Our position:
We believe a line needs to be drawn assuring food safety – your food should NOT make you sick! But food safety regulations should not be used in any way to limit the growing opportunities for diversified, small farm production and processing. A healthy, decentralized, ecologically-connected, local agricultural base has many viable opportunities and government needs to work fairly to support it – as much as it does large-scale industrial agriculture.
Update from Food Safety News by Helena Bottemiller
After a long day of debating–and waiting–Thursday, the Senate was at impasse over the details and politics surrounding the food safety bill.
Though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said earlier this week he would, if necessary, keep the Senate in town over the weekend to finish the bill, sources on the Hill said it was more likely the legislation would not move forward until after Thanksgiving recess, which begins Monday.
The bill’s most outspoken opponent, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), has created an unrelated political sticking point by trying to force a vote on an amendment to ban all earmark spending through 2013.