Potluck/Guest Speaker(s): What Consumers/Gardeners Need to Know About FSMA*

Do you grow some of your own food? Do you buy food from local farms and farmers markets? You probably should know what's going on with the *Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) so that you can understand how our local food system (and our local growers) might be affected. This is a pretty dense and unweildy piece of policy for you to dig into alone, so let us help you! Consumers' voices are really important in this conversation!

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Get together with other meetup members to share some potluck food (6:30pm) and then our expert panelists to walk us through the highlights of FSMA in plain English. For our session we'll have Dave Colson (http://www.mofga.org/Contact/Staff/tabid/229/Default.aspx), MOFGA Ag Services Director, Ben Tettlebaum (http://www.clf.org/profiles/ben-tettlebaum/) of the Conservation Law Foundation and Penny Jordan of the William H Jordan Farm (http://www.jordansfarm.com/) in Cape Elizabeth. If you have a particular passion for or knowledge about this topic, please join the discussion!

FSMA is currently in the "rule-making" stage at the US FDA and they are taking comment until November 15th. What is FSMA trying to do, who will it impact, how we can influence it (if we, as individual consumers or growers so choose)? These questions and more will be part of the conversation. Plenty of time for questions and answers.

What to bring: Bring a beverage or potluck dish to share and your own potluck kit (dish/bowl/utensils/napkin/cup). Coffee and tea provided.