A FOOD FREEDOM PROPOSAL

            Back in 2017 some politically connected folks urged me to leverage President Trump's against-the-grain persona by sending him a white paper for food freedom.  I wrote it but never sent it; I know enough about politics to know that you need some sort of inside track for anything like to gain traction.  I thought I was going to get an audience with Sonny Perdue in 2019, but that fell through.   

             As we try to survive the Democratic debates and head into another presidential election cycle, I thought it might be appropriate to share this with my world, even if it goes no further with world leaders.  I wish this could be the kind of food/farm related ideas we could get from people running for office, but alas and alack, all we get is more tyranny, less freedom, more regulation and higher taxes.

Enjoy.

             Dear President Trump--                                                Nov. 1, 2017

 You are the one with the vision, charisma, and courage to issue a FOOD EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. Food is enslaved in a tyrannical malaise of regulatory prejudice that denies consumers freedom of choice.  Meanwhile, farmers trying to sell to their neighbors or friends at church are denied the most basic freedom to engage in friendly food commerce among consenting adults.

 While few would argue that large, industrial food corporations marketing through opaque distribution channels need government oversight, surely neighbor-to-neighbor food transactions deserve to freely exist.  From homemade cheese to cottage-industry charcuterie, thousands of wanna-be food entrepreneurs and patrons yearn for freedom to trade with each other.

 The only reason the founders did not include food choice in the Bill of Rights was because they could not have imagined a day when the government would criminalize such communal food transactions as raw milk, pickles, or quiche.  To press neighbor-to-neighbor food transactions through the labyrinth of size-discriminatory regulations demanded of large corporate outfits is not only wrong, it's immoral and anti-American.

 Today, our federal government is imposing bureaucratic extortion on Maine, the first state with enough guts to pass a food sovereignty law.   Millions of Americans yearn for more affordable and optimal food choice, both to buy and sell, but they are burdened with unreasonable and prejudicial big-boy requirements.  This is not a partisan issue: everyone eats, and everyone deserves to procure the food of their choice from the source of their choice.

 For those who think every consensual food transaction needs bureaucratic intervention to insure food safety, simply look at the track record of the current system.  Food safety problems generally occur in industrial-scale outfits; almost never from farmers' markets or on-farm sales.  Like the church potluck or civic club picnic, direct producer-consumer transactions offer transparent and relational protections.  Surely freedom can exist at some level of the food system.

 So what do you say, Mr. President?  You could do for food what Abraham Lincoln did for the slaves, and once and for all free up the enslaved food system and farmer-entrepreneurs to access their neighbors like they did during most of our country's history.  That would truly make America Great Again.  With a single stroke, you could significantly reduce the cost of high quality food for the poor, create unimaginable business opportunities for foodcraft farmers, and offer some community-based competition in the food industry.  Let's do this.  Thank you.

 Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm   Swoope,  Virginia  24479

            What do you think?