Jun 05 2010
Hagan Backs Exemptions for Small Food Farmers
Hagan said she wants small producers to be allowed to continue to operate under existing state regulations.
“We need a robust prevention and response system to handle outbreaks of food-borne illnesses,” she said in a statement. “But we have many hardworking small producers and family farms in North Carolina, and it is unnecessary for these producers to be saddled with new regulations and paperwork.
Local farm and food advocates have said the new regulations are great for companies buying ingredients from hundreds of places worldwide. But the small producer usually knows where he is buying his ingredients and might have grown some of them himself, which tends to mean a safer product.
So let me see if I have this straight. It’s apparently perfectly acceptable for small food producers to accidentally poison us. It’s only bad if the big evil rich producers contaminate our food supply. Do I have that right?
Either these regulations are needed or it’s just another encroachment of government bureaucrats making it harder to do business in the United States. Which is it? Are Hagan’s actions an indication that this is just more bureaucratic B.S. that we don’t really need or is she putting the special interests of business ahead of the health of her constituents?
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Bane:
I’m surprised at your take on this one. I mean, you are a ‘less-governmental-regulation’ kinda guy, right?
[Reply]
I’m not really taking a position on this legislation one way or the other; I’m pointing out what I see being a glaring flaw. If these new regulations are that necessary to keep the population from getting sick by contaminated food why is anybody getting an exemption from it? The fact that some companies can be exempt tells me that either these regulations really aren’t necessary or that Hagan is putting the interests of business and her own political interests over the health of her constituents.
[Reply]