“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men,
undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
~ Thomas Paine
By Pete Kennedy, Esq.
Sometimes a run-in with a government agency lights such a fire that the individual suffering the government action runs for office to prevent anyone else from going through a similar experience. That is the case with Michele Reneau, Chattanooga Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) chapter leader and homesteading mother of five, who is running for State Representative in Tennessee’s 27th District. A campaign theme of Reneau’s is limiting government power, not surprising for someone who endured a combined three-year investigation of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) and USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), all in connection with providing nutrient-dense food to her community through a food buyers club. Reneau was able to turn this adversity into a major legislative success.
In 2016, Reneau along with Nate and Anju Wilson started the Weekly Fig, a private membership association that distributed raw milk, meat, and other nutrient-dense foods from local farmers to members of the food buyers club. A passage in Weekly Fig’s Articles of Association stated, “We proclaim the freedom to choose and decide for ourselves, the types of products, services and methods that we think best for healthy eating and preventing illness and disease of our minds and bodies, and for achieving and maintaining optimal wellness. We proclaim and reserve the right to healthy food options that include, but are not limited to, cutting-edge discoveries and farming practices used by any types of healers or therapists or practitioners the world over, whether traditional or non-traditional, conventional or non-conventional.”
Weekly Fig rented out space to handle the storage and distribution of farm-produced food to its members; a short time after it had been in operation, a health department inspector barged in on the facility and conducted an unauthorized, warrantless inspection. The health department subsequently issued the Weekly Fig citations for not having the proper licenses for what they were doing. Soon after, the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) became involved, sending its own inspector over to the facility. Reneau refused to let the inspector in, claiming TDA did not have jurisdiction over a private buyers club distributing food only to its members. TDA followed up by sending a warning letter to Weekly Fig stating, among other violations, that it was illegally operating a food establishment without a license and offering raw milk for sale. When TDA and the buyers club couldn’t come to a resolution on the matter, the department sent further correspondence to Weekly Fig, putting Reneau and the Wilsons on notice that “future violations of the same or similar sort, i.e., unlicensed operation as a food establishment or sale of raw milk—will be considered grounds for the department to seek actions for injunction and or criminal charges.”
TDA did not take an enforcement action against Weekly Fig, but the threat of one remained over its head; so, when the 2017 Tennessee legislative session rolled around, Reneau contacted State Senator Frank Niceley to see if he could help the food buyers club with legislation. Niceley introduced Senate Bill 651 (SB 651), which established that there was no regulation or licensing requirement for a “farm to consumer distribution point.” Reneau testified at a Senate committee hearing for the bill; on May 11, 2017, SB 651 was signed into law. A law distinguishing between the public and private distribution of food was now on the books—a major victory for food buyers clubs and farmers in Tennessee.
Unfortunately, Reneau’s problems did not end, even though there was no longer a conflict with TDA. Shortly before SB 651 became law, the Weekly Fig received a visit from two federal Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) officials seeking to inspect the facility and the freezers in it. Reneau refused to let them in, telling them this was a private membership association and that, unless they had a warrant, they could not conduct an inspection of the facility.
FSIS inspectors attempted a second inspection, and Reneau refused them again. When the inspectors provided her with copies of the laws they claimed gave them authority to inspect, she told them those laws apply to the general public, not a private membership association. In battling FSIS, Reneau showed the same courage and tenacity she did in her dispute with TDA—not accepting the government’s general assertions of authority and contesting the regulators point by point, asking for specific citations in the law to back up their claims. She grudgingly gave up ground to regulators, standing on her belief that there is a legal distinction between the public and private distribution of food.
Reneau said, “My whole life I have typically been a law-abider. I very much have a great respect for authority. It became very clear to me though, in my journey over the last 10 years with health and food and medical, that I need to be cautious about any authority exerted from those places because they had already proven themselves wrong in many cases.”
FSIS sent warning letters to Reneau and Weekly Fig after the attempted inspections and subsequently filed a court action to inspect the facility and look at the buyers club records. During the standoff, Reneau decided to shut down the Weekly Fig when it lost its lease and a suitable replacement within its budget could not be found; being pregnant with her fifth child made it easier to decide to discontinue the day-to-day operations. Nevertheless, FSIS pressed on with the case, seeking records from the Weekly Fig.
In April 2019, Reneau had a court hearing, attending it while 37 weeks pregnant; the judge ordered that she appear for a deposition and bring buyers club records. The deposition took place in July 2019; Reneau brought her two-month-old baby with her—nursing the baby throughout the questioning from DOJ and USDA attorneys. She was worried about protecting the privacy of her club members and farmers; as it turned out, the deposition was more about getting the matter off FSIS’s desk—after two years, the federal investigation of Weekly Fig was over.
Reneau’s opponent in the August 1 Republican primary is Patsy Hazlewood, who was the lead House sponsor of a 2019 bill that, as introduced, would have effectively repealed Tennessee’s herdshare law. Reneau helped stop that effort. As a state legislator, Reneau would do far more to protect and advance Tennessee’s local food economy.
A pairing of Reneau with Senator Frank Niceley as sponsors of legislation could lead to substantial gains in food freedom of choice and improve the regulatory climate for small farmers in Tennessee beyond what Niceley has already accomplished.
Reneau sees her general responsibility as a legislator being to defend faith, family, freedom, and the 1st and 2nd Amendments to the U.S. Constitution—including the fundamental rights of parents to direct the upbringing, health, and education of their children according to their values and beliefs. She says, “I would just like to see less of the government making decisions on behalf of people as it affects their private lives. We should be able to make decisions for ourselves as long as it is not impacting other people … I just feel like the government has taken too much of a role in private life and that is where I would like to see things shift.”
Through her experience with the Weekly Fig, Reneau has seen a side of government that most have not. On the Reneau campaign website is a quote from Thomas Paine: “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” The candidate has more than shown she can take on that responsibility. Those interested in finding out more about Michele Reneau’s campaign for state representative in Tennessee’s 27th District can go to electmichele.com.
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