Senate to Vote Tonight on Food Safety Bill

The Senate is set to vote tonight on the biggest changes to food safety laws in 70 years, handing vast new authority to the FDA to regulate farms and food processors, but controversy continues to dog the legislation.

The Food Safety Modernization Act, which would impose rigorous new safety protocols and stronger FDA oversight, has fueled a ferocious two-year battle that has pitted the small-farm, locavore food movement against large growers and food safety interest groups.

Small farmers say they are not to blame for mass food poisoning outbreaks and that safety protocols designed for industrial agriculture will put them out of business. Large growers contend that bacteria do not discriminate by farm size; they insist everyone must follow sanitation rules.

While the House passed a much stronger bill in July 2009 with no exemptions for small farms, an amendment to the Senate bill by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., would exempt small farms and processors from federal oversight, leaving them under state and local food safety regulation.

The Tester provision would exempt farms or processors with less than $500,000 in annual sales (indexed to inflation), at least half of which goes directly to consumers through farmers' markets, community supported agriculture, restaurants or grocery stores. Their sales must be within a state or 275 miles of their location, and they must comply with state and local food laws. If contamination is traced to such an operation, the exemption would be void.

Western Growers, representing California fruit and vegetable farmers, along with 19 other large produce groups, withdrew their support last week, accusing Tester of waging "ideological war" against large farms by implying that only small farms grow genuine food. The Pew Foundation's Pew Health Group and other activists against food poisoning, however, have called the bill essential.

A 74-25 Senate procedural vote last week indicated bipartisan support and likely passage on Monday. With time running out in the lame duck session of Congress, the House is expected to pass the bill and send it to President Obama for his signature.

Read the full story at San Francisco Chronicle.