Did The FDA Really Shut Down All LDS Canneries East Of The Mississippi River? LDS Church Says No

Update June 18th: LDS Church issues official statement confirming that self-canning will end at 89 of their 101 Home Storage Centers; updated post HERE.

Update May 7th: In response to a query by Times & Seasons, the LDS Church sent the following statement: "The Church is not closing canneries and is not limiting the variety of goods available to Church members. Over time, we will be reducing the number of facilities where the packaging of dry goods occurs. Instead, Church home storage centers will offer the same or additional commodities in pre-packaged form, at no additional cost".

Upon opening one of my e-mail accounts on May 4th, I found a message entitled "FDA Shuts down LDS Canneries", and sourcing the Wiseprepper website. In turn, Wiseprepper cites a report from the Preparedness Pro Facebook page (which is available only to Facebook members), which states "All LDS Canneries east of the Mississippi will no longer be canning any food. The FDA, in their infinite, expert opinions –- said with the greatest of sarcasm –- has managed to FINALLY create such a set of conditions which are impossible for the LDS Church to comply with". Locations of LDS Welfare Centers can be found HERE.

Further investigation reveals a discussion thread on The Tree Of Liberty, where a copy of a letter produced by the LDS Home Storage Center in Greensboro, NC is posted. The letter is re-published below:

Click to enlarge or go HERE for original

In the letter, the HSC confirms that they will be no longer canning at their facility effective on June 26th of this year. But they will be receiving canned goods from elsewhere. What's interesting is that they say they cannot sell existing stock after July 1st. But there's no mention of any involvement by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Furthermore, neither the Provident Living website, the official Mormon Newsroom website, nor the FDA website mention any FDA interaction with LDS canneries. Discussion on the LDS Freedom Forum indicates confirmation from the Atlanta area, however.

One poster on Tree Of Liberty hints that this might have been an economic retrenchment decision by the LDS Church. Snowbandit writes "The western ones are described as more 'robust' and will continue to produce. Product from the west will be available in the eastern stores with the addition of transportation costs and now unused equipment from the east will be available to loan for home canning projects. I don't agree with the LDS on much but this is still a good project". Unfortunately, the supporting link referenced by Snowbandit does not load. But this sounds like a more plausible explanation; regardless of how much in the way of financial resources the LDS Church receives, they will always look for additional ways to economize.

However, output from Snowbandit's supporting link was published on MS Gun Owners, and they insist there's a secret FDA plan to shut down all LDS Canneries nationwide in two years by inflicting "death by a thousand cuts" through excessive regulation and punitive enforcement. Here's the key excerpt:

Will the LDS Canneries Be Shut Down?

What’s a cannery that doesn’t can anything? Well, apparently it’s just a center now in which people will be able to check out the #10 canners for a few days at a time and can dry goods in their own home now or they’ll be able to purchase pre-packaged goods that will be canned in the more robust facilities in the Western States which will no doubt bear the burden of the cost to be shipped now to the Eastern states. However, several interviews made it clear to me that there’s an active intent by these government entities to shut down ALL LDS Canneries ALL over the U.S. including the ability to purchase foods in bulk and that there’s a targeted time table by the government entities to have this accomplished at the end of the next two years. We’ll just have to see who wins that little challenge.

Read what they also say about LDS orchards:

However, the feds have upped their regulations this year and are requiring every volunteer to be (specially government) trained. They have made it clear that we could be audited, and the volunteers could be asked by Gov’t officials on-site (at any time) if they have been ‘trained’. If we are not in compliance, the orchard could be shut down. So after Sacrament meeting today they had a Stake member come and pass out a ‘training’ sheet and gave adults a card that people are supposed to sign and take with them out to the orchard when we work to show that we have been trained. The wards now have to have an orchard coordinator that will be on site to ‘train’ those people who fall through the cracks and missed the training.

The training includes on-site cleanliness (washing hands, etc. and using the toilet facilities that the church has always provided (us) before ‘they’ said anything); another item was that if fruit touches the ground we are to not put it in the bins; we can’t use it for use at the cannery. However, that fruit is good enough for me to pick up and take home to eat, hmmmm. Moving on….

Another item–That children are watched carefully so they don’t pick fruit with unclean hands, (seems to me that the canning process would kill any bacteria that a child or adult might have on their hands); that each volunteer record their hours, and that we provide proof of training to any official who may want to see it on demand.

Summary:

-- We know the Greensboro HSC will no longer be canning on their premises after June 26th. They will continue to sell canned goods shipped in from elsewhere, and they will allow patrons to check out their canning equipment as needed.

-- There's a good chance that every LDS Welfare Center east of the Mississippi will stop canning on their facilities effective June 26th, but they will also remain open.

-- There's insufficient evidence of FDA involvement at this time.

The Federal government has undeniably become an oppressive entity, but it's not helpful to blame them for sins they may not have committed. The Feds have committed enough other sins we can highlight. Times And Seasons is now discussing this issue.