The Milk Police

The Milk Police: "

This post taken from Ron Paul’s House website.

The Milk Police
by Ron Paul

On April 20th, after a year-long undercover sting operation, armed
federal agents acting on behalf of the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) raided the business of Pennsylvanian Amish farmer Dan Allgyer to
prevent him from selling his unpasteurized milk to willing,
fully-informed customers in Maryland. Federal agents wasted a whole year
and who knows how many of our tax dollars posing as customers in order
to catch Allgyer committing the “crime” of selling his milk. He was not
tricking people into buying it, he was not forcing people to purchase
it, and there had been no complaints about his product. These were
completely voluntary transactions, but ones that our nanny-state federal
government did not approve of, and so they shut down his business. The
arrogance of the FDA and so many other federal agencies is simply
appalling. These types of police state raids on peaceful businessmen, so
reminiscent of our tyrannical federal drug war, have no place in a free
society.

The FDA claims its regulatory powers over food safety give it the
authority to ban the interstate sales of raw milk, but this is an
unconstitutional misapplication of the commerce clause for legislative
ends. As we have seen, if the executive branch feels hamstrung by the
fact that our framers placed lawmaking authority in the Legislative
Branch, they simply make their own laws and call them “regulations.” We
all know how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) uses such bogus
regulation authority to harass, hinder, and shut down countless other
legitimate businesses. Sadly, Congress has been far too lax for far too
long as the executive branch continues to encroach on its areas of
responsibility and thereby undermines our system of government.

Most Americans understand that if you don’t want to drink
unpasteurized milk you simply do not buy it. But the federal government
solution is pre-dawn raids which destroy the livelihoods of honest,
hardworking families in this time of continued economic hardship.

I am outraged by this raid and the many others like it, and that is
why last week I introduced HR 1830, a bill to allow the shipment and
distribution of unpasteurized milk and milk products for human
consumption across state lines. This legislation removes the
unconstitutional restraint on farmers who wish to sell or otherwise
distribute, and people who wish to consume, unpasteurized milk and milk
products.

Many Americans have done their own research and come to the
conclusion that unpasteurized milk is healthier than pasteurized milk.
These Americans have the right to consume these products without having
the federal government second-guess their judgment or thwart their
wishes. If there are legitimate concerns about the safety of
unpasteurized milk, those concerns should be addressed at the state and
local level.

I am hoping my colleagues in the House will join me in promoting
individual rights, the original intent of the Constitution, and
federalism by cosponsoring this legislation to allow the interstate
shipment of unpasteurized milk and milk products for human consumption.

If we are not even free anymore to decide something as basic as what
we wish to eat or drink, how much freedom do we really have left?

This post taken from Ron Paul’s House website.

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