Listening session on food safety rules for produce farmers

Dear Florida Farmer,

We are pleased to invite you to attend and participate in a Small Farms Produce Safety Listening Session to give you the opportunity to discuss how food safety requirements are impacting your operation and small growers. The session will be held in Gainesville, Florida on Friday, October 23, 2009 from 9 a.m. - 12 noon at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services' Division of Plant Industry building located at 1911 SW 34th Street, Gainesville, 352-372-3505.

Officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA),the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services have come to Florida to listen to your concerns and experiences with implementing food safety requirements in your farming operations and to receive from you the background needed as the federal government moves in the next few years to enact regulations on food safety for the produce industry. We are delighted that Mike Taylor, Senior Advisor to the Commissioner of FDA; Ann Wright, Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture for Marketing and Regulatory Affairs, USDA; and Florida Commissioner of Agriculture, Charles Bronson will be there to hear your comments. Senior regulatory staff from the agencies who will be involved in developing new regulations in the future will also be in attendance.

Sponsors for this meeting include the University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS); Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association (FFVA); and the Florida Farm Bureau Federation.

We invite and encourage you to participate during this time. This is really FDA and USDA's time to hear from you. The meeting will be fairly small in size to allow you time to have your comments discussed and your questions answered. The meeting will open with welcome statements by sponsors, introductions of our guests, and then several individuals will make brief statements on their experiences with food safety requirements on their farms. This will be followed by a time for open discussion and questions. The proposed agenda for Friday, October 23rd is:

9:00-9:20 Welcome
Commissioner of Agriculture Charles Bronson
Mark McLellan and Millie Ferrer, UF/IFAS
Dora Hughes, HHS
Mike Taylor, FDA
Ann Wright, USDA

9:20 - 10:15 Panel of Small Producers introduced by Bob Hochmuth give their perspective on food safety requirements, their concerns and suggestions

10:15 - 10:35 Q&A from FDA & USDA to producer panel

10:35 - 11:15 Open session for audience to comment or offer suggestions
We will use a signup sheet at each location to determine orders of making comments and suggestions
Number of speakers will determine length of time for each speaker
Questions will be taken from 5 remote IFAS centers

11:15 -12:00 Dora Hughes, HHS; Mike Taylor, FDA; and Ann Wright, USDA, comments

We will have PolyCom hookups at several remote IFAS Extension Offices or Research and Education Centers including Balm, Quincy, Palmetto, Miami/Dade, and Sarasota during this Small Farms Produce Safety Listening Session to allow small growers in those areas who cannot travel to Gainesville to have the opportunity to participate in the discussions. For further information on these sites, please contact those below:
Balm
Quincy NFREC
Palmetto
Miami/Dade
Sarasota

Florida is proud to be the 2nd largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the U.S. with a value of $3.5 billion out of the $7.8 billion cash sales for Florida agriculture according to the 2007 USDA Census of Agriculture. We are also proud that the census shows that the number of farms in Florida has increased by nearly 8 percent to 47,463 with the majority of that increasing number being small, family farms.

We encourage you to attend and participate in this great opportunity to be heard by both federal and state officials. Please contact us if you need any further information.