Food for Thought

Addressing the impact of pending legislation is always a risky undertaking. At any step along the tortuous path to passage the piece can be amended…either marginally or significantly. Despite my caution I will forge ahead to analyze the underlying basis for the Food Safety Act (the former S. 510) that has been folded into the continuing resolution for maintaining federal spending in lieu of a budget. Will the bill do everything its critics claim it does? Is the concept as beneficial and benign as promoted by its advocates? Frankly, I don’t know, but I DO know that I cannot trust any sweeping legislation from MY government.


The EPA was introduced by Nixon to regulate and moderate air and water. The implied goal was that their mandate involved not allowing room temperature air or water to become “chunky.” We now have in this nation some of the cleanest air and water in the industrialized world. We have developed new technologies and practices for protecting the environment without dismantling the economic engine. But the EPA and its gaggle of anti-capitalists couldn’t stop with success. They insisted on regulating, squeezing and demanding until they, along with greedy labor, forced many of our domestic manufacturers to pack up and relocate off shore. Admittedly, the EPA and labor unions were not the only responsible parties for the decimation of our heavy manufacturing base. I use them only as an illustration of how a government agency goes amok.

Like any bureaucracy, public or private, once a department or agency has fulfilled its mandate, it must seek greater fields to harvest. Smaller concerns yield greater power which morphs into an over- regulating Nanny environment. Bureaucracies must grow to increase their budgets and their power. Eventually they metastasize into tyrannical behemoths that cannot be thwarted no matter how silly or harmful their rulings may be. Proponents of the “Food Safety Act” cite the necessity for limiting the damage to people from e-coli, salmonella and other nasty things that are infrequently found in our food supply. Hallelujah! We need never fear the ravages of sickness or death again because the all-knowing, all-caring and reasonably restrained FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is on the job.

Even if the proponents are telling the truth about the relatively limited purview of the FDA, can they guarantee us that the agency will not grasp for a broader jurisdiction? Can the advocates assure us that Monsanto and ADM with their unlimited funds for lobbying and bribery will not seek to have naturally grown products regulated beyond the cost of production? Can those who seek this legislation honestly promise that the entire food supply of the United States will not, at some future point, be limited to genetically engineered products whose bad effects or side effects may not manifest themselves for a couple of generations? Yes, they may guarantee, they may assure and they may promise, but their statements are as worthless as lips on a chicken.

The so-called “Food Safety Act” represents the camel’s nose. Once the ungainly beast secures an entry into our food supply, the ears will follow as just a little more regulation is deemed necessary. Our beneficent, all-knowing leaders will then decide that if some regulation is good, more is preferable, and the camel’s hump will sidle into the tent. Small farmers, gardeners and survivalists will complain about the camel’s stench, and Big Brother will respond with a “reform” package, the Food On Our Labels Safety act….FOOLS. The new reform will firmly place the entire camel inside every tent (except those who can afford exemptions). Food variety will suffer, and food production will dwindle. Our future will include Mid-East petroleum, Chinese manufactured products and South American food. The best way to avoid the camel’s stench in our tents is to kill it before it comes in. It is past the time for open season on camels.

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