FSMA, foodies and the state of chow law

At Reason, Baylen Linnekin asks me and several other people what key story we’re watching in the world of food policy. My answer:

The big, ominous, and still underpublicized story this year has been the Food and Drug Administration’s development of regulations to implement Congress’ panic-driven, ill-thought-out Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010. “Local growers are discovering that proposed FDA regulations would curtail many common techniques, such as using house-made fertilizers and irrigating from creeks,” reported the L.A. Times in February. Another batch of new rules will curtail the age-old practice of feeding livestock on spent beer grains, to the dismay of many small brewers and farmers. … Too bad for small, local, distinctive, traditional variety in food and farming….

Read the whole thing — including my semi-defense of the FDA on the legalities of the matter — here.

2 Comments

  • “Read the whole thing — including my semi-defense of the FDA on the legalities of the matter — here.”

    Link missing.

  • Ouch, thanks, fixed now. Same link had appeared at the beginning of the post, but I forgot to add the (admittedly redundant) one at the end.