Friday, November 19, 2010

Why The Food Safety Act is A Bad, Bad Thing

They're at it again, those malicious jerk a**holes up in Washington, Den of Criminals.  This time I'm talking about the Senate, which is getting ready to vote on the Food Safety Modernization Act, S-510.  

What's that?  I can imagine someone saying, "Graybeard, old man, have you lost it?  How can you object to food safety?"

This is about food safety like gun control is about guns.  It's about control. I actually wrote about this last May, but I know I have a lot of newer visitors these days.  That was when the USDA was arguing in court that citizens "do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish", or, to be complete:
"Plaintiffs' assertion of a 'fundamental right to their own bodily and physical health, which includes what foods they do and do not choose to consume for themselves and their families' is similarly unavailing because plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish,"
You have no fundamental right to your own body?  And just who does?  Since large factory farms have had some contamination issues, you'd think the Feds would target the foreign food imports like the melamine in baby formula people, or that large factory spinach farm located next to the pig farm (remember the e. coli in spinach?) , or someplace like that, right?  Silly person!  The Fed.gov is going to clamp down on you!  They're going to crack down on mom and pop farms, organic farms, and folks who sell the fruit off their trees on roadside stands.  Even without this law, they've raided health food stores with guns drawn to confiscate raw milk - which people were quite happily, and voluntarily, prepared to buy (and probably pay a premium for, based on my experiences with health food stores).
At least he has good trigger discipline.
And it's not just California hippies they're raiding, it's the Amish, too.  Natural News, an online newsletter catering to those who prefer health foods and less industrialization of the food supply, has said,
Senate Bill 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, has been called "the most dangerous bill in the history of the United States of America." It would grant the U.S. government new authority over the public's right to grow, trade and transport any foods. This would give Big brother the power to regulate the tomato plants in your backyard. It would grant them the power to arrest and imprison people selling cucumbers at farmer's markets. It would criminalize the transporting of organic produce....it would criminalize seed saving... it would allow the government to arrest anyone for growing any food in their garden and selling extras... it would completely put the production of food under the Department of Homeland Security
Yes, the DHS, those wonderful folks who brought you the nude scanners and "cop-a-feel" pat downs.  Around here, lots of people have citrus trees and tropical fruit trees.  It's not unusual to see people offering fruit for sale from a small table on their property, or even fruit with an honor system jar next to it.  This will be illegal under the new law. 

This is a dangerous, bad bill.  It gives the government the power to stop you from growing food in your own garden.  It gives them the power to shut down organic farming, and things we frankly don't know because they didn't write them into the bill!  They left it up to the administrator, to be named after the law is passed, to write much of it.  Can you imagine?  The control of seeds alone could bring starvation on Biblical scales. 

No. More. Blank. Check.  Laws.  None.  Need I remind you that food providers are not in the business of killing their customers?  It's bad business practice.  We don't need this law.  Better yet, do some research and read some more about.  There's something in there for everyone to hate and get up in arms about.  Then contact your senator and urge them to vote against it. 

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