| One of the big complaints the local/sustainable food movement has had with the bill is that it puts requirements in place for farms that sell direct to consumers or to schools, hospitals, or other institutions. And of course, these are the sorts of programs we WANT - the last thing we want to see is them getting squashed by regulations that make it impossible for them to exist. So the Tester amendment gives an exemption to any farm selling over 51% of its produce to consumers, restaurants, schools, hospitals, etc.
That's where Consumers Union gets a little scared. Uh-oh... what if that restaurant is Burger King. How about a mega-farm that sells 51% of its crop to Burger King? And what if that farm is located in China? YIKES. (That said - how many international farms sell directly to anyone in the U.S.? And if we're worried about them, why don't we step up our inspections at the border?) Consumers Union worries that a mega-farm selling a majority of produce directly to large institutions may be exempted from Good Agricultural Practices under this bill. They say:
If you really think that there is no point anyway in requiring bathrooms for farm workers on lettuce farms, or requiring cattle to be a certain distance from a spinach field, then this is no big deal. But CU really thinks it is important for farms, especially big corporate farms, to have to meet these standards.
Fair enough. I wouldn't mind seeing the exemption capped at farms making $500,000 or less in gross sales. However, Consumers Union still doesn't agree to the amendment even if that were added.
If you want to see stats for how many farms are actually going to be exempted by the Tester amendment, look at the 2007 stats on direct-to-consumer sales in the link. Only 6.2% of all farms sold direct to consumers that year, and 2.1% of the largest farms sold direct to consumers. And the dollar amounts of what they sold to consumers directly on average are fairly low, making me believe that very few farms will actually be exempted by this amendment. However, the stats only show direct-to-consumer sales, not direct-to-institution sales. That's a different story and I don't know where to access stats on that.
Consumers Union is also upset that Tester's amendments would exempt farms selling under $500,000 in gross sales per year from creating food safety plans (HACCP plans) if they do any processing. I agree with them much less here. HACCP plans can be a very good thing but they are only as good as the way the laws are written and their implementation. I tend to see them as a joke (even though a properly written HACCP plan is a WONDERFUL thing). These farms would also be exempted from future expansions of traceability requirements.
I realize that $500,000 seems like a lot here. I've broken it down below so you can see how many acres are exempted and how large the exempt farms realistically can be. Because most of the nation's agricultural acreage is planted in corn and soy, I've also included breakdowns for various crops and livestock species. (I'm pretty sure livestock is irrelevant here and we're just talking about crops, but I've included it just in case.)
Average Gross Sales:
Vegetable/Melon Farms: $368,950
Fruit/Nut Farms: $187,726
Cattle Ranches: $43,225
Cattle Feedlots: $977,048
Dairy farms: $611,773
Hog farms: $596,999
Poultry/Egg farms: $586,297
Sheep/Goat farms: $8622
Aquaculture & other livestock: $25,902
The first two categories are what you might call "Hobby farms."
Retirement Farms: 20.7% of farms; 9.7% of acres
Retirement farms have market value of
agricultural products sold of less than $250,000,
and a principal operator who reports being
retired.
This category includes:
18.1% of vegetable & melon farms (4.3% of acres)
24.4% of fruit & nut farms (9.7% of acres)
23.9% of cattle ranches (11.1% of acres)
17.5% of cattle feedlots (6.3% of acres)
4.8% of dairy farms (2.7% of acres)
7.4% of hog farms (2.4% of acres)
10.9% of poultry/egg farms (5.8% of acres)
18.3% of sheep/goat farms (10.2% of acres)
18.6% of aquaculture/other livestock farms (9.5% of acres)
Residential/Lifestyle Farms: 36.4% of farms; 13.1% of acres
Residential/lifestyle farms have market value of agricultural products sold of less than $250,000, and a principal operator who reports his/her primary occupation as other than farming.
This category includes:
27.7% of vegetable & melon farms (5.1% of acres)
33.8% of fruit & nut farms (12.1% of acres)
39.6% of cattle ranches (14.7% of acres)
35.9% of cattle feedlots (8.8% of acres)
8.4% of dairy farms (2.5% of acres)
33.2% of hog farms (6.3% of acres)
30.7% of poultry/egg farms (11.1% of acres)
45.7% of sheep/goat farms (16.1% of acres)
44.9% of aquaculture farms (15.8% of acres)
The next two categories are real farms, but they sell less than $100,000 in gross sales per year.
Limited Resource Farms: 14% of farms; 4.6% of acres
Limited-resource farms have market value of agricultural products sold gross sales of less than $100,000, and total principal operator household income of less than $20,000.
