OT/kinda, Selling hay bioterrorism ?

Do you haf your papers? Vhat iz in ze truck? Vere are you goink? Vhen are you returnink? Has the Party approved the sale of dis hay? Hmm..ya, you can go. Seig Heil!

"Bioterrorism Rules Will Affect Hay Growers
The federal government's efforts to protect the nation's food supply will soon impact commercial hay growers in a big way. According to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) spokesman, farmers who sell hay must comply with record-keeping requirements of the Bioterrorism Act of 2002.

The mandated records include, among other things, the field that each load came from, the truck that hauled it, and names and contact information of the driver and the people who loaded and unloaded it. The buyer's name and address, and the arrival date, must also be on record.

The rules are designed to enable FDA to trace any contamination problem back to its source. According to the 2002 law, they apply to "persons that manufacture, process, pack, transport, distribute, receive, hold or import food."

FDA includes animal feeds in its definition of food. Feed manufacturers, grain elevators, alfalfa processors and other entities that process or store farm products must comply. While most farms are exempt, the FDA spokesman confirms that commercial hay growers are not. Operations with 11 or more full-time employees must comply by June 6 of this year; smaller operations have until Dec. 9."

There is a couple days worth of reading, but I didn't see where hay from individual producers is covered. In Illinois the Dept. of Agriculture is the lead agency. You may want to get in touch with your state dept. of agriculture.

The records that I am required to keep are quite extensive, but also fairly simple and most of them we were doing anyway.

• Feed/Food Facility registration