FDA is this real?

Excuse my French here but is this crap real? or is this thing a thing of the past that i hope never materialised?

http://www.gaia-health.com/articles201/000250-the-fda-says-you-have-no-right-to-freedom-of-food.shtml

http://www.healthiertalk.com/fda-says-no-right-eat-what-you-want-1930

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=153133

Regulations of this type are generally for sales of product and not for sharing items between friends.

They filed a lawsuit claiming that the federal regulations banning raw milk for human consumption in interstate commerce are unconstitutional and outside of the FDA's authority.

Note the reference to "interstate commerce."

Also note the FDA has no authority to evaluate what is or is not a right.  The FDA as part of the federal government has the right to regulate interstate commerce, but does not have the right to grant or withhold rights from the people.

Though various bureaucracies will continue to overstep their bounds by attempting to deny rights which are retained by the people, this must not be construed as granting those bureaucracies the right to do so.  This sort of thing must be ignored if possible, and fought if necessary.

It's my personal belief and practice to avoid regulation by avoiding commerce whenever possible.  Sharing and gifting are not regulated (except under certain circumstances - see below).


http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=108139,00.html

Every couple of years they update food safety laws and every couple of years someone goes flying around the internet posting about how the sky is falling, no the FDA has no plans to stop you from gardening, though raw milk specifically is banned for sale by many states, including those without strong dairy lobbies, it's something the medical community tends to ask for.

This is completely real. Farms and co-ops across the country have been raided by the FDA in para-military outfits and assault rifles. Yes, some of those were for transporting raw milk or whatever, but the point stands that the FDA specifically says you don't have the right to buy and sell whatever food you want. In legal terms this is nonsense as nobody can dictate to you what rights you do and don't have, but that hasn't stopped them from trying to enforce their opinions.

Ludi's point is well taken, and just the other day I read about a town in Maine that passed a food nullification ordinance saying anything produced, bought, and sold within the town isn't subject to federal regulations.

It's happened here in Canada too. A few natural stores were raided and herbs taken off the shelfs (stuff you could grow yourself, nothing funky even), closed down but "Health" Canada and the RCMP. It's gone crazy lately with food stuff. Really, really freaky weird.

I suspect that had to do with claims that they made, more than what the product were.

  there is indeed truth to this. With herbs and raw milk especially, as others said.

there are also potential issues. for instance, take the food food modernization act. go read it, not someone else talking about it. first many small producers think they are not included. this is wrong, they are excluded only from nearly meaningless aspects.

the whole thing is mainly geared towards ensuring the safety of food. It reads like the patriot act actually. Its bizarre to read. it does NOT define how this will be done though. Read the thing. What it does do is gives government officials the complete ability to dictate 100 percent of the inputs into production or how you sell food. It doesnt say they WILL tell you exactly what ferts to use for instance, but they CAN.

    Keep in mind our FDA and USDA are STACKED with reps from multi BILLION dollar companies. Heck our courts are as well. So pretending this is remotely acceptable is rather naive. take the organic spinach scare from a few years ago. Remember those folks who argued this implied organic wasnt safe? well the case could be made that all food needs to be irradiated for instance. the law was obsessed with having food safe at the point of sale as well. could this mean all food in all stores has to be on camera? including a farmers stand? otherwise it isnt safe. sounds silly how im writing it, but I can really only guess at what this food safety  entails because they do NOT really specify. given the track record of these agencies its a bit disconcerting to say the least. especially when you consider SWAT teams invading peoples farms who sell raw milk. Raw milk have many health benefits. Pasteurization being ultimately safer, but nearly obsolete since we have good refrigeration these days. For those that feel, better safe then sorry thats great. more power to you, but the idea a government that cannot pay its bills is invading farms over something that has health benefits is a bit more then scary.

A fill in the blank law that gives the feds the power to control every single input, based on undefined safety doesnt sit well with me.

also as i understood it, it appears even GIVING food away COULD not would be a possible issue. Because as i understood the wording (though keep in mind it was revised several times) it seemed like anyone who produces food for another is a producer. It certainly seemed to imply this includes giving your neighbor food. Knowing how our government dealt with farms during the depression and ww2 even without those powers is rather scary considering we are in tough times that could easily get tougher....

Well said silver seeds.Safety and fear has always been used as a means of control and the reason one wants to control is usually profit and greed.This exists in all areas of society and growing.It's happening with food and starting to happen with water.But this should drive more people in self sustainability as many are trying here.What is very clear is control,greed and profit above all cannot be sustainable, in fact it has all ready failed,but no one wants to admit it.Most governments on all levels are bankrupt and currencies are quickly becoming worthless.The system can only keep going on huge amounts of government and personal debt.This stuff does not scare me, just motivates me to live outside the system and encourage and educate others

I think it is extremely important NOT to give in to fear.  NOT to let fear restrict our behavior. 

Ludi wrote:
I think it is extremely important NOT to give in to fear.  NOT to let fear restrict our behavior. 

I agree totally!!!

A lot of the FDA stuff, especially about health claims in herbs, dated back to the beginning of the American Medical Association.  A very long time ago, medical doctors were outnumbered in the new America by local holistic healers.  Political action, by rich people in the right place passed laws in favor of the medical doctors.  Creating the AMA and basically making what the healers did illegal overnight.  This is why you can't say that herbs, vitamins, minerals have health changing properties in the US.  The FDA regulates drugs, and if you make a claim that Vitamin D "heals" you, you are saying it is a drug, and then it is regulated by the FDA.  If you say that you are sick, and that drinking raw milk made you better.  Then you were healed, but that's against the law unless a medical doctor prescribed you that medically accepted raw milk.  At the core of it all isn't gardening, but if you look deeper, it's about what the government says (think ventriloquist doll here) makes you "healthy."

