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The State Tells Us Where We Can and Cannot Eat
by
Jacob G. Hornberger,
April 2002
An Amish farm has come under attack from the paternalistic welfare state in
Pennsylvania. According to a story in the New York Times, many Amish
families are offering hungry tourists a home-cooked meal in return for a
donation. This has put both the State Bureau of Food Safety as well as the
Pennsylvania Restaurant Association in an uproar. Why? Well, not because the
food’s no good: On the contrary, tourists rave about the “oven-fresh bread,
ham loaf, noodles, and shoofly pie.” And, no, not because eating conditions
are unsanitary: Dee Dee Meyer, a restaurant chef in Pennsylvania, noted,
“I’d eat off the floor in an Amish house.” So, what’s the problem? The
Amish, who historically have believed that life, liberty, and property are
inherent and fundamental rights that preexist government (as the Founding
Fathers of our country believed) refuse to ask the state for a license to
operate a restaurant. As Don Ranck, a farmer who isn’t Amish, put it, “They
basically want to be left alone.” Well, then who’s complaining? Surprise,
surprise: Not the customers but rather other restaurants, who don’t like the
competition, and the state, which has the power to shut down non-licensed
eating establishments. Attempting to justify its “get a license or shut
down” order, the state pointed to an e-coli infection suffered by people
who had dined at an Amish farm run by Elam and Barbara Fisher a few days
earlier — even though, according to The Times, “no fault was firmly tracked
to the Amish.” Faced with the state’s ultimatum, the Fishers have decided to
shut down. John Stoltzfus, a neighbor, commented, “Elam's health is not good
and this was a way for him to make a little money and survive.” Just chalk
it up as another success story for the paternalistic welfare state and its
modern-day tyranny in America.
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