Some worry that the recent pistachio recall will prompt bad legislation.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—This week’s Policy Watch features a major environmental win on the land-protection front, some mixed news in mountaintop-removal coal mining, and opportunities for concerned citizens to speak up about major decisions that will impact the air we breathe and food we eat.

Here’s a recap of what’s going on in DC:

Food-safety bills could be rushed through Congress. There hasn’t been much movement in a series of food-safety bills (HR 875, 759, and 1332) aimed at better regulating the food system, and possibly even breaking up the U.S. Food and Drug Administration into two parts. But the current pistachio contamination could place a fire under legislators, prompting them to come out with a final bill before the rumored Memorial Day date. While just about everyone is in favor of making our discombobulated food system safer, some are worried that a one-size-fits-all regulatory approach will put small, sustainable farmers at such a disadvantage that they won’t be able to compete. “There will be legislation on food safety, and it will impact farmers,” says Greg Bowman, editor of the Rodale Institute’s New Farm online publication. “The goal is to steer the impact to the points in the food system where the greatest risk to the greatest amount of food will impact the most people.”

Mark Castel, codirector and senior farm policy analyst at The Cornucopia Institute, a nonprofit promoting family-scale farming, knows the bills have good intentions, but wants legislators to be aware of unintended consequences, like putting organic farmers out of business with out-of-scale regulations and adopting federal standards that would remove biodiversity

To keep sustainable farmers safe while adopting better food safety methods for agribusiness, visit The Cornucopia Institute’s Action Alert.

Comment on cutting tailpipe emissions. The Bush Administration wouldn’t allow California to mandate better fuel efficiency standards in automobiles to cut greenhouse-gas emissions under the Clean Air Act, but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is thinking about overturning that decision and could grant California a waiver. This could give states that want to tackle the global-warming/air-pollution problem the power to crack down on tailpipe emissions. The public commenting period on this issue ends on April 6, 2009. Visit Regulations.gov to have your say.

Obama signs historic wilderness bill. On Monday, President Barack Obama signed The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, the largest public lands protection bill in decades. It will protect millions of acres of new wilderness and hundreds of miles of rivers, grow the nation’s trail systems, and protect critical habitat in Wyoming from natural gas and oil drilling. “By signing this bill into law, President Obama ensures that our children and grandchildren will be able to enjoy some of America’s last, best wild places,” says Athan Manuel, Sierra Club public lands director.

EPA clarification: Agency won’t halt mountaintop removal. In what seemed like a sweeping victory for environmentalists last week, the EPA came out a day later and clarified its statement on mountaintop removal, a coal-mining technique that involves blowing the tops off mountains and dumping the contaminated debris into valleys, often burying streams. The EPA announced it would not stop issuing mountaintop-removal permits after all.

Make your voice heard on these issues: Go to senate.gov or house.gov to get in touch with your elected officials.