It’s All Suspect…

07 Nov 2010 Leave a comment

by truthfarmer in FDA, Morningland Dairy

As many of you know, I have been deeply involved in the Morningland Dairy Debacle. This past week brought several documents to light that shed a very harsh light on the agencies involved in the Rawesome raid that led to the Morningland shut down and recall of all of their production without due process. Read the article and associated documents below and let me know what you think.

This is on David Gumpert’s blog, The Complete Patient, and has a pretty good of amount of commentary already. Some of it is like reading code and not getting it, but a lot of it is quite insightful. (The article as it appears on Complete Patient has one or little technical errors in it because of many bouts of editing to clarify the complex issues. The one below is completely accurate and the docs support it….thanks for your humanity!)

Feel free to pass this on. The only oversight for agencies is we the people.


…..Or Is it Just Suspicious?

By Doreen Hannes

The issues that brought a tiny Missouri farmstead cheese plant to the forefront in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s war on raw dairy continue to expand, and trouble. As a wise man once said, “Truth is stranger than fiction.” The intrigue doesn’t dissipate at all with the increase in information regarding Morningland Dairy. The tests, methods and procedures that began this tragedy are very questionable.

Let’s back up a step. On June 30, agents from five or six agencies raided Rawesome Food Club in the Venice section of Los Angeles. They covered the security cameras after about a minute, and proceeded to spend several hours rummaging through the place and confiscating product–about $11,000 worth, according to Rawesome. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took a bunch of stuff, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture took another bunch of stuff, leaving lists of seized items.
All the seized products appear to have been sent for testing to the CDFA. (I say “appear to” because no one has formally said anything, but the report of contamination of Morningland Dairy cheese came from CDFA.)

The test results given to Morningland by the CDFA show reports for two types of cheese attributed to Morningland Dairy—‘raw milk Colby hot pepper” and “raw milk garlic”. (Remember these, I’m going to test you on them later.) The scientific information on these reports is heavily redacted and lack the detail that would have been required to pass a college course on Biology….at a reputable school, anyway.

The first thing that strikes one as extremely odd about the lab test report is that it fails to cite the name of the company in the product description. Secondly, there are no batch numbers for the cheese. These indicate the production date of food and help isolate potential problem areas. Thirdly, while they cite two types of cheese, there are two photocopies of the same one-pound block of Morningland Dairy Garlic Colby showing its weight as .87 lb. Then there are the key results: “L. monocytogenes detected” and ‘staph aur. detected”. Because of the oddities–the lack of batch numbers, failure to identify the manufacturer and the missing photograph of “Morningland Hot Pepper Colby”, I asked Denise Dixon of Morningland for the invoices of Rawesome’s purchases from Morningland prior to the June raid.


Discrepancies

The invoices indicate that Rawesome (invoiced to James Stewart) purchased cheese in October and November of 2009, and May and June of 2010. The invoices reveal Rawesome purchased Morningland Dairy Hot Pepper Colby in ½ pound blocks, but there was no picture of this cheese with the CDFA lab report. The majority of cheese purchased by Rawesome from Morningland Dairy was goat cheese, which runs under Morningland’s Ozark Hills label. All cheeses invoiced to Rawesome were in ½ pound packages, and Morningland had sold no “Morningland Dairy Garlic Colby” to Rawesome at all. So where did this one-pound block of Garlic Colby in the CDFA picture come from?

After finding these anomalies, Denise Dixon contacted the CDFA for more information on the tests conducted of Morningland Dairy or Ozark Hills products seized from Rawesome. She contacted Dr. Stephen Beam, the head of its dairy division, via email, and was told that only two samples of Morningland products were taken and that no samples of Ozark Hills (Morningland Dairy’s Goat cheese line) were collected. So, they sampled a type of cheese that was never sold to Rawesome (Morningland Dairy Garlic) and had none of the most recent order of Ozark Hills goat cheese in their inventory at all. Hmm, says I. The most recent Morningland invoice to Rawesome was entirely Morningland’s Ozark Hills goat cheese.

Transparency?

