N.C. helps shape new food safety law

Feb. 8 Agriculture Steering Committee materials:

• Meeting minutes (PDF)
• FDA Food Safety Modernization Act presentation (PDF)
• A Strategic Plan for North Carolina Research Stations (PDF)
• Building a Local Food Economy in North Carolina (PDF)
• Cabarrus County Local Food Purchasing Policy (PDF)

By Jason King
Assistant Communications Director

Thanks in part to a strong message sent from a handful of western North Carolina counties – Jackson, Macon and Polk, in particular – and the response from Tar Heel Senators Richard Burr and Kay Hagan, the federal Food Safety Modernization Act signed into law by President Obama in early 2011 wasn't the end to the small family farm that many thought it would be.

Debbie Hamrick, who had been following the advancement of federal legislation to modernize the nation's food safety system for the past several years, briefed members of the NCACC Agriculture Steering Committee on Feb. 8 about the bill's impacts. According to Hamrick, the Act represents a true long-term paradigm shift for the Food and Drug Administration, as the FDA will be charged with preventing food system problems rather than detecting them. One of the FDA's responsibilities will be to develop a food traceability system that is more consistent than what is currently in place – a change that will occur slowly over time, she added.

The law gives the FDA newfound powers, including the immediate authority to order a recall of food, detain food, suspend operations at a food production facility, and set performance standards for the most significant food-borne contaminants.

"Most people did not know that the Food and Drug Administration did not have these powers before," Hamrick said.

The law also represents the first time any regulatory agency has been instructed by Congress to tell farmers how to produce food, Hamrick said.

"I don't even need my 'magic 8-ball' to tell you that I believe we're probably going to be seeing something regarding salmonella and peanut butter coming out in the not-too-distant-future," she said. "It's going to be guidance documents that are going to say, if you're going to make peanut butter, you have to have certain kinds of controls in place. You have to be monitoring certain things."

One particular area of the bill that North Carolina farmers and the western North Carolina counties helped influence was the Standards for Produce Safety section. Jackson and Macon counties adopted resolutions regarding the bill (S510), and Polk County officials wrote letters of concern to Sens. Burr and Hagan. According to the Macon County resolution, "S510 threatens small farm, home, local/organic and community food production, will create impossible 'barriers against entry' that will rapidly destroy such local and natural production."

An amendment to the bill co-sponsored by Sen. Hagan exempts from the Standards for Produce Safety farms that meet certain standards, including having less than $500,000 in food sales, and less than 50 percent of sales to consumers, restaurants or retail food establishments within the same state or within 275 miles.

"For a lot of our real small farms that are selling at the tailgate markets or have a roadside stand, they will be exempt from the produce safety standards," Hamrick said.

The law also allows the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to exclude low-risk fruits and vegetables from the regulations, and Hamrick said she was hopeful that sweet potatoes and sweet corn would be excluded. Exemptions can be taken away for habitual offenders, however, and buyers can mandate that their providers abide by the standards. And larger production facilities are unhappy about the exemptions, claiming that it creates an unfair marketplace advantage for those that qualify.

Hamrick also credited Sen. Hagan for helping include a restitution/indemnification segment of the bill, which instructs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Secretary of Agriculture to evaluate and report on compensation to individuals when a recall had been issued in error. The "tomato incident of 2008," in which the FDA advised against eating red round or Roman tomatoes grown in the middle of June in certain states, led to the collapse of the tomato market, despite the fact that tomatoes grown in North Carolina were considered to be safe. The root of the problem turned out to be peppers imported from Mexico, but even North Carolina pepper growers were asked by markets to remove their products from shelves at their own expense.

"The name of the game in the future for fruit and vegetable producers is going to be limiting your scope in terms of a recall," Hamrick said.

She said another win for the agriculture community in the bill is that the FDA can only come onto a farm during an investigation if it traces a problem to that farm.

Hamrick said much of the regulation and exemption questions are not answered by the actual legislation, but the FDA is mandated to publish its Produce Safety Standards in the Federal Registry by the end of 2011. Funding for implementation of the Act is already controversial, she added, as it will cost about $1.4 billion over the next five years.

Agriculture research stations again under fire

One of the Association's 54 adopted goals for the 2011-12 legislative biennium is to support legislation to increase agriculture research and extension services and maintain the 18 existing research stations at current levels of funding. To that end, steering committee members heard from Eddie Pitzer, director of the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA&CS) Research Stations Division, about progress the division is making toward implementation of its strategic plan.

