Fined! Food Name Calling Laws

by Melissa Byrne · 2009-07-27 07:18:00 UTC
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Like every good progressive sustainable foodie, I recently saw Food, Inc a my local independent movie theatre. While I'll reserve my race/class analysis of the movie for a later post, I did find a few strong take-aways around CAFO's, the supply chain for the meat industry, and most outrageous, to me, the veggie libel laws.
Since the mid-1990;s, 13 states passed laws limiting free speech rights of folks being critical of corporate agriculture. In Colorado, its's actually a felony to be critical of the cattle industry ( no word if its a felony to be critical of the law). As a sustainable foodie, if I were to write that X's states cattle industry treated their cattle with disregard for the live and used hormones that makes people, I could either be sued or arrested. Sadly, it's not like these laws are protecting mom and pop farms- they are protecting the food industrial complex people--- men in suits who don't know a lick about farming but know about money.
The folks over at Center for Science in the Public Interest have a list with links each state's don't speak the truth to power food name calling laws.
What gets me so upset about this waste of time by state governments, is that instead of working to ensure a safe, healthy food supply, they are more worried about projecting the industry. That is lame. I'd rather see food inspections, incentives given to grow and produce healthy foods, and a meat industry that must treat and slaughter animals humanely.
Do you know someone fined for speaking the truth to power as a sustainable foodie?

Melissa Byrne
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