs FDA to issue regulations for ensuring the safe production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables.

Again, sounds great. Who could be against safe food?

The problem is that the bill creates a solution for a problem that does not exist. Small, local growers do not make consumers sick—big, industrial-scale production farms do.

Case in point: In 2006, spinach from California was contaminated with E. coli, and more than 200 people were sickened (two passed away) after eating the spinach. A national recall of the greens ensued, and spinach sales plummeted.

Except at the Co-op. Local spinach flew off the shelves. And, what do you know, no one got sick.

The San Francisco Chronicle traced the E. coli outbreak and found that spinach was not to blame. Rather, manure from cattle on pasture which surrounded the spinach fields tested positive for the same strain of E. coli.

According to the paper, “the pasture is part of an unidentified beef cattle ranch that also leases its fields to spinach growers. Fences on the cattle operation had been penetrated by wild pigs” which investigators think spread the bacteria from pasture to spinach field.

Tests at the California Department of Health Services found the same strain of E. coli (O157:H7) was in both cow pies and in bags of spinach.

This was an enormous spinach operation which was trying to maintain efficiencies so as to keep costs down.

This was not a local farmer. Farmers who sell locally, who produce food for their neighbors and their communities, know that their reputations and their livelihoods depend on their farming ethics. Someone here gets sick, and we know immediately the individual responsible.

In California, there was only a faceless corporation to blame. That my practices on two acres in southwest Montana are as suspect and dangerous as the practices on an industrial-spinach/pig/cow operation in California.

The bill requires every food producer to pay a $500 fee and undertake a “hazard analysis” to prevent their food from presenting a safety hazard to the public. I am held to the same standards as that spinach operation; we pay the same fees, and are subject to the same hazard analysis.

Hazard analysis? Really? If anyone reading would like to conduct a hazard analysis—and I will dare to speak for the area growers that I know—I suggest you call up the farmers and drive out to their farms.

I doubt that suppliers of Nestle’s or Kraft foods would agree to the same. I know that chicken producers for Tyson and Perdue won’t let you have a look.

Plain and simple, this bill targets the wrong producers. Smaller farmers will suffer under this bill, incurring disproportionate costs, costly infrastructure changes, record-keeping, and so on, while large producers—who are responsible for the majority of disease outbreaks, recalls, related problems—will largely escape scrutiny.

Advocates of local food, including the Cincinnati (OH) Locavore group, Food & Water Watch, the Organic Consumer’s Association, and others all agree.

If we really care about food safety, let’s address the source of the danger. Local market gardens, local meat producers—these are the solutions, not the problems.

But, as they say, if all you have is a hammer, every problem beings to look like a nail. Before this becomes law, consider calling our Senators; at least one, Mr. Tester, understands agriculture, and understands the issues. And, better, he listens.

Before this bill drives more local growers out of business—before Congress “enhances” our food choices and we are left only with industrial spinach—and a roll of the dice—let your voice be heard.

Learn More:

Find out more about the Bill:

• Click here

About its impact on local growers:

• Cincinnati Locavore

• Food and Water Watch

• Organic Consumer’s Association

And, contact your representatives about this bill!

Senator Max Baucus
Baucus’s Website
Washington D.C.
511 Hart Senate Office Bldg.

Washington, D.C. 20510

(202) 224-2651 (Office)

(202) 224-9412 (Fax)

Senator Jon Tester
Tester’s Wesbsite
Washington, D.C.
724 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-2604
Phone: (202) 224-2644
Fax: (202) 224-8594