Tester-Hagan: Doing Right By the Locals

[Yeggo]

I know there's a lot of controversy surrounding S.510 - the Food Safety Modernization Act, not only from the right, but among DU folks too. But I wanted to highlight some good legislating where I see it, and that's in the Tester-Hagan amendment. Kay Hagan of North Carolina counts among her constituency thousands of small farmers. She saw S.510 as imposing undue regulation on these farmers, who make less than $500,000 a year, and she did something about it.

So, instead of another post about what's wrong with DC, I thought I'd share one about how government was designed to work:

http://conversation101.squarespace.com/food-safety/2010/11/20/the-tester-hagan-amendment-doing-right-by-the-locals.html#entry9528486

[randr]

1. This is important for me personally

As an owner of a small amount of good organic earth, I am thinking of growing and processing food goodies as a new source of income in this economy. We already produce and sell eggs and honey. I want to add herbs, tinctures, winter veggies, and maybe smoked meats. Costs for Organic Certification and testing are expected. I doubt we will reach the 1/2M mark and any additional costly regulations would hamper our efforts.
I just hope they don't make this one more political football.

[Yeggo]

2. Good Luck

Recently toured some local organic farms. I know how hard it is to get even the smallest piece of land certified, and I'm glad that it looks like you won't be expected to incur any extra cost from this bill.

[randr]

3. Here in Colorado the process is not so hard

Again farms with low production, under $5000 in sales per year, pay no fees and after that the fees are based on acreage.