It comes down to the basic law of the land that states ONLY MEDICAL DOCTORS AND MEDICAL PRESCRIPTION DRUGS CAN HEAL.    Period.      This is why cancer treatments that are holistic, changing diet and using vitamins, minerals, herbs etc are basically outlawed.  In this insane world we have laws that state only a doctor can "heal" you, not a diet, or a vitamin, or a tea, or an herb. 

It's funny, because when you take your little dog to the veterinarian the first thing out of their mouth is,  "what is the little guy eating?".  That's because their diet is linked to so many things.  Farmers don't just throw hay and random stuff at animals, they feed them a diet to keep them healthy for the end result.  Either harvest of a healthy, happy animal at the end of the season, or what a working animal needs to properly perform that job. 

Why do you think that doctors don't really know anything about nutrition.  Come ON!!  basic nutrition is the basis of health, yet most doctors never really learn.  They learn ONLY to give drugs to alleviate symptoms and cut you open to remove or change things inside.  Healing is done by "something else."  Mainly Mother Nature.  

Almost two years ago I woke up to go to work around 4:30am.  My back hurt, but I thought once I was up and going it would work itself out.  But once I was dressed I could hardly stand up, breathing was hard.  This wasn't normal "stiff in the morning" pain.  Mu husband and I agreed I really needed to go to the emergency room.  Well, I had two 6mm kidney stones and then I was introduced to the Wonderful World of the American Health Care System.  Wow.  I could write a paper on how NOT to treat a patient, but that is another story.  I did learn, because bizzare side effects from all the meds I was given led to other problems.  When I asked doctors about these problems, I was told "You should see a doctor about that."  Well, okay, I thought I was talking to a doctor, but what they meant was that I needed to see ANOTHER doctor about that.  They are just all specialists.  Don't ask a kidney doctor why his medicine is making your female cycles go haywire, he has no clue.  Don't ask a doctor WHY anything is happening, but he has a pill for that.  But don't ask a doctor how to take that pill that he is giving you, he doesn't know that it will shut off your desire to EAT.  He only knows that is the one that the pharmaceutical company is paying him "kickback style" to give me, whether it helps or HARMS.

Anyway.................I digress.   We have it set up in the US that food is food.  Our government can't agree on a food pyramid because then they have to admit that Pepsi and chips is not a food group, and that will really piss them off...........

Tami  

From what I've seen so far our government (in the United States at least) is controlled by big business. This includes all the major businesses that have the money to force their business onto the citizens. It seems to me the world is run by money and the more you have the more say you have. How do you get the most money? Control the laws in your favor.

If the government had its citizens best interests at heart, things would be much different than today. What I worry about is the day when growing food at home for personal consumption gets regulated to require things like chemicals to  make the said food "safe" for you and your family. It isn't a matter of if, it's a matter of when (unless the people stand up and say enough is enough).

Already, you are not free to live your life even if it harms none. In many areas you cannot legally build a home of less than about 200 square feet. What if you wanted say 150sq ft? Well if you defied the laws and built it anyway on your own land (which really isn't yours anyway) then the legal thugs will come and destroy it and charge you for the pleasure. In many areas you are forced to use city water and city sewage even if you want to use say rainwater catchment or a humanure setup. In a city near me you are legally required to mow any grass you have to less than 3inches. Don't do it for whatever reason and they fine you, come out and mow it for you and then charge you for mowing it. Also you are required to have a driveway even if you don't own a car and have no plans to own one.

I'm not even going into the HOAs and how they dictate your home and life and you pay them for the privilege.

The sad truth is if you don't do something about it, it will get worse. Ignoring the problem and letting "small things" slip by will lead to more "small things" and eventually they will add up to big things. The reason we are in this mess now is because too many let too many small things slip past. Now all these little things add up to major big things.

/rant

MarkR wrote:


The sad truth is if you don't do something about it, it will get worse. Ignoring the problem and letting "small things" slip by will lead to more "small things" and eventually they will add up to big things. The reason we are in this mess now is because too many let too many small things slip past. Now all these little things add up to major big things.

When I say "ignore it" I mean "go ahead and do what you want".  Build that tiny house.  Odds are the "legal thugs" won't know or care what you are doing.  If they come to destroy it, take them to court on constitutional grounds (4th Amendment) and/or make a huge media circus of the event.  If enough people do this, the laws will be changed.

People should not let fear inhibit their actions, in my opinion.

MarkR wrote:

The sad truth is if you don't do something about it, it will get worse. Ignoring the problem and letting "small things" slip by will lead to more "small things" and eventually they will add up to big things. The reason we are in this mess now is because too many let too many small things slip past. Now all these little things add up to major big things.

/rant

Awareness is the killer of apathy, and apathy is exactly what has gotten us into this mess.  Being aware and talking with friends about said problems from zone 0 out will help increase awareness of problems.

This conversation is trending a bit political unfortunately, talking about religion and politics is discouraged here.

H Ludi Tyler wrote:
When I say "ignore it" I mean "go ahead and do what you want".  Build that tiny house.  Odds are the "legal thugs" won't know or care what you are doing.  If they come to destroy it, take them to court on constitutional grounds (4th Amendment) and/or make a huge media circus of the event.  If enough people do this, the laws will be changed.

People should not let fear inhibit their actions, in my opinion.

This is a good point, especially in small townships that can't really afford the legal
cost of being sued.I have a neighbor that lives in a shack and got permits for nothing and has nothing by code. Plus his place is a junk yard.If the town tells him to fix things,he just threatens to sue and demands the town repair, bridges,roads,etc.He points out how many things in the town that are not to code and demands they fix them.The town of course cannot afford to and does not want it brought to court,so they leave him alone.Quite smart really.