F.A. Farm

A recent blog purports to reassure people that HR 875 does not pose a problem for small farmers. When I tried to comment, my response was marked as spam. Therefore, I am including my comments on this blog.

I suggest people read the text of the bill. The problem falls into two categories:
1) What does the statutory language say?
2) Is it valid to just trust the legislators?

I spent one year in law school some years ago and even though our focus as 1L's was on the required courses, we did cover a little bit of statutory language and especially how the definitions in the first part of a bill "set up" the rest of the statute. So, as an answer to question 1) above, the statutory language does indeed allow for random inspections by the Administrator. Just look at Categories 1-5 and the actual regulatory sections. As an example, a food establishment is a "facility owned or operated by a person located in any State that processes food or a facility that holds, stores, or transports food or food ingredients." Section 3 (13) A. This would include your refrigerator in your farm stand as well as your farm stand in general.

As for question 2), do you really trust your legislators? If you do, I have a bridge for sale in New York state. As we used to say back in Minnesota, "If someone comes to you and says 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help you;' you should turn around and run as fast as you can in the opposite direction."

Many people have legitimate concerns about this bill. Simply calling them "chicken littles" or quoting legislators, lobbyists, or agribusiness professionals (which includes organic certifiers by the way) does not constitute a valid endorsement. All these people have a vested interest and are tainted. Regular citizens that are concerned are not tainted.