Interestingly, when you go through the inventory of seized items written by the CDFA, there are six items (59, 75, 76, 78, 79 and 80) that fit Morningland Dairy’s cheese descriptions (some are identified by brand). The product that was tested by CDFA and never sold to Rawesome is listed twice and numbered as 59 and 80 in the CDFA inventory. It says underneath number 59’s description “gallic colby” and is followed by “5”. We don’t know what “5” actually means, but one would think it would be either a number of packages or a weight. Some of the seized products have a weight associated with their description and some do not. There are two other entries on the inventory by CDFA stating “Morningland Dairy”, but on both of those, “Morningland” is crossed out, and one of them (item 80) is the never-sold-to-Rawesome Garlic Colby. Next to that entry is written “54”. Again, we don’t know what the “54” means. 54 packages? 54 pounds? 54 ounces? 54 grams? Who knows? Those who should know, like Dr. Beam, aren’t telling.

The statement by Dr. Beam that there were no other samples of Morningland or Ozark Hills product collected by CDFA just doesn’t make sense. The FDA also seized product from Rawesome. Its report clearly states that it took “10 subs (16 oz) of Morningland Dairy Raw Milk Cheese-Mild Cheddar from Mountain View, MO.” Despite not knowing what “subs” are (yes, I know, the sandwiches, but this is just cheese!) and the fact that Morningland did not sell 16oz blocks of cheese to Rawesome; we can verify through the invoices that Rawesome purchased Morningland Dairy Mild Cheddar cheese. It could have been taken from Rawesome inventory…just not in 1 pound blocks. Evidently, the FDA’s USPHS (United States Public Health Service) is incriminating CFDA for not following the search warrant and failing to take representative samples of ALL dairy products for laboratory testing. Either that, or Doctor Beam and CDFA don’t know how to read labels.

At best, the documentation here is terribly sloppy, and at worst, seriously inaccurate (perhaps a lawyer can tell if it might even be criminally so). Add to that the fact that all the legal proceedings—the issuance of the search warrant that allowed the seizure of the cheese and the issuance of the Missouri Milk Board’s order to destroy the cheese—have taken place in secret, and the fact that no illnesses have been attributed to Morningland cheese, one must question the motives of these agencies. How can there be any claim of due process when a business has been nearly shuttered and pushed to the brink of insolvency based on sloppy and inaccurate paperwork and entirely secret legal proceedings? Not to mention, the absence of any internal appeals procedure with the Missouri Milk Board.

Businesses should not be defamed and railroaded out of business by such sloppy procedures by government agencies. The results of the CDFA ‘investigation’ are seriously suspect; as such, they should be quarantined and subjected to a destruction order. They are the real threat to public health.

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If you wish to help Morningland Dairy fight for their right to exist, please donate to them at the UnCheese Party site.

Missouri Milk Board Declares They Have No Appeal

25 Oct 2010 2 Comments

by truthfarmer in FDA, Morningland Dairy


Morningland Dairy to go to Court
©Doreen Hannes

Those following the saga of Morningland Dairy should be aware that this past week has been a relentless roller coaster ride. On the upside of the roller coaster, many have donated to the Uncheese Party to help the family farmstead business in this battle, and Joe and Denise Dixon, owners of Morningland Dairy, are humbled and grateful for the generosity and dedication those committed to preserving access to real food have shown.

On the downside, the FDA sent a rather nasty toned letter asserting that they consider Morningland cheese “to pose an acute, life-threatening hazard to health”. While not a single complaint of illness has been reported in the 30 year history of Morningland, the FDA states in their letter that “because of the seriousness of this situation” Morningland “should conduct inspections for 100% effectiveness at their accounts”. You could accurately translate that to “more downtime, more money out of pocket, less likelihood of recovery”, and you’d be right.

Then, on Friday, the 22nd of October, Morningland received a certified letter from the Missouri Milk Board, that flatly negates the “Objection to Destruction and Offer of Remedy” Morningland sent on October 6th by stating that “No administrative regulations allow the appeal of the State Milk Board’s administrative order...”. So the Missouri Milk Board believes it has no reason to follow due process, nor any requirement to be held accountable for their actions if they feel like destroying someone’s lifelong-work and livelihood.

