Posted: December 21, 2010 at 7:18 am

A Montana Talk Radio Fact Check

For the past few weeks, rightwing radio talk show host Aaron Flint has been trying to harpoon the Food Safety Modernization Act. Not sure what his problem with safe food might be. This is the bill that sailed through the Senate Sunday with unanimous support.  I guess Mr. Flint is against it because it includes a very good amendment in it by Senator Jon Tester, and it’s hard for a rightwinger to give credit where credit is due.

Tester’s amendment exempts family produce farms and food producers from what would be very expensive new federal regulations that are needed for the big food factories and huge growing operations that ship thousands of bags of lettuce to half the states in the union in a matter of hours… the companies responsible for our nation’s food-borne illness problems.

Under Mr. Flint’s rationale, since the exemption doesn’t apply to Tester’s own farm, then “there’s a chance  your farm doesn’t qualify either.”  Aaron Flint sounds like he’s against the Tester Amendment because “the typical family farm in Montana would not be exempt from the new regulations.“

Now I’m no farmer, but even I know that “typical family farm” in Montana probably wouldn’t even be subject to the new Food Safety Act regulations in the first place.   It makes me wonder if the talking heads over at Northern News Network even read the bill.

The Food Safety Act applies to those who grow produce or make processed food.  The majority of Montana farmers grow grain (like Tester) and sugar beets.  The last time I checked, grain and sugar beets weren’t the cause of America’s food safety problems, rather things like tomatoes, bagged lettuces and whatnot.  Ranchers won’t be impacted either because this bill doesn’t even deal with meat.

But, if you grow produce or process food in Montana, then chances are you make less than $500,000 per year in sales and you sell directly to the marketplace.  If Aaron Flint had actually read the bill, he’d see that’s exactly who the Tester exempts.

26 comments

  2. Impersonator Removed

    You are allowed to comment anonymously, but you are not allowed to impersonate others. If this becomes a problem, we’ll have to institute required user logins with real emails for commenting.

  3. Aaron Flint

    Cowgirls:

    Thanks for the plug- I guess I would hardly call my remarks on air and online as “harpooning” the food safety bill. I simply was criticizing the media coverage of this bill (specifically this amendment) which leaves the small, family farmers back here in Montana to think that somehow they would be exempt from these new regulations. As you point out- the only “small farmers” that are exempt with this amendment are those that sell direct- so more or less, your farmers market folks. As one caller, who supports the amendment, pointed out on the show today- if his numbers are accurate- the amendment only applies to less than 2% of the state who actually solely sell direct. So it is misleading to say that “Small, family farmers” are exempt from the food safety regulations without further clarifying.

    By the way- if you’re up for a road trip- you should come up to Plentywood and Scobey for the Expo this Spring. They had an outstanding pea and lentil crop this summer. May be a barley shortage next year though…hope that doesn’t effect the price of our Montana microbrews.

    Havre voter- unfortunately your town is one of the few gaps that our statewide talk show doesn’t cover. Would be great to be heard in Havre, especially considering all the discussion we’ve been having about rail transport issues, grain growers etc.
    In the meantime, though, we have gotten callers from Havre who listen through our online stream.

    http://www.northernbroadcasting.com/Talk/tabid/514/Default.aspx

  4. Farmboy

    Now I have just one question, in the summer time I buy some of my vegtables at farmers markets in small towns, and I buy some Flathead cherries from a local producer in the Flathead, a small family farmer, will they be exempt from these regulations. I also occassionally buy milk from a local woman who has a couple of dairy cows, it is not pasturized, yet I feel very safe putting her product in my body, will she be regulated under these new regulations? Also I tend to buy beef and pork from local ranchers and hog farmers, are they regulated too. Im just wondering. Thanks

  8. Jack Ruby

    Wow, they took a break from discussing conspiracy theories about Obama on that show? Good on you Aaron. Don’t let them tell you that you’re just a flunky.

