ORA Members Help Pass Historic Food Safety Bill

On January 5th President Obama signed into law a food safety bill that Oregon Rural Action members played an important role in shaping.

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act is a historic piece of legislation that represents the culmination of years of work by food safety groups and supporters. Crucially, an amendment that protects small farmers by exempting them from the additional layer of federal regulation was included in the final version of the bill signed into law. This amendment helps guarantee that small, local farmers aren’t driven out of business by policy meant to hold industrial agriculture corporations accountable for the kind of widespread incidents of contamination that have been so widely publicized in recent years. 

Working alongside a host of other state and national groups (including our own Western Organization of Resource Councils and its other member groups), Oregon Rural Action members played a pivotal role in getting the bill passed with protections for small farmers.   

What the bill does:

• Gives the Food and Drug Administration the ability to order mandatory recalls of contaminated foods
• Allows the FDA to inspect company records related to food
• Provides whistle blower protections to food industry employees reporting violations to the FDA
• Calls for risk-based inspections and a system that can track and trace food imported into the United States, for the first time holding imported foods to the same standards as those produced domestically
• Gives the Health and Human Services Secretary the power to set fees for inspections, recalls, and importer inspections
• Requires grocery stores to provide recall notices for customers as they are shopping
• Instructs the FDA to develop a user-friendly website to help people identify food that is subject to a recall, including information about the status of the recall and search features by food product
  
  

Members of the Snake River Chapter share their concerns about the food safety bill with Senator Jeff Merkley at a town hall meeting. Spring 2010.

Meanwhile, the Tester-Hagan amendment that Oregon Rural Action members like you helped to win exempts facilities and farms that have under $500,000 in annual sales and market more than half of their products directly to end users. It also allows for sales across state lines if they are within a radius of 275 miles of the farm or facility; in-state sales are exempt as well. This means that our local farmers market vendors, farm stands, and CSA growers will not fall under the new regulations, though they will still be subject to local and state food safety laws – just as they were before.

So as the bill seeks to improve traceability and accountability through greater oversight of the agribusinesses that produce the majority of the nation’s food, those who are responsible for the vibrant resurgence of the local foods movement will not be held to added requirements that are unnecessary for small local food production. 

“We needed a food safety bill because we hadn't done anything about food safety since around 1938,” said Oregon Rural Action member Susan Boyd with word that the bill had passed. “The last time it was looked at was long before the food system we have today was in place. I'm very happy. I think this bill was needed badly, and I think this is a good step.” Boyd is a farmer who lives in Union, OR, selling fresh seasonal produce directly to the Union Market.

Karen Wagner, who is the Community Food Resource Developer for the community service agency CAPECO and who serves on the board of the Oregon Farmers Market Association, said, “I'm really pleased that the bill seems to get at the source of the problem, helping the big guys manage what is a serious top-down problem. But it keeps that ‘big blanket law’ from the little people for whom it would be such a detriment to the way they grow food, the really safe, quality products that are being produced at the community level.” 

The role organizing played

The membership of Oregon Rural Action – small farmers, ranchers, business owners, local food enthusiasts, and other community members – has long been calling for food safety legislation that is sensitive to the needs of small farms. We followed legislation through the House starting almost two years ago when an Oregon Rural Action member alerted us to the bill and its implications. (See Andrea Malmberg’s article in the Spring/Summer 2009 issue of The Furrow.) Then we persistently pursued the issue as the bill languished in the Senate for over a year. 

You wrote your Congressmen, made phone calls, sent emails, participated in meetings with Senate staff, shared information at farmers markets and other local foods venues, gathered over 1,000 signatures in an online petition, and mobilized our networks through word-of-mouth and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook - all with the aim of ensuring that new federal food safety regulations would not give unfair advantage to the big agribusinesses which have been the source of recent major food safety scares. At the 11th hour, the Tester-Hagan amendment we supported was attached to the bill (despite the loud protests and sudden withdrawal of support by the Big Ag companies). 

In the end, you made it happen. And it happened because of organizing.

Shoppers enjoy the La Grande Farmers Market, buying fresh healthy local produce while supporting the local economy.

Phil Greif, a farmer and rancher in Elgin who sells at local farmers markets as well as to schools in the Portland Metro area, said, “I have friends in Portland and they pushed their friends and contacts to call their Senators for weeks. It seemed like as more people got behind it then it really got fired up. A lot of my friends and customers were behind it those last few weeks. So I'm tickled. And I think Oregon Rural Action was a big part of that."

"The role organizing played was absolutely huge,” said Karen. “I can't imagine what would have happened if there wasn't the human cry from the masses. I know some are still upset that the bill passed as it did, but without people at the table to work with Tester and Hagan, to get the bill to this point, we wouldn't have been able to get it modified to the point that we could see our needs met."

Susan expressed similar sentiments, saying, "Through Oregon Rural Action we were active in shaping the final version of the bill. We did it!"