Chances are you don’t keep up with the farm news. But maybe you should. Because something that’s happening to farmers now could have a serious impact on your future. In 2011, Congress passed the Food Safety Moderization Act. It was a well-intentioned bill meant to prevent food contamination. Now, the FDA is using that law to write reams of new farm regulations. They say they’re just proposals and won’t be finalized for a couple of years. But some farmers already see a tsunami of government red tape and bureaucracy hurtling toward them, and they’re deciding it’s just not worth it anymore. Ohio reports that farmer Don Bessemer, who used to grow all sorts of vegetables in the Akron area, has shut down his farmer’s market, laid off all his workers and planted nothing but soybeans. He’s seen the new FDA proposals that will require farmers to track every vegetable from seed to sale, and it’s just too much to handle and still turn a profit. Don’s the third generation of Bessemers who’ve farmed for 117 years. He says his family has never poisoned anyone with an ear of corn. He doesn’t want to quit farming, but he’s being forced to by a new plague: government over-regulation. Chances are, he won’t be the only one. Don said, “I can fight the bugs, I can fight the lack of rain, but when the guy comes with a clipboard, what are you going to do?” And I’d add that when government bureaucrats who’ve never set foot on a farm drive farmers out of business, what are we all going to eat? Clipboards? - Mike Huckabee
Posted on: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 14:57:40 +0000
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