Feds Go After the Amish

[BuckeyeJim]

Article is pretty long, click the link for the other pages.

Feds sting Amish farmer selling raw milk locally
Cite interstate commerce violation

A yearlong sting operation, including aliases, a 5 a.m. surprise inspection and surreptitious purchases from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania, culminated in the federal government announcing this week that it has gone to court to stop Rainbow Acres Farm from selling its contraband to willing customers in the Washington area.

The product in question: unpasteurized milk.

It’s a battle that’s been going on behind the scenes for years, with natural foods advocates arguing that raw milk, as it’s also known, is healthier than the pasteurized product, while the Food and Drug Administration says raw milk can carry harmful bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria.

“It is the FDA’s position that raw milk should never be consumed,” said Tamara N. Ward, spokeswoman for the FDA, whose investigators have been looking into Rainbow Acres for months, and who finally last week filed a 10-page complaint in federal court in Pennsylvania seeking an order to stop the farm from shipping across state lines any more raw milk or dairy products made from it.

The farm’s owner, Dan Allgyer, didn’t respond to a message seeking comment, but his customers in the District of Columbia and Maryland were furious at what they said was government overreach.

“I look at this as the FDA is in cahoots with the large milk producers,” said Karin Edgett, a D.C. resident who buys directly from Rainbow Acres. “I don’t want the FDA and my tax dollars to go to shut down a farm that hasn’t had any complaints against it. They’re producing good food, and the consumers are extremely happy with it.”

The FDA’s actions stand in contrast to other areas where the Obama administration has said it will take a hands-off approach to violations of the law, including the use of medical marijuana in states that have approved it, and illegal-immigrant students and youths, whom the administration said recently will not be targets of their enforcement efforts.

Raw-milk devotees say pasteurization, the process of heating food to kill harmful organisms, eliminates good bacteria as well, and changes the taste and health benefits of the milk. Many raw-milk drinkers say they feel much healthier after changing over to it, and insist they should have the freedom of choice regarding their food.

One defense group says there are as many as 10 million raw-milk consumers in the country. Sales are perfectly legal in 10 states but illegal in 11 states and the District, with the other states having varying restrictions on purchase or consumption.

Many food safety researchers say pasteurization, which became widespread in the 1920s and 1930s, dramatically reduced instances of milk-transmitted diseases such as typhoid fever and diphtheria. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no health benefit from raw milk that cannot be obtained from pasteurized milk.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/28/feds-sting-amish-farmer-selling-raw-milk-locally/

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So what do you guys think? Have the feds gone too far? Is this warranted? Seems like a bit of overkill to me. And what about unpasteurized milk? What do you guys think about the rules and regulations pertaining to that? Is this proper utilization of the commerce clause?

I grew up on unpasteurized milk. We didn't use it exclusively, but we always had it on hand. I still use it for some down home cooking excursions. Personally I love it. It's got a richness and a sweetness to it that you just don't get from pasteurized milk. I don't know anybody that has gotten sick from it. It's natural, the farms around us are free range for the most part, so yeah, I think it's a lot better than the crap you buy at Kroger. Should people be allowed to purchase unpasteurized milk if they want?

And how about them going after the Amish like this. A sting that long? That much man power? Over milk? Against the Amish? It reads like a Leslie Neilsen movie.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Is there some way to test for bacteria? Perhaps making them do that test would be better than shutting them down completely. It seems a waste of resources to me.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

The Amish are highly unlikely to permit any sort of oversight like the FDA. The deal is that they don't pay taxes, so they don't use exclusive things that are funded by taxes.

 

[Bill3000]

The Amish are highly unlikely to permit any sort of oversight like the FDA. The deal is that they don't pay taxes, so they don't use exclusive things that are funded by taxes.

That's only true of social security. They pay all other taxes.

 

[Ajidica]

There was an issue like this in Minnesota. I think the official opinion was that the farmer was being negligent in ensuring the milk was safe (for unpasteurized milk).

 

[SuperJay]

Sounds odd. I think people should be able to drink raw milk if they want, just have them sign a waiver first - no medical care other than what you can pay for cash-in-hand, no feeding this to anyone outside your own family, and if your kids get sick and die, well, you're going to prison on manslaughter charges. If they're willing to take all the risks into their own hands, let 'em do it.

Free market solutions, reduced government spending, liberty, freedom, and justice for all.

 

[Formaldehyde]

It is an interesting issue.

I think if the farmer wants to take the risk to drink unpasteurized milk, or give it to his friends for free or for barter, that it is his right to do so as long as he tells them it is unpasteurized. But if he sells it for general consumption where it is still illegal to do so, that is a different story altogether.

However, I am amenable to the proper US authorities changing their minds given further research and study. If the CDC and the FDA determine that it is safe enough nowadays to allow raw milk again at the retail level, I think it should again be allowed in the states where it is still illegal.

EDIT: Hmmm....

Raw Milk: Got Diarrhea?

I recently saw a 14 year old girl in my office with a 2 day history of severe abdominal cramps, bloody diarrhea, and fever. Her mother had similar symptoms as did several other members of her household and some family friends. After considerable discomfort, everyone recovered within a few days. The child’s stool culture grew a bacterium called Campylobacter.

