Hard to believe it’s summer again, and sweltering in Texas though we’ve had a nice break the last few days with a good amount of rain due to the hurricane down south. Here in Texas we’ve always taken great joy in celebrating Independence Day. After all we are one of the few states that can boast our own independence.

I find myself thinking about what that really means these days though. Are we truly free? In some ways yes, but in other ways we are definitely not. It’s been a busy summer already with reports of food and health freedoms being trampled upon by an over-eager government enforcing outrageous regulations and not just in our country.

Locally we felt it. It was with great sadness and not a little anger that I write about one episode close to home. Our local CSA was shut down by the USDA because of outrageous requirements that make sense on large farms and no sense at all on small operations selling directly to the customer. What was the evil they committed? Recycling wax boxes to save money and prevent waste instead of always using new ones when harvesting the organic produce.

In Great Britain they are now banning the sale of eggs and other food products by number instead of by weight/volume. That sounds alright on the surface but then again when you consider it is now illegal to buy eggs by the dozen or a dozen dinner rolls, or even to see how many rolls are in a package it begins to become absurd. These regulations are burdensome on the producers and end up costing money to regulate which increases the tax burden and they cost money for the producers to comply. For example in this situation the egg producers and shopkeepers will have to design and obtain all new packaging, will have to design new methods to weigh and calculate instead of just put 12 medium sized eggs in the medium carton and the costs for all of this will be transfered to the consumer. Read more here: EU to ban selling of eggs by the dozen

Back here at home we have the FDA telling us that we do not have the right to obtain our own food or to make informed decisions about what types of food we will purchase and cosume. Read more: “FDA says ‘No right to eat what you want’”. This was in response to the law suit filed by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) claiming that the federal regulations against the purchase and consumption of raw milk are unconstitutional.

With this news it should come as no surprise that the FDA is also moving to severely limit the amount of “sodium” in processed foods, also sounds good on the face of it but is it really? Real salts have minerals that are good for the human body and are required for many foods to be preserved, and also for them to taste good. What do you suppose will take the place so producers can make sure their products don’t spoil and they taste good? Probably dangerous toxins like MSG. That would likely suit the FDA just fine as they’ve shown a serious conflict of interest with the large corporations that make food additives, GMOs and other products including the monster Monsanto. The FDA has a revolving door with Monsanto where Monsanto executives end up running the FDA, then head back to Monsanto and big bucks and who knows what else. When will this corruption end? Read more: Labeling Issues, Revolving Doors, rBGH, Bribery and Monsanto

This Independence Day I’d like to ask you all to think about what freedom means to you. To think about what our country fought for when they decided to declare their independence. Did that include the most fundamental rights to choose what we eat and how we live? I think so. How about you?