5. At least one other separate piece of legislation, HR 814, would require a mandatory animal identification system (NAIS). Since the majority of all food contamination problems have emanated from processing, distribution, retailing, and food service, there is limited utility in requiring agricultural producers to go to the great expense of tracking each individual animal (any value from the system would mostly be applicable to animal health concerns, not human health). Since NAIS has caused a maelstrom of controversy in the farming community, Congress should debate this issue separately to avoid stalling the progress of critical food safety legislation.
6. Most importantly, the final bill needs to state clearly that food safety regulations should not interfere with any farmer’s ability to follow and comply with the regulations of the Organic Foods Production Act. Organic farmers are already audited and inspected on an annual basis. They already have a plan for their farm—an “organic system management plan.” The bill should specify that food safety regulations and food safety plans should not interfere with farmers’ existing organic plans.
We urge you to contact Congressional leadership, and your own representative and senators, to make sure that the highest quality farmers in this country are not run over by juggernauts in Washington in their attempt to address the filthy industrialized food system that has sickened so many!
To locate your representatives in Congress, and send them a message through their website, click on this link:
Or you can call the Capitol Switchboard at (202)224-3121 and ask for your senators’ and/or representative’s office.
Note: it is especially important for you to contact your Congressional representative if they are a cosponsor of the proposed legislation.
For a sample letter you can easily personalize and modify to send to your elected officials, click here.
Cosponsors of HR 759 include:
Representatives Donna Christensen (VI), Diana DeGette (CO), Eliot Engel (NY), Frank Pallone (NJ), Gary Peters (MI), John Sarbanes (MD), Bart Stupak (MI), Betty Sutton (OH)
Cosponsors of HR 875 include:
Representatives Shelley Berkley (NV), Sanford Bishop (GA), Timothy Bishop (NY), Andre Carson (IN), Kathy Castor (FL), Joe Courtney (CT), Peter DeFazio (OR), Diana DeGette (CO), Eliot Engel (NY), Anna Eshoo (CA), Sam Farr (CA), Bob Filner (CA), Gabrielle Giffords (AZ), Rual Grijalva (AZ), John Hall (NY), Maurice Hinchey (NY), Mazie Hirono (HI), Eddie Johnson (TX), Marcy Kaptur (OH), Barbara Lee (CA), Nita Lowey (NY), Betty McCollum (MN), Jim McDermott (WA), James McGovern (MA), Gwen Moor (WI), Christopher Murphy (CT), Jerrold Nadler (NY), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Chellie Pingree (ME), C.A. Ruppersberger (MD), Tim Ryan (OH), Linda Sanchez (CA), Janice Schakowsky (IL), Mark Schauer (MI), Louise Slaughter (NY), Pete Stark (CA), Betty Sutton (OH), John Tierney (MA), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL), Robert Wexler (FL).
Cosponsors of HR 1332 include:
Representatives John Adler (NJ), Joe Baca (CA), Joe Barton (TX), Leonard Boswell (IA), Michael Burgess (TX), Dennis Cardoza (CA), Yvette Clarke (NY), Henry Cuellar (TX), Lincoln Davis (TN), Nathan Deal (GA), Eliot Engel (NY), Sam Farr (CA), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (SD), Steve Kagan (WI), Collin Peterson (MN), Joseph Pitts (PA), Adam Putnam (FL), George Radanovich (CA), Charles Rangel (NY), Thomas Rooney (FL), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (FL), John Salazar (CO), Adam Schiff (CA), David Scott (GA), John Shimkus (IL), Lee Terry (NE), Mike Thompson (CA), Greg Walden (OR).
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