Campylobacter is a nasty little pathogen which causes illness like that seen in my patient, but can also cause more severe disease. It is found commonly in both wild and domestic animals. But where did all these friends and family members get their campylobacter infections? Why, from their friendly farmer, of course!

My patient’s family and friends had taken a weekend pilgrimage to a family-run farm in Buck’s County, Pennsylvania. They saw farm animals and a working farm. And they all drank raw milk. Why raw milk? Because, as they were told and led to believe, raw milk is better. Better tasting and better for you.

My patient was a victim of a recent outbreak in Pennsylvania, but similar outbreaks of infectious disease due to unpasteurized milk products are a recurring headache for public health officials. Between 1973 and 1993 there was an average of 2.3 milk born disease outbreaks per year. That number increased to 5.2 per year between 1993 and 2006. Whatever the numbers are, there is no question that the increasing consumption of raw milk is a genuine threat to public health.

As a lover of cheese, I appreciate that there are those whose refined palates favor the delicacy of unpasteurized, aged cheeses so prevalent in other countries. But to stretch this taste preference to include health benefits unsupported by science and even common sense is not just misguided, it can be dangerous. Dangerous because it increases the risk of infectious disease, but also because it perpetuates a credulous perspective that adds to the ongoing erosion of our appreciation and acceptance of science.

The Raw-Milk Deal

Pure-food worshippers put their health at risk—especially when they drink unpasteurized milk.

Today, just about 0.5 percent of all the milk consumed in this country is unpasteurized. Yet from 1998 to 2008, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention received reports of 85 infectious disease outbreaks linked to raw milk. In the past few months, physicians have treated salmonella in Utah, brucellosis in Delaware, campylobacter in Colorado and Pennsylvania, and an ugly outbreak of E. coli O157-H7 in Minnesota, which sickened eight people in June. Epidemiologists not only identified a rare strain of the bacteria but matched its DNA to those stricken, the cows on the farm that supplied them with raw milk, and manure smearing the milking equipment and even the animals themselves. When regulators shut down the dairy farm, supporters promptly charged them with belonging to a government conspiracy to smear the reputation of a hallowed food.

Some, like Wisconsin raw-milk champion Max Kane, dismiss infectious disease altogether: "The bacteria theory's a total myth," Kane told one interviewer. "It allows us to have an enemy to go after similar to how it is with terrorism. It's food terrorism."

 

[Formaldehyde]

Plz delete.

 

[SuperJay]

...but also because it perpetuates a credulous perspective that adds to the ongoing erosion of our appreciation and acceptance of science.

Think of Tom Baker reading this aloud.

Just had a nerdgasm, didnt you?

 

[Arakhor]

Boiling milk kills almost all bacteria in the milk without need to pasteurisation. That's an easy low-tech way to comply with safety laws.

 

[Gustave5436]

Colbert did an "enemy within" piece on some organic foods store getting raided by the FBI for selling unpasteurized milk a few months ago. Fun stuff.

 

[Bill3000]

Colbert did an "enemy within" piece on some organic foods store getting raided by the FBI for selling unpasteurized milk a few months ago. Fun stuff.

Good. They should have shut down the whole store.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Boiling milk kills almost all bacteria in the milk without need to pasteurisation. That's an easy low-tech way to comply with safety laws.

Isn't pasteurization basically boiling it? Or do they do something else?

 

[Arakhor]

Well, pasteurisation involves heating a liquid at a specific temperature for a set period of time and then rapidly cooling it, rather than allowing it to cool naturally. Sterilisation occurs at 121 C or thereabouts, but most of the effects are simply by boiling milk, just like drinking boiled water is usually safe, even if it hasn't treated like normal tap water.

 

[innonimatu]

And that shows how baseless the excuse for the prohibition on selling unpasteurized milk (except to authorized processors) really is.

We do not forbid the sale of many "unpasteurized" other foods. We don't do it with water either, and that can also contain dangerous bacteria. What should be mandated was the correct identification of foodstuffs: whether or not milk is pasteurized; water is disinfected, etc... Buyers and then responsible for making their food edible. We call it cooking, and it's been done for a few thousand years, I believe.

This is a clear case of wrong regulation. The sale of milk should be regulated, yes, but only to grantee correct information, and not treating people as morons.

 

[Formaldehyde]

You don't cook raw milk before drinking it. That would completely destroy the non-scientific "health" benefits the food non-terrorists claim it has.

 

[innonimatu]

You don't cook raw milk before drinking it. That would completely destroy the non-scientific "health" benefits the food non-terrorists claim it has.

So what? If someone wants to believe that, it's their problem. Suicide isn't illegal. Not should any other personal risk-taking.

I really, really dislike laws "for your own protection". If accepted, that justification can be misused for just about anything.

 

[NetGear]

Its similar to serving raw unfrozen fish (good kind of sushi) imo. Which iirc is illegal in us.

Just break the law at your discretion. It doesn't sound like anyone is doing some serious time withthis stuff. It may be hypocritical for me to side with feds but its not without good reasoning imo.

 

[bhsup]

I'm pretty disappointed that the FDA is now (... "“It is the FDA’s position that raw milk should never be consumed,”"...) opposed to the breastfeeding of newborns.

Hey FDA, get out of their business. kthxbai.

 

[bernie14]

i guess the amish do not have a strong lobby in DC?