Is Your Maple Syrup Forreals?

McKenzie Fink


Article 2


North County Times


Bill: Felony to sell fake maple syrup as real deal


http://www.nctimes.com/news/national/article_5326a122-af4b-5134-acfe-9fc69e21b637.html


Making a bill that prevents people in Vermont from selling fake maple syrup


This whole article is about why it would be so important to make a bill preventing people from selling fake maple syrup. Making syrup is a key part in Vermont's economy and citizens of the state don't want to ruin their reputation just because of phonies. "Vermonters take pride in the natural products our state produces," says Senator Patrick Leahy. He also added that making fake syrup is a "fraud, plain and simple, and it undermines a key part of Vermont's economy". The article also informs you that other foods have their own special protections. For example, Hawaii requires labels to figure out the percentage of Hawaii-grown coffee in coffee blends. The point is, Vermont wants to protect the integrity of its maple syrup so they created this bill to uphold the good reputation.


This paragraph connects to what we are studying in class for many reasons. For example, we have been studying the three branches of government. We learned the legislative branch (Congress) create bills and this article is an example of that. Both of Vermont's senators and senators from Maine and New York co-sponsor this bill. The executive branch comes in because the president can veto the bill. Also, we have learned a little bit about the President's cabinet and one of the cabinets is the Food and Drug Administration. This part of the cabinet makes sure people are getting food and medicine that is safe to ingest so they would execute the law. Finally, this represents the Judicial Branch because they are going to make sure the law is Constitutional.


This connects to my life for a couple of reasons. First of all, this bill could make sure that people are no longer eating fake syrup. I have had fake maple syrup before and it tastes nothing like real syrup and was a complete waste of money. This also connects because the government is listening to the people so they can make a change for the better. The government often doesn't listen to the people nowadays just like adults don't listen to children a lot of the time. When they do listen though, it can be a great change for the better just like when we wrote our parent letters in english and my parents listened to me. Things became much smoother in our household after that.


My opinion on this situation is that the bill should be passed for many reasons. First of all, it is affecting Vermont's economy and reputation. Syrup accounted for $30 million dollars in sales in 2010 alone."We work very hard to produce a high quality food product that bears the Vermont name that has a reputation to be good," said a sugar maker named Ruth Goodrich, who is one of the owners of Goodrich Maple Farm in Cabot, Vt., who sells a gallon of syrup for $49. "Anytime a food product is adulterated, we really frown on that." Vermont doesn't want frauds ruining its good reputation as explained in the quote. It is really important that people are getting the pure ingredients in their food so this bill needs to be passed.