Will USDA Food Safety Plan Squeeze Out the Little Guy?

(May 25) -- With the recent re-emergence of E. coli in national headlines -- the potentially deadly bacterium was found in Arizona lettuce in May and forced a massive California beef recall in December -- U.S. regulators are under renewed pressure by public health advocates to stop the outbreaks.

But in its latest effort to combat tainted food, the U.S. Department of Agriculture faces vocal opposition from a different quarter: small producers, who say tougher federal regulations might put some of them out of business.

At issue are proposed new rules for slaughterhouses that call for intensive testing of all meats. Small operators say they don't have the resources to comply.

"Perhaps a large plant slaughtering 5,000 animals per day can afford its own lab and microbiology staff, and can pass the cost along to the consumer, but most small plants can't," Joe Cloud, co-owner of True and Essential Meats in Harrisonburg, Va., writes on The Atlantic website.

"In my opinion, the USDA needs to recognize that "one size fits all" inspection no longer fits current industry practice and consumer demand," he adds.

Cloud and other small producers argue that they take more care in ensuring sanitation than their larger counterparts do. In fact, that's part of the reason consumers come to them in the first place, they say.

But others counter that health problems can originate in slaughterhouses of any size, and they say there is no reason why small producers should be exempt from the rules.

"Just because it's a small operation doesn't mean it couldn't make somebody sick," Donna Rosenbaum, executive director of Safe Tables Our Priority, a group representing victims of food contamination, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "We don't find out about them as often, because obviously the scale isn't as big. But there's an awful lot of people out there who never find out what they got sick from."

Though the proposed rules target beef production, many worry that they could encourage a trend toward consolidation across the whole agricultural industry -- a trend that has grown so marked that the Department of Justice and the USDA are jointly holding antitrust workshops. After all, opponents say, if small slaughterhouses become scarcer, the small farmers and ranchers who supply them will also feel the pinch.

Some small agricultural producers are feeling stressed by local regulations as well. In California, for example, organic farmers told the San Jose Mercury News that they're under significant pressure to conform to the state's Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement -- which calls for producers to follow a number of food-safety protocols -- but worry it will cost too much for a small operation.

Proponents of small farms and sustainable-food activists both argue that the best way to safeguard food quality is to ensure that producers are easily traceable and responsible to their consumers.

"If you help the same people every weekend at the farmers' market, you look them in the eye and you hand them the food, you're going to do a much better job making sure the same food is clean and safe than if you're distributing to all 50 states and you're just one worker being mistreated by a corporation," Slow Food USA President Josh Viertel told AOL News. His organization is an agricultural-reform advocacy group.

The USDA is accepting public comment on its proposed slaughterhouse rules until June 19.