I attended the first screening of the movie Farmageddon in my area and I am still getting chills up and down my spine. Farmageddon tells the story of small family farms that were providing safe, healthy foods to their communities and were forced to stop, sometimes through violent action, by agents of misguided and mindless government bureaucracies. This is serious business folks and if you don’t think it will affect you, think again.
The producing and director, Kristin Canty has dedicated years of her life to bring this film to fruition. Here is our opportunity to spread the word about this horrendous situation and the imminent threat to our freedom to choose what we want to eat and to our local food supply.
Big Ag favored over small family farms
In her research for the film, Kristin Canty found out that governmental policies favor agribusiness and factory farms over small family-operated farms selling local, fresh foods to their communities. Instead of focusing on the real source of food safety problems — most often the enormous industrial food machine — health officials implement and enforce solutions that target and often drive small farms out of business. These farmers, in their various local communities have proven themselves more than capable of producing safe, healthy food, but buckle under the crushing weight of government regulations and excessive enforcement actions.
Food freedom is a right that is in jeopardy
Farmageddon highlights the urgency of food freedom, encouraging farmers and consumers alike to take action to preserve individuals’ rights to access food of their choice and farmers’ rights to produce these foods safely and free from unreasonable and burdensome regulations. The film serves to put policymakers and regulators on notice that there is a growing movement of people aware that their freedom to choose the foods they want is in danger, a movement that is taking action with its dollars and its voting power to protect and preserve the dwindling number of family farms that are struggling to survive.
Check out this 3 minute clip and tell me you don’t want to see the whole film.
People are commenting about the relevance of this film and how important it is:
As consumers our rights are being taken away because big agribusinesses want to control and dominate the food and the way it’s being grown. This is supposed to be the land of the free, yet our rights are being taken away every single day. We have the right to choose real foods instead of being forced to eat factory farmed and genetically modified foods. I’m pretty sure the big companies who are making these evil frankenfoods are sitting at home chowing down on some organic foods as we speak.
Farm-To-Consumer-Legal-Defense-Fund on the job
In recent weeks there has been an interesting turn of events in the lawsuit filed by the Farm-To-Consumer-Legal-Defense-Fund against the FDA.
On March 30 federal district judge Mark W. Bennett issued an order dismissing the lawsuit challenging the interstate commerce ban on raw milk for human consumption filed by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Along with six consumers, an agent for a buyers club, and a dairy farmer selling raw milk to out-of-state customers, the Legal Defense Fund filed suit in February 2010 over a federal regulation (21 CFR 1240.61). The regulation prohibits raw milk and raw milk products (other than raw cheese aged at least sixty days) from crossing state lines.
Lawsuit dismissed but FDA position is clear
(1) FDA is now on public record promising that it will not take action against individual consumers crossing state lines to obtain raw milk. “Citizens can now purchase raw milk in any state, take it back to their state of residence and consume it
(2) Americans now know FDA’s views on food freedom. In the course of the lawsuit, FDA made the following assertions:
“There is no absolute right to consume or feed children any particular food.”
There is no fundamental right to one’s “own bodily and physical health.”
People “do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish.”
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, Pete Kennedy explains, “It is clear now that if people want their right to eat the foods the FDA will have to be reined in.”
FDA has spoken against food freedom
Farmegeddon is here in America, right now folks, and its not going away without a fight. I don’t think the founding rebels of this country ever in their wildest dreams could have imagined that we would have to fight for food freedom. Right up there with freedom of speech and religious freedom we need to have it written in bold print.
The more buzzing about this in the blogosphere, the better it is.
Help promote this important film
Ask friends/family to put the film in their Netflix/ITunes cue…this can help the DVD get bestseller status with the NY Times!
Also, if you have seen the movie please log in to Amazon.com on the Farmageddon page and write a review…that increases the visibility of the movie on their site.
Kristin is hoping that once millions of people around the world watch Farmageddon, the outrage it stirs will change our food culture and protect our rights to healthy food!