Charges Levied for Questioning Destruction Order

Apparently, the Missouri Attorney General’s office agrees that the Milk Board is above all, as on Friday, after the close of business, they sent notice of service to FTCLDF attorney Gary Cox, notifying him of a Court Ordered Injunction and charging Joseph and Denise Dixon with three counts of violating state law, as set forth by the Missouri Milk Board.

Morningland Dairy, a licensed, inspected facility that has conducted all required tests, is being charged with “Unlawful Sale of Dairy Products”…..rest of article is on Kimberly Hartke’s blog

Milk….It’s a Menace!!!

12 Sep 2010 7 Comments

by truthfarmer in FDA, raw milk

©Doreen Hannes 2010

This is the second of three articles to demonstrate the effects that Senate Bill S510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, will have on all of us. The third article in this series will be devoted to Senate bill S 510. As you read this article, it’s important to keep in mind that while the US Congress was on August recess, Senate bill S510, that will completely control the production of food, was resubmitted as a bipartisan complete substitute for the original.
On June 30th of this year, a private food co-op named Rawesome, founded by a rather iconoclastic individual by the name of Aajonus (pronounced odd-genus) Vonderplanitz was raided in Venice, California. The co-op’s members prefer to eat all raw food and have many personal testimonies of the benefits they have received from following the paleo-diet and eating all things raw. The raid involved multiple agencies – the FBI, FDA, California Department of Food and Agriculture and the Health Department among them. The agents entered with drawn guns and seized all products from the private food club. Among the products seized was raw cheese from the licensed and inspected Morningland Dairy in Mountain View, Missouri.
Morningland Dairy is a small raw cheese company that has been in business for 30 years with no reports of illness from their products ever being levied. They milk cows on site and use that milk to make their cheese in a separate building. Denise and Joe Dixon took over operation of Morningland Dairy several years ago and expanded the operation to include goat cheese made from Missouri family-run goat dairies. The cheese is sold directly to consumers and to grocery stores across the nation. According to Joe, nine families are dependent upon Morningland for their livelihood.
On August 24th, fifty-five days after the cheese from Morningland Dairy was seized by agents at Rawesome, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) tested the cheese and reported that they “detected” listeria monocytogenes and staph aureous in two cheeses. The CDFA then reported this “detection” to the Missouri Milk Board and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). On August 26th, the Missouri Milk Board contacted the cheesemaker from Morningland Dairy, Jedadiah York, and told him they were coming by to discuss a problem with some cheese. Denise and Joe Dixon were at the American Cheese Society convention in Seattle when this call occurred. Jedadiah called them and told them that Milk Board Inspectors, Don Falls and Roger Neill, were coming to the plant to talk about a problem and the Dixons said to fully cooperate and find out what the problem might be. And that’s when things began to get interesting.
The Missouri Milk Board Inspectors had no batch numbers or paperwork to show to Mr. York, but they pulled up the report from CDFA on Morningland’s computer and show Jedadiah the picture of cheese that was definitely under a Morningland label. However, the codes, which would tell the Plant Manager the dates of the batches, were not visible in the photos nor recorded on the CDFA report. Details were completely lacking. No levels regarding the amount of bacteria detected in the cheese were indicated on the CDFA report, no chain of custody regarding the product, no explanation of sample temperature controls or the lack of such were delineated, and no reports or complaints of illness had been made. Mr. Falls of the Missouri Milk Board told Jedadiah they would be back in the morning and that he expected to have this all taken care of very soon. The inspectors checked into a hotel and came back the next morning.
When the inspectors returned, Jedadiah was told that the FDA would be coming and heading up the investigation and that Morningland would need to suspend all operations until the investigation was complete. Their cheese was put under embargo by Missouri Milk Board and immediately inventoried, and an official notice taped to the cooler door to not remove any product. Jedadiah thought that if he simply went along and did all things the agents asked, that Morningland would be up and running again in a matter of days. This was on August 27th, and two weeks later he sees things a bit differently.
On the 27th, Michele Thompson, the Recall Coordinator for the FDA, sent Jedadiah an email asking that a recall notice of all product from 2010 be sent to the Associated Press immediately. The Dixons, General Managers for Morningland LLC, told Jedadiah to just wait until they returned from the American Cheese Society convention they had attended so they could get a better understanding of the situation by being there in person. Again, no illnesses or complaints had been reported from any consumers of Morningland’s products, and it is a very serious action to recall half a year of work based on the findings of an agency with no detailed information on the tests performed.
Nonetheless, over the weekend the FDA prepared and released a press release stating that Morningland Dairy was –voluntarily- recalling ALL of their product made from January through June 2010 nationwide, even though Morningland had not authorized the recall. This release went out at 12:01am Monday morning before the FDA showed up at Morningland in camoflauge to inspect the cheese plant. At that point, there had been no communication to the heads of Morningland regarding the lot numbers that were tested in California and no agreement to recall a half year’s work on an unsubstantiated test. The FDA’s Michele Thompson later communicated to Morningland that the FDA did not have the authority to “push for a recall” as that was against the law. She requested Morningland change commentary on their website to be in line with FDA policy. The fact remains that the FDA issued a press release announcing a recall prior to Morningland approving a recall. In other words, Morningland hadn’t volunteered to be bankrupted, yet the FDA issued a national notice stating that they had.
