Food Safety Bill

Well, a victory for us small producers. The Senate Bill 510 was voted on this morning and it passed. While the original bill was supported by Big Ag because it did exclude small farmers, farmer's markets and farm sales from its jurisdiction, the bill that passed does, thanks to Senator's Tester and Hagan. When their Amendment was attached, Big Ag began lobbying heavily to stop the bill, but they did not succeed.
Now we have to make sure that the conference committee which will compromise the HOuse and Senate bills into one law, adopts the Senate bill over the House Bill. The Senate Bill has aspects which limit control over farms and companies with less than $500,000 in sales, which is much more "farm friendly." Keep an eye out for the progress of the conference bill. Senator Reid was hoping to get this through during the lame duck session. Who knows?