This category includes:
19.4% of vegetable & melon farms (3.1% of acres)
10.9% of fruit & nut farms (3.1% of acres)
15.6% of cattle ranches (5.2% of acres)
10.5% of cattle feedlots (2.7% of acres)
6.1% of dairy farms (2.1% of acres)
11.1% of hog farms (2.5% of acres)
12.7% of poultry/egg farms (5% of acres)
22.4% of sheep/goat farms (8.6% of acres)
17.6% of aquaculture/other farms (6.9% of acres)
Farming occupation - lower sales: 11.7% of farms; 9.5% of acres
Farming occupation/lower-sales farms have market value of agricultural products sold of less than $100,000, and a principal operator who reports farming as his/her primary occupation.
This category includes:
15.9% of vegetable & melon farms (4.0% of acres)
11.2% of fruit & nut farms (5.4% of acres)
13.1% of cattle ranches (13.2% of sales)
10.8% of cattle feedlots (5.7% of acres)
10.3% of dairy farms (4.7% of acres)
8.3% of hog farms (2.8% of acres)
7% of poultry/egg farms (3.4% of acres)
10.9% of sheep & goat farms (15.4% of acres)
13.3% of aquaculture/other livestock farms (7% of acres)
The next two categories are the two largest types of farm that are exempted by the Tester amendment.
Farming occupation - higher sales: 4.5% of farms; 11.3% of acres
Farming occupation/higher-sales farms have market value of agricultural products sold of between $100,000 and $249,999, and a principal
operator who reports farming as his/her primary
occupation.
This category includes:
3.3% of vegetable & melon farms (2.9% of acres)
3.6% of fruit & nut farms (4.5% of acres)
2.5% of cattle ranches (13.4% of acres)
4.8% of cattle feedlots (7.9% of acres)
28% of dairy farms (19.4% of acres)
4% of hog farms (3.8% of acres)
1.6% of poultry/egg farms (1.4% of acres)
0.5% of sheep & goat farms (16.2% of acres)
0.7% of aquaculture & other livestock farms (1.2% of acres)
Large Family Farms: 3.9% of farms; 13.3% of acres
Large family farms have market value of agricultural products sold between $250,000 and $499,999.
This category includes:
2.8% of vegetable & melon farms (5.1% of acres)
3.4% of fruit & nut farms (6.2% of acres)
1.5% of cattle ranches (12% of acres)
4.8% of cattle feedlots (10.7% of acres)
19.6% of dairy farms (21.9% of acres)
7% of hog farms (8% of acres)
6.6% of poultry/egg farms (7.1% of acres)
0.2% of sheep & goat farms (11.5% of acres)
0.5% of aquaculture & other livestock farms (1.3% of acres)
The last two categories are the ones that are likely NOT exempted by the Tester amendment. Together, they constitute 38.5% of all agricultural acres in the U.S.
Very Large Family Farms: 4.6% of farms; 22.9% of acres
Very large family farms have market value of agricultural products sold of $500,000 or more.
This category includes:
7.4% of vegetable & melon farms (53.5% of acres)
4.1% of fruit & nut farms (26% of acres)
1.2% of cattle ranches (14.1% of acres)
11.4% of cattle feedlots (44.3% of acres)
17.6% of dairy farms (38.1% of acres)
23.1% of hog farms (62.8% of acres)
26.6% of poultry/egg farms (58.3% of acres)
0.2% of sheep/goat farms (12.6% of acres)
0.6% of aquaculture & other livestock farms (3.6% of acres)
Non-Family Farms: 4.1% of farms; 15.6% of acres
Nonfamily farms are farms organized as nonfamily corporations, as well as farms operated by hired managers.
This category includes:
5.5% of vegetable & melon farms (21.9% of acres)
8.6% of fruit & nut farms (33% of acres)
2.5% of cattle ranches (16.4% of acres)
4.3% of cattle feedlots (13.7% of acres)
5% of dairy farms (8.6% of acres)
6% of hog farms (11.4% of acres)
4% of poultry/egg farms (7.8% of acres)
1.9% of sheep & goat farms (9.5% of acres)
3.9% of aquaculture & other livestock farms (54.6% of acres)
In the end, I would MUCH rather see the bill pass WITH the Tester amendments and THEN get them fixed if needed than having it the other way around. Just like I'd much rather see a guilty person go free than an innocent person locked in jail, I'd much rather pass the bill with too big an exemption than pass it in a way that may harm small farms. And I do hope that we can bring the two sides of this debate together to discuss this dilemma and come to a conclusion. After all, if both sides of this debate are in talks with the Senate (as it seems they are) then we can come to a compromise, communicate it to the Senate, and then see if they'll put the best possible language in the bill in conference (or even before the Senate vote). |
