How to send your farmer to jail Update on Tester Amendment Post 239

[PaulaJoAnne]

From http://www.thecompletepatient.com/journal/2010/11/30/if-youre-in-the-food-business-better-begin-preparing-now-to.html

1. Examine ways to divide your business into several separate entities, each falling under the small business revenue guidelines. Perhaps you have a vegetable LLC, an egg LLC, a cheese LLC, and a chicken LLC. You see where I'm going. The Europeans, who have long had onerous regulations on all businesses, are masters at such techniques. As you grow, you continue subdividing the business. Maybe eventually you have ten or twelve independent businesses that are part of your "organization." But better act fast, so you don't get sucked into the regs to begin with; it will be much more difficult, I'm sure, to exit the FDA's tentacles than to avoid them in the first place.

2. Consider keeping two sets of books. One covers the operations in summary form, and doesn't include lists of customers, suppliers, and other details. This is the one for FDA inspectors, while another off-site has more detailed info. Once again, get going on this quickly, so you have some practice on keeping things in order.

3. Avoid registering or getting permits from any government agencies, if possible, since the new legislation requires the FDA to work in concert with state regulators. I appreciate that my advice comes too late for many food producers, which have permits of various sorts. The idea is to be as little known to the regulators as possible.

4. Go private. Related to the previous suggestion to stay outside the permit systme, explore leasing and CSA arrangements, since there's no evidence the new legislation will apply to these non-commercial situations. In other words, as much as possible, sell your products privately, outside the conventional distribution system.

I'm sure others here have other ideas...for example, what to do when the FDA agents come calling to implement Good Agricultural Practices on your farm. I think it's useful to share ideas as much as possible, to get as many producers as possible sowing confusion for the enforcers. Just because Congress has no problem sacrificing our rights to be able to point to a rare "accomplishment" doesn't mean we have to make it easy for them.​

 

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
(Actually ~2.5billion in `54 - corrected in original post a few days ago). I'm not bothering with either Cantonese or Mandarin. All the students I have contact with speak acceptable English - if there is some onslaught of Chinese Culture (most popular snack in Chinese movie theaters are fried chicken's feet - but most movies are American - not too worried at present) I'm sure there'll be some pidgin I'll pluck. Al Greenspan was right to remind the Senators (almost every year, during his appearances, as Fed Chairman) that the greatest threat to our continuing to lead in science/innovation was our failure in education. He cited one study (believe it was `99 - all are on CSPAN Vid) comparing results of testing. In 4th grade U.S. students compared favorably with students in other nations. 12th grade - at the bottom of the barrel. Don't know as it has much improved. No excuse for this (those 300 million (Chinese and Indians) will all be on the web downloading all the free physics/math texts - more added every day). Japanese took and ran with U.S. developed Six Sigma management program expanded into Kaizen, & Government funded 100% of the R&D for their car industry and they creamed us - and we're still paying for that little lack of industrial policy. The only reason we are able to indulge in our parochial backbiting and slow decline is our geographical location and several 24 tubed missile subs hunkered down here and there. Pogo was right, you know (only opossum that I wouldn't have the heart to shoot dead).

The tragic part of this is that Americans are inundated 24/7 with misinformation from MILLIONAIRE$ on cable T.V. and radio telling them the world is only 5000 years old, science is a bunch of Hooey, the U.S. car, steel, rubber industry should die while India, China and Japan support all of their industries to ensure their people have jobs.
After e-coli in spinach, tomatoes, peanut butter,hamburger and salmonella in fresh eggs we have the same MILLIONAIRE$ on cable T.V. and radio telling Americans improving food inspection will cause framers to end up in jail.

You're right about learning either Cantonese or Mandarin because Americans would be told by the same MILLIONAIRE$ on cable T.V. and radio that it was a communist plot .... and they would believe it.

Can you say Rupert. The worst misinformation source in the country lost money for 3 years before they made a penny. Rupert spent millions to keep it afloat. Now they are the most effective propaganda source out there.

It's really sad the way they convinced so many people that science is a bunch of Hooey. All these Asian countries keep going forward. We keep going backwards. I hope it stops before we become a 3rd world country.

It sounds like the bill will probably be defeated. The House has to initiate all bills pertaining to spending. In this case the Senate did the version that passed.

The senate minority leader stated today that the party of NO will continue to block any bills that a Democrat initiates. We should just send them all home. Stop paying them and cut their benefits. Serious waste of taxpayer money.

 

[knjinnm]

Quote:
I am "SURPRISED" the TP'ers have not seized on the opportunity to demand congress eliminate their own "GOLD PLATED LIFETIME HEALTH AND PENSION BENEFITS".
While they are on the job, please don't go there, they should have HC benefits even if we can't afford HC benefits.
Goodbye middle class ... HELLO 2'nd world America.

 

[Dunkopf]

Quote:
I am "SURPRISED" the TP'ers have not seized on the opportunity to demand congress eliminate their own "GOLD PLATED LIFETIME HEALTH AND PENSION BENEFITS".
While they are on the job, please don't go there, they should have HC benefits even if we can't afford HC benefits.
Goodbye middle class ... HELLO 2'nd world America.

