Editorial

The federal Food and Drug Administration is working on new safety rules to reduce food-borne illnesses. At the same time, the U.S. Senate is working on legislation similar to a bill already passed by the House of Representatives that would hand the FDA and USDA all kinds of new powers to track and trace raw farm commodities.

The idea is pretty simple. The FDA wants to be able to trace contamination problems to their source. The process would be anything but simple. The ideas being floated by both regulators and legislators would require farmers to pay annual registration fees, keep more detailed records, and conduct costly hazard analyses and control plans.

Small-scale producers are concerned the new rules will run them out of business. Large producers are concerned that if an illness erupts from a small farm, it could result in a large-scale food safety scare. They want all producers regulated.

We know of no responsible producer, large or small, who intentionally sets out to make anyone sick. Despite everyone's best intentions, people do get sick.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are an estimated 76 million U.S. cases of food-borne illness annually, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. A great many of these cases begin in the home: under-cooked meat, cross-contamination in the kitchen and perishables left unrefrigerated too long.

A handful of people getting sick from the potato salad at the family picnic doesn't make the news. But it's a national story when a few unrelated consumers get sick, or God forbid die, from something contaminated at its source or during processing.

Public health officials confirm that small farms are responsible for their fair share of contamination cases. Disease pathogens, they say, simply don't respect human legal definitions and outbreaks can originate in even the most scrupulously tended plots. People can get sick from processed food they buy at big grocery stores, and from fresh food they buy at local farmers' markets.

Anyone who believes themselves to be immune should have a frank discussion with their liability insurance provider and their attorney.

A consumer who gets sick cares little about what methods were used to grow the food, or the size and ownership structure of the farm on which the food was grown. Proposals that would exempt all but the very largest producers and processors would not serve the public interest. A science-based policy requires a minimum standard for all producers, regardless of size. That approach would not preclude additional scale-appropriate requirements for very large operations, or for processors who send product out into wide distribution.

We share the concern of the small-scale producers who worry that all of this could put them under. Proposals call for an annual $500 registration fee for producers. That's a lot of money for anyone, but it's especially high for small-volume farmers. We believe the costs should be kept as absolutely low as possible for every grower. To do that, regulators will have to keep their requirements realistic -- a forlorn hope at best.

No regulation should be so expensive as to put any farm operation in danger of financial ruin, or so onerous that it discourages the commercial production of food.