Posts Tagged ‘FSMA’

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.

Filed under: agriculture and farming, FDA, FSMA

FDA rules could block use of brewers’ wastes as animal feed

So long, small-and-sustainable: critics say new Food and Drug Administration regulations implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act could render uneconomic the immemorial practice of using spent beer grains to feed livestock. Both farmers and brewers are upset. [Bangor Daily News/Lewiston, Me., Sun-Journal; proposed rule] More: Glenn Lammi, WLF.

Filed under: agriculture and farming, beer and brewers, FDA, FSMA

Food roundup

Warnings dismissed at time: FDA rules implementing FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act) of 2011 imperil practices common to organic, small growers, “such as using house-made fertilizers and irrigating from creeks” [Los Angeles Times] Oh, how D.C.’s “public-interest” establishment and its co-thinkers in the press jeered when we and others tried to raise such concerns before the bill passed!
Related: pursuit of locally grown/artisanal meat options collides with USDA regs that put squeeze on small slaughterhouses, overbroad recalls also a problem [Baylen Linnekin, earlier here, here, and here]
“America’s Obesity Problem: Legal Mechanisms for Prevention,” Duke Law School conference I spoke at (but did not write a paper for) last year, now online [Duke Forum for Law and Social Change].
Related: “Wellness programs addressing obesity could lead to litigation, lawyers say” [ABA Journal]
Looser regulation of microbrewing has already proved boon to Maryland, lawmakers now consider extending it further [Beth Rodgers, Frederick News-Post]
“Bill introduced to undo California’s ‘glove law’ for food preparers” [KPCC; earlier]
Sorry, I’ll stay home and thumb through old cookbooks instead: recent American Studies Association Food Studies Caucus program included “Food, Debt, and the Anti-Capitalist Imagination,” “Archives of Domesticity and Dissent: Cookbooks, Cooking Culture, and the Limits of Culinary Exchange,” and “Pedagogies of Food and Eating: Teaching Debt, Dissent, and Identity through Food” [Mary Grabar, Pope Center on “food studies” fad]

Filed under: agriculture and farming, beer and brewers, colleges and universities, eat drink and be merry, FSMA, obesity, restaurants

Food roundup

“The FDA’s Ill-Conceived Proposal to Ban Trans Fats” [Baylen Linnekin] Margarine and other butterfat substitutes help in keeping a meal kosher, but FDA appears indifferent to individual preference [Ira Stoll] Can the baker fudge the formula for Baltimore’s Berger cookies? [Baltimore Sun, WTOP/Capital] Organized grocery lobby appears to be going quietly, perhaps a misguided strategy since this sets a precedent for yanking familiar ingredients off Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) list, and many activists would like to move on to things like sugar next [Bloomberg Business Week, Doug Mataconis/Outside the Beltway, Michelle Minton/CEI, Bainbridge] Switch to palm oil might accelerate deforestation [Scientific American]
FDA’s regs implementing Food Safety Modernization Act could tank small farmers and other food operations, commenters write in by thousands [Baylen Linnekin, Jim Slama, HuffPo]
Proposed Austin curbs on fast food restaurants might ensnare its beloved food trucks [Linnekin]
Any day now FDA could issue long-awaited, highly burdensome new menu calorie labeling regs [Hinkle] Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Angus King (Ind.-ME) introduce bill to excuse grocers and convenience stories from rules and simplify compliance for pizzerias [Andrew Ramonas/BLT]
“Panel weighs in on soda ban at law school” [NYU News covers my recent panel discussion there with Jacob Sullum and Prof. Roderick Hills, pic courtesy @vincentchauvet]
“Organic Farmers Bash FDA Restrictions On Manure Use” [NPR via Ira Stoll]
Nick Farr looks at NYT retrospective on the Stella Liebeck (McDonald’s) hot coffee case [Abnormal Use]
“Sugar is the most destructive force in the universe” according to expert witness who meets with less than favorable reception in corn syrup case [Glenn Lammi, WLF]

Filed under: FDA, FSMA, hot coffee, obesity, restaurants, soft drinks, Stella Liebeck, trans-fats

Food roundup

As we warned at the time: Food Safety Modernization Act shaping up as severe burden for many small, local and artisanal producers [Tom Philpott, Mother Jones via Tim Carney, Dave Runsten and Brian Snyder, CivilEats]
Bloomberg’s City Hall wants to keep secret the inputs to its food-scold policies. Open up, says Keep Food Legal [Reason]
More coverage of Heritage food freedom panel I was on [Sihan Zhang, Scripps Howard Foundation Wire, Joe Daly/Accuracy in Academia, earlier]
How shipping unions sunk food aid reform [Center for Public Integrity]
California enacts a strong cottage food law, but needs to work on farmers’ markets [Baylen Linnekin; related on Texas]
Law and public health profs inveigh against “Mountain Dew Mouth,” but is it a real thing? [Reason, Bill of Health, Andrew Sullivan]
Canada’s OPEC-like maple syrup cartel fights thieves and legitimate competition alike [Lowering the Bar]

Filed under: Canada, FSMA, labor unions, Michael Bloomberg, soft drinks

“Small Farmers Revolt Over FDA’s Proposed Food Safety Rules”

When Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011, some (I included) warned that it would lay serious regulatory burdens on small producers and distributors of food, threatening to drive many of them out of markets even when their products posed no actual material risk. Lawmakers gestured toward relief for small producers in an amendment, but apparently “gestured” is the operative word. “Now that those who will be regulated under the Act have had time to review and consider the FDA’s proposed FSMA rules, small farmers …are panicking. And with good reason.” [Baylen Linnekin, Reason, earlier; Daren Bakst, Heritage; “New federal regulations could threaten local farms,” Michael Tabor and Nick Maravell, The Gazette (suburban Maryland)]