Joseph and Denise Dixon are committed to making a safe product. Joe says, “If we have a problem, we definitely want to deal with it, and we are willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure that we provide our customers with a trustworthy and healthy product. We do all the tests that we are required to do and are committed to our customers well being. We want to provide living, healthful food that blesses people.”
Back to the ‘facts of the case’, as it were. As mentioned before, Morningland has dairy cattle on the same property as the cheese plant, and they use that milk to make their cow cheese. When the issue of potential contamination first reared it’s ugly head, the Missouri Milk Board Field Inspector, Don Falls, told the Dixons that they would be able to sell their cow milk into the normal commercial (pasteurized) chain without much difficulty. They would simply need to find a co-op that would put them on their route and get their barn inspected and graded by the Milk Board as a Grade A dairy barn. As it turns out, that wasn’t quite accurate.
The Dixons found two milk co-ops that would pick up their milk as soon as they were graded and inspected by the Milk Board. Then the Milk Board told them that until the FDA “cleared” Morningland, they wouldn’t inspect their dairy barn. So the Dixons are left dumping their milk, unable to bring in any compensation for their labor, and still required to labor. The milk dumping might end up bringing in the EPA as they have recently declared that milk is oil because of it’s fat content.
Thus far, I’ve visited Morningland four times since the embargo on the cheese and the recall notice. My main objective is to determine the definitive procedures and timelines, with a clear chain of command, from the agencies involved, that are necessary to clear Morningland for production. The clarification of this process would ensure agency accountability and delineate a specific course of action for Morningland to follow that would give them a reasonable expectation of being allowed to get back into production and distribution of their product. It seems I would have better luck nailing fresh Jell-o securely to the wall.
The FDA and the Missouri Milk Board are playing hot potato with explaining the process. The FDA says that the Milk Board and state of Missouri are responsible for the decision that will allow Morningland to return to shipping in interstate commerce, yet the only reason for the FDA’s presence is interstate commerce. The Milk Board says that the decision must be made by committee including the inspector, his supervisor, the State Veterinarian, two microbiologists from Jefferson City, and the FDA. All discussion of procedure is couched by terms like “normally”, “usually”, “I think”, “we’ll have to see” and “probably”. The process of being cleared is as clear as mud.
So right now, the FDA is awaiting results from the swab tests they did of the cheese plant and the legs of the milk bulk tank in the dairy barn last week. When those results are in, recommendations for clean up of the environment (if necessary) will be made, and then, should the Dixons want to test the 40# blocks of cheese in their cooler, they can. However, the Milk Board says that “due to statistical probability” if Morningland tests their cheese inventory and the tests come back showing clean product, those tests are not considered official. So there is no guarantee that Morningland will be able to ship the cheese at all. It depends on whether or not “the committee” and the FDA agree that the product is ‘safe for human consumption’. The products produced by Morningland are all ‘suspect’ for adulteration by FDA definition. FDA’s definition is so broad that according to information on the FDA’s own website, all food could be considered adulterated. [Look under Legal Aspects at the previous link (4) and you will find this: “Hence, to be adulterated, food need not be shown actually to contain filth or other contaminants; a demonstration that the food was prepared, packed, or held under conditions whereby it would, with reasonable possibility emphasis added, become so is legally sufficient to prove adulteration and provide grounds for taking action against the lot”].
When one considers the FDA’s documented opposition to raw dairy, and this most sensational germophobic testimony of John Sheehan (head of the Plant and Dairy division of the FDA that oversees cheese plants like Morningland) and then the cooperative agreements, the Memoranda of Understanding (MOU’s), the guidance documents between state and federal agencies along with the federal Food Code and the initiatives outlined therein, the likelihood of Morningland being declared “clear” and moving forward without continued harassment is slim.
Remember that there is an inspection process that is ongoing in both the milk barn and the cheese plant on Morningland’s property. The milk barn must be inspected, and the cheese plant must be inspected. In my experience, if an inspector wants to find a problem, he most certainly will. The number of flaming hoops that Morningland must jump through to be re-approved for full operation are currently indefinite and could be nearly infinite.
Stepping back from the particulars surrounding the Morningland Dairy, and another Missouri fresh milk dairy under prosecution, we must look at the agency objectives revealed in their Food Code, their Motion to Dismiss response in a raw milk suit brought against them, their Healthy People 2020 program, and the international standards and guidelines of the World Animal Health Organization (OIE), Codex Alimentarius and International Plant Protection Convention(OIE) that are embedded in Senate Bill 510 to ascertain what kind of regulations S510 will allow the FDA to write to ”protect” the food supply. Senate Bill 510 will expand the authority of the FDA beyond any common sense; and I believe they’ve already illustrated they lack common sense.
What we have here is the continued destruction of food freedom, food choice and food availability. The federal government does not believe that people are capable of deciding what to eat themselves and have “erected a multitude of New Offices and sent forth swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance”. Literally. That citation from the Declaration of Independence couldn’t possibly have been more true at any time in history than it is today. Remember, no farmers, no food.

