USDA Schedules Public Hearings to Obtain Citizens’ Concerns and Suggestions
The “Leafy Green Marketing Agreement,” which requires producers to follow a set of rules (metrics) in the name of food safety, has already shown to be injurious for the environment, biodiversity, and organic growers in California. The USDA is now considering a similar “Leafy Green Marketing Agreement” that would extend beyond California and Arizona to cover the entire United States—let’s help make this rule work for growers of all sizes!
The USDA has scheduled a series of hearing sessions, around the country, inviting you to this perfect opportunity to share your concerns and suggestions.
Click here to view the USDA announcement in the Federal Register.
Make your voice heard!—if you are able to attend, we urge you to speak on behalf of the organic and family-scale farming community. (See below for locations and dates.)
- An estimate from leafy green growers in California indicates an average expenditure of $18,000/ year per farm for food safety efforts.
- Metrics require the expense of regular laboratory testing of irrigation water, soil amendments, fertilizers and sometimes seeds and transplants.
- Growers must have someone regularly monitor fields for wildlife and domestic animal incursions and documentation of all their efforts and testing is required.
- Farms with more acreage generally spend more to comply with the metrics but can experience some economies of scale due to larger field sizes and existing staff—these burdens could force the safest farms out of business.
- Smaller farms often have smaller field sizes, grow more diverse crops and raise livestock as well. These farms don’t usually have staff available to help them comply with complicated record-keeping requirements nor can they afford to hire extra help. They incur higher expenses per acre due to their smaller field sizes and greater complexity and disproportionately high testing/inspection costs.
- The requirement to have traceability of the produce grown also poses significant financial and record keeping challenges for many growers—organic farmers are already required to do much of this—it is redundant for organic growers—and local direct marketers have a special relationship with customers facilitating trace back.
If these metrics are adopted nationally, organic farmers across the nation could face difficulties balancing organic requirements, to promote biodiversity, with metrics seeking elimination of wildlife and non-crop vegetation.
When and Where:
- Monterey, California
September 22-24 - Jacksonville, Florida
September 30-October 1 - Columbus, Ohio
October 6 - Denver, Colorado
October 8 - Yuma, Arizona
October 14-15 - Syracuse, New York
October 20 - Charlotte, North Carolina
October 22
All hearing sessions are scheduled for 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Stay tuned! The Cornucopia Institute, in partnership with other public interest groups, will shortly issue a more comprehensive action alert including talking points, information to submit written comments, sample letters and detailed instructions and help regarding appearing at the public hearings (including the precise location of each hearing).
We encourage other NGOs that would like to collaborate on this project to contact us. A number of other groups have also invested in developing an excellent knowledgebase and networking together will leverage our work on behalf of family farmers and consumers.