Truth Farmer

©Doreen Hannes

Debe Bell of Jefferson County Colorado was convicted of 35 counts of animal abuse on January 27th, 2012. Her crime was that she had 193 rabbits in 184 cages and that 4 or 5 of these cages were severely laden with manure. Twenty-five of the 193 rabbits were kits. That’s what baby rabbits are called. I spoke with Debe about the court ruling and garnered a significant amount of information that Channel 7 out of Denver didn’t pretend to be interested in. If you look at the link provided, you can scroll down to see the previous stories done on the rabbit raid by Channel 7, and judge if the headlines alone are emotional enough to convict someone.

The spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department, Mark Techmeyer, said that the rabbits were in an “overheated” 84-degree barn. This temperature was taken on a 94-degree day after several hours of having the swamp cooler unplugged and the door to the barn open. He also said there were dead rabbits in the barn. Ms Bell said “One rabbit had died that morning while I was at work. About 15 adults and who knows how many babies died after they removed the rabbits from my barn.”

A veterinarian from the Foothills Animal Shelter reportedly testified that she thought 80 degrees was too high and that 72-degrees as a maximum would be a better temperature requirement. However, if one simply thinks for a minute, should rabbits fail to survive temperatures over 84 degrees, we wouldn’t have rabbits in North America. The fact is that the optimum temperature range for rabbits is from 50 to 80 degrees F. It should also be noted that “optimum” is not equivalent to “required”.

Techmeyer also said that the rabbits were “aggressively thirsty”. This terminology is being used to describe behavior that those who raise rabbits see as normal rabbit attitudes. They say they were “aggressive” because when the cage doors were opened, many of the rabbits jumped forward to the door; but lots of rabbits do that. Sometimes they will even jump out of the cages when the door is opened. It’s just what they do. Other rabbits will cower at the back of their cage in seeming terror. Those rabbits are more timid types, but it does not, in any way, indicate that the rabbit has been abused. These are just typical rabbit behaviors, and what they indicate is that the subject is a typical rabbit.

Ms Bell said that the judge would not allow the rabbits to be referred to as livestock. It is an important distinction because when something is considered as a pet instead of a resource there is a personification of the animal that takes place in the psyche of the listener.

Initially, Debe was charged with 25 counts of animal cruelty. The Prosecutor ramped it up to 55 counts after the rabbits had been seized and spayed or neutered. The jury threw out the 20 charges of cruelty on dead animals that were found in her freezer.

Ms Bell said that when the jury was told that this was a animal cruelty case involving rabbits, literally half of them rolled their eyes, indicating to her that they thought the entire issue was ridiculous. Despite that, they found her guilty of 35 cruelty charges that the prosecutor would like to get separate convictions on. There is an 18 month jail term possible for each count against her. A little math shows that it is potential of 52.5 years in jail for the 59 year-old rabbit breeder.

In a previous article, I covered the photos taken to assist the prosecution in indicting and convicting Ms Bell. And again, I have to say that in particular, the manure in the cages shown is not good, and I am not defending that as evidence of good animal husbandry. But the larger issue is that there was no warning given, no warrant on site until six hours after the House Rabbit Society and the Sheriff came and began removing the rabbits from Bell’s barn, and no attempt by the authorities to allow Ms Bell to correct the problems shown in these photos. Also, no mention was made of Ms Bell’s contention that her 4-H kids were scheduled to come on Saturday, two days after the raid, to clean the barn and cages.

According to Ms Bell, a member of the House Rabbit Society was overheard to say that if the raid on her rabbitry went off well they were then going to go after the “one on 104th”. That is exactly what happened. There are now two other rabbit breeders in Colorado currently facing animal cruelty charges related to the anonymous tip line with up to $2,000 in awards available for tips resulting in convictions. One of these breeders is facing 57 counts of abuse, with potentially 18 months of jail time for each offense.

At question here is the very basis of our legal system. As a brief overview, Ms Bell was reported via an anonymous tip line that pays for convictions, the Sheriff and House Rabbit Society were on her property removing her rabbits without a search warrant, the rabbits were spayed, neutered and adopted out before any conviction was assessed. So due process, security in our property, and the right to face our accusers are all on the line in this case.

