Jul 15, 2010 8:16 PM - So the term “facility” does not apply to farms, restaurants, or other retail food establishments; would it, for example, apply to a farm that has packing sheds on it’s property? My family’s farm has a pistachio shed and a shed in which we pack asparagus and melons, are these areas then covered under the law by definition of the word “facility”?
Jul 10, 2010 9:01 PM - What is the constitutional basis for the federal government to monitor and control small farms that are not shipping product across state lines?
IIRC this passed the House in the Spring of 2009. I know it, or something like it passed almost immediately after the election. I thought since it had been shelved so long, it might be dead, and praying it would be so. These dictators will never be satisfied. May God help us all, and that’s a plea, not hyperbole!
The argument is basically that if, say, you are feeding your own chickens with your own wheat, you are not buying the feed in interstate commerce, and that affects the price of wheat in interstate commerce. (I didn’t say it was a reasonable argument.) Google Stanley Yankus.
I raise my own chickens off form the back of my labor-IE oats etc. Let em try to stop me. I triple dog dare them.
Lets see if they can dodge the lead sent after them. I’ll be Dammed if I will let them try and tell me what the heck I can do concerning me raising my own food.
Precedent. We lost this battle a looooong time ago. See Wickhard v Filburn. A farmer was growing wheat for consumption by his own farm animals. The Feds said it was in excess of their demanded production limits. He said it was not "in interstate commerce" (a constitutional clause we once enjoyed), and thus not under their purview. The Supreme Court, during the era of FDR's Court-Packing threats, sided with the Feds. They said that the wheat, while not in interstate commerce, could be regulated because (get this) if ALL farmers did the same, then interstate prices would be affected, and thus, it was "in" interstate commerce enough for Federal control. (Nobody bothered to ask the Court what elements of life today would NOT apply under that rubric for Federal control.)
Why, the Interstate commerce clause of course!
It works for everything else!!!!