Friday, July 31, 2009

Say goodbye to cookies...

It may be close to time to say goodbye to cookies, jams, pies, and mixed greens at the farmers markets, or at least many of them. People who do any of these will be considered "Processes" under the bill which passed the house yesterday and as such subject to a $500 annual fee and inspections.

$500 may not seem like a lot, but it may be enough to keep small farms or small business people from trying to start doing "value added" products.

The ramifications of the bill may be a while in the making but it is time to let your senators know that you think this bill needs to be reworked as not to so heavily impact small producers and local economies. The Bill still needs to pass the senate but if it does that it is game over, because the president will not veto a bill to enhance food safety. No president would or politically could.

I will try to keep on top of this. It is amazing how hard it is to find information about it, but I suppose to most people it is a non-issue... I'm hoping YOU care about this though.

1 comment:

Nora said...

Heather - thanks for all the good info regarding this matter, I am all with you to keep our small producers alive!

I've been enjoying your blog the last few days since I learned of it after seeing Eric's feature in the Akron magazine. Glad to see/hear you are both doing good!

Nora Haberbusch