“In general, I agree. Too much of the “safety police” mentality. I must applaud the FDA in one area, though. I’m a celiac, as are two of my three brothers, and two (so far) of my five kids. I do applaud the FDA as far the regs go that ensure that I can tell when wheat, barley or rye products are in something I might otherwise buy. So, as far as the gluten-free or lack thereof contents listings go, great, that helps me a lot. But on the other hand, they (the FDA) need to cease attempts to lecture or otherwise restrict people above the age of majority buying what foods they wish.”
I am not at all convinced that the industry might not volentarly provide such information, or do so to avoid a lawsuit.
In any-case I am certain many state goverment woudl issue labeling requirements(if they haven’t already) which will be just as effective for two reasons:
1: The core food supply must be local in many areas and the more areas the food supply is local the more secure the same food supply is. It is therefore easily for the State & local authority to attack the source if necessary.
2: Whether the food supply is local or not, the food supply is sold locally. Therefore always easily with in the domain of local authorities not to mention State authoritative.
This can and must be a State, Local, & individual issue again.
Men must have the freedom to buy food off the crop directly from the farmer or rancher.
There are actually some really, really good companies out there for accurate food labeling. ConAgra, Unilever, and so on. And then, there are some who are so-so, and some who seem to revel in revealing nothing about the contents of their products. I don’t care about stealing a product idea; it doesn’t occur to me.
The only thing I need to do is make sure that neither my twins, nor myself, will get sick eating something. Picture losing about twenty pounds in a matter of weeks due to eating something. For a celiac, that’s sometimes rather daunting. But if that’s the worst cross I have, I’ve gotten off easy.
I live in a small town in Ohio, where farming is the big industry. I love it. And the farmer’s market is awesome, not to mention all the rest here. Local food is okay too, so long as I can find out whether or not it’ll make me sick. And I am completely in favor of local food as an option.
If you look at my reply to muawiyah, you’ll see that I recognize a difference here. Generally, the FDA has a safety police mentality these days. That’s reprehensible, to say the least. I am against it.
The only contrary point, for me, is the regs that cover listing contents of food. That gives me the chance to occasionally NOT have to grow all that my family eats, and to NOT only buy lowest-common denominator products, and build food from scratch. As a celiac, I’ve done that quite a bit. Far fewer processed foods than you’d find comfortable. But that’s the breaks. So, to paraphrase: ixnay on the FDA, aside from the food labeling regs that let me easily ensure I don’t get sick. Is that more clear?
Most people are too inconveinenced to hit the local farmers market so they drop by the local supermarket. Very little local foods at Krogers/Wal Mart. I think it would be difficult, and extremely expensive for Del Monte to have to make 50 different state labels for each can of corn for each state they send their product. It would be a labeling nightmare.
We are also becoming a importer of food. When I was at Sam's Club the other day nearly all the fish is from China and much of the veggies and fruits was from Mehico. I want to have some minimal food safety standards/labels especially for anything that comes out of those two countries.