article from Asheville Citizen Times

The following was sent to us from a good friend who is associated with the Black Mountain Farmer's Market.

Fellow Supporters of Local, Healthy Food,

The article below is on the front page of today's Asheville Citizen-Times!

It is also featured under the title "New laws could hurt Western North Carolina food producers" on the Citizen-Times home page.

Since being alerted less than a week ago about some of the foreseeable, negative, unintended consequences the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S 510) will surely have--including lost jobs in Asheville's burgeoning foodtopia--the editors and reporters at the Citizen-Times have spent numerous hours working to understand what S 510 will actually do. This is the first report on what they have learned.

Please encourage the Citizen-Times to expand its coverage of this important issue by commenting on the on-line version of the article at the link below, commenting via your listserve or, best of all, writing a quick "Letter to the Editor" at http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=999970305038. Or do all 3!

It you want your local paper to follow the Citizen-Times' lead and cover this important issue, please write them a quick "Letter to the Editor." Because the local, healthy food movement blankets North Carolina, its a story appropriate for every newspaper and every public radio and TV station. Some of our larger papers can be reached as follows:
Charlotte Observer - opinion@charlotteobserver.com
Greensboro News-Record - http://www.news-record.com/help/feedback?nri_feedback_cat=letterstoed
Raleigh News & Observer - http://www.newsobserver.com/about/newsroom/editor/
Wilmington Star News - http://www.starnewsonline.com/section/submit01 (must be a register user and log in)
Winston-Salem Journal - http://www2.journalnow.com/static/contactus/submit-letter/
If they have questions about S 510, I will happily send them whatever they need. Please ask them to call me at 828/669-4003, 8 AM - 8 PM, Monday - Saturday or write me at healthyfoodcoalition@gmail.com.

As of April 9th, 97 organizations had signed onto a letter supporting Sen. Jon Tester's efforts to amend S 510. North Carolina groups signing on include CFSA, French Broad Food Co-op, NEEM, Bountiful Cities Project, Chatham Marketplace, Winter Green and Deep Roots Market. Signing on from Virginia/DC were Appalachian Sustainable Development, VICFA and the Weston A. Price Foundation, To read the letter and see the entire list of organizations which have already signed it, go to http://farmandranchfreedom.org/content/files/Amend-S510-April-9.pdf. If you don't see your group, have someone contact Judith McGeary of Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance at jmcgeary@att.net about signing on.

For more info about CFSA's Campaign for Truly Safe Food, see http://carolinafarmstewards.org/alert_foodsafety_mar10.shtml. To volunteer to help expand CFSA's Farmers Market Food Safety Action Days, please email CFSA's Executive Director, Roland McReynolds, at roland@carolinafarmstewards.org.

If you want specific info on S 510, please write me at healthyfoodcoalition@gmail.com.

If you want to help organize a rally to preserve jobs in the local, healthy food movement, to be held next week in Asheville, please write me at hhamil@buncombe.main.nc.us or call me at 669-4003, 8 AM - 8 PM, Monday - Saturday.