We Need Your Support!
The 2012 elections will unleash a tsunami of CEO cash for front groups.
Help us expose the shadowy forces distorting the news and corrupting our democracy.
 --The Center for Media and Democracy
(PRWatch, SourceWatch, BanksterUSA, & ALECexposed)
Fight back by funding our independent investigative reporting today. Click here.

Portal:Raw Milk

From SourceWatch

Jump to: navigation, search
edit  

The Raw Milk Portal

The Food Rights Network is a non-profit, non-partisan research and advocacy project of the Center for Media and Democracy.

Raw milk is milk that comes directly from cows, goats and sheep. It is not modified by processes such as pasteurization and homogenization. Farmers’ practices, such as how those animals are fed, milked, and treated, along with how the raw milk is stored and transported, are critical to the quality of that milk. FRN supports the policies and practices in dairy farming that make it possible to have appropriately sized herds and pasture for grazing that will help ensure good quality milk. FRN supports practices in storage and transportation of raw milk that have made this a safe and healthy product for generations. FRN supports the farmer’s right to sell raw milk to individuals and commercial enterprises both on and off the farm. FRN supports the milk drinker's right to purchase raw milk both on and off the farm.

edit  

The Latest from the Food Rights Network

This is the second in a two-part series by the Center for Media and Democracy's Food Rights Network (FRN) about challenges to local food sovereignty across the United States. It was originally published on Alternet. For more, see the first article, on the lawsuit against Blue Hill, Maine farmer Dan Brown brought by the State of Maine and Maine's Agriculture Commissioner, here.

Maine farmer Dan Brown, who milks one cow and sells milk to his neighbors, is being sued by the State of Maine for "unlicensed distribution and sale of milk and food products." The lawsuit has sparked protest in Maine and concern in communities around the country.

In an interview with the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), Brown said, "One of these times, they're going to come after one of us, and it's going to be that Rosa Parks moment ... [for] the food system."

The "Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance" that passed in Brown's town of Blue Hill, Maine, on April 2, 2011, asserting its "citizens' right to foods of their choice" without impediment by federal and state regulations, served as a model for several counties in California. CMD spoke with three farmers and advocates about the food sovereignty movement there, and how the suit against Farmer Brown may affect their struggle.

"Protecting the Health and Integrity of the Local Food System"

Pattie Chelseth and cow (Source: Bryan Patrick, The Sacramento Bee)
Pattie Chelseth, who farms with her two sisters at My Sisters' Farm in El Dorado County, California bought a cow in order to get raw milk for a grandchild. When others started coming to her for raw milk, she started a herd share. The farm now boards two cows owned by 15 people, whom Chelseth believes are all entitled to a share of milk under their private ownership contract.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), however, served her with a cease-and-desist order. So Chelseth and other local farmers are promoting "An Ordinance to Protect the Health and Integrity of the Local Food System in the County of El Dorado, California." She believes it will be brought up at the December 13 County Board of Supervisors' meeting.

In an interview with CMD, Chelseth said that the El Dorado County ordinance "was absolutely based on the Maine ordinance originally," but that she and other drafters "took out everything construed as public (farmers' markets, bake sales, etc.) and focused on private agreements between patrons and their farmer."

When asked how she thought the challenge to the Maine ordinance would affect their local efforts, Chelseth said, "If it's shot down somewhere else, that does not mean it will not prevail here."

For more, see "California is Farmer Brown" and the first part of the article, "We are Farmer Brown," on PRWatch.org.

edit  

Raids

The Raw Milk Raid Timeline provides a timeline of government raids of farmers and others selling and/or distributing raw milk.

