California raisin farmer battles feds over Depression-era regulation

FoxNews ^ | July 10, 2013

[metmom]

A California raisin farmer is facing at least $650,000 in fines for defying a Depression-era law that requires him to set aside some of his crop and turn it over to the U.S. government without being compensated.

Marvin Horne of Raisin Valley Farms in Kerman has been breaking the obscure law since 2002 and owes the government 1.2 million pounds of unpaid raisins, which is roughly about the size of his entire harvest for four years, The Washington Post reported.

"I believe in America. And I believe in our Constitution. And I believe that eventually we will be proved right," Horne told the newspaper. "They took our raisins and didn’t pay us for them."

At the center of the dispute is a law passed by Congress in 1937 aimed at protecting impoverished farmers by controlling supply and demand for dried grapes after the Great Depression.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/10/california-raisin-farmer-fights-state-government-regulation/#ixzz2YdyI8uTR

[TArcher]

Rearden Raisins and the “Fair Share” act?

{ shrug }

[metmom]

I hope he wins.

It’s well past time to kill the beast.

[Former MSM Viewer]

Raisin confiscation!

This is a relic from another era that the govt keeps in place strictly for the money.

The original intent of this stupid idea was to attempt to stabilize the price of raisins.

Price stability of raisins???

THAT is a function of government?

And to accomplish this, they confiscate about 40% of a farmers toil...

Absurdity! Glad to see him fighting the beast...

[CarmichaelPatriot]

I’d love to see this make it all the way to the Supreme Court and end with this regulation and a whole bunch more being tossed. The government needs to get out of the food and fuel businesses.

[Valpal1]

It already has been to the supreme court and they punted it back to the circuit court for reconsideration.