There will be an appeal made in the case, and Ms. Bell expects the appeal process to last approximately two years. She remains optimistic about the process. She said, “As the process continues, we will be able to get more legitimate knowledge into the record.” She feels that if the information is fairly assessed, she will be exonerated in the long term.

I wish I were that optimistic.

I just received the information regarding the verdict in Debe Bell’s trial for animal cruelty on her rabbit herd. I spoke with Debe for several hours after the incident came to my attention and wrote this article regarding that conversation here.

It is repugnant to my senses that this Denver News station had the audacity to state that Debe Bell’s barn was overheated at 84 degrees on a 94 degree day. I would love to see the transcript from this trial. If the jury was not mentally engaged to consider that FACT that if rabbits couldn’t survive 84•F temperatures there would be no rabbits in nearly all of North America, there is some serious neglect going on in the defense of Debe Bell.

I will do my best to try to speak with Debe and lay my hands on documents to cover this issue fully as it deserves. But for now, read this amazingly slanted piece from Channel 7 in Denver. More to come on this issue along with a dog raid here in my neck of the woods.

I just came across this bit of news. This man actually tried to do the right thing in an agency that is completely off it’s rocker. I met him at the R Calf USA Annual Convention right after his appointment was confirmed. A great number of the members of R Calf were tremendously excited because they knew J. Dudley, and truly believed that he could get the Anti-Trust laws that are on the books enforced. Unfortunately, he was just one card in the entire stack, and couldn’t achieve anything really positive against the corporate stranglehold of consolidation that is so evident in every segment of agriculture and the food supply.

He tried, and for that I commend him. That he couldn’t get it done ought to really illustrate the depth of the problem we face in this nation as a result of allowing this consolidated, centralized system to continue.

Buy local, buy direct, and reclaim your right to eat what you want to eat from those you want to procure it from. Don’t think the USDA is going to help you get anything positive done, folks. They are Uncle Sam Destroying Agriculture……

Here is the article on J. Dudley Butler:

I will be on the show for my regular monthly appearance in just a few hours here. There are so many things happening on the food freedom front that it is a full time job to keep up with them! I am going to provide links for the articles I hope to be speaking about in this post.

Since people who read my blog are generally a little more interested in actual documents than your average bear, I believe you will find the comments on this page to be really interesting. There is a commenter who read the agreement that those who wish to download the “free” access to the genome mapping of the cocoa tree by Mars, and the fabulous USDA (and more) will find more than intriguing. The agreement effectively nullifies any actual free access. This article is from the Scientific American, and well worth a read!

Another topic I hope to discuss is the massive consolidation of our food supply as discussed in Grist here. the issue is that Walmart is taking over the retail end of our food supply. It is something of a pet peeve for me, as there can be no food freedom when megalithic corporations control the distribution or the actual access to market of the food. While this article draws a few unsubstantiated potentials, like that the 10.5% increase in obesity in America is because of the proliferation of Walmart Super Centers, it is still an excellent piece, and draws out many very pertinent and important facts for people to keep in their minds as they go about their grocery shopping.

I also hope to discuss the latest perfect illustration of why it is insane to continue to interface with the federal government. Just this morning I received the news that Obama rejected the petition to legalize raw milk sales. Here is an article, from Bill Marler’s amazing propaganda machine that is a tremendous generator of revenue of fear mongering for all Americans, that explains the Obama Administrations belief that raw milk should have controlled access.

Meanwhile, the Raw Milk Freedom Riders intend to be at the County Sheriff Project’s massive event in Las Vegas to help promote the proper Constitutional position of the County Sheriff. This is a truly worthwhile and peaceful attempt at using the law as it stands, and the proper parameters of jurisdiction to constrain the out of control Federal government.

Regarding that jurisdiction and the persecution of people who simply provide food to others who want it, Vernon Hershberger, the Amish farmer who has been under attack from the Wisconsin DATCP is going to court on January 11th at the Baraboo (incedentally, Baraboo is home to the Ringling Bros Circus!) because he is such a criminal. If you are near, you should go and support him. There will be a rally at 12:00 in front of the courthouse. His appearance is scheduled for 1:00pm.

It never ceases to amaze me that we can sit here and say we are free when we can’t even decide for ourselves what food we want to eat.

As for me,  simply because an agency desires to control some aspect of my life does not -in any way- legitimize their authority to do so. If we don’t have the right to eat foods of our choice from providers of our choice, then we are not free.

