Two congressmen are pushing to deregulate food to expand personal choice and economic growth.
Reps. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) want to liberalize farmer’s markets, and give people access to non-inspected meat and raw milk.
In a stunt to promote relevant bills in Congress, Polis and Massie ate dinner together in Denver, 9 News in Denver, Colorado reported. But it wasn’t just any meal. It was a meal made up of steak not inspected by the USDA and raw milk.
Polis thinks it’s an issue where people should not be bothered about what they should or should not eat.
“These are decisions — what do you put in your own body? What’s a more intimate decision than that? It really should be entirely up to people,” he said.
Problems with the regulatory environment extend beyond personal choice, however, and unnecessarily curb capitalism.
“We think people should be able to go to a farmer’s market, and if a farmer there raised cattle and wants to sell it, they should be able to,” Polis said. “In a way, it’s restricting capitalism, restricting free enterprise.”
According to Reason, states had control over rules governing processing meat sold inside the state, but Congress usurped it and transferred the authority to the USDA in 1967. The PRIME Act, introduced by Massie, exempts people and establishments from USDA oversight if the meat remains in the state. Instead of going through USDA inspection, the meat would be sold directly to customers, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores, and other establishments that keep it in the state.
If the PRIME Act passes, significant legal barriers to locally raised and fed meat will be abolished.
Polis and Massie are also promoting two bills to legalize the sale of raw milk nationally. Raw milk is unpasteurized milk and 29 states allow it to be sold in some form. The CDC and FDA warn of the health risks of consuming raw milk and raw milk products, but Polis thinks it’s an issue of personal freedom whether someone chooses to drink pasteurized or unpasteurized milk.