  9. Matthew Koehler

    I’m very glad the effort to de-list wolves from the endangered species list was killed in the US Senate. Funny, but for all the complaints everyone seems to have against Washington DC and Congress, it’s mildly ironic that now some people just want politicians – instead of science, research, law and the US Fish and Wildlife Service – to decide the fate of endangered species. If Congress has a hard time passing a budget do we really want politicians sticking their noses into all these issues and mandating what should be done with each and every endangered specie? Don’t just think about wolves here, but if we go down this road we’ll never go back.

  10. Rob Kailey

    it’s mildly ironic that now some people just want politicians – instead of science, research, law and the US Fish and Wildlife Service – to decide the fate of endangered species.

    A simple observation, Matthew, but that statement appears a little odd, don’t you think? I agree with you about the Senate killing the de-listing of wolves, but only because Wyoming is being as intractable and petulant as all get out. If it weren’t for local political entities clashing with the law, the science and FWP then there wouldn’t need to be a more grandiose and national solution to management problems.

  11. Ingemar Johansson

    A species is not and will never be “endangered” if you can hook up a horse trailer and drive over the border to get more.

  12. Aaron Flint

    Didn’t the State of Montana argue that the scientific goal posts were met? And now that those scientific goals were met- wolf advocates are trying to move the scientific goal posts?

  13. Farmboy

    You know on this one I gota agree with Flint. The scientific goal posts were reached, yet the State of Montana still does not have regulation over the wolves in this state. Frankly I disagreed with wolf re-introduction from the start and it has been a mess. I say kill all the dam wolves and let the elk come back in a few years.

  14. larry kurtz

    Great post, Cowgirl.

    Boulder hosts Hutterian growers at the Farmer’s Markets. Those who don’t recognize the disconnect between income and a dependence on ag chemicals in those settings misses the point.

    Having said that, ip supports the compromise of seasonal chemical sterilization of predators using live traps and dart rifles through state sale of licenses and loads.

  15. Doug M.

    This bill, like everything out of our gov. is too complicated ,too all encroaching and TOO EXPENSIVE!
    Do you really trust the gov. to be competent. Our representatives are generally a bunch of lawyers. Where do they get the expertize to create such beneficial bills
    All of these bills cost MONEY and ae adding to an already astronomical debt.
    I ca’nt wait till the inflation kicks in.
    Start buying gold and silver………………….Doug M.

    • Rodger S.

      I trust the governor more than I would Denny Rehberg, after his drunken lie that “Barkus (Three times the legal limit) didn’t appear impaired to me.”

    • Mark Tokarski

      According to the experts, inflation was to be eating us alive by this time. But it’s not. It only reinforces my belief that economists not only have no clue about the past and present, but also know nothing of the future. Most economists are political prostitutes. You play with them, but do not marry them.

      • Jack Ruby

        The experts weren’t predicting inflation it was the right wing nuts like Doug M. who are being tricked into putting all their money in gold and silver. Hope you are diversified for your sake Doug because the gold bubble is just as real as the housing bubble. I guess you will still have your guns when the gold you’ve bought is suddenly worth a fraction of what you paid for it. The experts, if we’re talking about economists, know that deflation is a far bigger threat.

        • Mark T

          I was referring to the experts at Electric City Weblog, in my mind, anyway, though I failed to note it. Dave Budge was one who said we’d be in hyper-inflation by this time.

          I don’t pretend to know the future. I only claim that economists know a whole lot less than they let on.

  16. Duane D.

    I say Max and John should introduce a bill to enlist the wolves in ALL 50 states. Minimum of 5,000 per state, including DC.

  17. doug m.

    Jack:
    I do not know everything ..but when you increase the money supply each individual dollar is worth less. you can go on various web sites and see the money supply has never been bigger.
    I have been a card carrying dem. my whole life and do not discriminate. I judge each individual o his or her merits….