Lastly, there is a movement amongst a segment of the raw milk community to establish “standards, certifications and protocols” to be APPROVED to sell raw milk directly to consumers. I hope to find the time to write about it in detail this week, but we must never, ever, under any circumstances, believe, that just because a quasi governmental bureaucratic group wants to control something via certification, that the certification is a true indicator of quality or that the lack of certification indicates a lack of quality. It’s kind of like the Stockholm Syndrome en masse. Changing one group of kidnappers for another!——More to come on this front.

And last, but not least, the Consent of the Governed Rally in Jefferson City was excellent! Kudos to Ron Calzone and all those who worked on the event to make such a tremendous kick off to Missouri’s legaslative session!

For those in Missouri, please do all you can to come to the Capitol and join with other Patriots to set the tone for the legislative session this year. This is a great opportunity to network with these other groups and to help each other stay on top of issues important to freedom in our state throughout the session…..

Rally Day: Wednesday, January 4, 2012 Jefferson City, MO — 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Join Us at the Consent of the Governed Rally

To citizens eager to see an end of “politics as usual” there is nothing more frustrating than seeing their senator or rep voting for bills because “the leadership says so” or “you vote for my bill and I’ll vote for yours.” Some of those rascals just need to be sent packing in November, but some of them are good folks dealing with issues they just don’t know how to handle — they need some principled “tools” to help guide them to the right decisions.

You can be a key component in providing those tools. Here’s two things you can do to that end: 1) Learn how the first five clauses of the Missouri Constitution can guide a legislator on 95% of the issues he faces. 2) Develop a relationship with legislators, especially your own, so you can “help” him apply principles in those first five clauses and also hold him accountable for doing so.

This coming Wednesday is your opportunity to do both at the 2nd annual Consent of the Governed Rally at the Capitol in Jefferson City. There, four excellent speakers will explain how the Preamble and Sections 1 through 4 of the Missouri Bill of Rights form the foundation for all of Missouri governance and constitute a simple formula for evaluating legislation. You will then have an opportunity to help present a framed parchment of those clauses to your representatives and explain to them that We’re From the People and We’re Here to Help!

Wednesday, Jan., 4 is the opening day of session and an excellent opportunity to introduce yourself, share the issues you are most passionate about, and learn what makes your representative or senator tick. Tactful face-to-face communication is the number one way YOU can build influence with public officials. Our subtle message will be that we are a resource and will be the statesman’s best friend but a nemesis to politicians who insist on destroying the Republic!

We want to encourage them to stand against the tide–to stand with citizens and not lobbyists.

For liberty, Sponsors of the Consent of the Governed Rally

P.S. Will you help support the cost of providing one of these beautifully framed and matted document to our legislators by making a small donation to help us cover the cost? You can do this by going to http://www.mocc.spruz.com.

P.S.S. Concerned Women of America can help you encourage your state represetnative and senator through out the legisative session with a program called “Encourage a Legislator.” You can learn more about this program at the rally or by emailing Ginger Yoak at encourage@missouri.cwfa.org.

Thank you to our financial sponsors: Leaders Level ($250+) James Coyne, Coyne Agency Paul Hamby, Hamby Dairy Supply Friend Level ($50+) Bev Martin James Holland Bev Ehlen Susan Calhoun Scott Maxwell Jim Holland Ike Skelton, Skelton’s Key & Lock Mid-MO Patriots Warren County Patriots Concerned Women of America

Co-Sponsors Franklin County Patriot,s Missouri Campaign for Liberty Missouri First, Concerned Women for America, Mexico Patriot Tea Party, Sullivan 9/12 Missouri Precinct Project, Crawford County Campaign for Liberty, Cooper County Tea Party, Branson Tea Party Coalition, Eureka Tea Party, Mid-MO Patriots, St. Louis Tea Party Coalition, Lebanon Tea Party, Sikeston Tea Party, I Heard the People Say, Capital TEA Party, God and Country Show Me Patriots, Eagle Forum, Cape County Tea Party, Conservative TV Online, Callaway County Patriots, Macon County Patriots, Ozarks Property Rights Congress – 7 Chapters in South Central and SW Missouri

Every day seems to bring a new outrage (or fifteen) from our would-be rulers. Some of them are downright hilarious if you possess the proper dark, and somewhat jaded, sense of humor. While my indignation is real, I have to keep laughing at the insanity of this stuff or I would just sit in a corner and cry. And what fun would that be? But I have to say that I prefer the more common BS to the Bureaucratic Sabotage we continually face. At least real manure has some inherent value.

