Farmer ignores mandate to send raisins to a national reserve

[Cissy]

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20130715/BUSINESS08/307150039/Farmer-ignores-mandate-send-raisins-national-reserve?nclick_check=1


KERMAN, CALIF. — In the world of dried fruit, America has no greater outlaw than Marvin Horne, 68.

Horne, a raisin farmer, has been breaking the law for 11 solid years. He now owes the U.S. government at least $650,000 in unpaid fines. And 1.2 million pounds of unpaid raisins, roughly equal to his entire harvest for four years.

His crime? Horne defied one of the strangest arms of the federal bureaucracy - a farm program created to solve a problem during the Truman administration, and never turned off.

He said no to the national raisin reserve.

“I believe in America. And I believe in our Constitution. And I believe that eventually we will be proved right,” Horne said recently, sitting in an office next to 20 acres of ripening Thompson grapes. “They took our raisins and didn’t pay us for them.”

The national raisin reserve might sound like a fever dream of the Pillsbury Doughboy. But it is a real thing - a 64-year-old program that gives the U.S. government a heavy-handed power to interfere with the supply and demand for dried grapes.

It works like this: In a given year, the government may decide that farmers are growing more raisins than Americans will want to eat. That would cause supply to outstrip demand. Raisin prices would drop. And raisin farmers might go out of business.

To prevent that, the government does something drastic. It takes away a percentage of every farmer’s raisins. Often, without paying for them.

(More at the link)

[Elias Graves]

Can I get these with my gubment cheese?

[Acala]

This is no anomaly. There are marketing orders in place in many markets.

[jdmyprez_deo_vindice]

I am thinking we need to get this guy in touch with Congressmen Massie, Amash and Jones. Someone needs to repeal that legislation and I can think of no better representatives to co-author/sponsor such a bill.

[Dr.3D]

So now they want to put the California Raisins on a reservation?

[jdmyprez_deo_vindice]

So now they want to put the California Raisins on a reservation?

This is America... All raisins are equal, just some more equal than others.

[mad cow]

This is no anomaly. There are marketing orders in place in many markets.

Over 20 years ago,James Bovard wrote a book called The Farm Fiasco which I highly recommend.

There are tons of regulations on farmers that serve no purpose and make no economic sense,yet they never go away.

A lot of this stuff dates back to FDR and a lot of it is just as ridiculous.

[Lucille]

That was a good piece!

Unanimous Supreme Court Allows Raisin Farmers to Challenge New Deal-Era Farm Control Law
http://reason.com/blog/2013/06/10/unanimous-supreme-court-allows-raisin-fa


In his opinion today for a unanimous Supreme Court in Horne v. USDA, Justice Clarence Thomas held that the 9th Circuit does indeed have jurisdiction and that the Hornes must be permitted to raise their constitutional objection to the government’s actions. Thomas also rejected the government’s argument that the Hornes must first pay a hefty fine before they may turn to the Takings Clause for redress. “When a party raises a constitutional defense to an assessed fine,” Thomas wrote, “it would make little sense to require the party to pay the fine in one proceeding and then turn around and sue for recovery of that same money in another proceeding.” Horne is an important win for all farmers grappling with the web of agricultural regulations and price controls that have been in place since the New Deal.

One issue the Supreme Court did not address was whether the Hornes had raised a valid Takings Clause objection to the government’s uncompensated seizure of their raisins. That issue now returns to the 9th Circuit for further proceedings, and may still reach the Supreme Court on future appeal.

Notably, this is the second unanimous defeat this term for the federal government in a Takings Clause case.

[Petar]

Canada has a milk board that centralizes all production. Same with wheat. Don't be Canada.

[Dr.3D]

This is America... All raisins are equal, just some more equal than others.
Yeah, I heard it through the grape vine.

[Lucille]

Yeah, I heard it through the grape vine.

About those ads...


He eventually found the man who had pulled off the greatest coup in the recent history of California farm litigation. The man who beat the California Dancing Raisins.

“We killed that program,” Brian Leighton said, still satisfied 19 years later. The California Raisins were Claymation figures - raisins with arms, legs and sunglasses - who sang “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” in a series of stop-motion TV commercials in the late 1980s and early 1990s. For a brief time, they were huge. Music albums. Lunchboxes. A Christmas special.

But the whole thing was funded by a government levy on raisin farmers and processors. Leighton led a rebellion, and in 1994, the Raisins lost their funding. “The problem was, it wasn’t selling any raisins,” he said. “They sold merchandise.”

[Dr.3D]

About those ads...

Yeah, but the idea of sending them to a reservation is just too much. I kinda liked those guys.

[donnay]

Over 20 years ago,James Bovard wrote a book called The Farm Fiasco which I highly recommend.

