Warner Todd Huston:
For generations brewers have been selling leftover brewing grains to farmers to feed to their livestock, but now the feds want to interfere and make that transaction harder and more expensive, a move that will drive up the costs of both beer and food.
But America’s breweries and farmers are not taking this quietly.
“The whole brewing community was shocked about it,” Josh Deth, co-owner of Revolution Brewing in Chicago, told Fox News.
Currently brewers make deals with farmers where the farmers cart off the used grains. Often the deal is done without cost to both parties.
“We’re trading, giving something of value to each other and working it out. I think that’s one of the really great things, and people really hate to see the government get involved in something where they can just as easily stay out of this,” Deth said.
But under the new rules, the grains would be regulated like pet foods and would have to meet FDA regulations for food safety. These regulations would cost both farmers and brewers more than a handshake.
Naturally there isn’t a single report in the entire history of these grain deals of harm coming to either livestock or humans. Regardless, regulators in Washington have found yet another thing to interfere in and, yet again, the feds want to stop Americans from doing something they’ve done since the country was young.
Along with the outrage caused among brewers and farmers, a few Congressmen have also questioned the FDA over why these sudden new rules are necessary, causing the FDA to take another look at the regulations.
This is the exact thing Obama did to pulp mills when he first came into office.
Using a secondary (or left-over) product to make production cheaper cannot be tolerated.
Obama demands his piece of EVERY action.
So, pulp mills had to stop using a wonderful clean, green fuel that happened to be a by-product of paper manufacture!
Now beer brewers must pay Obama a piece of the action for helping ranchers and dairy farmers.
One of the few things Ahnold said when running for gov. of CA that was completely true is this:
Thank goodness they’re here to help us.
And no one believes conservatives when we say there is TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT INTRUSION into OUR LIVES!!!!
Of course, if this goes forward, the mash grains will be simply dumped (burning them takes fuel, which this administration would never approve,) where they will attract insects, rats and other vermin, boosting their populations to spread their pestilence far and wide. The moron who suggested this plan obviously doesn’t know a damn thing about the live cycle of pests.