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You Will Eat What We Say You Will Eat…And you will enjoy it

10 Jun 2010 Leave a comment

by truthfarmer in Dairy, Enforcement, farm loss, FDA, food, No Food Rights, Right to Contract

This is the wave of the future, folks. You won’t be able to get food without receiving permission and farmers won’t grow it without being licensed, certified, audited and inspected. The FDA says we have no right to any particular food for ourselves or our children, that we have no right to bodily or physical health through our food choices, and that we have no right to contract. They also say that they are carrying out their public health mission within those assertions. This article  shows the state equivalent of the FDA at work in Wisconsin.

FTCLDF has screwed up a number of cases…and there are serious concerns on my part about many of their methods– but Pete Kennedy has been true, and the following article is written by him.

From the Socialist Democratic Republic of Wisconsin:

Wisconsin: DATCP Raids Hershberger Farm
BY PETE KENNEDY, ESQ.  | JUNE 8, 2010

The morning of June 2, 2010 started out like most other busy days on the farm of Vernon & Erma Hershberger and their family of eight boys and one girl, ranging in age from 18 down to 2 years. Shortly before 10:00 a.m., Vernon went to pick up some equipment from a neighboring farm.  Immediately after he left, Cathleen Anderson, Regulatory Specialist from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) along with Sauk County Health Department Sanitarians, Nick Oasen and Mitch Lohr, arrived and entered the farm store building, paying no heed to “Private Property” signs posted on the building.  Erma immediately called Vernon on his cell phone; and she asked the officials to wait for him outside the building, which they did, stepping out into the parking lot.

Vernon refused consent even after they threatened to get a warrant, explaining to the officials that they had no jurisdiction to inspect his farm because he had not applied for a license and he was not selling to the public but merely distri-buting products to members of his private buying club.

Upon arriving at the scene, Vernon was asked by Anderson for his consent to let them do an inspection of his private facility.  Vernon refused consent even after they threatened to get a warrant, explaining to the officials that they had no jurisdiction to inspect his farm because he had not applied for a license and he was not selling to the public but merely distributing products to members of his private buying club.