There are tons of regulations on farmers that serve no purpose and make no economic sense,yet they never go away.

A lot of this stuff dates back to FDR and a lot of it is just as ridiculous.


And are selectively enforced.

[jmdrake]

//

[mad cow]

And are selectively enforced.

Some of it might be,but a lot of it is enforced with an iron fist.

[Lucille]

Federal Court Upholds 'Out-Dated' New Deal Scheme That Hurts Small Farmers
http://reason.com/blog/2014/05/13/federal-court-upholds-out-dated-new-deal


And once again, the 9th Circuit ruled against the Hornes. In a decision issued last Friday, the 9th Circuit found the Takings Clause to be undisturbed because the USDA "did not authorize a forced seizure of the Hornes' crops, but rather imposed a condition on the Hornes' use of their crops by regulating their sale." In effect, so long as the farmers "voluntarily choose to send their raisins into the stream of interstate commerce," they must bend to the regulatory rules set by the USDA. Don't like it? Try "planting different crops," the court suggested. Or perhaps the Hornes might consider "selling their grapes without drying them into raisins."

At this point, you may be wondering where the USDA gets the authority to impose these sorts of controls on the raisin supply in the first place. We're not talking about health or safety regulations, after all, we're talking about a federal agency raising prices by artificially limiting supplies. What makes that pass muster?

Here's how the 9th Circuit addressed those concerns:


While the Hornes' impatience with a regulatory program they view to be out-dated and perhaps disadvantageous to smaller agricultural firms is understandable, the courts are not well-positioned to effect the change the Hornes seek, which is, at base, a restructuring of the way government regulates raisin production. The Constitution endows Congress, not the courts, with the authority to regulate the national economy.

Translation: This court defers to the judgment of Congress on economic matters and there's nothing you small farmers can do about it.

The Hornes next move is to either ask for a rehearing of their case by a full panel of the 9th Circuit, or else seek review (once again) at the U.S. Supreme Court.

[Acala]

"The Constitution endows Congress, not the courts, with the authority to regulate the national economy."

Where exactly is that in the Constitution?

[limequat]

"The Constitution endows Congress, not the courts, with the authority to regulate the national economy."

Where exactly is that in the Constitution?

I think that was referencing the interstate commerce clause.

[oyarde]

I would not give them any raisins . I would just file my production as grapes.

[limequat]

molon labe

[Acala]

I think that was referencing the interstate commerce clause.

I'm sure you are correct. I think any native speaker of the English language knows that "regulate commerce among the several states" does not equal "regulate the national economy." But I am probably preaching to the choir.

[limequat]

I'm sure you are correct. I think any native speaker of the English language knows that "regulate commerce among the several states" does not equal "regulate the national economy." But I am probably preaching to the choir.

Yes. Do not give the court too much credit.

[Pericles]

"The Constitution endows Congress, not the courts, with the authority to regulate the national economy."

Where exactly is that in the Constitution?

Seems to be missing in my copy.

[Lucille]

I'm sure you are correct. I think any native speaker of the English language knows that "regulate commerce among the several states" does not equal "regulate the national economy." But I am probably preaching to the choir.

"How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!"
--Samuel Adams

It is just me, or is there an uptick in judges blaming CONgress and ultimately the people since Roberts said this in his Obamacare penaltax opinion?:

"It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices."

[Acala]

"How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words!"
--Samuel Adams

It is just me, or is there an uptick in judges blaming CONgress and ultimately the people since Roberts said this in his Obamacare penaltax opinion?:

"It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices."

First the Supreme Court usurps the power to have the last word in interpretation of the Constitution, then it becomes a rubber stamp for the expansion of Federal power until no limitations remain, then it refuses further review. Nice.

[AuH20]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAPmKNzB_Bo

[Pericles]

First the Supreme Court usurps the power to have the last word in interpretation of the Constitution, then it becomes a rubber stamp for the expansion of Federal power until no limitations remain, then it refuses further review. Nice.

Very tidy, eh?

[Dr.3D]

Very tidy, eh?
It works for them.

[Lucille]

First the Supreme Court usurps the power to have the last word in interpretation of the Constitution, then it becomes a rubber stamp for the expansion of Federal power until no limitations remain, then it refuses further review. Nice.

You summed it up perfectly!

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

Why Raisins? Obviously to erect Raisin Golems to create the NWO

[oyarde]

I always wondered what they do with the raisins they get from these people .

[amy31416]

I always wondered what they do with the raisins they get from these people .

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/why-does-the-united-states-government-need-a-raisin-reserve/



To limit the supply of raisins on the market, the government can simply take tons of raisins from the farmers who grew them. The raisins go into a “reserve.” They are often kept off the U.S. market: sold overseas, perhaps, or given to needy schoolchildren.

Sometimes, the farmers don’t get paid a cent in return.