Editor’s note: In response to this article, Michael Tabor, a Takoma Park, Maryland farmer, wrote this letter to the New York Times:

Thank you for Steve Eder’s December 27, 2017 article, “When Picking Apples on a Farm with 5,000 Rules, Watch Out for the Ladders”, that personalizes the issue of government regulatory burdens on farmers that increasingly make it difficult for small farmers to continue to farm.

I am a small farmer (born and educated in NY) who grows pesticide-free produce.  For the past 45 years, I have been farming in the Tri-state (PA/MD/West VA) area.  We bring our produce to the Baltimore/DC area and we advocate for more sustainable growing methods.

While I agree with the author that regulations make small farming difficult, what the article fails to address is the basic premise of the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA), which advocates a sterile approach to growing our food rather than more diverse methods including the healthy use of bacteria to bolster our immune systems.  There is no argument that mass produced food can become tainted as it travels from growing, processing, distribution, etc.  However, small farmers that were initially granted exemptions, will eventually be subjected to the same regulations as agri-business, resulting in regulations that are of questionable value when it comes to preserving the public’s health.

Although agri-business can easily comply, most small scale and family farmers who sell directly to the public, might eventually be put out of business.  FSMA needs to be revisited to determine how it applies to small farms and which regulations are necessary to protect the public.

Thank you for creating a public dialog on this issue.

Michael Tabor, Farmer
 

ALTAMONT, N.Y. — For eight weeks every fall, Indian Ladder Farms, a fifth-generation family operation near Albany, kicks into peak season.

The farm sells homemade apple pies, fresh cider and warm doughnuts. Schoolchildren arrive by the busload to learn about growing apples. And as customers pick fruit from trees, workers fill bins with apples, destined for the farm’s shop and grocery stores.

This fall, amid the rush of commerce — the apple harvest season accounts for about half of Indian Ladder’s annual revenue — federal investigators showed up. They wanted to check the farm’s compliance with migrant labor rules and the Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets pay and other requirements for workers.

Suddenly, the small office staff turned its focus away from making money to placating a government regulator.

The investigators arrived on a Friday in late September and interviewed the farm’s management and a group of laborers from Jamaica, who have special work visas. The investigators hand delivered a notice and said they would be back the following week, when they asked to have 22 types of records available. The request included vehicle registrations, insurance documents and time sheets — reams of paper in all.

Over the next several days, the Ten Eyck family, which owns the farm, along with the staff devoted about 40 hours to serving the investigators, who visited three times before closing the books.

“It is terribly disruptive,” said Peter G. Ten Eyck II, 79, who runs the farm along with a daughter and son. “And the dimension that doesn’t get mentioned is the psychological hit: They are there to find something wrong with you. And then they are going to fine you.”