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From: *KeepFoodLegal*
Date: Thursday, August 16, 2012
Subject: Harvard Food Law Clinic Releases New Farmers Market Regulatory
Report Commissioned by Keep Food Legal
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
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Harvard Food Law Clinic Releases New Farmers Market Regulatory Report
Commissioned by Keep Food Legal Pioneering Report Looks at Impact of New
Pennsylvania Law, Compares Law to Laws in Nine Other U.S. States,
Recommends Looser Regulations
[image: An Amish farmer sells produce at a Philadelphia farmers market.]
A groundbreaking new report commissioned by Keep Food Legal and released
today by Harvard University School of Law's Food Law and Policy Clinic
recommends several ways that states can lessen the regulatory burden on
farmers markets in order to maximize the satisfaction of farmers and
consumers without sacrificing food safety.
The report, Pennsylvania’s Chapter 57 and Its Effects on Farmers
Markets<http://www.keepfoodlegal.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=187&qid=3901>,
was commissioned in fall 2011 by Keep Food Legal after some of our
Pennsylvania members and supporters expressed their concerns about a new
state law's potential impact on farmers markets in the state.
The new law meant farmers would have to obtain retail food licenses. Many
feared they would be required also to purchase costly handwashing sinks
(rather than sharing a sanitary sink with other vendors) and mechanized
cooling devices (rather than chilling food safely using ice).
The report concludes that Pennsylvania’s regulation of farmers markets
compares favorably to regulatory approaches in the nine other states that
were part of the Clinic’s research. It also notes that some of the
perceived concerns with the new law were caused by a failure on the part of
the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to educate farmers, vendors,
market managers, and local health departments about the law.
The report recommends states replace costly process-driven
regulations—which require a farmer or vendor to follow particular steps
rather than to achieve a particular level of food safety—with
results-driven regulations that simply require food to be safe.
"If a farmer can keep meat at a mandated temperature using an ice chest,"
says Keep Food Legal executive director Baylen Linnekin, "there is no
reason to require the farmer to purchase an expensive refrigerator and
generator to achieve the same or lesser level of food safety at a much
higher cost.
"I'm grateful to our members and supporters in Pennsylvania for expressing
their concerns about this new law," says Linnekin. "And I'm very pleased
that the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic did such a wonderful job
carrying out this important research on behalf of Keep Food Legal."
"This project was a first step in a really important direction," says Emily
Broad Leib, Director of the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic. "Farmers
markets and other direct farm-to-consumer sales are great opportunities for
small farmers to make money and for consumers to access fresh, healthy
foods. However, small farms are not set up to meet the same laws and
regulations that apply to large farms or other institutions, so we need to
ensure that the food safety laws that apply to them are appropriate to
their size and scale. This report was a start in looking critically at some
of the state laws that impact farmers markets, but more work still needs to
be done to extend this research to other states and get this important
message to policymakers."
The report echoes these calls for further research into food safety laws
and regulations that govern farmers markets across the country. If this is
the sort of groundbreaking research you believe Keep Food Legal should
carry out on a regular basis, please
donate<http://www.keepfoodlegal.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=199&qid=3901>to
Keep Food Legal and support this work today. Already a member? Please
forward this email to friends who love farmers markets and urge them
to
join<http://www.keepfoodlegal.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=199&qid=3901>Keep
Food Legal today!
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