Choosing a presidential candidate is tough. Everyone’s ideas on running the country vary, and sometimes you agree with part of a candidate’s platform, but not all of it. Yet, craft beer seems to have found an ally in one Republican presidential candidate: John Kasich.
Currently the Governor of Ohio, Kasich was campaigning in New Hampshire and decided to drop by Henniker Brewing Company. Henniker Brewing owner Dave Courier brought up the fact that every beer label he makes has to get approval from the US Government, according to an article by The Wall Street Journal.
What Courier is alluding to is the Alcoholic Beverage Labeling Act of 1988, which was part of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. Back then, the point of the Labeling Act was to have breweries include healthy and safety warnings:
- “SEC. 204. (a) On and after the expiration of the 12-month period following the date of enactment of this title, it shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture, import, or bottle for sale or distribution in the United States any alcoholic beverage unless the container of such beverage bears the following statement.”
- ‘’GOVERNMENT WARNING: (1) According to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects. (2) (Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery, and may cause health problems.”
With roughly 124 craft breweries operating, and, of course, the macro giants, this legislation wasn’t a big deal. But we now have over 4,000 craft breweries in operation, and only one person approving labels for the US Treasury Department.
That’s right. You did not misread that last sentence. Kent “Battle” Martin – a horrible nickname – was the one-man beer label approving show in the Tax and Trade Bureau section of the Treasury Department before retiring last year. Tim Mak noted in his article for The Daily Beast that Battle hit 29,500 beer label approvals midway through 2014.
A brewer’s best friend right now?
Kasich, who was part of the 100th Congress in 1988 and voted to pass the Labeling Act, is apparently ready to cut out the bureaucracy and return the creative freedom to the brewers.
“Obviously he supports the health information that’s being relayed on the label,” Kasich’s spokesman Rob Nichols told The New York Times. “He opposes the federal government being involved in the micromanagement of what the appearance of that should like.”
The craft beer industry has faced an uphill battle against the government, and macro breweries, since the repeal of Prohibition. Between Anheuser-Busch trying to pay distributors to sell less craft beer, and the U.S. government adding costly nutrition legislation to the beer industry, having the highest powered official on their side would be a welcomed change.
