A few weeks ago, we learned that Amish farmer Amos Miller was found in contempt of federal court for allegedly failing to abide by U.S. Department of Agriculture rules about meat production. He’s been fighting variations of this battle for years, but most recently it’s been focused on the private food clubs he’s helped establish around the country, which provide grass-fed farm-slaughtered meats.
The message the USDA has clearly been trying to communicate via the example of Amos Miller is that small farms need to play by its rules, which make on-farm meat production pretty near impossible, along with distribution of all kinds of other foods directly from farm to consumer.
More on Miller a little later in this post, but if you look around at some other legal and political battles ongoing, the situations become less threatening, and instructive.
Take Maine. I was one of the first food writers to report on Maine’s Food Sovereignty movement back in 2010. That’s when a small group of coastal farmers decided, after being threatened with extinction by the food safety regulators trying to prevent them from slaughtering their own chickens, to seek “food sovereignty” on a local town-by-town basis. They started with nothing but an idea, and the desperation that comes from seeing your livelihood about to be snatched away by unfeeling and uncaring bureaucrats.
Fast forward 11 years, and Maine’s Food Sovereignty movement continues to lead the country in promoting small-farms and private food sales. Heather Retberg, one of the originators of food sovereignty, continues to push the mushrooming movement that has seen 87 Maine towns pass food sovereignty ordinances and the state adopt a food sovereignty law. Now, the entire concept is moving ever closer to being fully enshrined as a constitutional amendment.
And then there’s Vermont and John Klar, who has the unusual advantage of being both a farmer and a lawyer. He first appeared on this blog in 2016 promising civil disobedience if Vermont went forward with plans to shut down on-farm slaughtering.
He hasn’t had to carry out his threat, but he has been leading an intense legal and legislative fight on behalf of on-farm slaughtering.
Last year, he wrote a lengthy letter to Vermont’s agriculture secretary, in which he said in part: “I am not a loose cannon: I am a rabble rouser. By this I mean that I was never alone in my defiance of your department, nor am I now. I passionately support small farming and its communities, and I comprehend that I am uniquely placed: small farms cannot afford legal counsel; lawyers lack the insight and passion to advocate for farmers, and they won’t work for free. I told Bobby Starr and his Commission last year that if they did not give us small farmers the right to sell halves that I would challenge the State in Court, and I am now poised to do that.
“I believe in sugar before vinegar: I believe that good lawyers settle cases. I also believe that there is a bird-in-hand for both your Department and Vermont’s small farms, a win-win adjustment that will allow me to walk happily away and your Department to look like the friend to farmers and their consumers that we all wish it to be. Many people have told me you are a great person and I should give you the benefit of the effort of this letter. So I am laying some cards on the table in the confident hope that you will consider my proposal for resolution. I will explain here: 1) the legal issue, as simply as I can, and 2) my imminent plans to launch a public relations and legal campaign against your Department, and how that might be forestalled…”
Eventually, the department blinked, as Klar wrote me a few weeks back: “The sunset provision for on-farm slaughter was repealed…. This was a huge win for our small farms — now we can’t keep up with the demand for processors and product…. I never had to fire a shot — never spent a dime on attorneys.”
Back to Amos Miller: A federal judge overseeing the case, Edward Smith, has been trying for several years to nudge the parties toward a compromise, but the task is extremely tedious and difficult. It’s possible a compromise might be achieved very shortly, Miller told me today, but it’s also possible there won’t be a compromise and Miller may face thousands in fines, and have to shutter his meat operation. The lesson? It may be that the only realistic option for Miller’s brand of private food is to follow the upstarts in Maine and Vermont, and go local, very local.
David, I’m delighted that you are sharing these hopeful strategies with your readership. Amos Miller has been a hero for us all. If all small farmers AND their customers and neighbors unite, there is not an opposing group of “We the People” — just “We the Guvment.” We DO have the rights and the political power, and we must grip both very tightly against those wealthy interests that seek to subjugate both consumer and farmer.
Thanks for your tireless advocacy! Vermont’s meat production can’t keep up with demand, and we small farmers continue to healthily thrive here, to the benefit of all!
John,
Could not agree more. Every time we hold a hearing for legislative change to laws, big industry shows up along with the side kick the FDA. They are the ones that love their exclusive lock up of markets and market access.