Filed under: agriculture and farming, FSMA, small business

Food roundup

Colony collapse disorder, the honeybee ailment, was expected to have a dire effect on U.S. agriculture. Market-driven adjustments have helped prevent that [Walter Thurman, PERC]
Adieu, Mimolette? Feds may be readying crackdown on imports of artisanal cheeses [Baylen Linnekin] “Food Safety Modernization Act Far More Costly Than Supporters Claimed” [Hans Bader, earlier here, here]
“There may be no hotter topic in law schools right now than food law and policy” [Harvard Law School, quoted by Baylen Linnekin] New book, haven’t seen yet: Jayson Lusk, “The Food Police: A Well-Fed Manifesto About the Politics of Your Plate” [Amazon]
Further thoughts on hot coffee injuries and lawsuits [Ted Frank]
The gain in plains is mainly due to grains: residents of mountains and high-altitude areas have less obesity [Edible Geography] Restaurant labeling: per one study, “some evidence that males ordered more calories when labels were present” [Tim Carney] NYT’s Mark Bittman endorses tax on prepared food [SmarterTimes] “Michael Poppins: When the nanny acquired a police force” [Mark Steyn, NR on Mayor Bloomberg]
Who’s demonizing Demon Rum these days, together with Wicked Wine and Baleful Beer? Check out an “alcohol policy” conference [Angela Logomasini, Open Market] Scottish government lobbies itself to be more prohibitionist [Christopher Snowdon]
Bill filed by Rep Aaron Schock (R-Ill.) would cut off taxpayer funding of food-bashing propaganda [Michelle Minton; earlier here, etc.]

Filed under: alcohol, FSMA, hot coffee, Mark Bittman, Michael Bloomberg, obesity, restaurants

Food and farm roundup

New D.C. regs threaten to strangle capital’s vibrant food truck culture [Michael Hamilton/Greater Greater Washington, Jessica Sidman, Washington City Paper]
Food Safety Modernization Act would impose only modest costs on farmers, or so we kept being assured when it passed in 2010. Someone tell the orchard guys [WaPo, earlier] Town of Brooksville becomes ninth in Maine to pass symbolic “food sovereignty” resolution [Jordan Bloom, The American Conservative; Food Renegade (Dan Brown of Blue Hill)]
“Kosher: Private Regulation in the Age of Industrial Food” by lawprof Timothy Lytton [Prawfs]
“Why Is Your Child’s Safety The Responsibility Of Some Stranger Who Sold You Instant Soup?” [Amy Alkon]
Two views of so-called “Monsanto Protection Act” [Ramesh Ponnuru, pro; Baylen Linnekin, con]
Aaron Powell ties Bloomberg’s soda ban in with John Stuart Mill and the dreadful-sounding new book Against Autonomy [Libertarianism.org] Too bad editors of the New York Daily News, which lives by newsstand choice, can’t identify with food choice [Charles Cooke]
“California Chef Who Gives Away Free Foie Gras Gets Sued. Again.” [Katherine Mangu-Ward]
“Food desert” myth, widely credited in policy circles a very short time ago, now sinks beneath sands of contrary evidence [Jacob Geller; earlier here, here, here, here, here, etc.]

Filed under: agriculture and farming, FSMA, Maine, obesity, soft drinks, Washington D.C.

New produce safety regs, and the cost to small farmers

“The FDA has issued two proposed rules to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act enacted in 2011.” [Brian Wolfman, Public Citizen, with details and links; The Packer] “The costs to fruit and vegetable growers for complying with the newly proposed produce safety regulation have been estimated at more than $30,000 annually for large farms and about $13,000 per year for smaller farms.” [The Grower] How much do typical US farm households make in a year, you may wonder? According to U.S. government figures (here and here, for example) a large proportion of smaller family farms make little or no profit, and are instead supported by the off-farm earnings of family members. The 2011 law does provide exemptions for some of the very smallest producers, and the FDA also contemplates delayed implementation of rules for some others.

We followed the issue of small farms/foodmakers and the cost of the new law here, here, here, here, here, here (amendments aimed at lessening some burdens on small producers), and on a predecessor bill, here, here, and here.

Filed under: FDA, FSMA, small business

December 23 roundup

Food Safety Modernization Act, much scrutinized in this space, revived and passed after Senate leadership obtains unanimous Republican consent, now heads for federal statute books [ABC “The Note”, Marler, Bader; National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition on amendments aimed at lessening some of the bill’s burdens]
FCC’s “net neutrality” power play over Internet [John Fund, WSJ.com; Jack Shafer, Slate]
“UConn’s Streak and Title IX” [Neal McCluskey, Cato] John Stossel’s new program on “Top Ten Politicians’ Promises Gone Wrong” included Title IX [video, one reaction] Related from College Sports Council: California rugby, Delaware equestrian.
Cracked Bell: notorious California city milked small biz, tradespeople through vehicle seizures, fines [LAT] “How the Road to Bell Was Paved” [William Voegeli, City Journal]
“Nothing says Christmas like taking away a child’s treasured toy and destroying it.” [Boston Globe, James Taranto/WSJ on Providence, R.I. program to shred toy guns]
Dishes Still Dirty? Blame Phosphate-Free Detergent” [Shogren, NPR; Holmes, NRO and more]
Domain seizures point up shaky legal stance of much music-blogging [Switched]
“Santas have a pretty good chance of getting sued” [six years ago on Overlawyered] And this just in: “Man sues Santa Claus Parade after eye injury” [680News.com, Toronto, Canada; suit alleges frozen candy tossed into crowd caused injury]

Filed under: Christmas and other holidays, environment, FSMA, guns, music and musicians, Title IX