The food-safety bill will wait till after Thanksgiving because Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn inserted an amendment that would ban earmarks and also introduce a less-rigorous substitute bill.
In the meantime, the Senate seems to have agreed on a modified version of the Tester amendment that would exempt some small farms, which was a sticking point for locavores afraid that the bill would put unnecessary burdens on small producers with direct-to-consumer sales. Check out Grist for a good debate on how the bill will affect small farmers.
-- Monica Potts
