US citizens do you know you you lack a very basic right?

[Dunkopf]

I live in America and I grow whatever I want except for marijuana. I'm always up for a good be afraid story though.

 

[noodleroo]

Quote:
The message should not be fear. It should be PAY ATTENTION and get involved. If you don't like what your government is doing, don't just take it; call or write your legislators and let them know what you think. If they don't listen, vote them out of office.

 

[BlackBart]

Quote:
The message should not be fear. It should be PAY ATTENTION and get involved. If you don't like what your government is doing, don't just take it; call or write your legislators and let them know what you think. If they don't listen, vote them out of office.

Amen

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

If they want my raw milk, they will have to pry the udders out of my cold dead hands!

ww

 

[speckledhen]

This country was founded on civil disobedience; at it's very core, it is based on the uprising of a rebel horde of discontented people. There comes a time when laws make no sense and you must do what you know is your basic right to do, like feed your family with what you deem to be nutritious. I refuse to say, "Please, Mr. Government Agent, may I grow a tomato plant on my deck?", but I fear the day is coming that they would require that.

I'm not into causes and I don't put my name on petitions or lists for or against anything. I will quietly live my life and do what is my inherent right to do and hope that I don't see a time in my own life when I would be hauled into jail for growing a garden on my own property for my own use or for keeping a flock of chickens for fresh eggs. That would be a very sad day, indeed.

 

[pringle]

Hey if they wont allow me to drink raw milk from cows then im gonna start milking my hamster,lets see what they say about that

 

[Omniskies]

Devil's advocate!

I love raw milk, and I like selling extra eggs or produce. I'd love to be able to get away with dressing out animals in our backyard and selling them. I've read a bunch of books on the small grower's movements out there and all of that jazz. It wasn't until I snarked with someone equally snarky before I came to understand why regulations were put in place.

My old stance has always been, if someone knows the risks of buying raw milk or eating meat Old Joe dressed out in his backyard, then who cares? The risks were known up front and they wanted to do it, anyway.

But what do you do when Old Joe sells bad meat that kills someone? Or Gramaw Ethyl down the road sells canned food that has botulism? Who is at fault here? Should the government get involved and tell Old Joe and Gramaw Ethyl they can no longer sell their produce, or fine them? How much do you fine someone for selling produce that killed or seriously injured a person? And without government intervention, how do you keep it from happening again? It's easy to say word of mouth would shut them down, but how long before _everyone_ knows that these people are not careful with the food they are selling?

Yeah, the regulations suck. Yeah, I wish I could sell what I wanted, when I wanted, how I wanted, without some government busy-body sniffing around my business. But on the flip side, if I bought bad food that put someone I cared about in the hospital - or put me in the hospital - I would not be satisfied with "oh well, I knew it was a risk." How many of you would be ok if that one in a million carrot you bought did serious damage to your kid?

And before anyone condemns the FDA, believe me, I already know about how awful our food practices are. I've complained about how we ship food all over the US without needing to. And how horrible animals are treated before and during the process (urgh - bleach baths to clean off the poo? Seriously?). But I want someone to look up how many cases of botulism we had back when everyone was swapping canned food regularly compared to how many cases of it we have today. When we have a "serious outbreak" for food that is sold NATION WIDE everyone is mortified that FIVE people died. Let me repeat: NATION WIDE. Then everyone gets in a huff about how dangerous food is and how the FDA is failing at their jobs.

Relatively speaking, the FDA has done exactly what it was meant to do: make our food safer. The population as a whole has decided that safer isn't enough; we need safer, more choices (in and out of season), and at the lowest price possible. Our horrible food standards are not the fault of the FDA. It is the fault of a nation that thinks that $2/lb for chicken is outrageous and happily buys up those 10lb bags of chicken quarters at Wal-Mart for $0.59/lb.

A nation. Not everyone. Obviously some of us are willing to shell out the extra money.

 

[thaiturkey]

I can see the point of these regulations. Stupid or unscrupulous people could produce or sell unfit foods that could damage the health of many people.

However, governments often seem to take it too far. Whenever new regulations are introduced I always suspect that they are intended to take care of the big businesses by squeezing out the small ones and block new entrants to a market. In the UK stringent regulations were introduced in the financial service market to protect customers but that didn't stop the big banks from screwing up small investors and savers recently. Controlling food production is a great way to protect big factory businesses by cutting out local markets.

Some years ago, the idiot EU bureaucrats introduced a compulsory standard curve to bananas. That would have prevented the traditional import of bananas from the Commonwealth to the UK. They did the same with New Zealand lamb, the best in the Commonwealth. The 'straight banana' nonsense cause so much of a public outcry in the UK that it was stopped. So, stand up and be counted now before it's too late.

BlackBart wrote 'I think the free-est countries seem to be the poorest. No big money machine.The poor have nothing so nothing to take'. That's certainly true in Thailand. Despite the growth of supermarket chains and regulation of the food export market to suit foreign buyers, local markets still flourish. The government would like to regulate meat, fruit and vegetable production but it has no effect on small producers. Thais share a quality of the British; apathy. They won't change to suit stupid laws and they will laugh at scare stories. Our two local daily markets have fresh meat, fruit and vegetables every day. It comes from small farms and home producers. I've never been ill after eating any of it. We sell eggs to our local mom and pop shop and they are eaten within days of being laid. No-one regulates what we do and they are fresher and more tasty than the supermarket eggs from Thailand's biggest factory producer. Country folk gather their own green vegetables from the hedgerows and keep chickens and ducks. They fish and hunt in the jungle. Regulation is irrelevant to them and they would take no notice of it anyway.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
Talk about understatements....

 

[Judy]

Actually I think it's absurd that I can't eat dogs and cats. I am free not to, which is my choice, but why am I not free to do so? What about those who grew up eating them?

It's incredible the number of things that are legislated, that are actually none of the government's business.