Senate Bill S510

 
A friend of mine brought to my attention a recent bill that was passed in the senate, that makes it illegal to grow your own food.  Outraged, as many gardeners who grow their own food would be, I had to do my research on this bill.  While majority of Americans get their produce from the nearest grocery store and are not directly affected by the bill, there are many people like myself who grow some or all of their own food organically.  And even more people who buy their food from small local farmers.  I thought to myself, “if we are such a free nation, why wouldn’t we be able to grow our own food freely?  Why would we be subject to ingesting pesticides, recalled food and food processed by large negligent corporations if we are truly a democracy?”  After reviewing the bill, I found out that although it would not make it illegal to grow my own food, the bill would make it illegal for small farmers to distribute or sell their produce to others without a license. While this is still a problem, at least I know I can still pull out my cucumber seeds this spring.

To give a brief summary of the bill, also called the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010 and sponsored by democratic senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the bill makes it illegal to trade, transport, share or feed others with the food that they produce without a license.  It also give’s the FDA, which is housed under the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense, even more regulatory authority of food production, forcing farmers to gain license and follow specific procedures to distribute their food.  The bill states that small farms and food facilities who make less than $500,000 in sales annually are exempt from these regulations (but this number can be altered, especially if the bill passes).  In defense of the small farmers in the U.S., I must say that $500,000 is not a lot of money once the cost of farming equipment, water, pesticides, plant food, tools and other expenses are taken into account.  If a farmer is not using the produce for just personal consumption, the farmer would be classified as a “community supported agriculture supplier.”  Under this classification, all small, local farmers would be subject to fees, mandates, fines and inspections in order to sell or trade food with others.  So, for example, if the government makes it a law that a specific pesticide must be used on your veggies for the public good, you are subject to use this pesticide on your food or face penalties (or possible shut down of your farm).  If the government decides that they must increase the licensing fee (and we know the government is known for increasing their fees – just look at the passport fee), if it becomes too costly for small farmers, it will force them out of business and citizens will be forced to buy their produce from large corporations who have been caught time and time again of not being compliant with government regulations.  As a matter of fact, the whole reason why this bill is coming into play is because the lack of care and concern that large corporations have given to compliance and public food safety.  With the many salmonella, e-coli and mad cow disease warnings and scares, politicians have taken it upon themselves to introduce a bill that they believe will keep contamination and food-borne illnesses to a minimum.  The problem with this bill is that it punishes everyone, even the small farmers who actually have had little to no instances of recalls and outbreaks.  Due to  negligence, poor factory conditions and overuse of pesticides, hormones and herbicides, large corporations have caused an overall distrust in the food industry as a whole.  Public officials are trying to further regulate your food and increase food safety by taking away the liberties of food independence, when in actuality, harsher penalties on large corporations and more regulations on them, would probably resolve majority of the problem.  This bill basically takes a problem that has been proven in large corporations and punishes smaller businesses who historically have not had problems with non-compliance and recalls.  In further defense of the small farmer, when you really think about it, small farmers can’t afford to have “bad food.”  Because their customers are local, small businesses value a good reputation, which directly affects their livelihood.  Restaurants are starting to outsource their raw foods through the use of small farmers who are closer to their establishments.  Take for example, fast food places such as Chipotle and Domino’s who make a point to use locally grown small farmers for fresher produce, safer foods, better taste, fewer pesticides and smaller commutes to the restaurant.  Sadly,  with this new bill, you will no longer be able to give a few co-workers some extra green peppers or the neighbor down the street a batch of collards without being a licensed gardener/farmer.  While the intent is to be able to track where these bacterias and diseases are coming from, what it does is over-regulate farmers who do keep the condition of their food safe.  With increased regulation, the government will grow larger, which means more fees, less freedom, tax dollars gone down the drain to pay for inspectors, admin fees and overhead costs in order to enforce these regulations.  And if someone is caught distributing food without a license, for example your poor grandpa, he could go to jail for continuously giving out those rutabagas.  Not to mention, that this borderline fascist bill would allow the government to distribute and confiscate your food as it sees fit for the public good. Large, disease-laden companies, who generally push quantity over quality, know that it will put smaller farmers out of business because smaller farmers would struggle to stay compliant.  It will also cause small farmers to hide their true income or suppress their profits in order to avoid having to get a license.  Companies such as General Mills and Kraft would benefit tremendously from the bill and therefore support the ratification of the bill.

So far, the bill has passed in the Senate.  It never passed in the House.  You can view the progress of this bill at the following link:

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-s510/show