Thursday, July 12, 2012

Government Crackdowns and Food Control

I haven't posted a rant about the government controlling what I eat in quite a while, but this news item below caught my eye. To me, it just sets up another means of the government tracking and ultimately controlling what I can grow in my own garden.

Utah Garden Challenge (for Suckers)

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food is promoting the Utah Garden Challenge in order to collect information about independent food production for the USDA.

The Utah Garden Challenge is a voluntary contest to register 10,000 gardens. The data mining project has a broad interest in any "resource" who is growing food:

"Whether you grow a tomato in a pot, a row in a community garden, have backyard gardens, a CSA or working fruit and vegetable farm, we want to hear from you because you are an important resource as a food producer."

While the contest paints a proud face on independent food production, it is important to remember that registering with the government sets up a system to track, tax, permit or confiscate the registered item. Gun ownership is a good example of this scheme.

According to a pop-up window on the official website, participants' gardens will be registered with the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS):

"We need to know how much food is being produced in Utah. The Census of Agriculture is done every 5 years.  Every agricultural operation in Utah, regardless of size, is vital to this question.  If you produce $1000 of agricultural products, you can influence economic development and decision making by filling out a NASS survey.  We will only share your information with NASS by your permission.  Your response to the census of agriculture is protected by law.  For more information, you can go to www.agcensus.gov  "

In other words, people who produce $1000 or more worth of food have an impact on the food market, and the USDA wants to know about what you are doing in your backyard.

Victory gardens in America produced up to 40% of all vegetables consumed during World War II, with over 20 millon home gardens and community plots that produced over 9 million tons of food.

The USDA is notorious for its corrupt partnerships and revolving door business relationships with big commercial agriculture.

Government Crackdowns and Food Control
Food is under attack because if you can grow your own food, have access to water and shelter, then what use do you have for a government master?

The federal government has profoundly overstepped its constitutional authority on all fronts, and there are a number of examples of the USDA's outrageous control over food that include SWAT team raids on raw milk sellers and fruit tree confiscation

The Food Safety Modernization Act expanded the power of the FDA and its sister agency, the USDA.  The law is bad for many reasons and is an overwhelming burden on small and independent farmers due to over-regulation and increase in paperwork and reporting. 

Why Is Utah a Threat?
1.  A few months ago Utah voted down a Food Freedom Bill that would have made it a crime for anyone, including Utah state agents, to enforce the Food Safety Modernization Act's unconstitutional mandates.  It would have made farmers who trade only inside of state lines exempt.  The bill was a direct constitutional challenge to federal overreach.

2. Highland City, Utah passed a Food Freedom ordinance that exempts residents from federal regulations on food that is produced, exchanged and consumed within city limits (state laws still apply).

3.  Utah has the largest concentration of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as Mormons) who have an official policy of food storage, currently set at a 1-year minimum supply.  This may be construed as a threat by the FBI, especially since a 1-year supply of food can cost as little as $225.

Conclusion
Survivalist.com points out that the Utah Garden Challenge is linked to the United Nations Agenda 21 Sustainable Development plan for totalitarian control. 

The Utah Garden Challenge is enticing Utahans with meager prizes (a 1-in-1000 chance of winning a giftcard or free restaurant dinner) to register their gardens and subject themselves to invasive government data mining.  But is your food independence worth it?

4 comments:

  1. How's that go? "I'll register my garden when they clean the dirt under my cold dead fingernails!"

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  2. Oh, this post is so timely. This food control invasion by the feds. is unconscionable. If you take someone's food or their ability to grow and provide food for themselves that is complete control over a person's life. People will give themselves over to slavery for a bowl of food.

    One has to only look at what is going on in North Korea. The government there completely controls the food. It is against the law to grown anything edible. If you do it means imprisonment and execution.

    The big question is what can we do as citizens to stop all this tyrannical nonsense? Most of what is happening is happening without our consent or knowledge, until the sway team show up at our door.

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  3. It's only the begaining of what is going to happen in this country they are striving to make new laws here as they did in irac and afgans, that you can not save your own seeds so you have to buy your gmo's seed from the large businesses in the not to far future you will not be albe to grow your own FOOD GOD HELP US ALL

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  4. Sorry to be tardy in approving comments, but I;ve been away 3+ days for medical tests.

    I halfway expect SWAT teams at my door someday since I rant and rail against this kind of enforcement.

    ReplyDelete

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