Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 Will Drive Many Small Farms and Restaurants Out of Business

Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009

March 11, 2009

Care2 - The Congressional war against small business continues. The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (H.R. 875) will create a new food safety bureaucracy and require a "traceability" program for "food production facilities and food establishments."

These new regulations will drive many small farms and restaurants out of business. Big Business can afford the compliance costs and will benefit from the reduced competition as smaller firms go bankrupt. Consumers will face fewer choices and higher prices, but will we really get safer food in return, and will it really be worth the cost?

Congress would have to know a lot of things that probably can't be known in order to evaluate this question, but they're charging ahead anyway, re-engineering society on the backs of small business owners.

Part of the bill's intent is to absorb already-existing food-tracking programs. Section 210(d) says the new food-tracking system must be "consistent with existing statutes and regulations that require record-keeping or labeling for identifying the origin or history of food or food animals," including "the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) as authorized by the Animal Health Protection Act of 2002 (AHPA)."

The contention that NAIS was authorized by the AHPA is wrong. NAIS implementation has never been authorized by any Congressional legislation. It's a bureaucratic initiative. This false assumption gives NAIS the aura of Congressional approval.

This is another step on the road to converting NAIS from a "voluntary" program to a mandatory one. This is exactly what we predicted three years ago when we launched our anti-NAIS campaign.

H.R. 875 is a de facto "authorization" of NAIS. It makes the penalties laid out in the AHPA applicable to participants of NAIS. It also presumes that NAIS can be "required" or made mandatory for all owners of livestock and poultry - even exotic pets.

Up until now Congress has largely ignored NAIS, but Rep. David Obey, who introduced the Omnibus Appropriations Act, included $14.5 million for additional NAIS funding and has specifically expressed his intent that the money will be used to implement NAIS aggressively [according to the USDA's September 2008 Business Plan (written by bureaucrats as well)].

This plan includes:

• Forcing cattle owners to use NAIS "840" RFID (radio frequency identification) tags when they participate in vaccination programs
• Increasing compliance in the sheep and goat industries through new regulations and "increased emphasis on enforcement"
• Requiring premise registration for horse owners who must submit their horses for EIA testing
• 98% compliance by July 2009 for poultry and swine
• 90% compliance by July 2009 for horses, sheep, and goats
• 60% compliance by Oct 2010 for cattle

These figures reflect the USDA's goal of near-total control of every aspect of the livestock industry. Such control isn't possible without aggressive, heavy-handed means. There's already enough opposition to NAIS to make those targets impossible. That means farmers that don't comply will be run out of business. Many who do comply will lose their businesses because of the compliance cost...