Keywords
food movement, food rights, due process, purchasing rights, meat trade, meat inspection, poultry inspection
Document Type
Article
Abstract
"[P]laintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish." "When did we lose our right to buy whatever food we want directly from farmers and assorted food producers, outside of the regulatory system of permits and inspections?" For millennia, humans either caught or raised their own food or purchased it from local farmers or shopkeepers; however they obtained their food, they knew where it came from. In fact, obtaining one's food directly from the farmer who grew it is one of the most traditional economic practices that there can be. But with the industrial age came industrial food, which has broken the local food connection between producer and consumer. For example, two companies now grow 85% of all of the carrots eaten in the U.S. The four largest beef slaughterers have sold between 65% and 70% of all beef consumed nationally since 2000. But local food is making a comeback; locavores look for locally grown or raised food, and other epicurean consumers seek organic and naturally produced food. These alternative food movements are a "challenge to and a denouncement of the current industrial food system," which writer Michael Pollan, champion of the food movement, calls "Big Food."
Recommended Citation
Berg, D. J. (2021). Food Choice is a Fundamental Liberty Right. Journal of Food Law & Policy, 9(2). Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/jflp/vol9/iss2/6