Small Farms, The Senate, And Food Safety

Senator Jon Tester of Montana's amendment to protect family-scale producers in the Senate's food safety bill has gained traction. Both Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, prominent writers who study the convergence of food and culture, are in his corner. Meanwhile, the Senate moved forward Wednesday on long-awaited legislation that would overhaul the nation's food safety system, grant new powers to the FDA, and make farmers and processors responsible for preventing food-borne illness.

For more, there's this story in The Washington Post.

Update on Tuesday, November 30, 2010 at 6:37PM by Kathy

Today the Senate passed the Food Safety Modernization Act, with the Tester Amendment, by a vote of 73 to 25. (Voting on the biggest overhaul of food safety laws since the 1930s, this was a rare display of true bi-partisanship in contemporary D.C.) The House passed a more stringent version of the legislation about a year ago. 

Update on Monday, December 20, 2010 at 4:42PM by Kathy

After a bump in the road, the Senate green-lights the Food Safety Bill. Here's a report from Politico.