Saturday August 13, 2011

The Diemand Farm in Wendell is shrinking. Pete, Anne and Faith Diemand have decided to cease wholesale deliveries to most of their supermarket and grocery store accounts by the end of 2011. They will continue to sell chickens, eggs, turkeys and other products from their farm store.

Federal regulations for food safety are part of the reason for this development. Farmers are being asked to shoulder more and more responsibility for rules that protect the public. Diemand Farm has never had a recall in the 50 years of business. But federal law is requiring them to ratchet up documentation so much that they would have to hire another full-time employee, a position the business can't support.

This is a perfect example of how New England farmers suffer from ill-fitting rules and regulations that the federal government applies to our food system. Scale-appropriate regulations that make sense for an operation the size of Diemand Farm do not exist.

So when the government establishes rules for egg production, the Diemands are swept into the net with the country's largest egg producers. The small operators don't have the capacity in staff or funding to comply, so they contract or go out of business. Read More Here

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