Your help urgently needed for family-owned organic farms!

[Trailrider1951]

Here is the text of an e-mail I received this morning from our local organic farm. If you can help with the protest against the proposed severly restrictive USDA regulations, please take the time to write the letter. Thanks sooo much!

Sandy

Quote:

Hi Everybody --

I'm writing to let you know about an impending regulation that could potentially ruin the ability of small family farmers to grow and sell leafy greens to the public. The USDA, in response to the spinach scare a couple years ago, is proposing over-the-top rules for all growers of leafy greens -- corporate farms and small farms alike -- and for all leafy greens. Not just spinach. This could include bi-weekly lab tests and sterilization of fields.

While this might sound like a good safety measure on the surface, the truth is, small farms cannot possibly afford multiple lab tests. And sterilization of fields! An organic farm is a whole, live, sustainable being. Nutrition comes to the plants through the soil, of which we, the small farmers, are the stewards. Half the work we do goes into building the soil, so it nourishes the plants and thus nourishes all of us.

Corporate farms produce 95% of all salads and leafy greens. It was from those corporate farms that contaminated spinach was released to the marketplace. That the USDA is trying to impose guidelines against that kind of thing happening again is understandable. What is not understandable, is how they plan to lump in farmers like us and other small farms across the country, who cannot possibly abide by such rules and still stay in business.

We only found out about this proposal yesterday. There is a way to fight it, however. TODAY, December 3rd, is the deadline for posting comments to the USDA. Below is a link for you to use to make comments. I received a copy of an excellent letter from a customer this morning, the body of which I'll reprint here for you to use as a template if you wish:

Docket ID: AMS-FV-07-0090
Docket Title: Food Safety Regulations for Leafy Greens Under the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937 (AMAA)
Document ID: AMS-FV-07-0090-0001
Document Title: Handling Regulations for Leafy Greens Under the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937

To Whom It May Concern:

I urge you to refrain from passing any regulation or law which further inhibits the ability of America’s small farms to participate and compete in today’s agricultural markets.

I, and my family, are regular consumers of greens (and other vegetables) produced by small, family-owned farms in the Central Texas area such as . These independently-owned farms are growing and selling produce in a marketplace dominated by corporate growers.

I ensure my family’s food safety by purchasing from growers with whom I have relationships and whose practices I know. Small, family farms are ill equipped to handle the administrative burden required by regulations targeted at large, corporate concerns, and small growers represent just a tiny percentage of food safety concerns, despite their growing share of the marketplace.

Please protect small growers. They represent the future of agriculture.


In order to submit your letter, please follow these instructions:

Go to 1) Go to www.regulations.gov.
2) Under "Search Documents" Step 1, choose "Documents with an Open Comment Period."
3) Under Step 2, choose "Department of Agriculture - All"
4) Under Step 3, choose "Proposed Rules."
5) Under Step 4, choose "Docket ID" and then type in "AMS-FV-07-0090" and then click "Submit."
6) On the next screen, click on the tiny yellow button on the left side of the page, under the column "Comments Add/Due By."
7) Follow the instructions on the next page, and remember to scroll down to the bottom of the page to fully submit your comments.

Here is a link with more information:
http://cornucopia.org/index.php/protect-fresh-leafy-greens-and-family-farms/#more-362

Thank you for taking a few minutes to read this.

Jo Dwyer
Angel Valley Organic Farm
http://www.angelvalleyfarms.com

[Eurobabe]

1. It seems to me that small organic growers aren't the problem

it's AGRIBUSINESS. If more people supported community-based agriculture programs, we might not be getting sick from what we eat.

:eyes:

edit: OK, so I went to the site, and filled everything in, and they sure don't make it easy for you to submit! I don't know if my comments were sent or not, it kept bouncing back to the comment page and telling me I had to fill in a certain field (which I already had!) Guess the govt. really doesn't want to know what the public thinks. :mad:

[DCKit]

10. The spinach debacle was caused by contaminated irrigation water.

The workers were being given bottled water while the crops were being sprayed with, basically, raw sewage. As far as I know, this case occurred in Mexico and, as far as I know, our laws don't apply to farms in Mexico. This is either window dressing or an intentional gambit to harm small farmers.

Other issues have arisen in past cases where the workers were not allowed to leave the fields to do their business. Mmmmmmmmmm.

I didn't know there was a "Leafy Greens" lobby, but given the current level of corruption in DC, I have no doubt that someone greased a palm or two and now the actual "family farms" - not the corporate ones that end up benefiting from subsidies and stupid laws like this - are going to suffer.

[fed-up]

2. dumb question here-Do I do anything for the Gov Agency Type and Gov Agency drop down list?

I do not work for any government agency.

[Elspeth]

3. To the greatest page with you

Damned farm bill

[LynzM]

4. Comments submitted!

We try to buy most of our produce from local, organic growers, when possible. I would HATE for that not to be an option! :banghead:

[GliderGuider]

5. building bridges between farmers and eaters

Thanks, guys! We in Canada get an awful lot of our organic produce from the States.
Comments from urban eaters carry more clout than rural ones.

Comment on "eaters".
I learned from Canadian family farmers to use the word eater rather than consumer. Consumer is a corporatist term.

I also learned that building bridges between farmers and eaters is an act of revolution.

[Javaman]

6. The reality as to why this is happening...

There has been a major "surge" (to use a term) in the popularity of organic foods, however, the agra-corps, because of their other than healthy farming practices are stymied to get in on the action.

So they are trying to 1) dumb down the rules 2) make it hard on the little guy to limit supply 3) create all sorts of over regulations to "protect us" for our own good.

all of which is certifiable bullshit.

when the walmarts of the world want to get in "on the organics craze", you know it won't be long before you buy broccoli with high fructose corn syrup added.

The agra corps are spending good money to those lobbyists, making sure that they are still the dominant one on the block.

[defendandprotect]

7. This is TUCKER all over again --- and Congress continues to support corp-farming ---

Eating organic foods makes a huge difference --- especially for children.

Buying organic bananas is harder now ---
Little dirty tricks seem to be happening -- the regular will go on sale and
then the organics will pile up --- then they're too ripe to be purchased!

Or, the regulars will be at a higher price --- but the organics will be dark green --!!!

And more and more, I only have a choice of a big name brand if I want organic bananas --- !!!

[AngryAmish]

8. Feces as fertilizer is a dangerous thing

[Sentath]

9. I'm not finding it

"This could include bi-weekly lab tests and sterilization of fields. "

I gave the article in question a quick twice over and don't see those items, if you could be so kind as to point them out?