SCHUMER URGES FDA TO REVERSE COURSE ON RIDICULOUS PROPOSED RULE THAT WOULD HURT NEW YORK’S CRAFT BREWERS AND FAMILY FARMERS ALL AT ONCE – FDA TRYING TO END AGE-OLD PRACTICE OF LETTING BREWERS SELL OR DONATE “SPENT GRAIN” TO FARMERS
Brewers Like Rochester’s Rohrbach’s Brewing, Genesee Beer, and CB Craft Brewers Typically Donate or Sell “Spent Grain” – A Byproduct From Brewing Process – to Local Farmers to Use as Livestock Feed; But Proposed FDA Rule Would Eliminate This Win-Win Transaction
Schumer Calls on FDA to Reverse Course & Allow Brewers and Farmers to Continue Exchanging Brewing Byproduct; If Proposed Rule is Not Revised, Costs for Brewers & Farmers Will Go Up and Spent Grain Will Be Wasted & Sent to Landfills
Schumer: We Are Trying to Keep Family Farms Alive & Grow Our Craft Brewing Industry – But This Absurd Rule Would Hurt Them Both
Earlier this week, at Rohrbach’s Brewing Company in Rochester, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer called on the FDA to reverse course on a proposed rule that would be unnecessarily harmful to Upstate New York’s burgeoning craft brew industry and its farmers, which are the lifeblood of the region. Specifically, the FDA is attempting to regulate “spent grain” – a natural byproduct of the brewing process – in a way that would prevent brewers from selling or donating it directly to farmers who use it to feed animals. The FDA has proposed a new rule as part of its continued implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act that would put unnecessary regulation on brewers wishing to donate or sell spent grains. The new rule means these spent grains would be regulated in a way that could force brewers to trash the grains. Schumer said that there is no compelling evidence that the spent grains are affecting health or safety, and there is no reason to regulate them in such a restrictive manner. For CB Craft Brewers in Honeoye, this regulation would come at the worst possible time, as they just underwent a costly expansion to build a system to sell their spent grain to Finger Lakes dairy farms that could now be obsolete.
“A new federal rule proposed by the FDA is a double whammy for Upstate New York, harming both our burgeoning craft brew industry and farmers alike – it simply cannot go forward,” said Senator Schumer.
“Brewers across Upstate New York have been selling spent grains to nearby farms for years, saving everyone involved valuable money and time, and providing a much-needed product for local farmers. But this proposed FDA rule would drive up costs for both farmers and brewers with no clear health or safety benefit,” said Schumer. “So I’m urging the FDA to do an about-face on this misguided rule, which would stymie a mutually-beneficial relationship between two of Upstate New York’s most important industries.”
Schumer was joined by John Urlaub, Owner of Rohrbach Brewing Company; Kenn Yatz, Chief Operating Office at North American Brewery (Genesee Beer); Jason Barrett, Founder and Head Distiller at Black Button Distillery; Chris Spinelli and Jon Mervine, Owners of Roc Brewing Company; Mike Alcorn, Founder of CB Brew Crafters; Andy Mroczek of Mroczek Farms in Lima, NY, and Craig Phelps of Edgewood Farms in Groveland, NY who gets their grains from Black Button and Rohrbach’s.
Mike Alcorn, CB Craft Brewers Founder said, “This proposed rule comes at the worst time since we just added new fermenters to meet growing demand for our craft beer and also invested $20,000 in a new spent grain system to deal with the extra leftover grain after our expansion. Through our new ‘foam to farm’ innovative spent grain system, grain is picked up by a hauler to feed an 80-cow and 1200-cow dairy farm in the Finger Lakes. It’s a win-win and we are counting on recouping our investment and appreciate Senator Schumer’s push to reverse this rule.”
John Urlaub, Owner Rohrbach Brewing Company said, “Brewers’ grains have been used as cattle feed for centuries, and the practice is generally considered safe. Rohrbach’s has been donating our spent grains to local farmers for almost a quarter century. We are a small company and these new rulings would force us to haul our spent grains to landfills which would negatively impact the environment, drive up our costs and hurt our partner farms”
Kenn Yatz, COO of North American Brewery said, “We appreciate Senator Schumer’s initiative to educate people on the new proposed regulation that will burden local farmers and brewers while creating unnecessary waste in our landfills,” said Kenn Yartz, chief operating officer at North American Breweries. “The Genesee Brewery has shipped 900,000 tons of spent grain to area farms over the past three decades. It’s a sustainable, and proven practice that keeps spent grain out of landfills while providing nutritious feed to dairies.”
Jason Barrett, President and Head Distiller at Black Button Distillery said, “This new FDA proposal is singling out predominantly small family run businesses for extra unnecessary regulation. We have a great relationship with our local farmer and our spent grain is a big part of his cattle’s balanced diet. It’s way more environmentally friendly to use our grain as feed then if we hauled it to a landfill which is what we will have to do if this FDA proposal passes. These new rules aren’t going to help protect the public; it’s bad for craft spirits and craft beer businesses, and bad for farmers. All and all its just another example of unnecessary regulation complicating good business practices. We greatly appreciate the Senator Schumer is ready to bring some common sense to government regulations and wants the government to focus on laws that help protect the public not make it harder to do business for already over regulated craft spirits and craft beer producers.”
