legislation

With the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act moving forward to law, technology companies are lining up to help implement the details. Much of the legislation is all about collecting, tracking, and analysis of data and information on food. This includes putting in place systems to register food facilities, collect and monitor data from production farms, notify multiple parties about food related issues, and handle food recalls.

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Audio: Matt Hartwig, The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), shares thoughts on legislation supporting the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (aka VEETC) and possible changes in 2011.

The Departments of Justice and Agriculture are holding their final workshop to discuss competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture industry. This final workshop will focus on margins.

According to the DOJ

This workshop will look at the discrepancies between the prices received by farmers and the prices paid by consumers. As a concluding event, discussions from previous workshops will be incorporated into the analysis of agriculture markets nationally.

This all day event wraps up a series of workshops that began in March of 2010. The four previous workshops covered Issues of Concern to Farmers, the Poultry Industry, the Dairy Industry, and the Livestock Industry.

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The heat is on again in the U.S. Congress to take action before the end of the year. Next on the list is whether or not to extend the ethanol subsidies.

First up to bat in the debate are Senators Dianne Feinstein and Jon Kyl calling for end end to the ethanol subsidies.

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Congress is wasting no time to quickly move legislation on hot topics. Senate bill S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, passed 73 to 25.

A version of the bill was passed by the House of Representatives in July of 2009 but had languished in the Senate, a fact that has angered some food safety advocates.

• The FDA would have the authority to issue direct recalls of foods that are suspected to be tainted, rather than relying on individual producers to voluntarily issue recalls.
• Food producers would be required to develop written food safety plans, accessible by the government in case of emergency. These would include hazard analysis and a plan for implementing corrective measures.
• The Secretary of Health and Human Services would be required to create a food tracing system that would streamline the process of finding the source of contamination, should an outbreak occur.
• Importers would be required to verify the safety of all imported foods to make sure it's in accordance with U.S. food safety guidelines.