2004

  • Spring: Organic Pastures, California: "Without notice, the FDA in association with state agencies visited Organic Pastures Dairy Company (OPDC) and carried out a multi-day investigation. The initial authority provided at arrival was suggested that the FDA was visiting to look at cheese production. On the second day of the inspection/ investigation an FDA investigator (Special Agent Jennifer King) was found secretly and illegally rapidly taking pictures of customer files of PET food sales and colostrum sales. OPDC demanded that the FDA leave and return the next day so that OPDC attorneys could respond to the illegal and unauthorized taking of customer data and file information. The FDA was found illegally operating outside of its jurisdiction, they were very embarrassed and did not return for five years."[1]

2006

  • August: Amos Miller Food, Pennsylvania: "Amos Miller Food was red tagged and embargoed. Aajonus Vonderplanitz, later co-founder of Rawesome Foods, ghost writes motion to quash. Judge throws the case out of court and quashes the complaint against Amos Miller. Miller continues supplying food."[1]

2007

  • February: Greg Niewendorp, Michigan: February: Greg Niewendorp sends legal notice to Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA), alienating his property and notifying of non-compliance in the state’s unlawful, dangerous experimental TB cattle testing and eradication program. MDA quarantine’s his farm.
  • August 21: Two state police trespass on Niewendorp’s property – with a state vet in wait around the corner – to coerce him into testing. Niewendorp escorts them off the property
  • October 7: The state vet, enforcement agents, and representatives of the MDA, warrant in hand, with police and SWAT teams standing by down the road, trespass on Niewendorp’s farm, forcing his cattle to be used for the state’s experimental program and RFID ear-tagged for the National Animal Identification System.

2010

  • April 2010: Dan Allgyer's Rainbow Acres Farm in Pennsylvania raided at 5am by the FDA with the U.S. Marshals and a state police trooper, following a months-long operation by an undercover investigator.[4]
  • June 2, 2010: Vernon Herschberger's Grazin' Acres Farm raided by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. He cuts the seals on his coolers and reopens his private farm store for business the next day.[5][6][7]
  • June 30, 2010: Rawesome Foods and its supplier, Healthy Family Farms, LLC, are raided and dairy products are seized.[8]

2011

  • August 3, 2011: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the California Franchise Tax Board, the California Department of Food and Agriculture and police raid Rawesome Foods (Los Angeles, CA) and arrests James Cecil Stewart, Sharon Ann Palmer, and Eugenie Bloch.[9] Leading up to both raids, the Los Angeles County District Attorney "employed at least three paid informants to join Rawesome...They were to join and become part of the community and report back on what was happening." There were also, separately "at least half a dozen undercover investigators," and "the investigators mounted secret 'pole cameras' within the tiny food club in Venice, CA, to film members in the club picking up food." Defense lawyer Ajna Sharma-Wilson says, "They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on informants and undercover agents. . . . They've spent millions on the whole case."[10]

Read more here.

edit  

Categories

edit  

Related portals

edit  

"Related SourceWatch articles"

edit  

Contact the Food Rights Network

You can contact the FRN by email to FoodRightsNetwork AT gmail.com. You can also sign up to receive helpful news:

edit  

Raw Milk news

  • "Small Farmers Fight the Good Fight": According to the Rock River Times (12/28), "In Loganville, Wis., the saga of Mennonite farmer Vernon Hershberger has switched from defense to offense after four charges were levied this month. . . . The state charged him with a retail food violation between Aug. 6, 2009, and June 3, 2010, a raw milk producer violation between Feb. 15, 2010, and June 3, 2010, a dairy plant violation between Feb. 15, 2010, and June 3, 2010, and a 'holding order' violation between June 2, 2010, and July 8, 2010. Hershberger ignored the raid and went back to business as usual of supplying small amounts of organic products to members, or in his view, fellow owners.
"Hershberger has a Wednesday, Jan. 11, court date at 1 p.m. The date was originally set a week earlier, but Hersberger asked for a continuance to set up a rally by food club members and by local concerned citizens to be held outside the courthouse, 515 Oak St., in the city of Baraboo, before Court Commissioner Leo Grill. . . .
"Hershberger has never laid claim to being a retailer.
"'It just so happens that I am the one who takes care of the cows, which we all share in a lease agreement,' Hershberger said. 'Let’s remember that by law, to lease is to own and that is why the state is picking on me. . . .'
"The state’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) took issue with the club, which has members scattered across the state, and raided Vernon’s farm. They taped his refrigerators shut and cited it as a crime scene. . . . Vernon was held at gunpoint in his living room in front of his young family . . ."
  • "Raw Milk = Raw Deal?": An excellent full-length feature article with accompanying must-watch video of farmer Dan Brown showing and discussing his farming practices and safety checks in the Bangor Daily News (12/27) tells the story of Brown's one dairy cow, Sprocket, aka "Troublemaker" (nicknamed that because of the lawsuit filed against Brown by the state of Maine because he sells whatever is left of her milk raw after he and his family drink it), and his conflict with state regulators, including family friend and Agriculture Commissioner Walter Whitcomb. See also the Food Rights Network's article and interview with Brown here.
  • Tucker Adkins Dairy Farm Recovering After FDA Smear Campaign: According to The Herald (10/25), Tommy and Carolyn Adkins of Tucker-Adkins Dairy in Rock Hill, South Carolina "struggled as sales have plummeted after the national attention. . . . In June, the Federal Drug Administration issued a warning, saying there were eight illnesses because of bacteria in raw milk from the Tucker-Adkins dairy. Later testing by the FDA and the state's Department of Health and Environmental Control showed the dairy's raw milk was negative for Campylobacteriosis, a bacteria known to cause diarrhea, cramping and fever. . . . 'Our customers need to bear with me, we're slowly picking up, but we won't bounce back [until] spring,' [Carolyn Adkins] said." The FDA has issued no apology for the false accusations. The campaign against the small farm involved not only the FDA but a network of state agriculture departments from South Carolina to Texas. Look for more from the Food Rights Network on this story in the new year.
  • "Amish Dairy Farmer Selling Raw Milk Won’t Be Cowed by FDA": According to the New American (12/22), "Milk may do a body good, but selling it without the government’s stamp of approval does not. Dan Allgyer, an Amish dairy farmer, is finding that out the hard way. The federal government is trying to slap a permanent injunction on him preventing him from selling his cows’ product to willing customers in other states — all because Allgyer and his customers prefer to trade in milk that has not been pasteurized. . . .
"Currently a food-buying club in Maryland called Grassfed on the Hill sends a truck to Allgyer’s farm to purchase and pick up his milk. They then transport it back to their home state, where it is distributed to club members in private homes. Allgyer is not personally selling the milk in Maryland at all.
"The FDA, whose headquarters are in Silver Spring, Maryland, apparently got wind of this arrangement and launched an investigation. The agency spent over a year and countless tax dollars on an undercover infiltration of Grassfed on the Hill. Its agents joined the club under assumed names, placed orders for milk, and went into private residences to pick up their purchases. Then the FDA conducted an armed, pre-dawn raid on Allgyer’s farm in April 2010, during which agents found raw milk coolers marked for various destinations in Maryland. . . ."
According to The Complete Patient's David Gumpert, "The proposed injunction provides for the added privilege of having his farm inspected whenever FDA agents are bored or just have the urge, AND he gets to pay big time for the privilege (at rates of $87.57 or $104.96 per hour, plus 51 cents a mile for their travel, plus the regular government 'per diem' for meals and hotels). One inspection that lasts a day or two, and involves two or three agents, who, of course, have to write up a detailed report afterwards, could cost $10,000. Maybe they decide to do it once a year, maybe once a month, maybe once a week. Whatever their pleasure.
"At the end of five years, Allgyer can tell the court he's been a good boy, and appeal to have the injunction lifted, and maybe it will be and maybe it won't. If not, the inspection arrangement continues."
Dan Allgyer has responded to the FDA's motion for summary judgment in an 11-page document, including in part:
"The defendant in this instant case denies the allegations of ownership or control of Grassfedonthehill, Communities Alliance for Responsible Eco-farming ("CARE") or Rawsome Foods and Defendant is not a part of such entities at this time. . . . 'Rainbow Valley,' a 1st and 14th Private Membership Association, does exist and does not deal with the public; it only deals with private members in a 1st and 14th private membership association. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the public domain is separate from the private domain of a private membership association in numerous cases. . . . These cases have also ruled that private membership associations are outside your jurisdiction and authority, being exempt."
edit  

