According to Wisconsin Judge Patrick J. Fiedler, you do not have a fundamental right to consume the food you grow or own or raise. The Farm To Consumer Legal Defense Fund, the pioneers in defending food sovereignty and freedom, recently argued before Judge Fiedler that you and I have a constitutional right to consume the foods of our choice. Judge Fiedler saw no merit to the argument and ruled against the FTCLDF.
Predictably, and depressingly, one of the commenters imagines that somebody who thinks this way must have sold his soul to the Koch brothers, as though it's the Kock brothers, tea partiers, or other constitutionally minded citizens care about controlling whether or not you drink raw or pasteurized milk from your own cows. It's the CPSIA all over again- that dangerous result of not cherishing the Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
At 12:41 in the comment thread, Heather Brown wrote:
This type of infrigement of rights is the outgrowth of progressivism. I’m not talking left or right here, the first progressives were on the right. This type of government control is a baby step into fascism. The government and large corporations working so closely together to manage the economy, and through it our lives, is the end result of the policies we have seen in the federal government since George H.W. Bush got elected–from both sides. It’s finally picking up speed now.
Heather Brown has it exactly right. This is the natural outcome of progressive politics. If the government can meddle in any aspect of food production, it can meddle in all of it- and clearly does.
It's not the mythical bogeyman the left has manufactured of the Koch brothers that should be scaring us- it's the crony capitalists of left and right. The smaller the government, the less opportunity it has to meddle, and the less incentive there is for corporations or nanny minded activist groups to curry government favor that benefits them, and creates a hostile environment for the rest of us.
LOL that you mentioned the Koch conspiracy guy. I wrote the comment to his. Tamara
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a natural progression of the way this government thinks. They want to legislate everything- morality, safety, etc. Certain drugs are deemed unsafe for the populous so they are now illegal. If you grew marijuana in your backyard you could not consume that either. If they are going to decide (for good reasons or for bad) that raw milk is unsafe why would they let you consume yours even if it was from your cow? I can see where they would have trouble in other sectors if the judge ruled that you had a constitutional right to something produced on your own land. I am in NO WAY saying that I agree with this turn of events, just that I see it as par for the course.
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