Republican's Constitutional Amendment Would Change How Americans Eat

Republican Representative Thomas Massie is spearheading a constitutional amendment that would change how Americans eat by prohibiting federal regulation of certain food products.

"The right of the people to grow food and to purchase food from the source of their choice shall not be infringed, and Congress shall make no law regulating the production and distribution of food products which do not move across state lines," the amendment proposed by Massie states

A constitutional amendment would require a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate to be passed into law. The amendment would then need to be ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the States. The Constitution has been amended only 27 times since it was drafted in 1787.

Newsweek reached out to the Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service via phone and email for comment.

Massie's efforts to expand access to certain food products comes on the heels of a legal dispute in Pennsylvania, where Amish farmer Amos Miller is asking a judge to allow him to sell his dairy products, specifically raw milk, out-of-state.

Miller has become a rallying call for conservatives, who argue that the farmer is a victim of government overreach. In January, Miller's farm was raided by state troopers after two food borne illness outbreaks in New York and Michigan were reported to have originated from his products. The Pennsylvania Attorney General's office said E. coli was found in Miller's raw eggnog and ground beef and that other products from his farm later tested positive for listeria.

A couple of weeks later, the state of Pennsylvania announced it was suing Miller to stop him from selling raw milk and other unregulated products, saying that the legal action was a result of the farmer's history of noncompliance with food safety laws.

Earlier this month, Miller's lawyers said that his case has raised the question of "whether the state's raw milk laws can reach beyond the state of Pennsylvania." They argued that he would face "substantial irreparable injury" if he's unable to sell to out-of-state customers and that those customers would "suffer substantial harm if not afforded access to these products."

Federal law currently requires milk that is shipped across state lines to be pasteurized. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "Because of the chance for serious illness, federal law prohibits dairies from distributing raw milk across state lines in final package form."

"Each state makes its own laws about selling raw milk within the borders of the state," the CDC's website states. "In fewer than half of states, selling raw milk directly to consumers is illegal. In the remaining 27 states, raw milk may be sold directly to consumers in some capacity."

Newsweek reached out to Massie via email for comment.