Today, as I was getting my links together for a radio show, I received an article regarding a report detailing the latest thoughts from the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) of the United Nations. The FAO is the “global authority” on agriculture and the one the WTO looks to first to determine how best to starve serve the people of the planet to make all of this “sustainable” for those who should be here.

Now don’t hurt yourself laughing at the stupidity of this. These people are serious, and since we all need to eat to live, the seriousness of this mindset has to be addressed. You can read the article here and link through to the FAO for the full report from there as well. Here’s the first bit that got me:

“ “It is hard to envisage meeting projected demand by keeping twice as many poultry, 80 percent more small ruminants, 50 percent more cattle and 40 percent more pigs, using the same level of natural resources as currently,” the report said.

Production increases should instead come from improving efficiency of livestock systems in converting natural resources into food and from reducing waste, said the report published on FAO’s website (www.fao.org).”

One must wonder what “level of natural resources” the speaker is actually talking about. Land? Water? Grass? Grain? Animals? People? Fuel? All of these and then some? What exactly are the “natural resources” referenced?

The FAO is the agency of the UN that actually conducted a study on cow farts and methane gas produced by cattle as potentially creating global warming. Really. The original backpacking cows were in Argentina, but now there are several studies being done here in the states. They actually spend money on having cattle wear backpack fart measuring devices.

The report is titled “Livestock’s Long Shadow”. You can read the overview at the link through Wikipedia and download it through there as well.

Next thing you know those pushing for carbon credits will have people wearing the same backpacks to determine the amount of annual flatulence created by consumption of black beans in human populations. Maybe there will be control groups of non-bean consumers, bean consumers with Bean-O added and bean consumers au natural. Hopefully I didn’t just provide them with another method of squandering the monetary resources of the global populace.

The second, and more sinister part of the article was this:

“Large-scale, intensive animal-rearing farms, which will be the main drivers of increasing livestock output, should also reduce pollution generated from waste and greenhouse gases, cut the use of water and grain needed to produce livestock protein and recycle agro-industrial byproducts, the report said.

The farms should also be able to respond to climate-change challenges such as drought and water shortages, as well as to fight off animal diseases, some of which may threaten human health, the report said.”

It is Animal Farm.

If you will recall, in Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, the critters chase the farmer off the farm and take over. At first, there seems to be more equality for all the animals, and then the harsh reality of life begins to set in and the pigs completely take over.

The chickens are to lay more eggs with less feed.

The animals are all supposed to produce more with less input, except the pigs, of course, because they are the “brains” of the outfit and deserve to be more equal than the other animals.

Boxer, the big, dependable, ole work horse, continues to push himself to insane levels, continually repeating the mantra, “I will work harder”, to try to achieve the Utopia set forth by the (pigs) rulers as the goal. He doggedly adheres to this axiom until he dies from exhaustion.

In my mind, Boxer represents the American Dairy farmer almost perfectly. Working 12 to16 hours a day seven days a week just isn’t enough. They should work more and get bigger so they are less efficient and produce lower quality product so they can be less satisfied with their work and receive less compensation for their labor at the end of the 16-hour work day.

Yet another load of bureaucratic sabotage.

What they say is this: “Grow more food with less material and reduce use of resources and waste along the way. We will monitor and surveille your every step and put you out of business and off the land if we want to to preserve the earth in it’s purest wild state. And if you fail to feed those extra people under our terms, well, it’s your fault…..You need to work harder.”

Too bad we can’t use backpacks to measure the gaseous output of bureaucrats. We’d likely find that bureaucrats are responsible for climate change….if there were any.

.

For those who thought that NAIS was actually dead, it is going to be difficult to keep the delusion going as the USDA APHIS implements the new name, same deal ADT. Yes, a few things have changed with the program. Instead of requiring a “premise identification number” or PIN, it is now called a “Unique Location Identifier”. Instead of requiring traceback to the “farm of origin” or the “unique location” in 24 hours, it is now two business days. Instead of going straight to radio frequency ID tags with the US 840 number right away, they will wait to require that until 18 months after the rule they have up is finalized. Instead of requiring individuals to comply, the compliance will fall to the States. If they don’t meet the benchmarks, States will not be allowed to continue to send animals out of the state. So, as you can see, it is vastly different.

