THE STORY ABOUT THE AMISH FARMER WHOSE FARM WAS RAIDED:
He was told ailure to correct the situation could result in "seizure and/or
injunction," the warning letter from Kirk Sooter, district director of
the Philadelphia office of the Department of Health and Human Services,
told farmer Dan Allgyer of Kinzer, Pa., on Wednesday.
The farm invaded Tuesday is the one
agents visited in February, driving
past "Private Property" signs to demand Allgyer open his property for
their inspection, saying, " You have cows. You produce food for human
consumption."
The case is being publicized by the National
Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, which promotes
traditional methods of linking farmers with consumers.
Spokeswoman
Deborah Stockton told WND Allgyer "is the type of farmer who exemplifies
what we are trying to restore." On her organization's website is the
commitment "to promote and preserve unregulated direct
farmer-to-consumer trade that fosters availability of locally grown or
home-produced food products."
She reported she got details directly
from Allgyer of Tuesday's early
morning inspection, which highlights the growing conflict between
farmers who want to provide health food locally and federal regulators.
Allgyer
could not be reached immediately for comment.
The farmer told
NICFA he came out of his house about 4:30 a.m. for his milking routine
and noticed a lot of traffic on Kinzer Road.
Shortly later, the cars
were coming up his lane.
"I stood back in the dark barn to see what
they were going to do. They drove past my two 'Private Property' signs,
up to where my coolers were, with their headlights shining right on
them," Allgyer reported.
He called to the five men as they were
preparing to knock on his home, where his wife and family remained
asleep.
"Two were from the FDA, agent Joshua C. Schafer who had been
there in February and
another. They showed me identification, but I was too flustered to ask
for their cards. I remember being told that two were deputy U.S.
Marshals and one a state trooper. They started asking me questions right
away. They handed me a paper, and I didn't realize what it was," he
said.
"Schafer told me they were there to do a 'routine inspection.'
At 5:00 in the morning, I wondered to myself? 'Do you have a warrant?' I
asked, and one of them, a marshal or the state policeman, said, 'You've
got in your hand buddy.' I asked, 'What is the warrant about?' Schafer
responded, 'We have credible evidence that you are involved in
interstate commerce,'" the farmer reported.
WND telephone calls and
e-mails to the FDA requesting comment did not generate a response.
Allgyer
said he confirmed his identification but then said he wouldn't answer
anything further.
He said he questioned their arrival at his farm at
5 a.m. when the warrant clearly stated it was valid during "reasonable
times during ordinary business hours," but one of the agents said
"ordinary business hours for agriculture start at 5 a.m."
The agents
spent their time "rooting around, like a couple of pigs, in the freezer
and cooler area and took many pictures," Allgyer reported.
"They
came in the dark, shining bright flashlights while my family was asleep,
keeping me from milking my cows, from my family, from breakfast with my
family and from our morning devotions, and alarming my children enough
so that they first question they asked my wife was, 'Is Daddy going to
jail?'" Allgyer said.
The subsequent warning letter was an
all-inclusive notice that federal regulations prohibit "the delivery
into interstate commerce of milk and milk products in final package form
for direct human consumption unless they have been pasteurized."
"It
is your responsibility to ensure adherence with all requirements. …
Failure to make prompt corrections could result in regulatory action
without further notice," the letter said.
The letter directed
Allgyer to notify Compliance Officer Richard Cherry of the corrections.
Stockton
warned that the requirement now is for federal agents to claim they
have "credible evidence" regarding a case, but a proposed federal change
would strike those words in the law and replace them with "reason to
believe."
"The phrase 'reason to believe' would be inserted 14 times
into the code with S 510," she said. "If this bill goes through, the
FDA will have control of farms. They will not need 'credible evidence'
to act. They will essentially be given a free hand to act as they want.
And look at how they already act, even with the existing constraints in
place."
Allgyer previously had told the officers that as a private
farmer, he does not sell to the public.
Advocates say raw milk is
healthier.
According to natural-foods blogger Kimberly Hartke, Kevin
Trudeau touts raw milk in his New York Times best-seller "Natural Cures
They Don't Want You to Know About," and Sally Fallon Morell's cookbook,
"Nourishing Traditions," which has sold 350,000 copies.
On a forum
page at Chronwatch-America.com, a participant concluded, "The food
produced on that farm is probably far safer than anything you get at the
grocery store."
That opinion was endorsed on the Food Freedom blog,
where one participant wrote, ""Factory foods are the ones making people
sick & getting recalled."
The Weston A. Price Foundation, which
is among the nonprofits that educate consumers about more natural
food-production methods, said demand for such products is growing.
"Raw
milk … is a supremely healthy food that should be available to those
who want it," said Morell, the foundation's president.
In January, Canadian farmer Michael
Schmidt won a court victory when he was found not guilty of selling raw
milk to members of a cow-sharing consortium.
In a previous U.S.
case, Mennonite farmer Mark Nolt of Maryland had his farm raided by
SWAT-type agents. He was fined more than $4,000 and had his equipment
confiscated for providing unpasteurized milk to participants in his
program.