For prompt release, reach out to Will Fantle at 715-839-7731. The FDA food safety rule homepage is crashing just before a crucial deadline for public comments People and organizations are unable to provide input as the deadline of November 15 approaches. — Cornucopia asks for a prolongation cornucopia, wit: To guarantee meaningful public feedback on the FDA’s proposed food safety regulations, family farm and consumer activists have been working for weeks (http://www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/fsma/ucm334114.htm). Currently, the government website that acts as a channel for public feedback on food safety is unavailable, broken, or flat out rejecting comments. Will Fantle, codirector of the Cornucopia Institute in Wisconsin, states that this is potentially disenfranchising thousands of farmers and consumers, and is flat-out unacceptable. Like many other groups around the nation, we have been working for months to increase public knowledge of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and the proposed regulations created to execute it. We have heard from several of our members that they are unable to submit their views in time for the public comment period, which ends on November 15, since regulations.gov is down. Congress approved the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in late 2010 in response to public outrage over years of food poisoning incidents linked to harmful fecal infections that affected imported goods, peanuts, spinach, melons, sprouts, and sprouts. However, local and organic family farms are burdened with costly and needless preventive measures by the FDA’s proposed regulations, which are better suited for hazardous industrial processing and distribution networks. Moreover, a health management plan for industrial-scale feedlots and livestock facilities—the main source of many fecal-generated pathogens—is not addressed in the proposed regulations. This message is being reported by a number of users who have visited the FDA’s comment portal for the two dockets located at http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentdetail;d=fda-2011-n-0921-0199 and http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentdetail;d=fda-2011-n-0920-0188: We are working to restore full operations as soon as possible, but we are experiencing temporary technical difficulties. Over the last several weeks, people from the public have been reporting this message on occasion, and it now seems that this is the default scenario for everyone trying to visit the homepage. In other instances, residents have allegedly been told to submit any comments they may have made again, and in November, other website users received a notice stating that planned system maintenance was underway and would be finished by August 6. We feel it is incumbent on the FDA to fix their webpage problems immediately and then extend the public comment period for another 30 days thereafter, given this ongoing barrier to public comments, Fantle said. Cornucopia officially sought the extension in a letter dated today that was sent to Michael R. Taylor, the deputy commissioner for foods at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These regulations have the potential to force many small-scale farmers out of business. They, along with the customers who purchase their produce, should be given a voice so that the FDA can implement the necessary changes. The public comment platform run by the federal government has encountered issues before. Cornucopia has previously reported that similar problems with website accessibility have been experienced by people attempting to provide input on proposals that impact the national organic program of the United States Department of Agriculture and its National Organic Standards Board. Those observations have been explicitly communicated to policymakers by the agriculture policy group at public meetings. However, not much seems to have changed. Fantle said, We plan to submit a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request this time to inquire about the issues related to the FDA’s food safety comment page mishap. We would like additional information regarding the nature of this issue and whether it was caused by a government contractor—possibly even the same contractor or contractors involved in the scandal involving the government’s health care website. -30- Furthermore, the government’s website remained down this morning after being unavailable all day on Monday, November 11. Please refer to the current action notice at http://www.cornucopia.org/fda-online-comment/ on the Cornucopia Institute website for advice on how to provide comments by mail. Visit http://www.cornucopia.org/2013/11/fda-food-safety-rule-webpage-repeatedly-crashes-advance-important-public-comment-deadline/ to read the entire story with photos… The Cornucopia Institute is devoted to research and teaching that upholds the ecological and economic truths that underpin organic and sustainable agriculture. The Cornucopia Institute conducts research and investigations on agricultural and food problems in order to provide family farmers, consumers, good food movement partners, and the media with the necessary knowledge.
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