The Future of Food Safety Regulation: Encouraging Both Food Safety and Environmental Sustainability By Protecting Small Farm Production

Abstract

: In recent years, in the face of potentially debilitating environmental, economic, and nutritional disaster, Americans have begun to embrace the idea of local, sustainable, and minimally processed foods. At the same time, a rash of pathogen outbreaks in our nation’s produce supply has created a mistrust of the nation’s supply of fruits and vegetables and instigated a call for heightened regulation and oversight of our nation’s farms and processing plants. Against the background of these two strains of political discourse, this Article analyzes recent proposed legislation for food safety regulation. Rather than succumb to the knee-jerk reaction of “more regulation is always better,” legislators and regulators should combine both critiques into a nuanced approach to food regulation that will encourage both safety and sustainability by bolstering small family farms’ ability to produce foods locally.