dear raw, activist, organic, health, and concerned community
this is huge, pls forward this email to everyone you know, get other meetups to email their groups on this, we need to protect our family farmers and our right to shop at farmers markets and CSAs.

PLEASE READ the entire article below and join cornucopia institute as a member (give even $1) to support their work to protect family farmers and our right to locally grown food.

do you know people who can attend the hearings? Need especially in Yuma, AZ (oct 14) and Columbus, OH Oct 6th, hearings also in FL, CA, CO, NY and NC.

let's get involved!!!
the first hearing in CA is right now and will be recorded...
ariane

Fresh Market Vegetable Growers and Handlers: The USDA needs to hear from you!

National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement Could Harm Local, Family-scale and Organic Growers

Corporate Agribusiness Proposes Regulating Itself
Instead of Stricter Governmental Food Safety Oversight

CORNUCOPIA, WI: USDA hearings begin this week on a proposal that would authorize the development of production and handling regulations for a long list of fresh vegetables, primarily leafy greens. The first of seven national hearings starts Tuesday, September 22 in Monterey, California, and then will shift to other locations across the country.

The proposed marketing agreement would allow leafy green handlers to attach a USDA-backed “food safety seal” to lettuce, spinach, cabbage and other vegetables while prohibiting most organic and local farmers selling through farmers markets, CSAs, roadside stands, and those selling directly to retailers from using the same seal.

The plan, hatched and promoted by some of the nation’s largest corporate agribusinesses that distribute vegetables, is similar to a controversial California agreement that was put into place after spinach, contaminated with E. coli bacteria, sickened 199 people in 26 states and left three dead in September, 2006.

“This proposed food safety agreement will do nothing to tackle the root cause of the food safety problem, which is, in most cases, manure from confined animal feeding operations that is tainted with disease causing pathogenic bacteria,” said Will Fantle, of the Wisconsin-based farm policy group, The Cornucopia Institute.

Industry proponents pushing this will be hard pressed to demonstrate that their proposal will actually prevent food borne illness. Just days ago, on September 18, Ippolito International, a signatory to the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, recalled 1,715 cartons of spinach due to salmonella contamination.

But the proposed safety standards, which have been described as a “corporate-backed marketing ploy,” may give agribusinesses using the new food safety seal a boost and lead many consumers to assume that vegetables from industrial-scale monoculture farms, primarily in California, are safer than the leafy greens available from local growers around the country. And that has some farmers worried.

“I am concerned that organic, and small and medium sized local growers like myself, will become marketplace ‘second-class citizens’ in the eyes of some consumers, by implying that my produce is less safe – when the very opposite is likely to be true,” said Tom Willey, a certified organic vegetable grower from Madera, CA.

In fact, the produce most likely to be implicated in foodborne illness outbreaks are the bags of leafy greens on supermarket shelves rather than organic produce bought directly from a farmer or when distributed to a local co-op or specialty retailer.

In addition, farmers who want to sell to handlers using the new food safety seal will likely have to implement costly record-keeping and testing protocols on their acreage. This is economically unfeasible for many small growers.

Some farmers may even have to undo decades of conservation and habitat-based improvements – such as water and shoreland stream buffers – in the attempt to isolate their crops from wildlife, that have never been proven to be the source of past contamination problems. “Isolating wildlife is a smokescreen deflecting concern away from factory farm livestock production which is demonstrated to create water, air and soil contamination,” Fantle added.

The September 17th edition of the New York Times ran a disturbing cover story about widespread contamination of well water in states with high concentrations of industrial-scale livestock facilities. Contaminated water in rural areas, used for irrigation or for washing vegetables, has been implicated in past contamination incidents involving fresh vegetables.

“The Cornucopia Institute agrees that the safety of our food supply is a vitally important issue,” said Fantle. “This is precisely why we believe that the USDA should not allow corporate handlers to mix serious food safety concerns with their self-serving marketing interests.”

Up until this proposal, food safety has been under the purview of the Food and Drug Administration. The USDA’s limited food safety responsibilities primarily concern the nation’s meat supply.

GET INVOLVED -

A National Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement could harm family-scale farmers—disadvantaging some of the safest local and organic growers in the nation!

ATTEND OR SPEAK AT the USDA hearing sessions in September and October on the proposed agreement that would authorize the development and implementation of production and handling regulations for a long list of fresh vegetables, primarily leafy greens.

The proposed marketing agreement would allow corporate leafy green handlers to attach a USDA-backed “food safety seal” to lettuce, spinach, cabbage and other vegetables while prohibiting organic and local farmers at farmers markets, CSAs and roadside stands, and those selling directly to retailers, from using the same seal. This corporate-backed marketing ploy may lead many consumers to assume that vegetables from industrial-scale monoculture farms in, primarily, California are safer than the leafy greens at local farmers markets.

As if this weren’t bad enough,the industry proponents that are pushing this initiative have not been able to show that any set of standards would actually prevent food borne illness. Standards in California, which would likely provide the basis for the national program, have not prevented contamination—today (September 18), a signatory to the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement recalled 1,715 cartons of spinach due to salmonella contamination.

Such corporate marketing gimmicks could do real harm to the growing local and organic food movement while having a questionable impact on protecting consumers.

The USDA is not accepting written comments at this time—only in-person testimony will be considered. Hearings will be held in seven locations (CA, FL, OH, CO, AZ, NY, NC), specifics on hearing locations and dates are available at www.cornucopia.org. We

encourage growers and handlers of leafy greens to appear in person at a hearing session to deliver your message.

The safety of our food supply is a vitally important issue, which is why the USDA should not allow corporate handlers to mix serious food safety concerns with self-serving marketing interests.

The Cornucopia Institute has prepared a set of talking points for growers and handlers to use when giving testimony. We urge anyone who is able to attend these hearing sessions to deliver a unified message, which must be heard loud and clear: we do not support a marketing agreement as an appropriate vehicle for improving food safety.

Industry proponents claim they represent more than half, by volume, of the leafy green business in this country. And they may succeed in establishing this marketing agreement.

We must share the following concerns with the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement:
# Helping representatives of large-scale, monoculture agriculture dominate the entire leafy greens farming community will place unnecessary burdens on small-scale and diversified growers.
# Giving industry representatives control over food safety does a disservice to our citizenry’s need for safer food—that is appropriately the job of independent scientists and regulators. Not only will this proposed marketing agreement create a false sense of security, but it will further fragmentize our already disjointed food safety system.
# Creating a USDA seal for this agribusiness initiative will relegate local, organic and small-scale growers to a “second-class citizen” status in the marketplace in the eyes of some consumers, by implying that their food is less safe, when the very opposite is likely to be true.

In the event that the powerful industry players succeed in convincing the USDA to adopt their proposal, we also must propose substantive changes to the marketing agreement, including:
# An exemption for organic and small-scale, diverse farmers.
# Elimination of a seal for the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, which may be falsely construed as a food safety guarantee.
# Focus on the cause of most food contamination outbreaks: improper handling of the mountains of manure containing pathogenic E. coli and salmonella that are generated on livestock factory farms, and that contaminate our surface water, groundwater and farm fields.

The USDA is especially interested in hearing testimony from growers and handlers of leafy greens. Your testimony at one of the hearings will be an invaluable part of the democratic process—we need as many growers and handlers, and their urban allies, to deliver this important message on the record.

CLICK HERE to see Cornucopia’s detailed TALKING POINTS.
http://www.cornucopia...

CLICK HERE for specifics on hearing locations and dates.
http://www.cornucopia...

PLEASE RESPOND to cultivate@cornucopia.org if you are planning to attend one of the hearing sessions or have additional questions.