Recently we have seen a spate of redefinitions of terms. For example, the term "sexual-preference" became offensive overnight, with big-tech dictionaries rushing to change their definitions to support the new regime.
Such semantic gymnastics may seem amusing or distracting, but when mixed with government power, ordinary people can get hurt in a theatrical court of the absurd.
In 2018 Maryland farmer Randy Sowers (founder of South Mountain Creamery in Middletown, Maryland) and the Institute for Justice took the Food and Drug Administration to court over the ability to sell milk across state lines.
Sowers wished to sell his 100-percent pure skim milk in Pennsylvania, but the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture notified Sowers that according to the FDA his "skim milk" was not "skim milk," and that if he tried to sell his product as skim milk in Pennsylvania he would be subject to fines and possible incarceration.
The trouble Sowers faced is that according to FDA regulations skim milk is not just milk with the cream skimmed off, the commonly understood definition, but must also be adulterated with certain artificial vitamin additives.
According to the government 100% pure skim milk is not skim milk and must be labeled as "imitation milk product." Sowers and the IfJ decided to challenge the FDA ban on telling the truth, a clear violation of the First Amendment.
Fortunately, two years after the suit was filed in U.S. District Court, someone at the FDA decided that they would "no longer enforce nor require states to enforce the unconstitutional requirement" on Sowers or any other farmer in the future and published this policy online.
While this is a welcome outcome, it is unsatisfying. The trouble was caused by an improper bureaucratic rule promulgated by a largely unaccountable bureaucracy. This situation is made more dangerous when people twist the meanings of terms to their own ends.
It is easy to imagine that the accession of a new administration could lead to a reversal of policy. The Maryland farmers who work and live in reality to make life better for us all would again have to pretend milk isn't milk or face fines and incarceration.
And this is just one rule to be compared with the 180,000+ pages published in the Code of Federal Regulations.
This runaway regulatory encroachment on the liberties of ordinary, hardworking people like Randy Sowers affects all of us in unimaginably many ways. Sowers just wants to ship fresh, pure skim milk and to tell us the truth about his product.
Why should government make it a crime to tell the truth about milk? Are we going to let the government continue to make us live lives of increasingly regulated absurdity?
We need to protect our liberty while we still can and call for an Article V Convention of States.
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