State funding for the stations has been an object of contention during each of the past several legislative sessions. True to form, the governor's budget proposal released Feb. 17 would close seven of the 18 research stations by 2012-13 and transfer the remaining stations under NCDA&CS to N.C. State. Currently, six stations are funded through N.C. State University and 12 are funded through NCDA&CS.

In 2007, the General Assembly directed its Program Evaluation Division (PED) to evaluate the 18 research stations to consider potential efficiency savings and potential consolidation of some stations. Out of that study came a legislative mandate in 2008 for N.C. State University, N.C. A&T State University, and NCDA&CS to collaborate on a strategic plan to identify ways to operate the facilities more efficiently and effectively.

The strategic plan was presented in May 2009, setting four goals: enhance infrastructure for high-quality applied agricultural research; ensure efficient research station and farm management; enhance working relationships and communications; and strengthen outreach, extension and education.

An annual report released in January 2011 documented progress toward implementation of the strategic plan and included highlights from 2010. Pitzer reported that last year the stations housed 632 research projects, and the involvement of 126 graduate students is important to the future of agriculture. The Division also reported almost 14,000 public participants in 294 events held at the stations throughout the year. Each station also includes a weather reporting station that sends data to the National Weather Service.

Each site is faced with unique challenges ranging from soil types (more than 600 in the state) to various climates and elevations.

"When you look at our Upper Mountain Research Station we're at 3,200 feet. If you go to Plymouth, we're just a couple of feet above sea level," Pitzer said. "Each one of those has specific regional economic needs as well as different pest control and pest problems that we have to face. All of our stations are unique in what they do."

Local food movement gains steam in North Carolina

A recession-proof segment of the local economy seems to be local food sales, according to Dr. Nancy Creamer, director of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS). Food consumption is a $35 billion annual industry in the state, and the average household spends $4,010 per year per person on food, with half of that amount being spent in the home.

Creamer and Meg Ryan O'Donnell joined steering committee members to discuss the local food movement in North Carolina and specifically the "10% Campaign," which focuses in part on the economic development potential of having each household spend 10 percent of its food expenditures on local foods.

Creamer said local food sales of $3.5 billion offer evidence of "a lot of job creation potential" for the state. In addition to the economic development benefits of buying food produced locally, there are benefits for health and nutrition – obesity, particularly among youths, is a troubling trend in North Carolina – and food safety and security.

The local food movement is taking off across the country, Creamer added, with Illinois recently passing a law that sets a goal that all food purchased by state-owned facilities be at least 20 percent produced in Illinois, and all food purchased by state-funded facilities be at least 10 percent local.

The 10% Campaign is one of the components of the Farm to Fork initiative and challenges individuals and businesses to pledge to spend 10 percent of their annual food expenditures on locally produced food products. The Web site, www.nc10percent.com, features statewide statistics, updated weekly, on money spent on local foods.

O'Donnell said that campaign organizers have been surprised at the number of businesses that have pledged to spend 10 percent of their food dollars locally. Creamer cited Cabarrus County as a top example of a county taking actions to further the local food economy, such as helping to establish a "kill floor" (animal processing facility) and an incubator farm.

One of the many things Cabarrus County will look to highlight during the Association's Annual Conference there from Aug. 18-21 will be the county's contributions to the local food movement. Cabarrus County Manager John Day, a member of the Agriculture Steering Committee, serves on the state's Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council.

Day said the county has implemented a 10 percent local food purchase policy, but the county will be "shooting for more like 80 percent local food at that conference."

Day encouraged counties to appoint a Local Food Policy Council to provide advice and guidance to county government leaders. O'Donnell said ideally each county would pass a resolution supporting its own local food economy to help provide a public "splash."

"There's just a lot of different ways that we can help build this local food economy, and retain some of the money that we are currently sending to farmers in California and Florida that could stay here instead," Creamer said.

The Association has seven advisory steering committees. The committees study current issues, either on their own or at the request of the Board of Directors, and make policy recommendations to the Board. The steering committees also review proposed legislative goals before they become part of the Legislative Goals package. If you are interested in serving on a steering committee, visit www.ncacc.org/committees/steering.html for more information or to access the application form.