|
May 2003
That's the number of notices of intent to import that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expects to handle when new regulations on food imports are brought into place in December of this year.
Food exporters will be required to file with the FDA, via the Internet, a detailed "notice" of every food product shipment going into the United States. The FDA must be notified of the shipment by noon of the day before it arrives at the border crossing point or port of entry.
The regulation has been described as "an important milestone" in implementing the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. In order words, this bureaucrat's dream would not have been implemented were it not for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The information required is detailed and includes the originating country, the identification of the grower (if known), the manufacturer, the shipper, the carrier, country from which it was shipped, the anticipated arrival information, the importer, the owner, the FDA product code, the market name, the trade name, and also "the quantity described from the smallest package size to the largest container."
The regulations don't apply to food carried in personal baggage, nor to meat, poultry and egg products already exclusively regulated at the time of importation. The regulation does apply, however, to beverages. And it applies to food products that are merely passing through the United States.
Close watchers of federal regulations may have seen this coming. A news release on the proposal says: "The Bioterrorism Act states that it is a prohibited act to import or offer for import an article of food without prior notice." This law was signed by U.S. President George Bush on June 12 of last year.
So how many notices is 20,000 a day? It's about one every 14 seconds.
A final rule will be issued by Oct. 12. By law, the regulations must come into effect by Dec. 12.
BF
Nine 30-minute Manic Organic shows were taped last summer around the Stratford area featuring John, who is billed as a biologist, landscaper, painter and cook. The local southern Ontario countryside is showcased, as are some of the toney restaurants in the area.
The publicity for the show says: "Each episode follows a main vegetable and two side vegetables through the life cycle from planting out as seeds to nurturing in the garden without pesticides and finally harvesting and cooking. Along the way Antony (John), with his own unique brand of humour, demonstrates how viewers can employ organic techniques in their own home gardens."
The first show in the series was aired April 11 and featured Welsh-born John seeking out wild leeks in a local bush. The leeks are a main ingredient in a Welsh mussel stew made by chef Neil Baxter of Rundles Restaurant in nearby Stratford. Rundles is a favourite of the Shakespearean Festival theatre crowd.
John is among a group of local farmers who have specialized in growing very fresh produce for local restaurants in the Stratford area.
If you are into nostalgia, Food Network Canada has plans to air all 265 episodes of "The Galloping Gourmet," a somewhat decadent cooking show from the 1970s and '80s hosted by Graham Kerr.
The positive publicity for farm products showcased on these programs can't be overestimated. Ontario's sheep industry has been able to publicize its products on a couple of other cooking shows on the same network. "License to Grill" will begin airing a summer series on June 30. "Cook Like a Chef" will start featuring lamb in 2004. BF
In March, the grocer pleaded guilty to one count of violating Section 5 (1) of the federal Food and Drugs Act by putting a sign on produce indicating that it was organically produced (and charging a higher price) when in fact the food was grown using conventional means. The grocer was fined $2,000.
Certification of production processes is of great concern to organic growers who feel that they need it to prove to customers, even at local farmers' markets, that their produce was actually grown using organic methods. Inspectors and investigators at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), on the other hand, couldn't care less about certification, or about definitions, at least not in British Columbia.
CFIA investigator John Bouchard and an associate laid the charges after visiting the store last August in response to a couple of complaints from consumers who "didn't believe (the produce) looked organic," Bouchard told Better Farming. The investigators looked at invoices and interviewed the shop owner, who admitted that between 12 and 14 items advertised as organic were purchased as standard produce. (Some other legitimate organic produce was also offered for sale.)
Bouchard says it "doesn't matter what the definition of organic is." What is important is what consumers perceive, Bouchard says. Consumers expect that they will be getting a product that was raised in a "natural" way and without the use of pesticides and non-organic fertilizers.
Bouchard says there is case law to back this up, citing a case several years ago on which the B.C. Supreme Court ruled. Bouchard says a store owner was buying federally inspected turkeys, removing the bags and putting the birds into his own plain wrappers and charging $3 a pound. "You can buy the same turkey at Christmas at 89 cents a pound," Bouchard says.
Bruce D'andrea, communications officer for the CFIA, based in Guelph, say he has never heard of a retailer being charged with selling fake organic produce in Ontario.
BF
Supply-managed farmers are bringing pressure to bear on federal Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew and Agriculture Minister Lyle Vanclief to come up with proposals that will set a new direction for trade negotiations. The trouble is that while the Harbinson "modalities," as they were called, were rejected by the countries keenly interested in agricultural trade, there's nothing in their place. It's still possible that they might be revived by September's ministerial meeting in Cancun simply because there is nothing else to use as a starting point for discussion. "We would like the Canadian government to be the first at the table" to set a direction for the talks, says Emma Dillon, Public Affairs Officer for SM5, which represents the five supply-managed dairy and feather farm commodities on trade issues.
The Harbinson modalities, as they are called, didn't do anything for supply management. Harbinson released a first draft of these formulas for negotiation (modalities) last Dec. 20, fulfilling a promise made back in November 2001. A first draft was presented to the agriculture committee before Christmas and went over like a lead balloon. Harbinson amended the first draft and presented it to the country representatives again on March 19. There were no substantial differences in it from a supply management point of view, Dillon says. Since no countries responded, Harbinson's modalities appear to be dead on the water. They have no status, but that doesn't mean they are "off the table."
The trouble is that, with nothing else to build on, Harbinson's rejected modalities proposal may be the only foundation for future negotiations to build on, and that has Canada's 25,000 supply-managed farmers worried.
One of the foundations of the formulas was a substantial cut in tariffs. The European Union wanted them cut across the board by 40 per cent. The United States favoured even more drastic cuts of 60 per cent. Neither of those proposals is acceptable to dairy and feather industries in Canada.
"That's why we are calling on the government to take a proactive role in putting a better solution on the table," says Dillon. Unless a lot of progress is made before the ministerial meeting in September, there will be so much work on the agenda that the ministers won't be able to go forward. "It will be a repetition of Seattle" in 1999, she says.
Listen up. What is that scrabbling sound? It's Canada's trade and agriculture ministers scratching to come up something to fill that gap before the next trade ministers meeting, scheduled for mid-September in Cancun, Mexico.
BF
|