Protect Real Food

I was just on the phone placing a beefalo order with Barbara Armstrong, the Beefalo Woman. Barbara was explaining that processing of her beefalo is taking an extra long time because of the excessive regulations that are being placed on her. This has happened because of the safety issues and meat recalls that keep occurring with meat from unhealthy confinement operations and big processing plants.

In a supposed effort to make meat safer, the small producers who raise healthy safe meat are being pushed out. And the US Senate is currently poised to make the situation much worse with Senate Bill 510. Barbara believes if this bill passes, we will lose our remaining 2 small processing facilities in Arkansas. S. 510 would actually make our food less safe by strengthening the forces that have led to the consolidation of our food supply in the hands of a few industrial food producers, while harming small producers who give consumers the choice to buy fresh, healthy, local foods

Please contact Senators Lincoln and Pryor NOW to urge them to amend or oppose the bill! Contact information and talking points are below.

Congress needs to solve the real problems - the centralized food distribution system and imported foods - and not regulate our local food sources out of business. S. 510 is a "one-size-fits-all" approach that will unnecessarily burden both farmers and small-scale food processors, ultimately depriving consumers of the choice to buy from producers they know and trust.

TAKE ACTION:

Call both of our Senators. You can find their contact information here, or call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or toll-free at 877-210-5351. Ask to speak with the staffer who handles food safety issues.


TALKING POINTS Over 150 organizations have signed a letter of support for the Tester-Hagan amendments to exempt small-scale and local producers from the more burdensome provisions of the bill. You can borrow some talking points from the letter here.

Tell the staffer that you want the Senator to amend or oppose S. 510. If you get their voice mail instead of the staff, leave the following message:

"Hi, my name is _____ and I live in ______. I'm very concerned that S.510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, imposes unfair and burdensome regulations on local food sources, which are very important to me. I urge the Senator to support the Tester-Hagan Amendments to exclude small facilities and direct marketing farms from the most burdensome provisions of the bill. Please call me back at ____________."