Raids are increasing on farms and private food-supply clubs

[RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE]

dont piss off the corporate overlords.

When the 20 agents arrived bearing a search warrant at her Ventura County farmhouse door at 7 a.m. on a Wednesday a couple weeks back, Sharon Palmer didn't know what to say. This was the third time she was being raided in 18 months, and she had thought she was on her way to resolving the problem over labeling of her goat cheese that prompted the other two raids. (In addition to producing goat's milk, she raises cattle, pigs, and chickens, and makes the meat available via a CSA.)

But her 12-year-old daughter, Jasmine, wasn't the least bit tongue-tied. "She started back-talking to them," recalls Palmer. "She said, 'If you take my computer again, I can't do my homework.' This would be the third computer we will have lost. I still haven't gotten the computers back that they took in the previous two raids."

http://www.grist.org/article/food-fi...club/#comments

[JWeeks]

Originally Posted by RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

dont piss off the corporate overlords.

When the 20 agents arrived bearing a search warrant at her Ventura County farmhouse door at 7 a.m. on a Wednesday a couple weeks back, Sharon Palmer didn't know what to say. This was the third time she was being raided in 18 months, and she had thought she was on her way to resolving the problem over labeling of her goat cheese that prompted the other two raids. (In addition to producing goat's milk, she raises cattle, pigs, and chickens, and makes the meat available via a CSA.)

But her 12-year-old daughter, Jasmine, wasn't the least bit tongue-tied. "She started back-talking to them," recalls Palmer. "She said, 'If you take my computer again, I can't do my homework.' This would be the third computer we will have lost. I still haven't gotten the computers back that they took in the previous two raids."

http://www.grist.org/article/food-fi...club/#comments

You can blame the corporate overloards if you wish, but petty tyrannical governments always want to control food supplies. Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942), was a U.S. Supreme Court decision that dramatically increased the power of the federal government to regulate economic activity.

In that case, the courts found that the federal government could regulate the amount of food that a person could grow on his own land for his own private use!!!

During the depression, for the first time, under government supervision, 6 million pigs were slaughtered and farmers were paid to not grow food. The predictable results were food lines and hungry people.

Food line in the US during the depression.


Government ration lines in Venezuela under the dictator.




One of Cuba's most protected secrets were food lines, which Castro's government denied. Cuban citizens ran into food lines at a moment's notice when something became available. No one was allowed to photograph the lines. Photo Copyright by Ron Laytner

Do you see what all these lines have in common?

[RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Originally Posted by JWeeks

You can blame the corporate overloards if you wish, but petty tyrannical governments always want to control food supplies. Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942), was a U.S. Supreme Court decision that dramatically increased the power of the federal government to regulate economic activity.

In that case, the courts found that the federal government could regulate the amount of food that a person could grow on his own land for his own private use!!!

During the depression, for the first time, under government supervision, 6 million pigs were slaughtered and farmers were paid to not grow food. The predictable results were food lines and hungry people.

Food line in the US during the depression.


Government ration lines in Venezuela under the dictator.




One of Cuba's most protected secrets were food lines, which Castro's government denied. Cuban citizens ran into food lines at a moment's notice when something became available. No one was allowed to photograph the lines. Photo Copyright by Ron Laytner

Do you see what all these lines have in common?

Monsanto, Tyson, ADM and the factory farms & whole foods thank you for your support this is where the libertarian in me comes out clearly there is
alliterative motive and i highly doubt it's public safety.

[JWeeks]

Originally Posted by RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

Monsanto, Tyson, ADM and the factory farms & whole foods thank you for your support this is where the libertarian in me comes out clearly there is
alliterative motive and i highly doubt it's public safety.

As Henry Hazlitt pointed out in his "Economics in One Lesson":

“In the five year period 1955 through 1959 an average of 428 pounds of cotton was raised per acre in the United States as compared with an average of 260 pounds in the five-year period 1939 to 1943 and an average of only 188 pounds in the five year ‘base’ period 1909 to 1913. When these comparisons are brought down to date, they show that the increase in farm productivity has continued, though at a reduced rate. In the five-year period 1968 to 1972, an average of 467 pounds of cotton was raised per acre. Similarly, in the five years 1968 to 1972 an average of 84 bushels of corn per acre was raised compared with an average of only 26.1 bushels in 1935 to 1939, and an average of 31.3 bushels of wheat was raised per acre compared with an average of only 13.2 in the earlier period. Costs of production have been substantially lowered for farm products by better application of chemical fertilizer, improved strains of seed and increasing mechanization.

Thanks, indeed, to all those who supply the fertilizers, more productive strains of seeds, and farming equipment that have substantially improved the productivity of our farmlands.

If you would like to go back to the productivity of the farms of the 1800's, then count me out. We would need a lot more acres brought into production than are farmed today to raise the same amounts of products.

[RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Originally Posted by JWeeks

As Henry Hazlitt pointed out in his "Economics in One Lesson":

Thanks, indeed, to all those who supply the fertilizers, more productive strains of seeds, and farming equipment that have substantially improved the productivity of our farmlands.

If you would like to go back to the productivity of the farms of the 1800's, then count me out. We would need a lot more acres brought into production than are farmed today to raise the same amounts of products.

look i'm not going to go back and forth if you don't see this for what it is thats on you.

[JWeeks]

Originally Posted by RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE

look i'm not going to go back and forth if you don't see this for what it is thats on you.

Sorry, it actually is on you.

The article indicates that raids have been conducted by:
1. The FBI
2. FDA
3. Los Angeles County District Attorney's office,
4. Los Angeles County Sheriff,
5. Ventura County Sheriff,
6. California Department of Food and Agriculture
7. Minnesota Department of Agriculture
8. Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection

As I pointed out, the government has been heavily involved in agriculture since the 1920's, largely as a result of progressive policies. The government stepped in provide price supports (parity pricing). Then, in the 30's, the government strarted dictating how much you could grow on your own land for your own use, and the Wickard vs Filburn case found that such intervention was constitutional, even when the grain that Filburn was grown was for his own use.

You are one of the people who supports government intervention into people's lives and business with laws regulating minimum wages, unemployment insurance, etc. That is the continuing legacy of progressive legislation and the desire for a bigger, more controlling government. The government obliges and now, when the government steps in in the name of protecting people from possibly unsafe food (or to make sure that these food clubs aren't skating by on paying their fair share of sales taxes) now you whine at the loss of liberty and attribute it to some corporate conspiracy.

Were these raids as a result of corporate urgings? Maybe; but it doesn't really matter what was motivating these raids, whether it was the corporations making sure that there aren't alternative food sources available, the government making sure it was getting sales tax, or the government just looking out for the people.

Monsanto, et. al. couldn't get the government to raid these growers if the government hadn't been given power to intervene in the first place. Big government always want to control their subjects, and food is one of the ways that they control them.