At 11:45a.m. Jacqueline Owens, Field Service Director from DATCP, showed up with a warrant along with four or five deputies from the local Sherriff’s Department.  Anderson handed Vernon the warrant; Vernon requested a few minutes to look it over which they granted, but when he asked them to wait until he had called his attorney they refused saying that the warrant was valid and they would wait no longer. They then entered the farm store building.

They began the inspection in the storage freezers in what is call the “processing room” and took
inventory of all the items that were in the freezers, also making notes about labels and temperatures.  They did a total inspection of the building including the restroom facilities, the lighting, and anything else that they would typically inspect in a licensed facility.  After they were done in the processing room they went into the grocery storage room and then into the culturing room, taking a basic inventory of everything that was on the shelves. They then moved on into the walk-in cooler.

In the cooler, they wrote down every individual item name and lot number and any other information that they could find.  Next, they went into the store area where there were two chest freezers, a three-glass-door display freezer and approximately twenty feet of shelving.  After they had gone through the whole store, Oasen commented on the cleanliness of the building and processing equipment along with the overall appearance of the facility.

Vernon said he was shocked!  He had dealt with ‘cease and desist’ letters and even went through a long, drawn out lawsuit but nothing quite like this.

Anderson and Owens took a total of twelve samples of various products;  Vernon took a similar sample of each item.  When the sampling was done, Owens said, “Now comes the hard part.”  Owens went on to advise Vernon that they were going to tape shut all the chest freezers and put tags on the doors of the other coolers and freezers and that he would not be allowed to take anything off the shelves without  written approval from DATCP.  She told him the tags would be good for 14 days;  if things were not worked out between DATCP and the farm, the agency could extend them for another 14 days.  She ended saying that they would leave him some food for his family to eat but that everything else must stay intact on the shelves as it was then.

Vernon said he was shocked!  He had dealt with ‘cease and desist’ letters and even went through a long, drawn out lawsuit but nothing quite like this.  His head was going in circles:  How to make the mortgage payments? Would the inventory be left on the shelves to rot?

As all these things were going around in my head, I thought to myself:  As we head into the future we do not know what it holds but we know Who holds it and that’s what counts.

Just as if all that wasn’t enough, after the officials were done with the taping and sealing they headed for the milkhouse.   After taking samples, they gave Vernon a paper demanding that the milk in the bulk tank must be disposed of by dumping it out onto the fields.  In order to make sure that the milk could not even be used by Vernon’s family, they opened the lid and dumped in a large glop of blue dye.  By the time the officials left it was 5:00 p.m.

After the day’s chores were done, Vernon said, “I sat down and went into our business email and WOW!!  Fifty new messages–how’s that for some support?”  He then called the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund to ask a few questions.   He also talked with David Gumpert and then Ted Beals on some sample testing issues.  After looking over the emails, he tried to  get some sleep; it was close to 11:00 p.m.

In Vernon’s words:
Coming from an Amish background, we had been taught the biblical principles of non-resistance and loving and praying for our enemies and those who persecute us.  I slept only a few hours and meditated a long time, seeking the Lord and His will in these troubling circumstances.  What would Jesus do?  Bible passages like: “Blessed are you, when men shall revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake”. (Matt. 5:11)  “But I say unto you, ‘Love your enemies, Bless them that curse you, do good to them which hate you, pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you’.” (Matt. 5:44)  Also Psalms 37 has promises that we can claim for our own if we trust in him.

There is another phrase that is very powerful that I strongly believe in:  There’s no greater love that a man can have than to lay down his life for his friend.  If we become so passionate about something that we are willing to lay down our lives for it, there is a power that kicks in, which is beyond measure.  As all these things were going around in my head,  I thought to myself:  As we head into the future we do not know what it holds but we know Who holds it and that’s what counts.

Update
On June 8, Owens and Anderson returned to the farm without a warrant, attempting to conduct another inspection.  Vernon refused the request for inspection and the officials left his premises.  Before they left, they served Vernon a ‘Summary Special Order’ which would subject him to fines of up to $5,000 per violation if he is not in compliance with Wisconsin food and dairy law.

