The wire tap skills of the Investigative and Enforcement Services of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, of the United States Department of Agriculture are the world's most sophisticated. There are no bounds to the budget, the equipment, and the staff used to locate family farmers who may be in violation of one of over 18,000 USDA regulations, laws and policies. This IES agent may be watching you. His salary is evaluated by his dedication to enforce penalties on livestock producers. Unless you are sure you know all the new USDA regulations that can be enforced against you, your farm, and your family, watch for this highly paid enemy on a road near your farm.
New York v. United States, 505 U.S. 144 (1992):State officials thus cannot consent to the enlargement of the powers of Congress beyond those enumerated in the Constitution.” (emphasis added) Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court.
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Dear Representative DeLauro:
I live in the United States. Not the Washington D.C. Corporate zone, but in the sovereign state of Minnesota in the sovereign United States. You may be unfamiliar with that and the subsequent documents that establish not only my personal rights, but which also limit the reach of government, but then again, maybe not. Its apparent you live in some other part of the world where individual liberties and rights are not a consideration; a place where police state conditions are not only accepted but, encouraged.
I just read the bill you authored H.R. 875 and am left wondering just who it is you work for and where it is you live?
Having printed off and actually reading your bill, I see that there are massive and extremely punitive punishments and fines for non-specific violators most of which would be leveled against small and independent producers, family farms and non-corporate operations. In other words, you did not site specifically just who would be subject to these police state actions, nor did you specify who would possibly be exempt….like maybe small independent and family farmers and herders who aren’t the cause of the known food borne illnesses.
I also noted that exemptions are provided for foreign importers such as China; a known source of contaminated foods, medicines and other products. For the life of me I can not figure out why you would provide an exemption for countries that have consistently shown their disregard for the US consumer.
I couldn’t help note that in Sec. 406 you state:
In any action to enforce the requirements of the food safety law, the connection with interstate commerce required for jurisdiction shall be presumed to exist.
This section says a whole lot in a very few words. Any actions, enforcement, requirements, with regards to an assumed (not presumed) connection to food safety laws; in other words you can just assume interstate commerce is involved and claim jurisdiction. That kind of blows away the “this isn’t going to affect farmers markets, home gardens, etc., doesn’t it? It seems to me if interstate commerce is going to be assumed to exist in any attempts to enforce this new food policing law, anyone who produces, buys, or otherwise touches food from any source is by your definition and planned targeting, already engaged in interstate commerce and by extension and without any evidence needed, guilty.
Question: Would this apply to Monsanto?
Your bill goes on to say that there will be no judicial review allowed, even to determine the validity of the charges that may be levied against an individual.
See, that’s where the difference in where you live and where I live comes in. Where I live the Constitution says that I have a right to due process and to habeas corpus. I’m sure you’re confused here. This simply means that I have a right to know who accuses me and the accuser must produce the evidence, and that no warrants shall issue unless the person requesting the warrant can show probable or reasonable cause. So your “no judicial review even to establish the validity of the charges” won’t fly here where I live. We don’t do things that way.
Also (and this will surely come as a shock to you) your bill establishes an Administrator with dictatorial powers and creates another unmanageable and corruptible bureaucracy in an already bloated federal system. We already have two very dysfunctional agencies that are supposed to be guarding the public health and safety in the areas of food safety and also drug safety. These two agencies, the USDA and FDA have been so corrupted by corporate influence and money, neither serves the public interest or trust and have not for many years. Yet along with corporate influence, taxpayers are forced to contribute to both. Where the heck is all that money going?
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