Rules, Regulations, & Food Safety

In an effort to meet the safe food needs of the public, rules and regulations have been created based on a food system dominated by large-scale growers and processors.  This one-size-fits-all system of rules and regulations dictates food safety policy and threatens the viability of family-scale farms and ranches.  Oregon agriculture needs a regulatory system that encourages entrepreneurial ingenuity and does not limit business start-up and expansion opportunities.  Removing these roadblocks that hinder direct farmer/rancher to consumer relationships will lead to economic prosperity for producers who are creating healthful and clean products.

The Current Situation

Rules and regulations are reactive and crippling instead of proactive and supportive:

• Food safety mentality appears to be moving in a direction where products are seen as unsafe until proven otherwise, instead of safe until reason for concern
• Restrictive and ineffective regulations have driven many producers underground or out of business
• Consumers are not able purchase enough meat, poultry, dairy, and other value-added products, raised by farmers they know and trust, which sends money and agricultural growth potential out of their local economies
• Smaller producers have to spread the costs of regulatory compliance over a large amount of product, leaving a thin margin for survivability

Family-scale farms and ranches are subject to the exact same regulations that are required of industrial style farms, despite a unique set of needs and circumstances:

• The difference in scale between operations results in different production, distribution and marketing methods creating the need for different rules, regulations and food safety measures

The current, standardized regulatory system:

• Restricts local markets
• Skews playing field toward industrial model
• Hinders diverse, integrated systems
• Interferes with the relationships between producers and consumers
• Makes it difficult to get locally-produced food from our farms and ranches to the people who want it

Thus far, market damaging food-borne illness outbreaks, with few exceptions, have consistently come from industrial food production, and not family-scale farms and ranches:

• Farmers, ranchers and processors are willing to be tested for food safety, in a way that is effective, reasonable and appropriate for their operation
• There is a qualitative difference between those products being sold in local markets and those being sold in the commodity market
• Transparency and accountability are part of doing business locally
• Individual consumers and communities have a role to play in discerning what is safe and good for them

Priority Action Items

1.  Enact a scale-appropriate regulatory system that is functional for diverse, integrated systems and direct marketing:

• Work with local producers and farmers’ market managers to create sensible, functional, and effective food safety policies
• Create exemptions for low-hazard foods and small batch production

2.  Give individuals and communities the right to choose where and how their food is produced, what food they consume, and what they are willing to pay for:

• Create a legal framework for personal or family exemption from the industrial food system that allows consumers to enter into a relationship with a producer of their choice to get the products that they want
• Enact simple and clear product labeling guidelines for informed decision-making

3.  Require and fund statewide reporting on pesticide and GMO-use while establishing a system of accountability for infractions

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