Spent Grain, or “wet grains,” a natural byproduct of the brewing process, can be sold straight from breweries to farms at a very low cost, and are often donated from brewer to farmer. Schumer explained that these grains are perfect for use as an animal feed because the ‘wet’ grains hydrate animals as they eat. What’s more, spent grains are also a good source of fiber and protein. It is estimated that almost 90 percent of brewers dispose of spent grain in the form of animal feed.
If the proposed rulemaking moves forward, the new regulations will force brewers to meet a series of requirements – including changing the way they store and monitor the spent grain – before selling or donating their spent grains to farmers, which will drive up costs for both brewers and farmers, with no additional safety benefit. Brewers would have to go through a costly hazard analysis, in which they would have to identify potential food safety hazards, estimate how likely they are to occur, predict how severe the effects would be, identify and implement preventive controls, monitor spent grains for any hazards, and develop a written recall plan. Schumer said such a process is unnecessary and burdensome given the lack of any documented health risk to humans or animals.
For many brewers, the cost of meeting these requirements would be higher than simply tossing the grain. The brewing industry estimates that compliance with the proposed rule could cost brewers over $50 million a year and could be a significant burden on small brewers who produce fewer than 1,000 barrels of beer annually. Schumer noted this could even drive up costs for consumers, because eliminating this sort of collaboration would make production processes for both farmers and breweries less efficient.
Schumer provided examples of spent grain sharing practices in the Rochester-Finger Lakes area. Rohrbach’s has been giving away the grains for 22 years. Farmers sell their produce at the Public Market each week and then take spent grain from Rohrbach's on their way out of the market. They take in around 1500 lbs. of grains 5 days a week and then give the spent grains to farmers leaving the market with empty trucks. Genesee has shipped 900,000 tons of spent grain to local farms over the past 3 decades and never had an issue. They use a hauler who has taken 53,000 truckloads of spent grains from Genesee since he started 31 years ago and sold that to local farmers for feed. Black Button distillery receives grains to make their craft spirits from Edgewood Farms in Livingston County. In a very symbiotic way, each week when the farmer delivers new grain to Black Button, the farmer hauls away four 330 gallon containers of spent grain per week. Edgewood Farms receives 10% of his feed from the distillery and was even able to increase their herd size because of the free feed.
At CB Craft Brewers, owner Mike Alcorn just completed an expansion and installed 2 new 60 barrel fermenters which will boost their beer production by 75% to keep up with craft beer demand. Because of all the extra spent grain they will now have, they also just invested in a $20,000 new spent grain handling, storage, and transport system and waste water treatment to pump their spent grains into trucks. The bulk of the grain is purchased by Andy Mroczek of Mroczek Farms in Lima, NY, feeding 80 head of dairy cows each day. Mroczek sells the remaining grain to Mulligan Farms in Avon, NY to help feed 1,200 cows. This new FDA regulation could jeopardize CB Craft Brewers ability to continue to receive revenue by selling the spent grain which is brewer is counting on to help defray the cost of this new capital investment.
A copy of Senator Schumer’s letter to the FDA appears below:
Dear Commissioner Hamburg:
I would like to commend you on your efforts to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), as it is of great importance to our nation’s food supply. However, I would like to bring to your attention the potential negative impacts on the craft brewing and dairy that may result from one of the proposed rules related to implementation of the law for animal feed (FDA-2011-N-0922). As you move forward in the rule-making process, I urge you to take into consideration how these rules may negatively impact the availability of spent grains for sale or donation from craft brewing operations to farms for animal feed.
As you know, farmers and ranchers across New York State and the country rely on spent grains for feed. It is not only a good source of fiber and protein, but also offers an excellent source of hydration for animals. It is estimated that almost 90 percent of brewers dispose of spent grain in the form of animal feed. The product is normally shipped to local farmers around brewing operations, which offers a sustainable end use for this naturally occurring byproduct of beer production. Using spent grains as animal feed also avoids having them sent to a landfill. The brewing industry estimates that compliance with the proposed rule could cost over $50 million a year and could be a significant burden on small brewers who produce fewer than 1,000 barrels of beer annually. I hope you will take into consideration these negative impacts on and revise the proposed rule to uphold strong and meaningful food safety standards without placing unnecessary burdens on both brewers and farmers.
Oversight of brewers is under the jurisdiction of the Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) of the Department of Treasury. The FSMA wisely deferred oversight of alcohol to the TTB and I agree with the craft brewers and dairy farmers this rule may duplicate TTB’s efforts. Again, I commend your efforts to implement many of the important provisions and programs in the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), but urge you to take special consideration concerning the important relationship the brewers and farmers have maintained for hundreds of years to dispose of spent grains in a local and sustainable manner. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
Charles E. Schumer
U.S. Senator