Patricia Barrett, Esq.
Sauk County District Attorney
Sauk County Court House
515 Oak Street
Baraboo, WI  53913Fax (608)355-3282

patricia.barrett@da.wi.gov

How You Can Help
DATCP has referred Vernon’s case to the Sauk County District Attorney, Patricia Barrett, for potential prosecution.  Everyone is urged to contact Barrett’s office and request that she not prosecute the Hershberger case.  Sauk County residents are especially encouraged to contact the District Attorney and inform her that you will not vote for her the next election if she pursues the Hershberger case.  The District Attorney has already taken so many calls on this case that they are no longer accepting them; but you can still contact the DA’s office by email, fax and/or postal mail.  Here is the contact information:

Here are some points to make:

  1. The County DA should not be spending taxpayer money, pursuing cases like this in which there is no victim or injury.  There has been no complaint filed by anyone against the Hershbergers.
  2. The only injury in a case like this occurs when the farmer or food distributor is prosecuted and consumers who were obtaining foods they deem best for their health and the health of their families have now lost their source of those foods.
  3. The right of consumers to obtain the foods of their choice from the source of their choice is a political issue; cases like this in which there has been no injury do not belong in the courts.  The County DA should exercise her discretion not to take on these cases.
  4. With the tough economic times and all the cutbacks in government spending, the County DA should not be using its remaining enforcement dollars pursuing victimless crimes.
  5. Let the County DA know how food direct from farms has benefitted your health and the health of your family.

DATCP does not respect freedom of food choice nor the right to be left alone.  The agency’s enforcement actions do not protect the public health; they only deny individuals the right to obtain the foods they believe best for their health and the health of their families.

Please help Vernon and Erma Hershberger.

It’s Official- The FDA Believes we Are Too Dumb to Eat

30 Apr 2010 8 Comments

by truthfarmer in FDA, No Food Rights, Right to Contract

©Doreen Hannes

The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF- http://www.farmtoconsumer.org) has achieved a tremendous coup in their suit against the FDA regarding the FDA’s abuses over transport of privately owned fresh (unpasteurized) milk. In a brief the FDA filed requesting that the case against them be dismissed for lack of standing, the FDA has shown that they truly think we cannot decide what we want to eat or drink without their permission. It’s amazing. One would think that we could not have possibly lived prior to the formation of the FDA just over one hundred years ago.

The legal brief by the FDA actually has the audacity to proclaim in the table of contents such things as :

There is No Right to Consume or Feed Children Any Particular Food (pg25)

There is No Generalized Right to Bodily and Physical Health. (pg26)

There is No Fundamental Right to Freedom of Contract (pg 27)

FDA’s Regulations Rationally Advance The Agency’s Public Health Mission (pg27)

Let’s have a look at the first citation above… (emphasis added) beginning on page 25…

…… there is no “deeply rooted” historical tradition of unfettered access to
food of all kinds….To the contrary, society’s long history of food regulation stretches back to the dietary laws of biblical times…. Modern food safety regulation in the United States has its roots in the early food laws of the American colonies, which themselves incorporated “the tradition of food regulation established in England.” …(-citing a Virginia statute passed in 1873, that “made it an offense . . . [to] knowingly, sell, supply, or bring to be manufactured . . . milk from which any cream has been taken; or milk commonly known as skimmed milk”). Comprehensive federal regulation of the food supply has been in effect at least since Congress enacted the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906, and was strengthened by the passage of the FDCA in 1938. Thus, plaintiffs’ claim to a fundamental privacy interest in obtaining “foods of their own choice” for themselves and their families is without merit.

If this weren’t so horribly serious it would be hilarious.

The FDA is fighting a case that builds on the desire and right to consume fresh (unpasteurized) milk, which the FDA maintains is a lethally dangerous practice, by citing a law that prohibits any change of the nature of fresh milk!

But wait, there’s more….we haven’t begun to scratch the surface yet:

There is No Generalized Right to Bodily and Physical Health.

