Harrisburg, Pa.—Does the government have the power to override common sense and force American businesses to lie to their consumers? According to a First Amendment lawsuit that South Mountain Creamery and the Institute for Justice (IJ) filed today against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in federal court, the answer is: Absolutely not.
For centuries, the general understanding of skim milk has been milk with the cream skimmed off. But in a regulation only Kafka could have written, the FDA has decided that skim milk can only be called “skim milk” if farmers add synthetic vitamins that consumers can naturally get from plenty of other drinks or foods. If farmers like Randy Sowers and his wife Karen of South Mountain Creamery want to sell pasteurized, all-natural skim milk without added chemicals, the federal government forces them to lie to customers by labelling it as “imitation skim milk” or “imitation milk product.”
“The government does not have the power to change the meaning of words or ignore common sense,” said Justin Pearson, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represents South Mountain Creamery in court. “The FDA is creating confusion where there was none whatsoever. People know what skim milk means, but they have no idea what ‘imitation milk product’ means. Pure, all-natural skim milk is not an ‘imitation’ of anything.”
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Institute For Justice