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Here are items of interest from this week’s National Sustainable Ag. Coalition (NSAC) weekly update: *Senate HELP Approves Food Safety Act*: On Wednesday, November 18, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee unanimously approved a revised version of S. 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act. Senate floor action is considered [...] Guide for Opening Farmers’ Markets on Federal Property Thank you to all the participants in the session below. Learn more about the issue at the links below. Details of the National Leafy Green Marketing Agreement Ohio Produce Growers And Marketers Association website is: www.opgma.org Ohio producers of fresh fruits and [...] New Food Safety Report: On Thursday, September 10, the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and Food and Water Watch released an excellent new food safety report <http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=d2vVIeX1we12Vam0MkEFkk25nwNFYA7l>, “Bridging the GAPS: Strategies to Improve Produce Safety, Preserve Farm Diversity and Strengthen Local Food Systems.” Written by Elanor Starmer and [...] Governor Pat Quinn recently signed into law legislation that will help put more Illinois-grown food on Illinois tables. The law is designed to increase demand for locally grown food by building a reliable market for it at state agencies and facilities that receive significant state support. Read the Article As food safety concerns continue to be topics of discussion among growers and policy makers, I thought I would pass along this following information. There will be a hearing in Columbus on Oct. 6, 2009. Details are below. USDA Sets Hearing for Proposed National Marketing Agreement for Leafy Green Vegetables Jimmie Turner (202) 720-8998 Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund has set up an Affiliate membership for Food Co-ops and Markets. Here’s their website: http://www.ftcldf.org/ Here is a snippet of their press release: Even as the USDA commends Farmer’s Markets in the week-long National Farmer’s Market Week, August 2 – 9, 2009, State and local health and agriculture departments are [...] Update: Aug. 4, 2009: National Organic Coalition letter sheds light on how the bill affects small direct-sell farmers and processors. Read the letter. July 30, 2009: H.R. 2749 Passed with amendments. Read the text of the bill and ammendments. It’s not too late to influence the final law. The senate must now consider the legislation and [...] Earlier this week it was brought to our attention that a vendor in Lake County was cited by the local board of health for selling “washed” vegetables and greens. The local health department official was enforcing a new interpretation of food safety rules that assumed washing greens with water was “food processing” and a farmer [...] It’s official. The new Ohio Dept. of Ag Cottage food rules were released. The rules now allows for a variety of new foods to be home produced, without the need for an inspected commerical kitchen. This opens up opportunities for small food producers to expand into new areas with little overhead cost. It also expands [...] |
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