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

[Mac in Wisco]

The FDA only governs food in interstate commerce. The individual states regulate raw milk and other foods within their borders, and then pretty much only in commerce. Nobody is stopping you from milking a cow on your premises and drinking the milk. There are people who would try to make a case against you for eating a cat or dog or a horse, but unless they could prove animal cruelty, they generally don't have a case.

The laws are there to protect the consumer. As soon as somebody gets sick or dies there is always somebody screaming "There ought to be a law!" or "Why didn't the government protect us?"

 

[thaiturkey]

Quote:
And there you have exposed the trick. Let a problem develop until there's a public outcry and demands for 'them' to do something. Then introduce legislation and regulations that restrict the right of individuals without necessarily solving the problem. You can't complain because you got what you asked for. Have those factory poultry scandals actually made any difference to the conditions in which the birds are kept or have they just made life more difficult for the back yard producer? I ask because I don't know the answer - it hasn't affected me directly.

 

[Omniskies]

The government didn't decide one day that people could not eat dogs, cats, or horses. These are things that the average American petitioned to see put on the books as a law. Horses were allowed to be slaughtered up until a few years ago, when people pressed the government to stop the slaughter. As a result, horse prices have dropped to ridiculously low amounts (I sell my geese for more than I paid for my horse), and there is no longer a steady outlet for old, sick, crippled, etc, animals. That wasn't something the government decided to do on its own. It took years and years of petitioning before horses were completely removed from any menu or slaughterhouse. And _now_ some states are petitioning their government _again_ to _remove_ the law.

As has been pointed out, no one is stopping you from doing it on your property in your household. You can drink milk straight from the cow if you want to crawl under her - you just can't charge others to do the same.

People whine and huff and complain about what the government does. It is not a sinister, diabolical mastermind and, let's face it, the government really doesn't care what sort of milk you had in your cereal this morning. Or what breed chickens you will have on your table tonight. They care about being re-elected, which they can do by passing the laws that the average person wants passed (or at least by being less of a dick than the other guy running). If we want cheap food and don't care how it is made, then the government will make sure we get cheap food. If we want stricter laws on chicken eggs so no one gets sick, then we will get those laws. If those laws affect people who have chickens in the backyard, well, that sucks. But that's what the average American decided they wanted based on things they saw on the news (on that note, I blame the sensationalist tripe that passes for news these days more than the government). In order to keep people from making "dumb" decisions they have to be educated. In order to educate them, we have to have a society that cares about more than Hollywood, adorable animal captions, and Justin Beiber.

As far as I'm concerned, the government is only as smart and capable as the people it is serving.

That's why I'm so terrified.

 

[Sir Birdaholic]

Quote:
The government doesn't care what we put in our bodies if it harms us or they wouldn't allow so many dyes, preservatives, or by-product. They only care if they haven't got the control over it. They will find a way to control it.....for their own profit.

 

[thaiturkey]

Quote:
The government doesn't care what we put in our bodies if it harms us or they wouldn't allow so many dyes, preservatives, or by-product. They only care if they haven't got the control over it. They will find a way to control it.....for their own profit.

Well, for the profit of those who pull the strings of governments.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
Are you talking about the salmonella problems? The FDA had worked up salmonella prevention regulations in the past couple of years to be enacted starting this year. They went into effect right about the same time that the outbreak cropped up with the Iowa farm. The new rules allowed them to go onto the farm, inspect, and fine the producer for not following their brand new rules, which probably wouldn't have prevented the outbreak anyway, since the outbreak was traced to a batch of infected meat and bone meal being used for feed, which is a mode of contamination that isn't even addressed in the new FDA rules...

It doesn't effect the back yard producer at all, since the rules only pertain to those with more than 3000 hens.

 

[BlackBart]

Quote:
That has already happened but in a very large scale.
This year the two commercial egg producers that recently had salmonella problems.
Were they not Government regulated? had they not already had previous infractions?

Another perfect case is the lysteria tainted food from Maple Leaf Meats in Canada. They were regulated and supposed to do testing on their products.

It makes you wonder who is policing the store? They tell us the little guy might kill us but so might the big guy. Of course the latter on a larger scale.

I understand what you mean about the cleanliness, hap-hazard handling and lackadaisical attitude some people might have but one would think a large commercial business would have strict rules to follow.
Especially as there are inspectors checking regularly. (one would think anyway)

 

[Omniskies]

The government doesn't care what we put in our bodies if it harms us or they wouldn't allow so many dyes, preservatives, or by-product. They only care if they haven't got the control over it. They will find a way to control it.....for their own profit.

Really...? Ok, so the argument is no longer that the government over-regulates everything. The government is perfectly happy if we ingest enough chemicals to give us all sorts of horrible diseases so long as they can make a profit in the end.

I knew it! They had been feeding us all of this stuff so that we would finally agree to Universal Health Care which will pad their pockets with...wait a minute...

I hate to break it to you, but the government we have is pretty cut and dry. Will the candidate get reelected if they do X? Answer: yes (do it), no (don't do it). What I am seeing here is a lot of hype and paranoia without a whole lot of legitimate research behind it. Everything is being regulated because of hype and paranoia - Y will make you sick, don't take Y. Now Y has been banned. Z is giving everyone cancer. Quick, jump on the bandwagon and sue company Z1 for sneaking it by the FDA! Quick, condemn the FDA for snooping around other people's business when their job is...to...well...drats.

I wish I could remember the name of a great book I read about food swindles over the years and how the government became more and more involved in food safety. It really shines a light on how thankful we should be that we have regulations. I admit - I wish things were done better. There are a lot of laws that pass I disagree with, and like I've said before, a lot of things I wish I could legally do but can't. However, the larger a population becomes, the more difficult it is to appease everyone - or even the majority.​

 

[Omniskies]

Found it:

Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud, From Poisoned Candy to Counterfeit Coffee.

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8723.html

 

[silkiechicken]

Well, I hear us US citizens asking the government for help and saying the government should do something about x y and z.... well, "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." It seems that many are getting what they want and also getting what comes with it.