$1000 is a lot of money but look a little deeper. The database and tracking capability they are requiring would cost way way more in terms of time and money than $1000 fee. I am betting the tracking is something only a large scale operation would be able to support financially.

Really we just need to go back to the old ways of doing things before things were deregulated.

CO-ops are a potential idea but you give up your independence and it is like going into business with these other people. It is not really practical if you are really the only producer in your area.

I say make the big boys pay. Let’s face it they are the ones causing the problems anyway. The big conglomerates can certainly afford it.

I think of the small producers I buy from at Farmer’s market. somehow $1,000 per year seems to be a high price to me, but if it was distributed among 4 or 5 growers it would be less onerous.

Personally, I look for smaller companies and Mom and Pop outfits for much of my food. Organic and naturally produced food is my preference. If they get swallowed up or shut down because of these new rules, I’m left with nothing but ADM, ConAgra, and other cancer causing agents.

Food safety is vital but make the big boys pay and help the little guy meet the new standards. I’m tired of seeing a thousand brands on the store shelf coming from only a handful of greedy corporate conglomerates.

WTF is a “safety plan”? Another barrier to entry.

As is company testing. State health departments and the FDA should have inspectors in circuits of smaller facilities and onsite at larger ones, just as in the original meat inspection regulations. Internal audits of inspectors should provide a check against becoming company folk. Inspection fees should be based on performance and plant size. There should be no idea that inspection should be self-supporting corporate risk managers and consumers have a stake in the performance of processing plants. Individual and corporate taxes in the general fund should suffice.

Just give the FDA regulatory powers and facilities identical to those of FSIS. Problem solved!

for Jane

GM reaches deal with Bondholders

Under the terms of the deal, G.M. would sell itself in Chapter 11 and bondholders would receive a 10 percent stake in the newly reorganized company in exchange for about $27 billion in bonds. They would also receive warrants to buy an additional 15 percent of a new G.M., exercisable if G.M.’s value rises to certain levels.

NYT

When you’re designing regulatory fee structures, generating sufficient income to support the program generally requires a capitation fee. I think of it as the Willie Sutton Principle — big fees for big players, because that’s where the money is.

Marketing Agreements are put in place and ‘enforced’ (to the extent that they are enforced) by USDA, not the FDA. USDA has long since been captured by Big Agribidness. I doubt the existing Marketing Agreements/Market Orders are indicative of what FDA will do. There is a chance that the FDA can get this one right.

Pathogen testing/monitoring should be in the bill, because it will require FDA to include those in its proposed regulations.