Big Brother Wants Your Food

(By Andrew MacKie-Mason)

Or so some people would have you believe. The bill they're talking about is S 510. Consider first Natural News. They say:

• "This tyrannical law puts all food production (yes, even food produced in your own garden) under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security.

That seems a bit odd, you may say. Because, well, that would be really strange. But notice, of course, that Natural News provides no reference or citation for its claim, even though laws are written in such a way (articles, sections, subsections, clauses, etc) that make them really easy to cite.

Of course, their lack of citation is because the bill actually says something very different. Consider first this similar bit from another anti-S 510 site, Food Freedom:

It puts all US food and all US farms under Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, in the event of contamination or an ill-defined emergency.

Natural News conveniently forgot the last part, which makes the whole thing a lot more sensical. But notice again that Food Freedom also doesn't provide a citation to the bill. So, you might be asking, what does the bill actually say?

Let's go through the references to Homeland Security in the bill. I'll leave the references to Defense for opponents of the bill to find legitimate support for their position, if they think it can be found.

• Sec. 420`(a) provides that the Secretary of Health and Human Services has to consult with the Secretary of Homeland Security.
• Sec. 420(b)(1), (3) again provide for consultation of the Secretary of Homeland Security.
• Sec. 108(a)(1), (4) and (c) provide for coordination with the Secretary of Homeland Security.
• Sec. 108(b)(1), (2) say that the plan developed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services can include actions to be taken by the Secretary of Homeland Security.
• Sec. 109 requires the Secretary of Homeland Security to submit certain information.
• Sec. 421(b) provides for further consultation of the Secretary of Homeland Security.
• Sec. 422(b) provides for coordination with the Secretary of Homeland Security.
• Sec. 203 allows the Secretary of Homeland Security to maintain an agreement between various laboratories who may need to be mobilized in an emergency.
• Sec. 209(a), (b) provide for coordination with the Secretary of Homeland Security.
• `Sec. 806`(a)`(1) provides for consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security.
• Sec. 310(a) provides for consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security.
• Sec. 310(b) provides for notice to the Secretary of Homeland Security about the discovery of smuggled food.

And, that's it. Could anyone from either Natural News or Food Freedom tell me which of these put food and farms under the control of the Department of Homeland Security, emergency or no?

This is not to say that this bill is a good one. I'm honestly not familiar enough with it to judge it on the merits. But when people start ranting about how a certain bill is the worst thing ever and don't even provide citations to parts of the bill, I get suspicious. So should you.

I'll forward this post, if possible, to the people at Natural News and Food Freedom and see if I get a response. Otherwise, I'd recommend being skeptical of doomsday claims about S 510.