TITLE 21--FOOD AND DRUGS
CHAPTER 9--FEDERAL FOOD, DRUG, AND COSMETIC ACT
SUBCHAPTER IV--FOOD
Sec. 350d. Registration of food facilities
...
(b) Facility
For purposes of this section:
(1) The term ``facility'' includes any factory, warehouse, or establishment (including a factory, warehouse, or establishment of an importer) that manufactures, processes, packs, or holds food. Such term does not include farms; restaurants; other retail food establishments; nonprofit food establishments in which food is prepared for or served directly to the consumer; or fishing vessels (except such vessels engaged in processing as defined in section 123.3(k) of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations)
In other words, farms aren't food facilities. Good. But what about the woman who sells jam at the farmers' market? Does she have to pay $1000 per year too? Or a farm that also does some processing (like making cheese from the milk its cows produce)?
I want to be clear that I am FOR food safety reform. And I think I am FOR this bill - assuming it can be passed in a form that won't hurt small producers. But why should a tiny jam operation pay the same amount to the FDA as an enormous corporation like General Mills? So at a minimum, I'd like to see an exemption added to the bill for small businesses from the user fee requirement.
Additionally, a friend made a good point to me about the user fees (which I had previously been for, at least for large corporations): There's a fundamental problem with the FDA relying on the people they regulate to get their funding. Mmm-hmm. Gooood point. Rather than having the FDA's financial well-being be tied to the industry it regulates, why not just fund them with taxpayer dollars? Food safety is a part of the common good. We all eat, we all need safe food. Use tax money to pay for this. That way the FDA won't have any financial ties to the industry it regulates, and won't have an extra and unnecessary incentive to act in that industry's favor and against the public interest.
Last, this post addresses user fees, which seem to exempt farms, but the bill as a whole does NOT exempt farms entirely. As I receive information on how the bill will affect small farmers, I will share it here. |
