FDA Views on Your Food Choices: From FDA‘s reply brief to a lawsuit filed by FTCLDF challenging the interstate raw milk ban in the case of Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund et al. v. United States Department of Health and Human Services et al.
- “There is no absolute right to consume or feed children any particular food.”
- “Plaintiffs’ assertion of a fundamental right to their own bodily and physical health, which includes what foods they do and do not choose to consume for themselves and their families is similarly unavailing because Plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to consume any food they wish.”
- “There is no deeply rooted historical tradition of unfettered access to foods of all kinds.”
By Pete Kennedy
Catherine Austin Fitts says, “What good is having assets if you don’t have an army to protect them?” The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) should be part of your army. Launched on Independence Day in 2007, for the past 14 years FTCLDF has been protecting the rights of farmers, local artisan food producers, and consumers to engage in direct commerce. The day-to-day goal of FTCLDF’s work is to create as favorable a regulatory climate as possible for small farmers and local artisans with the long-term goal of establishing a food system in which people have the right to obtain the food of their choice from the source of their choice. FTCLDF levels the playing field for small producers of nutrient-dense food, protecting them against government harassment and depletion of their resources through government initiation of judicial and administrative proceedings against family farms. When FTCLDF represents a farmer in a court case, the farmer typically has no cost for representation beyond annual membership dues.
FTCLDF works in the courts, legislatures, and bureaucracies at both the state and federal level to protect your freedom of food choice. It is a true grassroots organization, never having received any money from the government; the corporate contributions it receives are from small like-minded businesses. The bulk of its revenues come from membership fees and individual donations. FTCLDF is an organization that’s there for farmers and local artisans on a day-to-day basis whether it’s dealing with an enforcement action, writing contracts, facilitating food distribution, or helping to interpret applicable laws governing local food producers’ ability to make a living. The Legal Defense Fund helps members negotiate non-scalable food laws that threaten small producer viability.
In light of the deterioration of quality in the industrial food system, and the upheaval in that system since the onset of the COVID crisis, the work of FTCLDF is more important than ever. Executive Director Alexia Kulwiec joins the Solari Food Series audiocast to talk about some of the recent work of the Legal Defense Fund as well as why it’s important to support the FTCLDF to protect your sources of fresh food.
In Let’s Go to the Movies , a video of a Michigan town meeting packed with supporters of Hidden Creek Farm in Dalton Township facing shutdown over a “nuisance” lawsuit filed by a neighbor and the township not only to stop its on-farm “commercial sales operations” but also to put an end to the various community events held throughout the year, like farm-to-table dinners, ox roast and open farm events. Be sure to listen to the audiocast to hear the outcome of this case. Alert – Help Hidden Creek Farm
“The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund now gives all of us—farmers and eaters—a finger in the dike to hold back the tsunami of government harassment toward traditionally raised, artisan processed and directly distributed food. It is bringing balance to the injustice and helping all of us who believe the ultimate individual liberty is not religion, press or gun ownership, but rather the autonomy to feed our 3-trillion-member community of internal bacteria a diet consistent with their history and creation.” – Joel Salatin
Post your questions for Ask Catherine and story suggestions for Money & Markets for this week here.
Related Reading:
Raw Butter Is a Communicable Disease
Court document: FTCLDF Butter Petition
Court document: FDA Rejection Letter
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
