Posted on 08/10/2013 10:45:37 AM PDT by John Semmens
For the second time in less than a year, Minnesota authorities are prosecuting Alvin Schlangen for unauthorized delivery of farm produce. Schlangen offers members of the private buying club, Freedom Farms Co-op, the benefit of his volunteer delivery service. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) demands that the Stearns County District Attorney stop the deliveries by bringing charges against Schlagen.
Schlagen's customers, many of whom have no other convenient means of getting food to their homes, are irate at the MDA. “A lot of those on Schlagen's route are house-bound or handicapped,” said Elisabeth Berry. “More to the point, though, all of us are free individuals who have the God-given right to buy from whoever we please.”
Dave Frederickson, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, maintains that “the issue isn't anyone's freedom, God-given or otherwise. The issue is public safety. When it comes to food, we are the agency entrusted to protect people from potentially hazardous food.”
“The notion that individuals are competent to determine which foods are safe is flawed,” Frederickson asserted. “We have the expertise. They don't. If we allow individuals to make their own choices out of some misguided ideal of personal freedom we'd be neglecting our duty. The voters elected the people who made the regulations and the Governor who appointed me. If they'd wanted the kind of individual freedom being asserted by Mr. Schlagen they'd have made different decisions in the voting booth.”
if you missed any of this week's other semi-news/semi-satire posts you can find them at...
http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Opinion/139656-2013-08-09-semi-news-a-satire-of-recent-news-august-11-2013.htm
Got me again!
John gets me every time! The thing is...reality, the gov’t, has descended into satire!
I was going to say the only thing not accurate about this satire is that it involves buying and selling. If it was about people GIVING AWAY needed goods and services (like Catholic medical charities serving the homeless) the government would shut them down - albeit through cramming so much paperwork down their throats that they wouldn’t have time or energy for anything else, which is the same method the IRS used to slog down the Tea Party. And the same method that Dr Conspiracy is using to try to get rid of Sheriff Arpaio’s Cold Case Posse.
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