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"To save the citizens from themselves..."

Bonnie Kristian
Apr 11, 2009 at 12:33 AM
By Bonnie Kristian
...that was the line of the preamble of the Constitution I must have forgotten when I first read about a law in Pennsylvania which requires home kitchens to be inspected by the state if they produce anything for a bake sale:
Bill Chirdon, director of food safety for the state Department of Agriculture, said hundreds of people across Pennsylvania bake from home and sell those goods to the public. All it takes is an inspection. "There's a law that you can do that in your home - if you can pass an inspection," he said... "You're going to worry about some little old lady's kitchen?" said Joe Sitko Jr., 60, of Industry, who had just sat down to dinner Friday at [a church affected by the law]. "I would compare the cleanliness of their kitchens any day against any factory baking desserts." ... Chirdon said that there are 803 state-licensed homes in Pennsylvania following the state's sanitation and equipment standards, and that anyone from the church who wants to make donations of homemade goods is welcome to undergo a kitchen inspection. A $35 fee allows the household to become a bakery for one year, and the agriculture department has offered free water testing.
This incredible invasion of privacy is made even more ludicrous by some affected churchs' response of switching to store-bought goods for their bake sales. As Sitko pointed out, it seems highly unlikely that the factories in which those are made will be cleaner than even -- heaven forbid! -- an uninspected kitchen.
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Wow, the state is just looking for excuses to go and make more money off people trying to avoid them. They really need to get a life there in the Keystone State. I knew New Jersey was pretty offensive when it came to Nanny State but I guess it's something in the tri-state area water that makes them feel compelled to do something.
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Submitted by RyanGilr0y (not verified) on April 11, 2009.
Bonnie, since you were all over the CPSIA, you'd probably be interested in HR 875, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, which will essentially do for organic farms what this Pennsylvania law does for kitchens that plan to sell anything. Look it up, you'll see how they're related.
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Submitted by contributor (not verified) on April 11, 2009.
Thanks, Drew...I'll look into it when I'm back on campus post-Easter and have more reliable (and, thank goodness, faster) internet.
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Submitted by Bonnie Kristian on April 11, 2009.
Here ya go: The bill's sponsor, Rosa DeLauro, calls backlash and fears over HR 875 "disinformation" and "a libertarian operation." The Huffington Post agrees; they actually cite C4L in this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/09/hr-875-myth-sows-terror-a_n_185... The Examiner has a much more informed take on the bill from a legal standpoint. What this bill is capable of in courts is outlined here: http://www.examiner.com/x-7812-DC-SCOTUS-Examiner~y2009m4d9-Trojan-horse... Wish I had time to write something on this, but I've got a ton to do this weekend and I think this is more your area of expertise...
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Submitted by contributor (not verified) on April 11, 2009.
Well, 803 x 35 = 28105. $28k a year!!! I wish I could bring that kind of money in violating peoples rights.
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Submitted by Jeff (not verified) on April 11, 2009.