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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Food Safety Rules: Does One Size Fit All Ohio Farmers?

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Tuesday, December 2, 2014   

COLUMBUS, Ohio - With changes made to key provisions of the proposed Food Safety Modernization Act by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), concerns are mounting the newly redrafted food safety rules could place an unfair burden on small, organic, and family farms in Ohio.

Amalie Lipstreu, policy program coordinator at the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association, says while there are improvements in the rules they are not proportional, and could subject smaller producers to regulations designed for industrial operations.

"Everyone does have a role to play in ensuring food is safe," she says. "But if the rules don't work for family farmers they're not going to make our food safe. It's really important the rules aren't 'one size fits all.'"

The new rules are expected to apply to about 80 percent of the nation's food supply. The cost for compliance is estimated at more than $12,000 for small farms, and $30,000 thousand for large farms.

The proposed rules define activities occurring on a farm as being in one physical location. Lipstreu says smaller farmers who have multiple parcels, or are aggregating for community-supported agriculture programs, could be labeled as larger facilities and forced to comply with costly regulations.

"The way the rules are written, if they've aggregated produce for distribution in a different location than where it was grown they may be subject to regulations designed for large-scale food processing businesses," she says.

The proposed changes are based on thousands of comments sent to the FDA. While Lipstreu says it's encouraging to be heard, she says the final regulations must protect conservation and sustainability.

"Conservation and food safety are not mutually exclusive," says Lipstreu. "We want to make sure the rules explicitly encourage key conservation practices, like maintaining wildlife habitat or stream buffers along waterways."

According to the FDA, changes make the original proposals more flexible, practical and targeted.

Comments will be accepted by the FDA on the revised draft until Dec. 15.


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