WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following complaints from farmers and food producers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will delay establishing a timetable for farmers and others to meet the new critical agricultural water standards proposed under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

 

Earlier this year the FDA stated it was “exploring ways to simplify the agricultural water standards” after receiving complaints that some of the requirements were too complex to understand and too difficult to implement.

In a follow-up to that decision the agency has said it will extend the compliance dates to meet the new standards, pushing back an already lengthy process even further than the four-year deadline previously proposed by the produce safety rule. The decision also reflects an Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump to undo regulations set by the previous administration that business groups and others said imposed costly and burdensome rules.

The key agricultural quality water standards were established in January 2013 in response to input from the public concerned about microbial water quality and the presence of generic E. coli in farm waters, which indicated the presence of fecal contamination from animal waste runoff into streams and other waterways.

Tests found that agricultural water could also be a major conduit of pathogens that can contaminate crops during the irrigation process. These are some of the reasons the FSMA established the produce safety rules for agricultural quality water standards.

To better understand the provisions for the water quality standards the FDA outlines the criteria on its website at https://fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/fsma/ucm334114.htm

While the first compliance dates occur in January 2018, compliance with the water quality provisions is not required until 2020, with water test samples due over the course of a few years after 2020. Now these dates have been extended with no proposed new deadline while the FDA studies a timetable.

When the FDA announced its deadline change, House Agricultural Committee Chair K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas) said a review was necessary. “Producers need additional time to come into compliance with FSMA’s produce safety rules, and I commend the FDA for providing this needed flexibility,” he said on June 6.

 

“I’ve heard from many farmers concerned with the rules and struggling to figure out how and when they have to comply with (the) FSMA rules and regulations. This extension provides producers the time necessary to come into compliance while still protecting public health.”

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, a nonprofit farm lobbying group in Washington, D.C., said it welcomed the FDA’s decision, adding, “It is a promising first step toward a workable standard that can meet public health goals without unduly burdening our nation’s farmers.”

Since the water standards were first announced four years ago several counties and states have instituted new water quality practices on their own. In Minnesota, for instance, 365 farms with 214,000 acres of crops have been certified as meeting the FDA standards, by the state’s agricultural department.

In a statement by Shane Hultman with state’s Chisago County Soil and Water Conservation District, he said, “These farms have generated 637 new best management practices that are keeping 19.1 million pounds of soil, 13.5 million pounds of sediment and 8,212 pounds of phosphorous from entering our lakes, rivers and streams annually.”

Hultman pointed out one Minnesota farmer in particular who became the first in the state to achieve certification through the state’s volunteer water quality program. Corn and soybean grower Dale Fredrickson was cited for implementing a variety of quality water practices, including no-till farming and an “integrated cover crops pest management plan.”

State certification specialist Ryan Clark said, “Dale’s (85-acre) farm is a good test  for any water quality program. He has been a conservation innovator in the farming community for some time.”

Clark said he had not heard of the FDA’s announcement and could not comment on it, when contacted last week by Farm World. Attempts to reach Fredrickson by telephone were not successful. And Brad Redlin, a Minnesota state water quality certification program manager, declined to comment on the FDA’s action.

The FSMA was signed into law by former President Obama on Jan. 4, 2011, to enable the FDA to better protect public health by strengthening the food safety system.