CSA farmers keeping an eye on bill in Congress

Debra Stoneman, David Fitzgerald and other CSA farmers are watching carefully a food-safety bill making its way through Congress.

The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (H.R. 875) is in response to recent food scares including the salmonella outbreak traced to a Georgia peanut-processing plant that sickened more than 600 people and is blamed for at least nine deaths.

The legislation would establish the Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services in an effort to better protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness.

However, the increased regulation could doom small farmers, said Stoneman, whose family operates Byrd Farm in western Goochland County and is a primary supplier of vegetables to Rural Virginia Market CSA.

"I think that legislation is being sponsored by industrialized food to keep small farmers from competing with them," she said.

Fitzgerald, who operates Honey Hollow Homestead just east of Stoneman's farm on state Route 6, said he fears the bill could force him and other natural and organic farmers to use pesticides and other chemicals they do not want to use.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., is in committee. You can follow its progress at http://www.govtrack.us.

-- Bill Lohmann