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The Downsize
DC Agenda

Tell Congress What
To Do

Our
Heresies

Preserve the Freedom to Farm

Intro

Background

UPDATE, January 2011: The following was written two years ago. The food
safety bills discussed were merged into the Food Safety Modernization Act, which
passed Congress in December, 2010. We are now calling for repeal of this bill.

Crops grow in dirt. Animals don't take showers or use toilets. Food is made
from yucky stuff.

This means there's always a risk of contamination. We can reduce this risk,
but not eliminate it. Attempts to make everything perfectly safe are Utopian
fantasies that carry a high price in increased costs, reduced variety,
diminished supply, and . . . increased risk.

The free market already provides you with multiple ways to balance risks and
costs. You can choose between . . .

Organic and non-organic food

Locally grown food, or food from far away

Processed or non-processed food

Natural or genetically engineered food

The politicians want to reduce this variety, and your choices, in favor of
their preferred scheme of top-down, one-size-fits-all regulation. But do such
monolithic schemes really make us safer? What if the one-size-fits-all scheme
gets something wrong, overlooks something, or has unintended consequences? Then
everybody suffers, whereas . . .

The choices provided by the free market tend to limit the harm caused by
mistakes. It's like having a diversified portfolio of investments. Sadly,
politicians aren't fond of diversity. They much prefer their own arrogant dreams
for re-engineering the world. Now here comes their latest one . . .

Some politicians want to exploit highly publicized food-borne outbreaks to
remake American agriculture, from the top down. These outbreaks were generally
the result of industrialized food production, but, as with 9/11 and the housing
bubble, politicians like to use crises to grab the power to re-do everything. In
this case the most infamous proposal of the 111th Congress was H.R. 875, the
Food Safety Modernization Act. This bill would've created . . .

a vast new bureaucracy, the Food Safety Administration (FSA)

an army of inspectors with the power to seize the papers and effects of
farmers without a warrant

a system to track every morsel of food from the farm to the supermarket,
in combination with the National Animal Identification System (NAIS)

a pile of reports for farmers to file

It also would've. . .

defined a regulated "food production facility" to potentially include
backyard gardens

given FSA bureaucrats wide latitude to define "safety" so as to
potentially ban organic farming

fined violators of FSA regulations up to $1 million per day with no
judicial review

asserted federal jurisdiction even when food hadn't cross state
lines

When we first launched this campaign back in April, we mentioned that House
Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman said "he intends to pass
a strong food safety bill soon."

This bill we warned you about, the 109-page H.R. 2749, is here.

The good news is that some of the most egregious trial balloons from
earlier bills such as H.R. 875 have gone by the wayside . . .

There will be no new Food Safety Administration bureaucracy

The bill seems to define "farm" in such a way that backyard gardens won't
be included in the regulations

Direct farm-to-consumer, farm-to-restaurant, and farm-to-grocery store
transactions will be exempt

There is no implementation or incorporation of the National
Animal Identification System (NAIS)

YOU are to be thanked for this. DC Downsizers were part of a large
army of concerned citizens that killed earlier bills.

But the bad news is still very bad. This bill . . .

authorizes warrantless searches of farms

imposes a $500 tax (or "registration fee") of all operators in all steps
of the food production chain

imposes civil penalties up to $20,000 per individual for each
violation

creates a food trace-back system, burdening farms and small businesses
with reams of new paperwork

empowers the Dept. of Health and Human Services to micro-manage the
raising and harvesting of crops (you might have assumed that Congress would've
handed the U.S. Dept of Agriculture this terrible power).

In essence, Congress wants to punish the innocent and protect the guilty. It
is not small farms and businesses that were the source of contaminated food
scares, but rather the processing facilities of large corporations. Yet this
bill will only drive small farms out of business, which means reduced
competition and higher prices in an already-bad economy.

Please send an URGENT letter to Congress telling them to defeat H.R. 2749.
Tell them the bill will only hurt competition and put undue burdens on small
farmers.

Use the form at right to send your elected representatives a letter about
this issue. It's easy!

Your position will be counted by each Congressional office,

Will educate the Congressional staffer who reads it,

May be passed up the chain of command,

May receive a reply (many DC Downsizers get them). If you receive such a
letter, please share it with us at [email-masked].

Send a letter to Congress

We provide the first few words of the letter so that Congressional offices
will see the most important point right at the start, and so that no one can
hijack our system for another purpose. Here's the part we provide . . .

Please repeal the Food Safety
Modernization Act (FSMA).

Your email address

ZIP Code

Your ZIP Code is required so we can direct your letter to
your representatives in Congress.

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