Protect Organic Standards

Please take action and protect Organic Standards! 

Alert Update of the Week:

HR 875 Update: Will the Real "Monsanto Bill" Please Stand Up?

News of a "Monsanto Bill to Criminalize Organic Farming" has been speeding around the internet. The Organic Consumers Fund, OCA's lobbying partner in Washington, DC, analyzed the bill and determined that we could not support food safety legislation like this that could be applied in a one-size-fits-all manner to all farms, including organic and farm-to-consumer operations -- especially a bill that references the National Animal Identification System (a voluntary USDA animal tagging program that some influential members of Congress are trying to make mandatory for every owner of even a single farm animal). With these concerns, we put out the following alert: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_17194.cfm

Nevertheless, we were alarmed by the misleading headlines attached to anti-HR 875 alerts. Even if this bill were passed as is today, it wouldn't criminalize organic farming. The bill would require farms to have a food safety plan, allow their records to be inspected, and comply with food safety regulations. To say this is tantamount to criminalization doesn't give organic farmers enough credit.

from the Organic Consumers Association

This is the letter that is sent to members of the senate and congress if you click on the above link:

Dear [recipient name was inserted here],

I am writing in regards to the Food Safety Modernization Act. I agree with

the Pew Food Safety Initiative, which supports the bill, that:

"The FSMA contains key improvements that will enable federal authorities

to better ensure the safety of the food supply by requiring food companies

to implement preventive plans and meet performance standards for

contaminants in food; creating a system for certifying the safety of

imported foods; establishing a strong risk-based inspection regime for

food companies; and granting the government explicit authority over all

food-production facilities. The legislation also provides essential

enforcement tools such as mandatory recall and civil penalties."

However, I share the concerns of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund

which opposes the bill because it could be interpreted to impose onerous

regulations on small farms, especially raw milk producers who are already

unfairly targeted by state food-safety regulators. The bill should be

amended to protect local and organic producers from burdensome

one-size-fits-all legislation. We need a food safety system that is

scale-appropriate and compatible with organic system plans. Organic and

local food advocates like the Northeast Organic Farming Association's

Leafy Greens Working Group and the Community Alliance with Family Farm's

Family Farm Food Safety Campaign should have a seat at the table whenever

food safety issues are discussed.

Hopefully, this bill will enhance the public debate over why the

industrial food production system is so unsafe. The number one thing we

could do to increase food safety among large-scale producers is to stop

the factory farming of animals:

1. Animals should never be fed blood, manure or slaughterhouse waste.

2. Cows need to eat grass.

3. Animals need to be spread out on enough land to absorb their waste.

The dangers to food safety of factory farms, also known as Confined Animal

Feeding Operations, are well documented by the Organic Consumers

Association, the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, the

Union of Concerned Scientists, and Food & Water Watch.

Thank you for your attention to the important matter of food safety.