When it comes to the Food Safety and Modernization Act, no one denies the importance of safe production, transportation and delivery of food – least of all local farmers who have devoted their lives to a career founded in the cultivation of food and feeding their community.
However, many of those small-business owners feel the burden of the regulation outweighs the benefits and are not encouraged by the prospect of government officials critiquing their practices.
“We’re a [family-owned] farm,” said Tyler Young, co-owner of Young Family Farm in Little Compton. “We put in 60, 70, 80 hours per week and now they want us to document [practices, attend courses and update equipment] on top of that,” he said.
Approved in 2011, FSMA is only now being rolled out. In the Ocean State, that process has been undertaken by the R.I. Department of Health and the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, among others.
Designed to prevent foodborne illnesses – which impact 48 million, or 1 in 6, U.S. residents each year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture – FSMA is made up of six unique laws, with the addition of accredited third-party certification through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as the seventh tenant.
The six laws are the Produce Safety Regulation, Preventive Controls Human Food, Preventive Controls Animal Food, Foreign Supplier Verification Program, Intentional Adulteration (poisoning), and Sanitary Transportation of Food.
While fear of the impending regulation is widespread among the farming community, only about 30 of the roughly 300 produce farms in the state will be impacted, according to DEM.
‘It’s the first time in the [U.S.] … fruits and vegetables will be regulated by the USFDA.’
KEN AYERS, R.I. Department of Environmental Management Division of Agriculture chief
Ernest Julian, chief of the state health department’s Center for Food Protection, said FSMA regulations are “a giant step forward” and a long time coming.
“From a public health perspective,” the benefits of FSMA regulations outweigh the costs to local farmers, he said. “[It’s all about] preventing people from becoming ill, which is not only good for public health but for the industry.”
While the first local implementation – starting with 10 contracted, preventative control inspections at undisclosed farms throughout the state – begins this year, “We’ve been educating [farmers] for years, since 2015, that it was coming,” he added.
Yet, FSMA is considered by the farming community to be such a hassle, said Young, farmers who have spent decades tilling their fields are now considering changing their crops or leaving the industry.
Hemp is increasing in popularity among local farmers because of the lack of regulations, Young said, and if the government “keeps regulating us, we’re just going to do something else.”
After 22 years farming their Little Compton land, Young and his wife, Karla, have invested in workforce-development classes to bring their employees up to speed on FSMA, spent resources documenting all their operational procedures, and attended, and eventually were certified by, the University of Rhode Island’s Good Agriculture Practices program, all in anticipation.
While he could not provide an estimated dollar amount for these preparations, Young said, “[Farming] is such a small-margin business to begin with,” any extra draw on time or money is significant.
She knows there will most likely be a cost to any farm impacted by FSMA, but the onus on the farmer differs from operation to operation, said Heidi Quinn, executive director of the Rhode Island Farm Bureau.
“There isn’t a big profit margin in farming,” she said, echoing Young, and Rhode Island missed out on federal money to aid farmers’ FSMA-related financial costs.
During fiscal 2017, the USDA accepted grant requests in its Specialty Crop Multi-State Program to help farmers afford FSMA-related preparations. As a joint applicant with Massachusetts and Vermont, Rhode Island’s grant request, $1 million shared evenly among the three states over two years, was not approved by the federal government.
“[Grants] would have eased the burden,” Quinn said. “It’s difficult enough to be told you need to make updates, but then when they tell you [it’s a] must, you have to pay, it can be doubly hard.”
However, the state would like farmers to know they’re not forgotten – particularly when it comes to the Produce Safety Rule. For the 30-odd farms impacted by FSMA, said Ken Ayers, chief of the division of agriculture at DEM, “We’re doing a lot to prepare [them].”
DEM will meet with farmers “as many times as necessary” to double-check compliance prior to an inspection; they’ve waved water-source testing fees; and streamlined food-safety standards designed by Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut supermarkets, which previously differed company to company.
“It is going to be a different world,” said Ayers of the FSMA era. “It’s the first time in the history of the country the production of fruits and vegetables will be regulated by the USFDA. That creates a fair amount of fear … and that’s the space we are trying to fill.”
