Please disable your Ad Blocker to better interact with this website.

MENU

National Mango Board Gets $6.7 Million for Sole Purpose of Increasing “Consumption of Fresh Mangos in the US”

Written by:

Published on: January 14, 2018

Editor’s Note: Talk about fleecing the American people by spending their money unconstitutionally!  This is a racket!

The united States government is filled with departments, agencies, boards and bureaus that are outside the authority given to the legislative branch by the Constitution.  Some are prominent in the public sphere – Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Department of Energy, and so forth and so on.  Some are not.

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

Anyone ever heard of the National Mango Board?  Well, this board is contained in the Department of Agriculture and operates on a $6.7 million annual budget.  Its sole purpose is to “increase the consumption of fresh mangos in the united States.”

CNSnews.com reports:

The government watchdog group Judicial Watch reported this week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) maintains a National Mango Board, which operates on a $6.7 million budget, solely to “increase the consumption of fresh mangos in the United States,” according to its USDA website.  “This is a serious matter that is handled at the presidential cabinet level,” reported Judicial Watch. 

The eighteen-member board consists of “8 importers, 2 domestic producers, 1 first handler, and 7 foreign producers, according to its website” and is based in Orlando, Florida.  The revenue generated for the board is in the form of a fee collected from “First handlers and importers of 500,000 pounds of mangos each year” by the Department of Homeland Security’s Custom and Border Patrol.

Last month, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue appointed six members to the board to serve a term of three years.  The appointees included three members from US States “and two were from Mexico and Peru.”

Perdue said, “I truly appreciate the time and expertise that these individuals have agreed to give guiding the National Mango Board in its mission to find ways to provide fresh mangos to U.S. consumers and help their industry thrive.

Judicial Watch weighed in on the Board as CNSnews reported:

Commenting on the Board, Judicial Watch said, “Here’s why this obscure government entity exists; to increase the consumption of fresh mangos in the United States, unlikely to be a pressing issue for most Americans. The board accomplishes this with promotion and market development activities that naturally also support a thriving industry.

“’The board’s vision is to bring the world’s love of mangos to the U.S.,’ according to the National Mango Board website, which describes itself as a ‘promotion and research organization,'” reported Judicial Watch. 

“The site includes all sorts of interesting information about mangos, including the unique texture and flavors of different varieties, how to ripen, cut and store the fruit and tips on choosing the perfect mango—don’t focus on color because it’s not the best indicator of ripeness,” reported Judicial Watch.  “There are also recipes for just about any dish with mango, including tropical mango guacamole, shrimp and mango curry, mango Manchego stuffed with jalapeños and crusted pork with mango relish, among others. Six varieties of mangos are sold in the U.S.; Tommy Atkins, Haden, Kent, Keitt, Honey and Francis.”

Judicial Watch continued, “One of the more recent studies sponsored by the board includes an in-depth analysis on the ideal temperature to deliver the highest quality mangos. The findings are delivered in an exhaustive 38-page report, but the nutshell is that the optimal transit temperature for mangos is around 55 degrees Fahrenheit.

“The problem, however, is that mangos are often transported in refrigerated trailers with other food items that require colder temperatures and the mangos get compromised. The experts inperishable food cold chain‘ hired to research the matter were left with the objective of finding commercially available pallet covers for the thermal protection of mango pallets transported in a mixed load refrigerated trailer.

“It’s not clear how much this important research cost the Mango Board. For those wondering, Kent mangos were used in the study and pallet covers were tested with and without a base.”

What could be done with $6.7 million dollars?  Clearly, this board is unnecessary.  Does not private industry marketing and advertising, paid for by the growers/producers, take care of “increasing the consumption of fresh mangos in the united States?”  It works for the Florida Orange Growers and the California Dairy Farms.  The same would be true of mango growers/producers.

While the funding for this board is done through “fees” from the handlers and importers, valuable time of the CBP is wasted collecting these fees.  The time could be better spent on securing the border.  Remember, taxpayer dollars are spent paying the salaries of CBP employees to process these fees.

An unconstitutional board within an unconstitutional department wastes our money for a constitutional agency within another unconstitutional department for processing of fees to promote the consumption of a fruit in this republic, which could be done by private industry.  Moreover, if this was done through a private advertising firm, it means job security for those individuals employed by said firm.

One can only conclude this convoluted process is some legislators “pet” project – the idea of some moron to employ “friends” in government.  If true, it is an example of cronyism and the goal to expand government to exercise more control over our everyday lives.  In other words, it keeps with the status quo.

So, the next time you are in the grocery store, looking at different fruits you might want to eat, watch for that proverbial mango.  It is a year-round available fruit.  And remember, the US government has an entire board targeting you so you will purchase and consume that fruit while that board consumes resources from CBP that could be better utilized.

Article posted with permission from Freedom Outpost

Become an insider!

Sign up to get breaking alerts from Sons of Liberty Media.

Don't forget to like SonsOfLibertyMedia.com on Facebook and Twitter.
The opinions expressed in each article are the opinions of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect those of SonsOfLibertyMedia.com.

Trending on The Sons of Liberty Media