The USDA is accepting comments to their proposed rule until December 9th. While I personally see little reason to make a comment, as I posted my personal Declaration of Independence to the Federal Register on the last NAIS comment period, it may be worthwhile to go ahead and post your thoughts. At least that way you can say you objected.

R-CALF USA has a nice little piece with a Bakers Dozen of objections to the proposed rule. You can read that here. Also, if you want to go ahead and post your thoughts on the rule, you can go through the following process and do so:

1)      Go to http://www.regulations.gov/#!searchResults;rpp=10;po=0;s=APHIS-2009-0091-0001

2)      Find the entry titled “Traceability for Livestock Moving Interstate” with a “posted date” of 08/11/2011.

3)      Just to the right of the date “08/11/2011,” click “Submit a Comment.”

4)      Follow the instructions for submitting your comments that can be written in the box provided.

If there is any doubt that this is an international WTO requirement, and we have been put under global government without our consent, read the following article from New Zealand on their NAIT….Australia’s program is the NLIS. All the same, just different acronyms:

A NEW levy to fund the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) scheme is unnecessary and yet another cost farmers have to bear, says Gisborne Wairoa Federated Farmers president Hamish Cave.

“It is just all too easy to keep asking farmers to pay,” he said.

Farmers are already paying a substantial amount on every cattle beast they send to the works.

“There is $11.40 to the Animal Health Board, $4.20 to Beef and Lamb and $20.70 for the Ministry of Agriculture inspection — That is $36.30 and then another $2.50 to NAIT as well as $4.83 for the new electronic tags is $43.63 — in my opinion that is far too much money to pay before we even get paid for the animal.”

The NAIT scheme is set to start on July 1 next year.

Mr Cave says to cut costs for farmers he would like to see NAIT combine with the AHB.

He accepts the benefits of electronic tagging but wants to see all parties working together for the best outcome for the farmer and the industry.

Mr Cave would also like to see Beef and Lamb New Zealand supporting NAIT financially.

“I know Beef and Lamb are doing a lot of other work but for their $4.20 per animal they could support this a bit, too.

“It’s too easy to keep asking farmers to pay.”

The need for an AHB tag and a new electronic tag was unnecessary cost, once again met by farmers, he says.

“In Australia they have 30 million cattle tagged and a 98 percent retention rate — as long as the tags are put in the right place in the ear, close to the head and when the animal is young, they stay in — so why two tags?”

Farmers in New Zealand could send cattle to sale or slaughter and should only have to pay for an EID button.

Animal Health Board spokesman Nick Hancox said it was the intention of the Government and the industry that NAIT and the AHB be brought together.

“However signals from the industry have been that that does not happen from the outset. Industry owners have indicated it would be best for NAIT to get through the establishment stage and sort out any teething problems before the two organisations could come together.”

The time frame would be likely a year, Mr Hancox said.

The need for two ear tags would also be phased out once NAIT and the AHB were sure it was working as required.

“In the early days of the system in Australia retention of tags was poor. As soon as the NAIT system is working as intended, the AHB tags will be phased out.”

Beef and Lamb chairman Mike Petersen said his organisation did not have any spare cash to volunteer to NAIT.

“The question is which extension programmes would farmers like us to cancel to have money for that. At the end of the day we don’t have a mandate to change what farmers want us to do with the levy money.”

Also, the proposed $2.50 levy was not totally paid on slaughter — about half was incorporated in the cost of a tag, said Mr Petersen.

NAIT was industry-owned and the screws were on to keep the costs as low as possible, he said.

NAIT is calling for submissions from farmers and lifestylers who manage cattle and deer so they get the opportunity to say what they think about the proposed levy system.

Cattle will be in from July 1 next year and deer join the scheme in March 2013.

The Government is funding the building of the NAIT database and a proportion of the scheme’s ongoing operational costs. The balance of operational costs will come from the industry through levies on cattle and deer farmers.

NAIT Limited Chief Executive Russell Burnard said the NAIT Bill currently before Parliament required the ongoing cost of running the NAIT scheme to be recovered.

