If you’ve caught any old re-runs of Seinfeld you are undoubtedly familiar with the "library police". That episode really made me chuckle. The contrast of the super serious "library cop" with the pettiness of the "crime" was hilarious. What a scary contrast with "the food police"- not so funny now!
The USDA and the FDA are two federal agencies which make choices about what foods we eat. It seems to me that the original intent here was to safeguard the public health, but more and more frequently they are making and enforcing laws that not only run contrary to the best interests of the public, but that promote the interests of big agribusiness and big biotechs. Sometimes this selective enforcement is made with real police, and fines and imprisonment are imposed on the folks who run counter to the system. These agencies are deciding more and more what we can and cannot eat; they are deciding which animals farmers can and cannot raise. Are they keeping us from illness? NO! Are they promoting good sustainable farming practices? NO! Are they protecting the food supply? NO!
Huge agribusinesses (factory farms) run humongous feedlots where they feed tons of antibiotics to thousands of animals destined for our tables. The use of those antibiotics has huge consequences for all of us. Since those are the same antibiotics developed for use in human beings, this indiscriminate use has resulted in drugs which are no longer working to get us well. Superbugs are here! They’ve triumphed over our drug arsenal, and so far there’s no new magic bullet. Have you heard of MRSA? C-Diff? Have you heard of people having portions of their intestines removed because there’s no other way to get rid of the infection other than cutting it out? Have you heard of “flesh-eating disease”? These diseases are so scary because they are resistant to antibiotics.
Instead of the FDA and USDA keeping the public safe from the dangers of the overuse of antibiotics which they could accomplish by pursuing the matter through the courts or requesting legislation to PROHIBIT feeding ANTIBIOTICS to these animals, the FDA targets instead the little guy- the folks on the family farm (who are NOT dosing their animals with drugs, who are NOT polluting, etc) but whom they are very successful at bullying. They confiscate computers, equipment, records, farm animals and crops. Amish farmers- and others- are taken away in handcuffs. Hundreds of gallons of milk and other products are destroyed or confiscated. Some raids are conducted on farm families in the middle of the night at gunpoint. Their crime? They're targets of selective enforcement of stupid and arcane laws. Continued on the next blog: The Food Police- The Movie!
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