Dear Representative:

As you consider food safety legislation, I urge you to make sure that the law focuses on the problem without impacting small farmers and entrepreneurs who are marketing directly to consumers. Localized food systems that include farmers markets allow actual face-to-face relationships and transparency between food producer and consumer. These direct transactions minimize the number of links in the food chain, decreasing the number of entry points for contamination. 

I urge you to:

1. Provide funding and resources to allow the FDA to enforce existing regulations

2. Focus on large producers and processors where problems have occurred

3. Include clear language to specifically differentiate definitions of "farms" and "facilities".

4. Insert scale appropriate fees and requirements for smaller producers

5. Exempt very small producers and on-farm value-added processors that sell at farmers markets or direct to consumers

6. Exempt farmers' markets or cooperatives that provide a site for direct to consumer sales from the registration fee.

7. Exempt from mandatory trace back systems direct-to-consumer sales of properly labeled, low risk farm-processed food products.

8. Keep Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) voluntary, not mandatory, for direct-marketing producers, and provide practical, affordable GAPs certification options for those farms seeking certification

9. Ensure that standards to the maximum extent possible do not discriminate against diversified farming operations

10. Minimize undue hindrance on the free flow of direct farmer-to-consumer commerce

Thank you for your support of small farmers, entrepreneurs and our local food systems.
 
Sincerely,

Jane Doe
111 Main Street 
Anytown, Ohio 43211