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Groups split on views of food safety act vote

By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an effort to curb a long chain of food recalls, Congress passed a final food safety bill last week revamping U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations overseeing the nation’s food supply; it is expected President Obama will sign it into law before the weekend.

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act will create the most comprehensive changes to the system in more than a decade and will grant the agency new authority and resources to ensure the safety of the nation’s food supply, according to information released by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) who initiated the bill.

“Today’s vote will finally give the FDA the tools it needs to help ensure that the food on dinner tables and store shelves is safe,” he said after the vote. “This bill will have a dramatic impact on the way the FDA operates, providing it with more resources for inspection, mandatory recall authority and the technology to trace an outbreak back to its source. I am proud of the work we have done, but our vigilance must continue.”

The legislation has taken more than two years to make its way through Congress and contains four major provisions, including improving the capacity to prevent food safety problems and detect and respond to food safety problems, improving the safety of imported food and miscellaneous provisions that include increasing field staff at certain offices.

Heavy hitters in the agriculture industry were quick to weigh in after the Dec. 21 vote. American Feed Industry Assoc. President/CEO Joel G. Newman offered thanks to a host of senators who worked to get the bill passed.

“The end result of the Senate’s hard work is an evenhanded set of new authorities, supported by agriculture, the food industry and consumer groups, allowing FDA to increase food safety protection without unduly burdening the industry,” he said.

But not everyone is happy. National Cattlemen’s Beef Assoc. Executive Director of Legislative Affairs Kristina Butts issued a statement voicing its disapproval of the law because of the Tester-Hagan amendment, to exempt small businesses such as roadside stands, farmers’ markets and participants in a community supported agriculture program from specified requirements of the bill.

“We are extremely disappointed the House passed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. Food safety knows no size, and exempting some small producers and processors from the legislation, as the Tester-Hagan amendment will do, sets a dangerous precedent for the future our nation’s food safety system,” she said.

“Instead of including the Tester-Hagan language, Congress should have passed legislation to set appropriate standards for all products in the marketplace, no matter the size of the producing entity.”

Judith McGeary, executive director of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, said the amendment was needed to protect small operations from unmanageable costs and practices that would have been placed upon them had it not been added. The advocacy group has focused on specific sections of the bill, particularly the ones that relate to the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) and the issue of FDA standards in the growing and harvesting of crops.

HACCP is a “management system in which food safety is addressed through the analysis and control of biological, chemical and physical hazards from raw material production, procurement and handling, to manufacturing, distribution and consumption of the finished product,” according to information from the FDA’s website.

McGeary noted while small-scale producers would be exempt from the HACCP and growing standard provisions of the bill, they would have to comply with certain elements.

“The FDA can still go in and do inspections, they can still do recalls and a lot of things for every farming facility in the country, but the smaller, direct marketing facilities will be subject instead to state and local laws when it comes to the types of paperwork and licenses that would be required and any regulations of how to grow and harvest their crops,” she said.

McGeary said that had the bill been passed without the amendment, the added regulations and administrative work could prove devastating to small-scale producers around the country.

12/29/2010