Reason interviewed free-market farmer Joel Salatin in an article published on 5.5.12.
Two of Salatin’s observations stand out.
On deciding what to eat:
I think the government should allow this debate to flourish in the marketplace of ideas. The government entered this debate in the early 1970s by publishing the first food pyramid, a guide for what Americans should eat. The obesity and diabetes epidemic in this country are a direct result of that intrusion, sponsored and massaged along by the grain cartel and big ag, from chemical companies to equipment dealers. Grain requires more machinery, more energy, and more risk (hence justification for manipulation) than pasture based livestock, and especially forage-based herbivores.
On the worst food law in America today:
The prohibition on raw milk specifically and direct producer-eater food commerce generally. If I could do one thing and only one thing legislatively for the food system, it would be to create a Constitutional Amendment called the Food Choice Emancipation Proclamation which would guarantee every citizen the inalienable, fundamental right to consume any product of their choice and legalizing the direct unregulated commerce between consenting adults of said product.
Right now, farmers can give away raw milk and home made pickles; the prohibition is on sales. What is it about taking money for something that suddenly turns it from a wonderful charitable product into a hazardous substance?
On organic milk, I’d say America is heading, however fitfully, toward liberalization. On government’s role in cajoling or banning other food choices, I’d guess we’re heading in the opposite direction.
Via Reason.
Originally posted on 5.8.12 at Daily Adams.