“We have developed a cost- recovery model in consultation with our industry shareholders (Beef and Lamb New Zealand, DairyNZ, Deer Industry New Zealand).”

“After considering a number of options, we are proposing levies on tags and slaughter for cattle. Based on NAIT Limited’s projected costs, the proposed levy for cattle will be about $2.50 over the lifetime of the animal.

“With differences in the numbers of dairy and beef animals tagged and sent to slaughter, this will mean that the beef and dairy sectors will each pay in proportion to their shareholdings in the scheme.

“With deer, we have followed the Deer Industry New Zealand’s (DINZ) wishes and propose DINZ pays a collective contribution. This mirrors the deer industry’s current contribution to the TB control programme,” Mr Burnard said.

The NAIT scheme would enable animals to be traced quickly and reliably from birth to death or live export.

Information on the location and movement history of animals was essential to ensure a rapid response to a biosecurity outbreak, or contamination of an animal-based food product.

“Improved animal identification and traceability will provide our export markets with assurances around the sourcing of New Zealand’s animal-based food products — assurances competing producers overseas already provide,” Mr Burnard said.

People interested in making a submission have until 23 December to do so. The consultation document is at: http://www.nait.co.nz

Folks, I wish it were different, but the fact is that the entire globe is being “harmonized and standardized”. The best thing we can do to resist is to voice our position-loudly and clearly- and to develop all the direct trade between ourselves that we can. The international harmonization scheme is a recipe for global famine.

(My booklet on how this all works structurally will be finished soon, and when it’s done, it will be available for download. It is my hope to help people to understand the mechanisms so we can fight against this in the best ways possible.)

If you are anywhere near this area, and believe that people have the right to consume food of their choice, you should go and support this group of food freedom activists. While I cannot be there because we don’t have a car that can be trusted to make the drive, I think this is worthwhile and really will help to push the issue to the forefront.Please, if you are near, take the time to stand for the most basic of human rights……

On November 1, 2011 the Raw Milk Freedom Riders made their inaugural run from PA to MD eliciting a statement from the FDA. http://www.thecompletepatient.com/journal/2011/11/4/in-accomplishing-their-goals-michael-schmidt-and-the-raw-mil.html Subsequently, federal and state authorities have launched an all out assault from coast to coast, targeting farmers, buying clubs, and individuals involved with the production or distribution of real milk and other local foods. Over a dozen people or businesses now face various charges, orders, and other enforcement actions; some are even under “federal criminal investigation” and face a trial by grand jury.

Actions:
1.  Join the Raw Milk Freedom Riders as we defy the FDA and transport raw milk across state lines and agents distribute the milk!  www.RawMilkFreedomRiders.com for additional details

2.  Spread the word.  Post to facebook, email, and call local news stations about this deliberate act of Civil Disobedience (see below invitation)

3.  If you are unable to make it, please donate to help cover expenses. http://tinyurl.com/6tduy7a

Raw Milk Freedom Riders to Ride Again
December 8th 2011 IN CHICAGO!
more info at RawMilkFreedomRiders.com

You are invited to join the Raw Milk Freedom Riders, Food Freedom Advocates from around the country, local and national press and Maybe the FDA and law enforcement* at our next Freedom Ride coming to Chicago IL.

Who:      Raw Milk Freedom Riders and Speakers from around the U.S.

What:     100 gallons of Raw Milk and Cookies to be distributed in support of Food Freedom

Where:  From Wisconsin to Chicago.  Rally at Independence Park, 3850 West Irving Park Road, Chicago, IL. 60618

When:   Thursday, December 8, 2011   (11:30am-2:00pm)

Why:     After the first freedom Ride on November 1st in Maryland, the FDA issued a statement saying, in part, they did not “intend” to target individuals transporting raw milk across state lines for their own, individual use. Implicit in this, FDA is admitting their intent to criminally target agents, buying clubs, coops and farmers in their pursuit of raw milk prohibition.
Join us as we call for an end to the prohibition and criminalization of raw milk consumers!
______________________________________________________________________________

The caravan of Freedom Riders will include embedded reporters to broadcast what we are doing and why—to shed light on the FDA’s violent and failing policies.  We are informing the FDA of our intentions and inviting them to the party as we caravan over 100 gallons of raw milk from Wisconsin and then distribute in Chicago at Independence Park.   It is time to challenge the FDA on the law that turns honest parents and farmers into criminals for transporting raw milk across state lines.

