Goodbye Farmers Markets, CSAs, and Roadside Stands? Read more here.

Read what the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund has to say here.

Passage of HR 875 into law will result in a much greater degree of federal control of food production and food regulation in the individual States as well as on a national level.   The Feds would control to a much greater degree the inputs farmers can use [Section 206(c)(3) & (4)] as well as the products farmers can produce (raw milk).  Unannounced federal inspections of small farms will be the order of the day, reducing the level of protection provided by the Fourth Amendment.   There will be little left of the States' police power to regulate food.  HR 875 calls for the "integration of the inspection and compliance programs in food processing establishments" of the FSA, state and local agencies [Section 207(e)(3)(E)].  The federal government will be dictating the standards used in these programs to the States.

The burdensome requirements the bill imposes on small farms and the intrusive federal control it creates over small farm operations threaten the future viability of sustainable agriculture and the local food movement.  HR 875 has been assigned to both the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the House Committee on Agriculture.  It needs to be stopped.  Anyone who values freedom of food choice and the rights and independence of small farmers should contact their elected representatives and the members of the two committees to ask that they oppose HR 875.  Updates on the status of this bill will be provided on this site.

Interesting that all the co-sponsors for this bill are Democrats.  Stay up to date with where the bill is in process here.