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An Update from the Weston A. Price Foundation
https://www.westonaprice.org/are-you-a-food-facility/
After years of Congressional debates, regulatory wrangling, and implementation delays, producers now have to deal with the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
Thanks to organizations working for small farmers, artisan producers, and local food consumers, most small-scale producers are exempt from the bulk of the new regulations under FSMA. But exempt from the regulatory requirements doesn’t mean you can ignore it. Producers need to confirm that they fit within the exemptions and take some steps in terms of record-keeping, signage, and possibly registering & filing statements with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA).
Please note: FSMA and the FDA use the term “qualified farm” or “qualified facility” to describe those farms and businesses that fall within the exemption created by the Tester-Hagan amendment. A qualified farm or qualified facility (explained below) is effectively exempt from the bulk of the expensive, difficult requirements under the FSMA regulations — but, again, you need to comply with certain paperwork requirements.
FOR PRODUCE GROWERS: If you grow fruits, vegetables, nuts, or mushrooms, you need to look at the exemption for the Produce Safety Rule. In brief, you are a “qualified farm” if you sell less than $500,000 in food annually and more than half of your sales are to individual consumers, local restaurants, and local retailers (where local is defined as within the same state or within 275 miles of your farm).
If you are a qualified farm, you do NOT need to register with the government or submit any documents to support the exemption. You DO need to keep your own records in case the FDA or state agency investigates. You also need to post a sign at the point of sale, or provide an invoice, that includes your farm name and address. These record-keeping and signage requirements are already in effect.
FOR ANYONE WHO PROCESSES, MANUFACTURES, HOLDS, OR STORES FOOD FOR SALE (including farms that do any value-added products): You are subject to the Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls Rule unless exempt. There are three exemptions that, among them, cover the majority of our members:
- Farms — If you are simply growing, harvesting, and selling produce without doing any processing (other than drying whole, uncut items), then you are NOT a facility and you do not need to register or file anything with FDA.
- Retail food establishments — If the main purpose of your business is to sell directly to individual consumers, you are a retail food establishment. Your primary function is judged by whether the majority of the monetary value of your sales (of all foods) are directly to consumers. For this definition, sales to businesses do not qualify as direct sales. Retail food establishments are NOT facilities and do not need to register or file anything with FDA.
- Qualified facilities — If you don’t fit within the definition of farm or retail food establishment, then you are a “facility.” All facilities must register with FDA and comply with current Good Manufacturing Practices (which have been incorporated into most states’ requirements for a food manufacturers’ license). If you gross less than $1 million annually in all food sales, however, you are a “qualified facility” and do NOT need to comply with the new Preventive Controls’ requirements under FSMA. You DO need to submit a sworn statement to FDA that you are a qualified facility.
The FDA’s latest action relates to the qualified facility exemption, for those who are neither farms nor retail food establishments, but still grossing less than $1 million annually. If you are a qualified facility, you have until December 17 of this year to register and file your statement. Starting October 1, facilities will be able to submit these attestation forms electronically at https://www.access.fda.gov/ via the Qualified Facility Attestation Module.
Note that there is also a Preventive Controls Rule for animal foods. The same three categories of exemptions apply: farms, retail food establishments, and qualified facilities. The cutoff for qualified facilities for businesses selling animal foods is $2.5 million in gross sales annually.
Important Links for More Information
For more detailed guidance on the exemptions to both rules, check out the flow charts posted on the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance’s website at http://farmandranchfreedom.org/?s=fsma.
The gross sales cut-offs are all adjusted for inflation and based on your average sales over the past three years. FDA has the inflation-adjusted numbers posted at www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/fsma/ucm554484.htm
FDA’s Guidance Document includes guidance on how to determine if you are a qualified facility, and thus not subject to the Preventive Controls Rule (although you do have to register as a facility): www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation.
Link for registering facilities: www.access.fda.gov/
Instructions for submitting Qualified Facility Attestation (sworn statement for the exemption):
www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceRegulation/FoodFacilityRegistration.
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Thank you for these anonymous presentations (although they apparently are associated with the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance).
This information should come with a notice from WAPF of non-liability in the event anyone follows where it says you “have to” do something and most especially in regards to any “registering”. I most highly recommend that all farmers do their own due diligent research regarding the implications of registering upon their unalienable ownership of their business before volunteering anything to the government under the banner of “registering”.
Also consider including in the research whether the Food Safety Modernization Act is in the Federal Registry and/or get verification that it is enacted as Public Law and most especially get fully informed as to “who” it Lawfully applies to. Adopt the “Third Agreement” and “Don’t make assumptions”.
Include authenticating the actual jurisdiction of the FDA in the research. Did you know that there are Lawful limits to any government’s jurisdiction? Is it important to you to know exactly what these limits are?
Other questions to consider are: Is the farmer on government-owned property? Is the farmer an employee of the government? ……… Keep in mind that Government can only Lawfully control what it owns. It is called proprietary jurisdiction. Ask yourself are you government owned? This is why the request is made to otherwise free and independent individuals to register their property with a government agency. Government needs a nexus indicating a voluntary submission to its jurisdiction if it isn’t already required by Law. Registering will serve that purpose.
The truly American “paperwork” that needs to be done is to send a registered letter to the President of the United States declaring your “free inhabitant” status under the second Organic Law saying if the content is not rebutted point for point then it will stand as the unrefuted truth in law. Ask for a certified copy returned to you in addition to your own notarized copies. Then any inquires from any government agency can be responded to with a copy of your letter.