Selected article

Local Food and Self-Governance Ordinances, first drafted in four towns in Hancock County, Maine, are town ordinances establishing local food governance in response to increased federal regulation via the "Food Safety Modernization Act."[11] Residents who drafted the ordinances in 2010 and 2011 feared that the new law, which President Obama signed on January 4th, 2011, could shut down cottage producers of jam and pickles made from backyard garden produce and church pot lucks without these local ordinances to protect them.[12][13]

Read more here!.

edit  

Selected picture

File:Sara Grusky with Goat small.jpg

Sara Grusky with baby goat Thelma (Source: Sara Grusky and Michael Foley)

edit  

"Selected video"


edit  

Raw Milk Resources

PRWatch Articles

External Resources

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Government Overreach, Grassfed on The Hill, accessed September 13, 2011
  2. ↑ David Gumpert, A Raw-Milk Raid Leads to a Special Thanksgiving: After a Kentucky raw-milk farmer gets busted in Ohio, his shareholders decide to help run the farm and its distribution business, BusinessWeek, November 27, 2006
  3. ↑ David Gumpert, States Target Raw-Milk Farmers: Michigan is the latest to bust a provider of unprocessed milk—and its heavy-handed tactics may put three small farms out of business, BusinessWeek, October 19, 2006
  4. ↑ Stephen Dinan, Feds sting Amish farmer selling raw milk locally: Cite interstate commerce violation, Washington Times, April 28, 2011
  5. ↑ Chris Woodard, Raw Milk Raid: One day after his farm is raided and authorities tell him to shut things down a local farmer is still selling raw milk, NBC 15, June 3, 2010
  6. ↑ Mr. Augie, ALERT: Wisconsin Family Food Ministries Raided for Raw Milk– Defying Orders, Journal of Natural Food and Health, June 3, 2010
  7. ↑ Chris Rickert, Raw milk advocates decry raid on farm, LaCrosse Tribune, June 4, 2010
  8. ↑ David Gumpert, Authorities, Including FBI, Raid Aajonus Vonderplanitz' CA Buying Club and Raw Dairy Herdshare in New Buying Group Assault; He Orders Staff to Stay Open, Ignore Red Tag, The Complete Patient blog, July 1, 2010
  9. ↑ David Gumpert, Major New Escalation in War on Food Rights As Federal and Local Agencies Team to Arrest 3 in CA on Criminal Charges Associated with Rawesome Food Club, The Complete Patient blog, August 3, 2011
  10. ↑ David Gumpert, Rawesome Investigators Used Paid Informants, Pole Cameras--Prosecutor "Doesn't Want Raw Milk, She Wants Blood", The Complete Patient blog, October 7, 2011
  11. ↑ Rich Hewitt, Farmers seek to protect locally grown foods, Bangor Daily News, February 24, 2011
  12. ↑ Deirdre Fulton, Free our food, Portland Phoenix, May 4, 2011
  13. ↑ Kyle Curtis, Keeping the Church Potluck Legal and Free: Will the "Food Sovereignty" Movement Take Hold in Oregon?, BlueOregon, April 24, 2011

Purge server cache

Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Portal:Raw_Milk"
Personal tools

Be a SourceWatcher!

Enter your e-mail address to get the Center for Media and Democracy's free weekly e-newsletter.