RMFU Supports Growing Safe Food Act

In a statement today, Rocky Mountain Farmers Union President Kent Peppler endorsed Senator Debbie Stabenow’s Growing Safe Food Act, S 2758, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico.

“Grants to help small producers improve food safety benefit everybody who eats,” Peppler said. “This program will help cooperative extension services, community-based organizations, colleges and universities expand their offerings in best agricultural practices and food processing. But it’s no substitute for a real food safety bill that addresses the food handling problems in corporate industrial plants. RMFU will support a food safety bill that puts its muscle where it’s needed and doesn’t burden small producers with industrial-scale regulations. The federal government has a long history of using food regulations to bankrupt small producers and encourage the concentration of markets in the hands of a few multi-national corporations. That has to stop if Americans want beef without E. coli and peppers without salmonella.”