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La Vida Locavore is the blog for anyone whose crazy life includes planting, growing, weeding, fertilizing, raising, picking, harvesting, processing, cooking, baking, making, serving, buying, selling, distributing, transporting, composting, organizing around, lobbying about, writing about, thinking about, talking about, playing with, and eating food!

Notable Diaries

- Recent Congressional Hearings
- 2008 By The Numbers
- The 2007 Ag Census
- Why I Oppose GMOs
- My Visit to Growing Power
- My Trip to a Hog Confinement
- Why We Grow So Much Corn and Soy
- How the Chicken Gets to Your Plate

Politicians To Know

USDA

Senate

Agriculture
Chair: Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
- Max Baucus (D-MT)
- Michael Bennet (D-CO)
- Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
- Bob Casey (D-PA)
- Kent Conrad (D-ND)
- Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
- Pat Leahy (D-VT)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
- Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- John Cornyn (R-TX)
- Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- Mike Johanns (R-NE)
- Dick Lugar (R-IN)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Pat Roberts (R-KS)
- John R. Thune (R-SD)

Appropriations
Chair: Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: Herb Kohl (D-WI)
- Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
- Dick Durbin (D-IL)
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
- Tom Harkin (D-IA)
- Tim Johnson (D-SD)
- Ben Nelson (D-NE)
- Jack Reed (D-RI)
- Robert Bennett (R-UT)
- Christopher Bond (R-MO)
- Sam Brownback (R-KS)
- Thad Cochran (R-MS)
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
- Arlen Specter (R-PA)

Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions
- Chris Dodd (D-CT)

Senate Hunger Caucus

House

Agriculture
Chair: B Collin Peterson (D-MN)
V. Chair: B Tim Holden (D-PA)
B Joe Baca (D-CA)
- John Boccieri (D-OH)
B* Leonard Boswell (D-IA)
- Bobby Bright (D-AL)
B* Dennis Cardoza (D-CA)
- Travis Childers (D-MS)
B Jim Costa (D-CA)
- Henry Cuellar (D-TX)
- Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA)
B Brad Ellsworth (D-IN)
- Debbie Halvorson (D-IL)
B Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD)
- Steve Kagen (D-WI)
- Larry Kissell (D-NC)
B Frank Kratovil (D-MD)
- Betsy Markey (D-CO)
B Jim Marshall (D-GA)
P Eric Massa (D-NY)
B Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
- Walt Minnick (D-ID)
B Earl Pomeroy (D-ND)
- Mark Schauer (D-MI)
- Kurt Schrader (D-OR)
B David Scott (D-GA)
B Zachary Space (D-OH)
- Timothy Walz (D-MN)
- Frank Lucas (R-OK)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- K. Michael Conaway (R-TX)
- Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE)
- Virginia Foxx (R-NC)
- Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
- Sam Graves (R-MO)
- Timothy Johnson (R-IL)
- Steve King (R-IA)
- Robert Latta (R-OH)
- Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
- Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
- Jerry Moran (R-KS)
- Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Mike Rogers (R-AL)
- Jean Schmidt (R-OH)
- Adrian Smith (R-NE)
- Glenn Thompson (R-PA)
*=House Organic Caucus member
B=Blue Dog Democrat

Appropriations
Chair: Dave Obey (D-WI)
Ag Sub-Committee
Chair: P Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)
- Sanford Bishop (D-GA)
* Allen Boyd (D-FL)
- Lincoln Davis (D-TN)
*P Sam Farr (D-CA)
*P Maurice D. Hinchey (D-NY)
P Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)
P Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
- Jack Kingston (R-GA)
- Rodney Alexander (R-LA)
- Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO)
* Tom Latham (R-IA)
*=House Organic Caucus member

