[image courtesy mtmrap.com]
Hazardous. Poisonous. Fatal. Sickening. Rotten. Toxic. Threatened. ***
As in, "Don't eat that Florida tomato! It could be F__________!!!!!!"
As in, "Girl, I was in Publix yesterday? And half the freaking produce was R______."
As in, "It's probably better if sport fishermen (especially pregnant ones) forgo consuming their swordfish and tuna catch, since their mercury levels are beyond H_________."
As in, "You might also want to think twice about chowing down any of the largemouth bass you catch in Boynton Beach canal, or Lake Ida, or Lake Osborne, because dude, it is so T__________."
"And hey, ix-nay on the snook from Tarpon Bay and its tributaries... totally S________."
As in, "Anyway, most of these P________ fish populations are Th__________."
"And BTW, The Florida Department of Health says that raw oysters could be P_______."
As in "You'd have to be a real gambler to swallow any highly T_________ blackfin tuna, cobia, almanco jack, barracuda, king mackerel, little tunny, shark, stingray, bluefish, black grouper, spotted grouper, bonefish, catfish, grey snapper, great amberjack, ladyfish, scamp, sheepshead, or spotted seatrout. Eat at your own risk, man!"
Ever heard of food disparagement laws?
***FLORIDA STATUTES TITLE XLVI CRIMES CHAPTER 865 VIOLATIONS OF CERTAIN COMMERCIAL RESTRICTIONS
5.065 Disparagement of perishable agricultural food products; cause of action; limitation.
(1) The Legislature finds, determines, and declares that the production of agricultural food products constitutes an important and significant portion of the state economy and that it is imperative to protect the vitality of the agricultural economy for the citizens of this state by providing a cause of action for agricultural producers to recover damages for the disparagement of any perishable agricultural product.
(2) For purposes of this section, the term:
(a) "Disparagement" means the willful or malicious dissemination to the public in any manner of any false information that a perishable agricultural food product is not safe for human consumption. False information is that information which is not based on reliable, scientific facts and reliable, scientific data which the disseminator knows or should have known to be false.
(b) "Perishable agricultural food product" means any agricultural or aquacultural food product or commodity grown or produced within the State of Florida which is sold or distributed in a form that will perish or decay within a reasonable period of time.
(c) "Producer" means the person who actually grows or produces perishable agricultural food products.
(3) Any producer or any association representing producers of perishable agricultural food products which suffers damages as a result of another person's disparagement of any such perishable agricultural food product may bring an action for damages and for any other relief a court of competent jurisdiction deems appropriate, including, but not limited to, compensatory and punitive damages.
(4) The statute of limitations for disparagement of perishable agricultural food products is 2 years from the date the disparagement occurs.