Dairy farmers: "Got free speech?"

[RS Davis]

[glow=red,2,300]Vin Suprynowicz Wrote:[/glow]The Cochrans are suing the federal government for requiring them to participate in the dairy promotion program. You've seen those ubiquitous 'Got milk?' ads on TV and billboards? Well, the Cochrans are asking, 'Got free speech?' ... The Cochrans thus have every reason to want to distinguish their product from that of larger-scale producers. But the Dairy Act compels them to do just the opposite. It requires them to fund generic ads whose message is that all milk is the same, regardless of who produces it or how. Under the Dairy Program, all dairy farmers are charged for the ads at a rate of 15 cents per 'hundredweight' (100 lbs.) of milk they sell."

- Rick

[corey]

HOW DO I VOTE?

[RS Davis]

Guest-corey said:

HOW DO I VOTE?

You have to be a registered member to vote. Registration is free, though!

- Rick

[dr snootch]

You've got to be kidding me. The government of the United States of America wouldn't restrict anyone's freedoms or rights...would they? ;D

I'm a little hazy on the Constitutional Article empowering Congress to advertise products. I'll have to do some research, but I'm pretty sure that's not in their job description.

All kidding aside though, farm subsidies are insane. They dilute the market with chemically-enhanced food and force people who use cheaper methods to produce food to actually charge higher prices. The very antithesis of the free-market economy.

Congress has been mucking around in the food market for far too long, which may help explain how we are able to produce a surplus of food and have starving people at the same time. Historically, every time Congress has interfered in the free marketplace, they create a trainwreck of bureaucracy and regulation and somehow manage to completely fuck the entire balance of nature. Nobody trying to destroy a given industry can possibly do a more efficient job than the United States Congress.