Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 - write your Congressman!

The FSMA of 2009 (HR 875) will create a new Food Safety Administration with sweeping powers to inspect, require certain registrations of farms and processors, and other unknown regulatory requirements based on a mandate to create a "national" food safety program.

Whatever the wisdom (or, rather, unwisdom) of creating yet another federal agency, if you participate in a CSA, or buy food direct off the farm (such as from farm stands or from u-pick orchards), or are a smallholder - write your congressman asking that the law include carve-outs for direct-to-consumer sales, CSAs, and sales at farmers' markets.

The food security risk of smallholders to the buying public at large is nothing compared to the risk created by packagers of meats, dairy, and produce who sell to the Wal-Marts, Costscos, McDonalds, and other large users of products who penetrate the marketplace overwhelmingly more than any smallholder would ever dream of or desire to. There is enough regulation on smallholders to hold them liable for the sale of tainted goods, and to get information on who they are selling to in the event of an identified illness. This is just overreaching legislation.