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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?
Ron Paul
www.house.gov/paul
Copyright Dr. Ron
Paul
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