Without Prejudice,
By: Chef Jemichel
Part 2! –
When concerning a governmental agency that is operating under the executive branch then consider the limitations of the following:
Administrative Law –
“Also known as administrative law, regulatory laws can include everything from rule making to adjudication and enforcement. In other words, administrative laws often relate to functions akin to all three branches of government (i.e., legislative, judicial, and executive), but all of them flow from agencies that are considered to be part of the executive branch. …
Regulations must be made in accordance with prescribed procedures. The body of law that governs the agency’s exercise of rule-making and adjudication powers is called ‘administrative law,’ primarily the Administrative Procedure Act. Any of the U.S. Code which lacks implementing regulations may not be enforced against the general public and are limited to public offices, public officers and employees of the Government of the United States.”
From: “American Organic Law”, page 30 –
Copyright Sovereignty Education and Defense Ministry, http://sedm.org
Prt 3 – The Right To Be Let Alone –
“The makers of our Constitution undertook to secure conditions favorable to (the first Organic Law): the pursuit of happiness… They sought to protect Americans in their beliefs, their thoughts, their emotions and their sensations. They conferred, as against the Government, the right to be let alone – the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.”:
[Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 478 (1928); Washington v. Harper, 494 U.S. 210 (1990)] –
In our complex society it is most disconcerting when some public servants attempt to compel your compliance with their enforcement authority by ignoring their oath to act in accordance with the constitution to protect the individual rights against interference by government actors. Nowadays the “education” system conditions us to believe that public servants or officials hold some automatic or intrinsic authority over us, and that we have an obligation to comply with any traffic stop, ticket, jury summons, court hearing, tax demand, etc. Understanding the hierarchy of authority in our society is paramount to placing ourselves in the proper status within the societal aggregate.
Know the powers delegated to any government you wish to partake in or with. “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.” [James Madison, Federalist 45, 1788]
“Anyone entering into an arrangement with the government takes the risk of having accurately ascertained that he who purports to act for the government stays within the bounds of his authority, even though the agent himself may be unaware of the limitations upon his authority.” –
[Federal Crop Insurance v. Merrill, 332 U.S. 380 (1947).]
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
[Public servants are trained or allowed to presume that you are accepting their authority if you do not specifically state your reservation of rights in each and every communication with them.]
[United States Constitution, Article IX of The Bill of Rights]
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states
respectively, or to the people.” –
[United States Constitution, Article X of The Bill of Rights]
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Notes:
From: “Proof of Claim: Your Main Defense Against Government Greed and Corruption” Page 7 of 27;
Copyright Sovereignty Education and Defense Ministry, http://sedm.org Form 09.073, Rev. 9-23-2018.
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Part 4:
“… when government enters the commercial marketplace to offer goods and services, they must deal equitably with everyone else in the marketplaces and become bound by the same rules and laws that govern private humans and other entities. This that if they intend to compel an individual to some specific performance based upon its corporate statutes or corporation rules, then the government, like any private corporation, must be the holder-in-due-course of a valid contract or other commercial valid agreement between it and the one upon whom demands for specific performance are made.”
Proof of Claim: Your Main Defense Against Government Greed and Corruption Page 14 of 27 Copyright Sovereignty Education and Defense Ministry, http://sedm.org Form 09.073, Rev. 9-23-2018
“Therefore, all laws created by these government corporations are private corporate regulations called public law, statutes, codes and ordinances to conceal their true nature. Yes, judges and lawyers know this . . . but will hide it in their argument if silence promotes their cause of action. Since these government bodies are not SOVEREIGN, they cannot promulgate or enforce CRIMINAL LAWS; they can only create and enforce CIVIL LAWS, which are duty bound to comply with by the LAW of CONTRACTS. The Law of Contracts requires signed written agreements and complete transparency!
Did you ever agree to be arrested and tried under any of their corporate
statutes? For that matter, did you ever agree to contract with them by agreeing to be sued for violating their corporate regulations?
[Governments Have Descended to the Level of Mere Private Corporations, The Anti-corruption Society; SOURCE:
https://anticorruptionsociety.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/clearfield-doctrine.pdf%5D
Enforcement of these corporate statutes by local, state and federal law enforcement officers are unlawful actions being committed against the SOVEREIGN people and these officers can be held personally liable for their actions. Bond v. U.S., 529 U.S. 334 (2000)”
Why Statutory Civil Law is Law for Government and Not Private Persons, Form #05.037 https://sedm.org/Forms/FormIndex.htm”
Part 5: “The Food Safety Modernization Act” is an “Act of Congress”. –
The full title of “the Food Safety Modernization Act” is:
“To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to the safety of the food supply.” It is most certainly an “Act of Congress”.
“All ‘Acts of Congress’ … apply only within the territory of the United States government, of which states of the Union are not part because they are foreign states[ii] (see 86 C.J.S. 1).
Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 54(c), wherein is defined ‘Act of Congress.’ Rule 54(c) states the following. …: ‘Act of Congress’ includes any act of Congress locally applicable to and in force in the District of Columbia, in Puerto Rico, in a territory[i] or in an insular possession.’
[for a listing of the above locations covered by ‘Acts of Congress’, refer to Title 48 U.S.C.]”[iii][iv]
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In other words the Lawful jurisdiction for the FDA is limited to property that is owned by and under the exclusive legislation of the “United States”.
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Notes:
[i] https://famguardian.org/TaxFreedom/CitesByTopic/territory.htm
[ii] https://famguardian.org/TaxFreedom/CitesByTopic/ ForeignState.htm
[iii] https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/48
[iv] In GreatIRSHoax (PDF via famguardian.org):
http://www.deepinfo.com/downloads/GreatIRSHoax20050424s.pdf:
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