H.R. 2749: Food Safety Enhancement Act passes the House

On July 30, 2009 H.R. 2749 passed with a few amendments.   Read the text of the bill and ammendments. It seems that the last minute amendments exempted farmers from registering as a processor if they sell more than half of their processed goods retail. This leaves farmers that sell mostly wholesale processed goods subject to registration as a processor and the $500 fee. The fee structure is unfair to small producers since the smallest producer would be paying the same as the largest multi-national food corporation.  The fee should be scaled to the size of the business or eliminated for most of the smaller businesses. This is one key point to stress to your senator when you contact them.

Update: Aug. 4, 2009: National Organic Coalition letter sheds light on how the bill affects small farmers and processors.  Read the letter.

The Rodale Institute’s statement on this bill.

It’s not too late to influence the final law. The senate must now consider the legislation and will likely offer its own version.

When writing your senator, a hand written letter has the most impact, followed by a hand-written fax and finally an email. Many representatives now have online forms to handle the online correspondence.  The following links have information on how to find and contact your representative.