Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) has introduced a joint resolution to Congress proposing what could become the 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The resolution proposes an amendment specifically protecting the right of the people to grow and purchase food from sources of their choosing.

The text of the proposed Food Freedom amendment states:

“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 Kentucky Congressman also made a tongue-in-cheek reference to the proposed 28th Amendment as “Roscoe Filburn’s revenge.”

The 1942 Supreme Court case of Wickard v. Filburn pitted Ohio farmer Roscoe C. Filburn against Secretary of Agriculture Claude Wickard when Filburn was penalized for violating the 1938 Agricultural Adjustment Act which sought to regulate the production of wheat in order to stabilize the nation’s food supply during the Great Depression.

Specifically, the law limited the amount of wheat that farmers were allowed to grow on their own farms. Filburn argued that the excess wheat he produced to feed his own animals was for personal use and did not enter into commerce and could not be regulated by Congress.

But the Supreme Court upheld the law, saying that even if Filburn’s activity had minimal impact on commerce, the aggregated effect of many farmers doing what he had done might exert a substantial effect on interstate commerce.

That broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution opened the door to virtually unlimited Congressional power to regulate commerce.

Rep. Massie’s resolution would have to be ratified by two-thirds of each House of Congress and then ratified by three-fourths of the legislatures of the several states in order to become the 28th Amendment.

The difficulty in getting such ratification at the national and state level combined with the fact that  Congress rarely recognizes any meaningful Constitutional limits on its power, makes the proposed Food Freedom amendment a long shot.

Defunding and abolishing corporate-captured regulatory agencies like the FDA might prove a more effective approach in the short term.