Food Safety Modernization Act - Hurting Local Farmers? | Hacker News Reader

Food Safety Modernization Act - Hurting Local Farmers?

lawsonforcongress.com

25 pointshachiya17 comments

Is anyone actually surprised by this?

If you're not and you push "govt protection", why do you think that your case will be different?

If you pushed this sort of govt protection ....

In other news, the "nutrition labeling for restaurants" regulations are going to be a train wreck. (Consider a pizza place that has lots of topping choices.)

It's called regulatory capture. Who ever is being regulated will move the regulations to their advantage - to either keep competitors out of the field completely, drive up their costs, or reduce their expenses (for instance banning mad cow testing on all cows).

I blogged about this last year and wrote to all three of my Congress-critters. This is legislation written by big-agro and spoon fed to "the best Congress that money can buy." Shameful legislation that is against the public interest. The legislation that was put forth last year would also require home gardeners to jump through the same hoops as large agro-corporations.

Wendell Berry says he'll go to jail if one of the provisions requiring all chickens to be tagged from farm to market were to go through:

http://www.foodrenegade.com/wendell-berry-picks-jail-over-na...

Of some relevance to this:

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/04/farmers-make-gains-in-...

tl;dr: The bill going to the Senate has several amendments now which exist to help small scale or organic/local farms get exempted from the more burdensome requirements.

And this is relevant to hacker news how exactly?

Congress is taking a best practices system that looks good on one scale (industrial farming) but fails to scale down. Like a PHB demanding that shell scripts be written in J2EE because the former enforces practices better than the latter does. Think of it that way.

I flagged this article and here's why:

Topics on legislation and its effects are often interesting but direct links to campaign sites don't seem quite right.

Hmmm... now that I write that I don't think that's enough justification. Also, re-reading the article, it does make an effort to make a reasoned argument. Never mind - unflagged.

It's good to see someone change their mind.

You're joking right? I'm so damn tired of these comments.

How is it relevant? Most of us in the US, and increasingly in the rest of the world, are severely overweight and obese. Why? Our shitty diets mainly consisting of processed and chemical-filled foods. Articles on local, sustainable agriculture should be of utmost relevance to anyone on HN. Costs from obesity drag on individuals, countries, and societies.

That being said, I have a hard time supporting this particular article, coming from a republican congressman who has been traditionally pro-business. I would like to see an analysis of this bill by a non-partisan news organization, or at least someone without an agenda.

"Relevant to the people on HN" is very different from "relevant to HN". Many, many, many things fall into the first category. That makes it effectively useless as a filter.

Something being important/interesting for Americans is different than something being important/interesting for hackers.

I'm sorry, all I see in this is that it will make food a lot safer for everyone as well as doing benefit to the environment. If small farmers can't cope with this, that's not my fault.

I WANT my food to be safer. If that means only large companies can compete, so be it.

Sorry and no offense, but your opinion is blissfully ignorant. It's a simple matter to trace obesity and other health issues to the increase in processed foods. Foods which are mostly created by the companies who influence this kind of legislation. Just a few seconds of research should convince you of this...

This bill places just one more issue on the small farmers plate. I grew up farming and ranching. As rampant development (causing increased traffic, trespassing, liability, etc) encroached on our SE Pennsylvania farm, we were forced to downsize. After selling our cows, we turned to buying milk illegally from another local farmer. Why didn't we just buy it from a store? If you'd ever had fresh, raw milk, you'd understand.

Most farmers I know, farm for the lifestyle. They're an independent lot and regulations like this is only one more reason to sell out to the highest bidder, aka, a real estate developer.

Increasing regulation in this area doesn't only hurt small farmers, it hurts communities, businesses, health, and in the end, the human spirit.

Sure there must be safe food. But I'd bet, given the food I had as a child (fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs, milk, chicken, pork and beef) along with all the 'contaminants' they must have had because they weren't irradiated, pasteurized, or processed gave me a much healthier foundation than most. You don't need your own farm for this, just go to a farmer's market. If you think it's expensive, compare it to your long-term health costs. Pretty damn cheap in the long run.

That's great when it's someone else's industry, in this case farming. What happens when tomorrow, the government mandates that all computer code be registered, digitally signed and closed source, for safety reasons, of course?

I WANT my computer to be safer. If that means only large companies can compete, so be it.

What about the part where seeds have to be sterile and can't be saved? That has Monsanto all over it.

Unless this is a valid way to improve food safety...

Sterilized, not sterile. Some bacteria and fungi thrive in seed collections if they get moist. Sterilization ensures you aren't then planting these seeds and allowing the bacteria/fungi to grow over and throughout the crop.

So you perform the sterilization yourself? How costly/difficult is it, and do small farms normally practice this right now?

Is it really that big of an issue in terms of food safety? (I know nothing about farming or plants).

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