It is not a dogs safety issue at all. Farmers figured out food safety long ago. Now it is the processors that have food safety issues.
Yes…. We must reconnect farmers to their consumers! That’s where gut micro biome friendly immune system building unprocessed nutrient dense foods are produced and consumed.
Looks like things have gotten worse for Amos:
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2021/07/if-farmer-doesnt-quickly-pay-250000-contempt-fine-jail-could-become-option/
I spoke briefly with Amos today, and it sounded as if there were still some negotiations going on between him/his lawyer and the court. The judge, Edward Smith, has shown a fair amount of patience over these last few years, and it sounds as if he’s run out of it, and is tightening the screws in a serious way.
A couple of things. Why does Marler care about Miller’s ? Miller’s is not involved with an outbreak?
Second, it does not seem that the courts give any care about interstate commerce and sale of raw milk? That’s very curious.
This is all about the USDA slaughter rules.
There does not appear to be any FDA regulatory violations.
Sure seems like the FDA is completely letting interstate commerce of raw milk slide for Amos.
At our farm, the FDA sits impatiently like a hungry wolf for any hint of interstate commerce of raw milk!!
I learned long ago. Don’t challenge those with more money and government agencies with attorneys that they don’t have to pay for. It’s a losing proposition.
There are other ways to smartly fight the FDA and their rules that benefit big ag brands and processors.
I suspect the FDA is just waiting its turn, once the USDA finishes up. The FDA has previously harassed Miller and other Amish farmers.
Thank you sharing these glimmers of hope in Maine and Vermont, David! They are leading the way for the rest of the country. I’m sorry about the nerve-wracking legal situation for Amos Miller. I hope he prevails.
Solidarity!
Granting farmers the right to litigate against these corporate entities is certainly laughable…” a Joke”.
https://www.thelunaticfarmer.com/blog/7/8/2021/bidens-joke
“The freedom of private contract, guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, no longer exists in any kind of practical form. From minimum wage laws to raw milk regulations, our society assumes that it’s normal and even necessary for a government agent to certify every food transaction.”
“This creates the centralized farm enslavement and corporate-government cronyism that eventuated in the current system. Offering freedom to sue options does not change the current system. The only thing that will change the current system is a shot of liberty and freedom. How about a FOOD EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION?
‘Baptize the country in that and you would see an explosion of entrepreneurial local food commerce that would completely break the backs of these corporate tyrants. Consumers could acquire more affordable food, better quality food, and have far more choice in the marketplace. The only losers would be the big corporate agriculture interests. No, President Biden, the answer is not more litigation; the answer is to free up our food system from the litigation of your own bureaucrat agents who confiscate raw milk, harass direct market farmers, and require scale-prejudicial infrastructure and licensing before a farmer can sell a chicken to a neighbor. Call off your henchmen. Call off your tyrants, and free our farmers, consumers, and food system.”
And their go to excuse for usurping food freedom… “SAFETY”.
Indeed, “The problem is you, my friend, not the big bad boys at Tyson. Worse than refusing to recognize a problem is putting a bunch of effort in a non-solution. You might as well do nothing as something that’s hollow”.
Another Update:
https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2021/07/miller-wants-to-pay-smaller-fine-over-a-longer-period-to-time/
I’ll be posting shortly about this pile-on of Amos Miller. This FSN article is as smarmy and snarky as the others. Like the USDA, FSN sneers at the practice of private food rights and private food clubs, and sees those engaged with private food clubs–farmers and members– as criminals.
no, other than using the word “illegal” too many times, the Food Safety News is fairly neutral.
Comedy is where you find it ! ie. conclusion of the article
Miller claims his religion prohibits the use of computers required to create and maintain records required by FSIS. “The implementation of the sort of records sought by FSIS is very difficult for an Amish farmer,” his lawyer says.
That same religion – supposedly – prohibiting him from hiring a legal counsel to enter in to the Courts of the profane ( that would be us, Englishmen ) too. But what the heck … once they started using those newfangled fax machines, it was all downhill on the slippery slope of theological compromise.
I take no pleasure in pointing out the irony of Miller’s interstate conglomerate hitting the reality of antichrist Red Fascism as practiced in modern America. His big mistake, was : believing the myth that Amishvolk could participate in commerce yet exempted from the laws of general applicability