Plaintiffs’ assertion of a “fundamental right to their own bodily and physical
health, which includes what foods they do and do not choose to consume for
themselves and their families” is similarly unavailing because plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish. (Emphasis added)

I almost can not believe they were so overt in their complete and total disregard for the most fundamental human right of all, yet their own words convict them. If you cannot decide what food you wish to eat, you certainly cannot even entertain the idea that you are free! The FDA has seemingly vaunted itself to the level of parenthood over the entire nation simply by being created via an act of Congress. Like a parent telling a four year old, “Eat it! It’s good for you!” Right…..Never mind the fact that the FDA has refused to do any real testing on genetically modified foods, or that they say aspartame is fine for you to drink when it becomes toxic at 85 degrees. Don’t even mention that they have refused to regulate nanofoods (smaller than a molecule technologic creations) that your body cannot assimilate. Yet since you don’t have any “generalized right to bodily and physical health” they can allow you to be poisoned with the continued blessing of Congress. And the likely passage of new powers to be given to the FDA will surely be helpful in giving us all “food safety” and healthful food. Right. Sorry, my sarcasm should be palpable.

According to the FDA, you don’t have a right to bodily and physical health by deciding what you want to eat or don’t want to eat. They know better than you, even better than God Almighty and don’t you forget it. Just wait until they have expanded powers under S510 and HR2749. They will almost certainly extrapolate that authority to do home refrigerator checks on whomever they want.

In their final sentence under this section of the FDA’s motion to dismiss, they really hit it out of the park:

Finally, even if such a right did exist, it would not render FDA’s regulations unconstitutional because prohibiting the interstate sale and distribution of unpasteurized milk promotes “bodily and physical health.”

So you don’t have a right to it and they are promoting your non-right by their illustrious actions……Please. There are a myriad of studies attesting to the healthful benefits of fresh milk. Yes, there are concerns associated with it as well, and people should do the best they can to become educated on the subject before making a decision for themselves, but this hyperbolic ‘public good’ claim is farcical at the least. Particularly when the FDA has so miserably failed in their charge to inspect processing facilities and imports. A recent Office of the Inspector General (OIG) report revealed that the FDA has inspected less than 25% of the facilities they are charged with inspecting in five years. They inspect LESS than 1% of imports and allow the aforementioned biotech and nanotech foods to enter the food supply without the slightest flinch on their part. All the while they proclaim they are performing a public good.

The final affront to all that is decent in this FDA legal brief follows:

There is No Fundamental Right to Freedom of Contract
In arguing that FDA’s regulations violate substantive due process because they
interfere with plaintiffs’ “contract rights” by “restricting the use of an agent to accomplish what the principal herself ought to be free to do,” plaintiffs ask this Court to resuscitate long-dead, Lochner-era jurisprudence. See Ferguson v. Skrupa,372 U.S. 726, 729 (1963) (“There was a time when the Due Process Clause was used by this Court to strike down laws which were thought . . . incompatible with some particular economic or social philosophy,” but that doctrine “has long since been discarded ). Plaintiffs anachronistic invitation should be rejected.

The excerpt above has deeper implications than one might realize at a glance. In my estimation it has a terrific amount to do with many of the obtuse rulings the state and federal courts have delivered. We are being told that we do not have the right to make agreements. Evidently, all agreements have been made for us by our superiors.

Historically, the only people without the right to contract are minors, felons and slaves. Obviously, we cannot be minors because we can never reach the age of majority wherein we are free to decide what we eat for ourselves. So we are either felons or slaves. Which category we have been relegated to is open for discussion, but we certainly are not free. To boldly state that we have no right to freedom of contract is an astonishing, and revealing, admission.

To boldly state any one of the cites above is astonishing. We have no right to decide what we eat or don’t eat, we have no right to bodily and physical health, we have no right to contract, and the FDA is ‘rational’. So saith the FDA…. in Case 5:10-cv-04018-MWB, Document 11-1 filed on 04/26/10.

The FDA believes that we are too stupid to swallow. Yet we are supposed to swallow that they are interested in securing a safe food supply for us, and that the FDA needs more power to regulate food on farms and we should give it to them by passing S510 or HR2749.

They’ll take care of us…you betcha.

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This article should be on http://www.newswithviews.com and have the pdf of the FDA motion to dismiss attached. I will make certain it is accessible and post an update when it can be downloaded easily. Meanwhile, if anyone has any idea how to get pdfs loaded onto blogspot—PLEASE let me know!

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