FSMA is a very bad law

To the editor:

FSMA stands for “Food Safety Modernization Act.” It’s a law signed by President Obama in January 2011. Don’t feel bad if you never heard of it because I didn’t either, until recently. Now that I know how horrible this legislation is, I want everyone to know.

Those who created this law were careful to craft and sell it as some benevolent entity that makes our food supply “safe” and eliminates food-borne illness forever. It cannot, and neither can anything else, especially a long and bloated piece of legislation. What it does instead is lay the groundwork for government takeover of our food supply. You don’t think so? FSMA grants the FDA power to regulate agricultural products just like it regulates drugs. After all, F and D are food and drug. Are you still thinking, so what?

Think of what this means to farmers. They will have to submit to reams of paperwork and inspections of everything they do. They will have to hire more help to deal with the bureaucracy, which adds to cost to their products, our food. They will be subject to endless periodic and random inspections. Inspectors require bathroom facilities at farmers’ expense.

This law creates far too much devastation to the business of farming than there is room for me to write about in this warning. I urge you to google FSMA. First you will read the hearts and flowers of how it will “keep our food safe.” Then Google “fsma unfair to farmers” and see the truth. I doubt even our two senators, who voted for FSMA, understand its far-reaching and freedom-robbing effects for the future.

We live in an agricultural community, we value our local farmers and love their products. No American farmer deserves to be crippled by this law. Ultimately we are affected because it our food. And keep in mind, while US farms suffer this debilitating law, the copious amounts of food imported from Mexico and other countries are not regulated by FSMA at all.

And one more point for those in particular who value local food and perhaps non-GMO products: this legislation was promoted by big agribusinesses, Monsanto in particular, who stand to benefit the most when our smaller local farmers are not as successful as they have been lately.

Although FSMA was signed by the president in 2011, it is lying dormant, like a viper under a rock in the shade only because implementation requires billions to pay for the added federal bureaucracy on which it must feed. Those billions will come from us, you, me, our children and grandchildren. Again, I urge to research and learn the truth.

Barbara Landi

Palmer