The Food Police
The Campaign for Liberty is reporting on House Resolution 875, which ostensibly establishes a new federal bureaucracy, the Food Safety Administration. This new addition to the “alphabet soup” of regulatory agencies, would have jurisdiction over all food production, in the name of preventing food-borne illnesses and food contamination. The legislation:
- Legally binds state agriculture departments to enforcing federal guidelines effectively taking away the states power to do anything other than being food police for the federal dept.
- Effectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn’t actually use the word organic.
- Effects anyone growing food even if they are not selling it but consuming it.
- Effects anyone producing meat of any kind including wild game.
- Legislation is so broad based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal. There are no specifics which is bizarre considering how long the legislation is.
- Section 103 is almost entirely about the administrative aspect of the legislation. It will allow the appointing of officials from the factory farming corporations and lobbyists and classify them as experts and allow them to determine and interpret the legislation. Who do you think they are going to side with?
- Section 206 defines what will be considered a food production facility and what will be enforced up all food production facilities. The wording is so broad based that a backyard gardener could be fined and more.
- Section 207 requires that the state’s agriculture dept act as the food police and enforce the federal requirements. This takes away the states power and is in violation of the 10th amendment.
Yes, you read right. This would make organic farming illegal, and it would outlaw backyard gardening. In addition, this would be yet another violation by the Federal Government of the 9th and10th Amendment guarrantees of self-government and state sovereignty.
Link to the story at the Campaign for Liberty site
The link to the bill in the article has expired, but you can read a copy of the bill by duplicating the search. Go to http://thomas.loc.gov/ and enter “HR 875” in the search box, and click the “Bill number” radio button, then perform the search.