I'm sure you heard about the TP future House member that demanded his health care go into effect immediately. There is a standard 30 day waiting period. He was at the initiation meeting they hold for all the newbies. So much for values. I wonder if he would have gotten elected if the people knew what he was really all about.

 

[noodleroo]

With all due respect, I don't want to blame any party for this bill. I'd rather look at the whole picture of why it was introduced, who supports it and why, who opposes it and why and what the long term results would be. I'm personally glad that there is a problem with the bill but I am disappointed and embarrassed for my U.S. senate that they did not actually read this bill, or, understand their constitutional responsibilities. Either way, this thread has nothing to do with new senators and their health care availability.

 

[Organics North]

I need to get a handle on this bill and what it means..for me!. I can not seem to do that..

I am a micro scale producer of eggs and lettuce. I still do not understand how this effects me? I do sell to a reseller, so I need to be licenced. At least our state food safety folks have been great to work with.

ON

 

[ivan3]

Organics North wrote: I am a micro scale producer of eggs and lettuce. I still do not understand how this effects me? I do sell to a reseller, so I need to be licenced. At least our state food safety folks have been great to work with.

I've been waiting for the life of this thread for someone to post the specific language that will send the black helicopters into our patch of Shiso. I have read the bill and posted up all the exclusions/conforming legislation/etc. No one else has yet to point out just how this bill does anything more than increase the #of inspections of already Regulated facilities/allows the FDA to inspect at ports of entry and allow for tracking of food from already Regulated Facilities. So anyone? Post it up.

If your State Officials are great to work with (Wisconsin is pretty strict) don't worry at all. The FDA is a lot like FEMA. It shows up after the STATE requests it (usually state vet/food inspection service/etc). Since you grow lettuce the FDA might become involved as they did in the 2008 tomato salmonella `scare' (I addressed this earlier in the thread). Cases are reported to State Health Services by docs. State Health Services contact CDC/FDA - epidemiological survey is conducted `illness associated with consumption of tomatoes - but not only tomatoes - other sources couldn't be ruled out' - tomatoes are recalled/left in fields/on trucks/thrown out at stores (again, State Agencies conduct this activity unless FDA is requested). No One Buys Tomatoes (think lettuce). Further testing revealed that source of Salmonella was a farm pond in Mexico. The water used to irrigate Jalapenos - Jalapenos were the source of the Salmonella not American tomatoes. Sure seems like a good reason to check what is coming into the states and invest in rapid testing technology and more inspectors. This bill did nothing to `normalize' the various agency's inspection services (would have gone a long way to making for a more efficient and probably less expensive function).

If the feds want to keep a citizen from growing something in their back yard they won't bother with a Food Safety law, they'll just use well established case law/Supreme Court rulings promulgated during our `war on some drugs' and say your intrastate activity is inextricably bound up with interstate commerce.

If individual citizens took care to properly prepare the food they buy there would be fewer opportunities for the media to fan the general public into hysterics and the Congress to react by passing legislation that is truly onerous next time.​

 

[Katy]

Quote:

Or maybe what would be better is to go by the rules whether we like them all or not. I'm not sure posting ideas for how people can get around the rules is an ethical thing to do......at least not to me. I may not like all the rules that I have to live by, but I'd rather have rules than none at all.

 

[PaulaJoAnne]

http://www.activistpost.com/2010/12/why-tester-amendment-does-not-help.html

Ironically, the Tester Amendment clearly states that in order for a small producer to become a "qualified facility" for these exemptions, they must submit the following to the Secretary upon request:
3 years of comprehensive financial records indicating less than $500K in gross sales (Pg. 4, Line 11)
I. Documentation that the owner, operator or agent of the facility has identified potential hazards associated with the food being processed, is implementing preventative controls to address those hazards, and is monitoring the preventative controls to ensure that such controls are effective (Pg. 5 line 20).
II. Documentation (which may include licenses, inspection reports, certificates, permits, credentials, certification by an appropriate agency (such as the State Department of Agriculture) or other evidence of oversight), as specified by the Secretary that the facility is in compliance with state, local, county, or other non-Federal food safety law (Pg. 6, Line 5).
Those requirements bear a striking resemblance to the "expensive" food safety plans outlined in subsection (h) of S.510 that small producers are supposedly exempt from. In other words, they must submit similarly comprehensive plans just to qualify to be exempt from creating them. But it gets worse.


If Grandma wants to sell her famous raspberry jam at the county fair (within 275 miles of her canning kitchen) she will indeed be qualified for small producer exemptions, but not before she forks over 3 years of financials, documentation of hazard control plans, and all local licenses, permits, and inspection reports. She must submit this documentation to the satisfactory approval of the Secretary; and if she fails to do so, the entirety of S.510 can be enforced on her. That's hardly what I would call an exemption.​

 

[ivan3]

A slightly different take on Tester/Hagan: http://farmandranchfreedom.org/Tester-Hagan-explanation