Fishermen and farmers are watching a food-safety bill

The U.S. House has adopted legislation that would exempt commercial fishing vessels from a proposed food-tracking system, but the Senate may not take a stance until next month. The provision was part of the Food Safety Enhancement Act, which was passed the House by a partisan vote of 283-141 on the final day of July. The bill was introduced to help prevent food-borne illnesses, which sickens approximately 76 million Americans, or one in four, each year. Of these cases, an estimated 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The House-backed version originally included a number of safety initiatives, like requiring the Food and Drug Administration to develop in two years a new system for tracing contaminated food items to their sources within two business days. The Southern Shrimp Alliance, a non-profit alliance of shrimp-producing states like Louisiana, weighed in during the drafting process and advocated for critical control points in the imported food chain and improving registration guidelines. But one point hit a nerve with coastal lawmakers: the need to remove fishing vessels from the proposed, interoperable food-tracking system. To read the full story, click here. ? Jeremy Alford