FDA's Manure Proposal: What's the Big Stink About?

If you've caught wind of the controversy around proposed laws on food safety, then you know that a lot of folks are knee-deep in talks about manure. Black gold - as farmers have been known to call it - manure makes for a brilliant fertilizer. But unless it's used correctly, it can lead to serious foodborne illnesses. So, in accordance with the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a proposed rule on produce early this year to place restrictions on using manure.

That's created a stink - if you will - among organic farmers, who responded with a flurry of objections during the comment period, which closed Nov. 22. At issue is the extended length of time that farmers would have to wait before harvesting soil fertilized with manure. One of the conditions that distinguishes organic from conventional farming is the requirement to build soil with organic matter, a large chunk of which is manure, explains Laura Batcha, executive vice president of the Organic Trade Association, which represents the organic food industry in North America.

Under FDA's proposed regulations, farmers would need to wait nine months before planting crops in soil where they've applied raw manure. Current organic standards have a waiting period that ranges from three to four months, depending on whether the crop's contact with soil is direct (e.g. carrots) or indirect (e.g. apples). When it comes to composting manure, a heating process that kills bacteria, the rules would newly establish a 45-day waiting period before harvesting crops with direct soil contact. Critics call these extended waits arbitrary and argue that the delays would disrupt farmers' ability to rotate crops, which also aids in their pest control.

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"By requiring farmers to wait nine months after applying manure and 45 days after applying compost before they can plant, large tracts of land would be put out of production," Maureen Wilmot, executive director of the Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Organic Farming Research Foundation, wrote in an e-mail to U.S. News. "This will reduce the quantity of food farmers can produce, and consumers would have to pay more for organic produce." Wilmot contends that the science behind the proposal is based on "worst-case scenarios, not everyday farming practices," and organic farmers and their customers are punished as a result. "Rather than over-regulate small farmers, the FDA should weigh the very slight health risks of food being contaminated by compost against the real health benefits of producing healthy, pesticide-free food, which doesn't harm the environment."

Asked about the lengthened time frame, FDA spokeswoman Juli Ann Putnam replied with the following statement: "The majority of the research the FDA consulted showed that most intestinal pathogens of public health importance, under the most common conditions, would not survive in the soil past one year. Survival studies showed that organisms most commonly associated with fresh produce outbreaks (such as E. coli, salmonella and listeria) are unlikely to survive at detectable levels in soil past 270 days. Therefore, we tentatively concluded that a nine-month waiting period between the application of untreated biological soil amendment of animal origin and the harvest of the produce would be recommended." The FDA noted that there's no waiting period for compost used in soil that does not contact produce.

According to the FDA, there was 131 foodborne illness outbreaks associated with contaminated produce from 1996 to 2010, which caused more than 14,000 illnesses and 34 deaths.

Tracing contamination to manure - or anything, for that matter - is nearly impossible, experts say. But Putnam explains the link as follows: "Few outbreaks have been directly linked to food contacting manure-containing fertilizers; however, gastrointestinal (GI) pathogens are not generally considered environmental. Therefore, any pathogens present in the growing field had to originate from some fecal source, with any raw manure that had been applied being a significant possibility."

The provision concerning manure is among several - which would also regulate water, workers' health and hygiene, domesticated and wild animals and facilities - in an effort to tighten controls on possible sources of contamination. The FDA says the new produce rule would prevent about 1.75 million cases of foodborne illness each year and that it has worked with a wide swath of parties for a rule that's broadly applied for the universal desire of consumer safety. "We have been in regular communication with multiple federal and state agencies, as well as key organizations representing organic and sustainable agriculture - with the idea that environmental conservation and food safety are not necessarily cross-competing goals," Putnam stated.

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While the proposed rule offers partial exemptions for small farms (those with food sales less than $500,000) and full exemptions for very small farms (those with food sales of $25,000 or less), some have framed the issue as a fight between local farms and big business

"The change to the manure application rule may disproportionately affect small farms, and that's not to say that it shouldn't if they are the ones using raw manure, and raw manure is a potential source of significant pathogens for consumers," says Sarah Klein, senior staff attorney at the Center for Science in the Public Interest's Food Safety Program.

Klein acknowledges the difficulty in tracing the source of an outbreak, which is why she objects to those veteran farmers who say they've never had a contamination problem on their farm. To such claims, she says: "How do you know?"

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For one thing, identification relies on people's memories of what sickened them, says David Gombas, senior vice president of food safety and technology for the United Fresh Produce Association. He cites the 2008 salmonella outbreak from salsa, which was mistakenly linked to tomatoes when, in fact, peppers were the true but less obvious culprit. And it's tough to pinpoint the problem on a farm. "It's not that anybody's hiding anything," he says. "[But] by the time, we find out about an outbreak, it's two, three, four weeks down the road." The farming landscape and operations have shifted, and investigators will find nothing wrong. "They have no way of explaining it," he says, adding that when "they can't find anything else, they blame the water."

In the meantime, Klein worries the hubbub over manure has become a divisive issue that threatens to poison relationships and misinform the public. The controversy hasgiven rise to a narrative that it's "FDA versus the small farmer, and that's a really disheartening battle to see people buying into."

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"We're all working for the same thing theoretically, which is safe food," Klein says. That applies to all kinds of farms and consumers, with the particular aim of encouraging safe consumption of the most nutritious food available - produce, she says.

As it all gets sorted out, consumers need to remember to do their part to ensure the food they eat is safe. "Most fresh produce that's served out there in bulk needs to be washed," Gombas says. To stay safe, he recommends visiting the Partnership for Food Safety Education website, which provides resources on keeping fresh food, proper food handling, cooking and storage.