Food Freedom heroes Max Kane, David Gumpert, Liz Reitzig, Kathy Pirtle, John Moody, Jim Marlowe and many others dedicated to raw milk choice and food freedom will join us for a rally and peaceful demonstration at Independence Park in Chicago.

Watch as Max Kane invites the FDA to witness as we violate federal law  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK1VpnkANRY&feature=player_embedded

Please invite your friends to the Freedom Ride and rally at Independence Park in Chicago!  Our numbers will show our seriousness!  https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/290165197690562/

We welcome EVERYONE to join us at the rally and help make a HUGE statement to the FDA on our movement toward personal choice, dietary privacy, and food freedom!  Please email questions to the Freedom Riders at rawmilkfreedomriders@gmail.com

For additional information, see www.RawMilkFreedomRiders.com

However my computer situation is in dire straits and effectively on life support. I myself am still warm. I am a Mac user. I love Macs, but mine died. I sent it off to Powerbook Medics who says they have a three day turn around, and ten business days later, they still don’t know what is wrong with it. Grrrr…..

I have an older HP back up and have that running with a full virus protection that is supposed to deep scan every time it runs and do all this super protective stuff, but it is nonetheless trying to die on me as well. Since running IBM format stuff online without virus protection is the cyber equivalent of having anonymous unprotected sex in a gay bar I got the virus protection before I did anything. Too bad for me. This thing seems to have a Trojan that is trying to eat it’s brain.

Then there is my email account. I have had my email addy  of animalwaitress@yahoo.com for about 12 years now. Suddenly they decided that sending out two emails in a single morning is worthy of blocking my account to read only. I am dubbed a spammer for sending two emails to two separate individuals. Amazing. And this has been happening for two weeks.

So, I am having difficulty with my lifestyle and my stupid computers are aggravating me to no end. I wasn’t even able to log onto wordpress for two weeks.Is this personal? Heck if I know, but I am kind of taking it personally at this point.

Hopefully things will even out with this stupidity and I will be able to resume writing instead of fighting to get on and be able to even read.

I would like some cheese with my whine. Make it uninspected, unapproved, raw and from living critters eating real food they are supposed to consume. Like grass.

Speaking of—There is going to be an exercise in civil disobedience across the Pennsylvania and Maryland state lines. Raw Milk will be transported across the lines without permission and then consumed right in front of the FDA headquarters with invitations to enforce their stupid regulation offered to them in advance. If you possibly can, it would be good to go drink some milk right in the tyrants faces. You can find out more at Raw Milk Freedom Riders site.

So if you write me and expect a response, please be aware that I am often incapable of writing you back. If anyone knows a solid way around these technical issues I am experiencing, I welcome your advice. I really am much more of a duck tape and hammers type person, but I can follow directions!

Thanks and be blessed all.

by Doreen Hannes

When the FDA answered FTCLDF (Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund) in the interstate shipment of raw milk suit, they stated four fully repugnant things. That you have no right to, nor does your child have a right to any particular food, you have no right to bodily or physical health, that you have no right to contract, and that they are “rationally” fulfilling their public health mission. It appears that they forgot to include that you have no right to privacy or free association along with no right of contract. With the recent actions against Rawesome, sting operations against Amish farmers, and the absolute destruction of Morningland Dairy, one can only surmise that the FDA, who pulls the strings on state level equivalent agencies, forgot to specifically deny the right to freedom of association guaranteed us under the First Amendment along with many others.

As many people have been covering these continual affronts to our very right to consume food that we want to consume, I don’t feel as compelled to conduct a full review every time I find myself in the position of covering a new travesty of decency. Maybe that’s laziness in the eyes of some, but the truth is we are against the wall in this country with the most basic of human rights, and it’s too late to be nice about it any longer. If people are still unaware that food is a controlled substance, they are not likely to read this article anyway.  Unfortunately, we have another assault that needs to be brought to the attention of those paying attention.

