The Milk Police

http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1867&Itemid=69

The Milk Police  
      
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?

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