The Unseen War on American Family Farms
By Jacquelin Sonderling
The food police are out in force, so busy raiding and shutting down small organic farms and local food co-ops that it’s a wonder we still have any alternatives to factory-farmed, mass-produced food. Farmageddon is an eye-opening look at the crimes Big Government is committing against the little local food guys, all ostensibly in the name of protecting public health. But it’s frightening on many levels when USDA agents burst into rural farmhouses and urban co-ops with guns drawn.
The producers of Farmageddon criss-crossed the United States chronicling events that are shocking and mind-boggling. Take, for example, the Vermont couple who worked with the USDA to import sheep from Europe and New Zealand, only to have the same agency turn around and confiscate and slaughter the entire herd . . . for a disease the sheep didn’t carry.
And then there’s the raw milk issue. Granted, it can contain e. coli, but as we’ve recently seen, so can spinach. However, unlike spinach, it’s illegal to sell raw milk in a number of states, as well as to take it across any state lines. The penalty for smuggling raw milk into another state? It gets dumped. Yet our country has lost 88 percent of its dairy farms since 1970, so where are we to turn?
The film raises many questions: What’s the real motivation behind the crackdowns? Are factory dairy farmers and multinational ag companies afraid of these smaller farmers? Are there deeper political implications?
Like many films of this genre, Farmageddon suffers from too many talking heads who echo filmmaker Kristin Canty’s point of view. Dr. David Acheson, a former FDA/USDA official, throws more balance into the film and actually strengthens Canty’s position.
Still, Farmageddon is a wake-up call for anyone who cherishes the freedom to eat and drink healthful organic food from growers respectful of land and animals. This is not a right explicitly guaranteed by the Constitution, and it is in jeopardy.