Morningland’s cheese plant has now been shut down for just over one year. They’ve been to court and have filed an appeal on the judge’s order to destroy their wealth, and were taken to court again on June 13^th and found guilty on one of three Contempt of Court charges brought against them for not rolling over and dying when the Milk Board suggested they should. They had to post bond again to keep their cheese from the hands of the destroyers until the legal wrangling is complete. Now the Attorney General says they must give up the names, addresses and phone numbers of individuals who are members in their private association. Denise Dixon says she will go to jail before that happens.

At the first trial, on January 13^th 2011, the principals of Morningland of the Ozarks LLC, Joseph and Denise Dixon, notified the Attorney General’s office, the Missouri Milk Board, and Judge David Dunlap (although he rec’d his notification via mail) that they had closed Morningland of the Ozarks LLC, and had formed a private membership association that they hoped to be able provide with their own cheese once this issue was resolved. In the interim, they purchased cheese from two licensed, inspected facilities and cut it and shipped it to their membership. The Dixons drove to these cheese plants (one inWisconsin and one inKansas) and picked the cheese up. This takes the private group completely out of the accepted realm of commerce.

In his original ruling against Morningland of the Ozarks LLC, Judge Dunlap stipulated that the LLC was the only entity involved in this action. The Attorney General’s office made no move to personally enjoin either one of the Dixons from either making or selling or cutting or wrapping or eating cheese themselves. The Dixons even applied for a tax id number as Morningland Dairy, not Morningland of the Ozarks LLC.

But that doesn’t matter. Trying to make an independent living is now illegal.

The state is the Judge. The Judge says there can be no jury. The state is the Executioner. After all, this is the land of the free the home of the brave, where agencies steal and destroy property with impunity and if we don’t like it, we can leave. That is, if we aren’t already involved in some legal imbroglio.

I digress. But only a little bit.

Judge David Dunlap ruled that Morningland of the Ozarks LLC is to turn over to the Attorney General’s office all sales records (none), all production records (none), all sanitation records (none), all bacteriological test records (none), and all sales records (again?).

Denise and Joseph Dixon produced the invoices from the companies they purchased cheese from, and also invoices with the names redacted of the people they had sent cheese to from Feb 23^rd through present. This wasn’t good enough. The Missouri Attorney General’s office claims that they must have the names, addresses and phone numbers of the private membership association or there will be a $100 per day fine ascribed to a defunct entity, and a defunct private membership association for failure to produce documents. That fine assessment began on August 22^nd as per a letter from the Attorney General’s office.

Joseph and Denise are ready to go to jail before they will turn the names and addresses of the association members over in this action. They mean it. They are asking the court to reconsider it’s ruling to divulge the members names…. But there are things that have to be clarified before they go to jail.

These things make no sense to me in the legal realm of this case. We are dealing with four entities. One is the subject of legal action, that being Morningland of the Ozarks LLC (d/b/a Morningland Dairy). One is Morningland Dairy, the private membership association. The other two are scripturally one, being Joseph and Denise Dixon. The Court, and the Attorney General’s office have stated repeatedly that Morningland of the Ozarks LLC is the only entity involved in this legal action. However, they are comfortable finding a defunct entity, with no income or production, to be in contempt. They are also comfortable with forcing a private association to disclose their membership list in conjunction with a legal proceeding against a separate entity and with requiring the procurement of production records from other entities over which they have no jurisdiction.

If the logic employed by the Missouri Attorney General’s office and Judge Dunlap of Howell County Circuit Court is to apply to all of us (as it will if all of this is upheld), should you purchase some male performance enhancement herbs from anyone, and one of their suppliers is involved in a dispute with say the FDA, then the FDA will have the right to know that you bought such a product, and maybe they will even call you to find out how it worked for you.

Pleasant thought, isn’t it?

The AG’s office makes no bones about their assertion that the Dixons formed their private membership association solely to engage in unlawful activity. They think the Dixons are such hard nosed criminals that they are flaunting the law by letting the Milk Board, the Court and the AG’s office know that they are running a private association under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution. Obviously, the Dixons are criminal because they believe they have the right to provide people with food that the people want and to try to make some money to pay for the electricity to continue to hold their arrested cheese for the inevitable destruction. In the Missouri Attorney General’s eyes, there can be no chance that the Dixons simply want to do what they have been dedicated to doing all along…..Provide living food to living people who share their continued interest in, ummm, living.

I guess we need permission for that now.