Small, family farms, here locally and across this country, are at risk of becoming an endangered species due to proposed FDA rules. Your comments can help make a difference. Comment deadline is November 15. To draw your attention to this serious situation, we have included in this week's newsletter an email from a local farmer. We've also included a link to Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA), of which LEWFM is a member. We support this organization whose mission is "To promote local and organic food systems, helping farmers and consumers
reconnect and together build a sustainable food system, one meal at a
time."
OEFFA is asking for our help in spreading the word about the proposed FDA rules. Remember, the rules are not yet final, so you personally have an opportunity to have your voice heard. Even though it does take a bit of time to read through the info and then send your comment, we hope you will do so. Our farmers are counting on us to speak up so they can continue to do what they do best: provide us with the foods we love, and help us to Eat Well and Live More Sustainably. We can do it together. The link to OEFFA (later in this newsletter) will provide information about how to proceed.
An email from Finn Meadows Farm in Cincinnati:
We need your help! New federal rules could make it really hard for us to stay in business. Read on for more information...and don't listen to the propaganda about "food safety". It has nothing to do with that and everything to do with agribusiness lobbying to put small farms out of business. Read on and please submit a comment. This is very serious and could mean the end of small farms like us. (Spread the word, far and wide!) Thanks - from Marc and Claire Luff
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Big Rules Spell Bad News for Small Farms (from the Organic Consumers Association)
Love your local farms, farmers markets, and CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture)? They could be in trouble thanks to heavy-handed new rules proposed under the Food Safety & Modernization Act (FSMA).
Unless the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) agrees to some key changes in the FSMA, your local farmer could be forced to shell out up to $20,000 for a fancy "Hazard Analysis and Risk-based Preventive Control plan." For a farmer on a small budget, all that extra cost and paperwork means raising prices. Higher prices could force even the most loyal consumer to reluctantly settle for inferior, industrial food, trucked in from out-of-state corporations.
And that could force your farmer out of business, while perpetuating the chemical-intensive, environmentally unfriendly corporate agribusiness model.
Under the guise of "food safety," the FSMA would create new barriers for small and mid-scale farmers and processors who have for years been working to create local markets – restaurants, co-ops, groceries, schools – for their locally grown produce.
Who wins? The big guys, as usual. Who loses? Consumers. Farmers. Local markets. And Mother Earth.
TAKE ACTION BY NOVEMBER 15: Tell the FDA: The FSMA puts small and mid-scale farmers and processors at a competitive disadvantage against corporate farmers and producers who can more easily absorb costs, fees and fines. Please revise the FSMA to level the playing field for small growers.
To learn more and for information about how to voice your comments please refer to the OEFFA link http://policy.oeffa.org/foodsafety
OEFFA is asking for our help in spreading the word about the proposed FDA rules. Remember, the rules are not yet final, so you personally have an opportunity to have your voice heard. Even though it does take a bit of time to read through the info and then send your comment, we hope you will do so. Our farmers are counting on us to speak up so they can continue to do what they do best: provide us with the foods we love, and help us to Eat Well and Live More Sustainably. We can do it together. The link to OEFFA (later in this newsletter) will provide information about how to proceed.
An email from Finn Meadows Farm in Cincinnati:
We need your help! New federal rules could make it really hard for us to stay in business. Read on for more information...and don't listen to the propaganda about "food safety". It has nothing to do with that and everything to do with agribusiness lobbying to put small farms out of business. Read on and please submit a comment. This is very serious and could mean the end of small farms like us. (Spread the word, far and wide!) Thanks - from Marc and Claire Luff
------------------------------
Big Rules Spell Bad News for Small Farms (from the Organic Consumers Association)
Love your local farms, farmers markets, and CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture)? They could be in trouble thanks to heavy-handed new rules proposed under the Food Safety & Modernization Act (FSMA).
Unless the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) agrees to some key changes in the FSMA, your local farmer could be forced to shell out up to $20,000 for a fancy "Hazard Analysis and Risk-based Preventive Control plan." For a farmer on a small budget, all that extra cost and paperwork means raising prices. Higher prices could force even the most loyal consumer to reluctantly settle for inferior, industrial food, trucked in from out-of-state corporations.
And that could force your farmer out of business, while perpetuating the chemical-intensive, environmentally unfriendly corporate agribusiness model.
Under the guise of "food safety," the FSMA would create new barriers for small and mid-scale farmers and processors who have for years been working to create local markets – restaurants, co-ops, groceries, schools – for their locally grown produce.
Who wins? The big guys, as usual. Who loses? Consumers. Farmers. Local markets. And Mother Earth.
TAKE ACTION BY NOVEMBER 15: Tell the FDA: The FSMA puts small and mid-scale farmers and processors at a competitive disadvantage against corporate farmers and producers who can more easily absorb costs, fees and fines. Please revise the FSMA to level the playing field for small growers.
To learn more and for information about how to voice your comments please refer to the OEFFA link http://policy.oeffa.org/foodsafety
NOTICES
Over the past couple of weeks we have been handing out fliers with the Dates & Details about the Winter Market Season. In the event that you did not yet receive one, please be advised that there will be no market this Friday Nov. 8.
For important information about the Winter Market Dates & Details click here.
Please share this newsletter with friends and family to help spread the word about LEWFM!
We hope to see you real soon at Lettuce Eat Well Farmers' Market!
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