This is an excerpt from a letter sent to President Biden earlier this month by a coalition of 150 groups. The topic of the letter was the upcoming negotiation of the Farm Bill, which includes many topics. Here is the section of the letter pertaining to food safety.
Every five years, Congress reauthorizes the Farm Bill, a wide-ranging piece of legislation that affects every part of our food system. The next Farm Bill should reflect your values and build on your administration’s actions to date to reduce economic inequality, bridge the nation’s racial divides, end hunger, confront the climate crisis, improve nutrition and food safety, and protect and support farmers, workers, and communities.
Such a Farm Bill should:
Ensure the Safety of Our Food Supply – Thousands of people in our country die every year from foodborne illness and millions more are sickened by pathogens in meat, poultry, produce, and drinking water. Recent food safety failures have highlighted gaps in our food safety net that place consumers at unacceptable risks from pathogens. Your Farm Bill must do more to address pathogens that originate on factory farms and to make the U.S. food supply safe for everyone.
President Biden, the undersigned organizations call on you to demand a transformative Farm Bill that fully reflects these values, and that you can be proud to sign.
Sincerely,
A Better Balance
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
Access East
AFL-CIO
Agricultural Justice Project
Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA)
A Growing Culture
Alabama State Association of Cooperatives
American Grassfed Association
American Federation of Government Employees, Local 3354
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
American Indian Mothers Inc.
American Sustainable Business Network
Association for the Study of African American History (ASALH Rochester)
Association of State Public Health Nutritionists
Appetite For Change
Broadway Community, Inc.
California Climate & Agriculture Network (CalCAN)
California Environmental Voters
California FarmLink
Castanea Fellowship
Center for Food Safety
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Center for Wellness and Nutrition (Public Health Institute)
Certified Naturally Grown
City Harvest
Climate Crisis Policy
Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Coastal Enterprises, Inc.
Coming Clean
Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF)
Community Food Advocates
Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA)
Compañeras Campesinas
Consumer Federation of America
Cultivate Charlottesville
Detroit Food Policy Council
Earthjustice
Economic Policy Institute
Environmental & Public Health Consulting
Environmental Working Group
Equity Advocates
Fair Food Network
Fair World Project
Family Farm Defenders
Farm Action
Farm Aid
Farm to Table – New Mexico
Farmers Market Coalition
Farmworker Association of Florida
Farmworker Justice
Fertile Ground
Food & Water Watch
Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT)
Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC
Food Chain Workers Alliance
FoodCorps
Food for the Spirit
Food Insight Group
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Mississippi River
GC Resolve
Georgia Foundation for Agriculture
Georgia Organics
Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming
Good Food For All Coalition
Government Accountability Project – Food Integrity Campaign
Grazing Reform Project
Green America
Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities
Hand, Heart, and Soul Project, Inc.
Health Care Without Harm
HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance
Hempstead Project Heart
Illinois Stewardship Alliance
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)
Iowa Environmental Council
Iowa Interfaith Power & Light
Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future
Kansas Black Farmers Association
Kansas Rural Center
Land Loss Prevention Project
Land Stewardship Project
La Semilla Food Center
League of Conservation Voters
Los Jardines Institute
LunchAssist
Maine AFL-CIO
Marbleseed
Michigan Food and Farming Systems
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners
National Black Food & Justice Alliance
National Council for Occupational Safety and Health
National Employment Law Project
National Farm to School Network
National Latino Farmers & Ranchers Trade Association
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
National Young Farmers Coalition
Natural Resources Defense Council
Nebraska Appleseed
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
New Orleans Food Policy Action Council
Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance
Northeast Organic Farming Association-Interstate Council
Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire (NOFA-NH)
Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY)
Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides
Nourish Colorado
Office of Kat Taylor
Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association
Oklahoma Black Historical Research Project, Inc.
Oregon Climate and Agriculture Network
Oregon Tilth
Organic Farming Research Foundation
Organic Seed Alliance
Oxfam America
Ozark Akerz Regenerative Farm
Pasa Sustainable Agriculture
Phi Global Farms
Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste / Northwest Tree-Planters and Farmworkers United
(PCUN)
Pinnacle Prevention
Pesticide Action Network
Plant Based Foods Institute
Post Carbon Institute
Progress Michigan
Public Justice
Rebirth Inc.
RegeNErate Nebraska
Resilience Project
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union
Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United
Rowan Food and Farm Network
Roots of Change
Rufty-Holmes Senior Center
Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA (RAFI-USA)
Rural Coalition
Savanna Institute
Sierra Club
Slow Food USA
Small Planet Institute
Socially Responsible Agriculture Project
Society of Behavioral Medicine
Sooner Food Group
Soul Fire Farm Institute
Springfield Food Policy Council
Student Action with Farmworkers
Sustainable Farming Association
Sustainable Food Center
Sustainable Food & Farming Program, UMASS Stockbridge School of Agriculture
Sustainable Iowa Land Trust (SILT)
The Farmers B.A.G.
The Georgia Farm to School Alliance
The Land Institute
TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation
Toxic Free North Carolina
Trust for Public Land
unBox
Union of Concerned Scientists
United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
Venceremos
Virginia Association for Biological Farming
Wallace Center at Winrock International
Wholesome Wave
Wild Farm Alliance
Women, Food and Agriculture Network
Women’s Voices for the Earth
Worker Justice Alliance
Working Landscapes
Workplace Fairness