P=Congressional Progressive Caucus

Education and Labor
P Chair: George Miller (D-CA)
- Jason Altmire (D-PA)
- Robert Andrews (D-NJ)
- Timothy Bishop (D-NY)
P Yvette Clarke (D-NY)
- Joe Courtney (D-CT)
- Susan Davis (D-CA)
P Marcia Fudge (D-OH)
P Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
P Phil Hare (D-IL)
- Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX)
P Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
- Rush Holt (D-NJ)
- Dale Kildee (D-MI)
P Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
P Dave Loebsack (D-IA)
- Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY)
P Donald Payne (D-NJ)
- Jared Polis (D-CO)
- Robert Scott (D-VA)
- Joe Sestak (D-PA)
- Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
P John Tierney (D-MA)
- Dina Titus (D-NV)
- Paul Tonko (D-NY)
P Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)
- David Wu (D-OR)
- Buck McKeon (R-CA)
- Judy Biggert (R-IL)
- Rob Bishop (R-UT)
- Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
- Michael Castle (R-DE)
- Vernon Ehlers (R-MI)
- Luis F Fortuno (R-PR)
- Brett Guthrie (R-KY)
- Peter Hoekstra (R-MI)
- Duncan D. Hunter (R-CA)
- John Kline (R-MN)
- Kenny Marchant (R-TX)
- Tom McClintock (R-CA)
- Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA)
- Thomas Petri (R-WI)
- Phil Roe (R-TN)
- Todd Russell Platts (R-PA)
- Tom Price (R-GA)
- Mark Souder (R-IN)
- GT Thompson (R-PA)
- Joe Wilson (R-SC)
P=Congressional Progressive Caucus

House Organic Caucus
Congressional Progressive Caucus

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The Food Safety Enhancement Act: Who Does It Affect?

by: Jill Richardson

Thu May 28, 2009 at 20:38:05 PM PDT

One of the first questions about the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (FSEA) is: Who does it affect? It specifies $1000 "user fees" and a requirement to register with the FDA for all food facilities. Well... what's a food facility?

Jill Richardson :: The Food Safety Enhancement Act: Who Does It Affect?

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.

Tags: Henry Waxman, Food Safety Enhancement Act, Food Safety, (All Tags)

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The Food Safety Enhancement Act: Who Does It Affect? | 4 comments

Exactly... (4.00 / 3)

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.

I'd also like to see it made crystal clear that things like this are what our tax dollars (well, ideally) pay for, so that the we-need-to-keep-cutting-taxes-on-corporations-and-the-rich crusaders' spiel can be exposed for exactly what it is: "screw you, we got ours and you're all on your own".

And let's make them all start paying their fair share again.

(OT - I just saw for the first time the (oxymoronical) "national" Lay's "local" commercial on TBS while I was typing up this comment. Hey Lay's - please don't try to tell an Oregonian that "the best potatoes in the nation" are the ones grown for your chips in Texas. No offense to Texas, but pfffftttt...)

"Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization." - Eugene V. Debs

by: JayinPortland @ Thu May 28, 2009 at 22:54:19 PM CDT

by: you @ soon

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Ya, I've seen those commercials (4.00 / 4)

What, does that make Texas local to Oregon on a global scale? If so, I suppose they're closer to us than China.....

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

by: Joanne Rigutto @ Fri May 29, 2009 at 11:17:57 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

the tiny jam maker (4.00 / 3)

The woman who sells jam at the farmer's market already has to use a commercial kitchen to do the processing -- she can't do it at home and sell what she makes. It's the commercial kitchen that counts as the food processing facility, and which will pay the $1000 fee. I don't know what the current fees are, if there are any federal fees right now. I know there are typically significant local and state fees, which is why small jam and pickle makers often pool resources to rent restaurant kitchens to do small-batch processing. (some communities also have community kitchens for just this purpose)

I'm unfamiliar with the rules for cheesemaking but I believe the same rules apply -- if you want to sell cheese you make, you already have to build or rent a separate facility in which to make the cheese.

Yes, $1000 is absolutely a lot of money, and a burden to small businesses. I'd prefer there to be a sliding scale based on business size, or an exemption for businesses under X size. But my interpretation is that individuals and small farms selling processed goods are probably already borrowing facilities (restaurants, commercial kitchens) exempt from this clause.

by: llemay @ Fri May 29, 2009 at 11:17:55 AM CDT

by: you @ soon

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I was just going to say something like (4.00 / 3)

what you said. I wonder, if a person was manufacturing and selling only intrastate as opposed to interstate, if the FDA regs would apply?

I know that for slaughter/processing, if a state has state inspection, USDA inspection is not required for slaughter if the sales are intrastate sales, USDA inspection is only required for interstate sales. Not sure how food prep like a commercial kitchen is handled as far as the regulatory framework.

Also, I thought that someone selling direct to the consumer was exempt from federal registration/fees under this bill. In the other thread on this Bud Dingler pointed out that with his honey sales to stores he'd be covered by the regs in the bill.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

by: Joanne Rigutto @ Fri May 29, 2009 at 11:23:59 AM CDT

[ Parent ]