Its been seven years since Michigan agriculture authorities settled the highly embarrassing raw milk case against farmer Richard Hebron by agreeing in principle to allow herd shares in the state that was the first in the nation to ban raw milk in 1947.
The herdshare agreement was formalized with the release of the report of the Michigan Fresh Unprocessed Whole Milk Work Group in early 2013. Between 2007 and now, several dozen Michigan dairies are understood to have adopted herdshare arrangements to allow distribution of raw milk.
It all seemed to be going smoothly….until today. Now, the seven-year calm in Michigan has been broken with an assault on My Family Co-Op, which operates a herd share with a local farm to provide raw milk along with meat, eggs, and honey to about 600 families.
I spoke with the co-ops director, Jenny Samuelson, as agents from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development were going through her refrigerated truck in the parking lot of a chiropractor in Washington Township, and inspecting the 250 gallons of milk, as well as eggs and other products.
She said they were forcing her to pull the truck off the road for failure to have a food handlers license that would allow her to sell the eggs and honey as a retailer.
They are counting how much raw milk I have, even though raw milk has nothing to do with what they are after, she told me. If they want to take the eggs, they should take them. They are overstepping their bounds.
They were also endangering the integrity of her milk, she said, by exposing it to summer temperatures. I need to keep it cold. Co-op members who receive milk are members of a herdshare she set up with a neighboring farm, and distributing raw milk is the co-ops main function. I pay a farmer $5 a dozen for the eggs, and charge $1 for delivery, she said. I dont make any money on that. I just do that for members.
She wondered why the MDARD felt compelled to stop her truck and essentially halt all food deliveries she had scheduled for today. “They could have just come to my farm and told me about the problem they had with my eggs.”
By the end of the day, the MDARD issued a statement in which it indicated it was searching out raw dairy products other than fluid milk. The MDARD’s March 2013 policy formally endorsing raw milk exempted non-milk products. MDARD said it “did place a seizure on illegally processed and distributed raw milk products that are not covered under a herd-share agreement.” The MDARD statement indicated that the co-op can continue to distribute milk, though it didn’t indicate why “some raw milk was placed under seizure” as well.
The MDARD’s tack, in going after products like cream and butter is somewhat different than what occurred in Wisconsin last year, when it went after Vernon Hershberger, and in Minnesota, when it went after Alvin Schlangenaccusing the farmers of retailing farm food as a way to try to prevent the sale of raw milk.
For Samuelson, the seizure order puts at risk thousands of dollars worth of milk. She also felt the MDARD was contradicting itself: “They told most of the members that (the seizure) is because I don’t have a food license (for meat and eggs). We don’t need a food license to deliver the members’ products. They haven’t kept their story straight. If it’s the food or cream products, then let us deliver the milk as it is sitting on my truck seized right now. We need the seize on the milk to be lifted.”
(This post was adjusted and updated after it was first posted July 15.)
For my fellow Michiganders – please contact:
Kevin Besey, Director
Food and Dairy Division
800-292-3939 or 517-582-1156
beseyk@michigan.gov
and ask him to lift the seize order.
I have also tried unsuccessfully to contact the number stated but can’t get through.
Thanks goes out to David for his reporting.
Kevin Besey is not taking any calls at this time.
Remember that the cow share in Kentucky even got an apology from the authorities. If you own a cow in the USA…you have the right to drink its raw milk! It is time for the cow owning consumers to step up and make a real statement. The state would not dare legally attack 100 moms. They do not have the will or the resources much less the political capital. Carpe diem!!
I received a statement late today (Tues) from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development indicating that the agency was after My Family Co-Op because it was selling raw dairy products besides milk (like yogurt, kefir, butter). The MDARD’s March 2013 policy formally endorsing raw milk exempted non-milk products. Today’s MDARD statement indicated that the co-op can continue to distribute milk, though it didn’t indicate why “some raw milk was placed under seizure”:
MDARD fully supports the growing movement for residents to obtain local, healthy and safe food. We understand the desire of consumers to buy fresh, unprocessed, whole milk. Information has been circulating that MDARD staff seized the My Family Coop milk truck. This is untrue. MDARD did place a seizure on illegally processed and distributed raw milk products that are not covered under a herd-share agreement. As part of our due diligence, some raw milk was placed under seizure as we work through our investigation regarding the illegal processing and distribution of raw milk products.
My Family Coop herd-share members may still obtain milk directly from the farm while MDARD completes its investigation.”
Jenny, sad to say, the regulatory people rarely work in a straightforward and businesslike way….when they are trying to intimidate. For them, this is “enforcement,” not regulation. So they watch your farm for hours, follow you around, try to catch you by surprise. Then, they make like they are big supporters of local food and merely “investigating.” Unfortunately, their investigations usually take much time. They don’t care if your food rots and it costs you a lot of money. Let’s hope I am wrong, and they actually behave in a rational and considerate way.
Ken
Dear Mr. Beskey- I spoke with you yesterday about the seizure of My Family Co-op’s products yesterday. Yesterday, you told me that the liquid milk products were not in question under your “investigation”. I must again urge you AGAIN to please release those liquid milk products that are not in question by your department. Just because there isn’t a law on the books banning the use of a co-op to facilitate the delivery of herdshare products doesn’t mean that you can just assume one is there. That is unconstitutional. I have a legal contract with MFC and I demand that I receive my liquid milk ASAP. I still don’t understand why you and your department cannot “try to understand the relationship of the co-op to the herdshare” as you stated yesterday, without a seizure of products that you claimed were not in question. Just because we have some nebulous laws on the books in Michigan regarding raw dairy, doesn’t give you the right to hold hostage the livelihoods of the farmers and co-op in the meantime while you are waiting to pass more laws to take away our freedom of choice as consumers. Your seizure, especially of the liquid products you yourself claimed weren’t in question, was a thinly veiled attempt to run a small farm out of business. I will not stand for this intimidation and unconstitutional activity and I am also a member of the Consumer Defense Legal Fund and will protect my right to my lawful, contracted, herdshare dairy products. I urge you to PLEASE REMOVE THE SEIZURE NOW.
Bill Lynch
They force feed us food laden with pesticides, unsafe and untested GMOs, factory farm sick animals, you name it. They will protect, defend and make laws to force us to eat GMOs, pink slime, chickens processed in China, meats processed in plants where conditions are so bad they have made laws to outlaw whistleblowers and have them arrested for showing their disgusting practices. It is insanity.
They have gone after small pig farmers, Amish farmers and even backyard farmers – crush the competition and make them eat soylent green. If you want to eat healthy food, you had better stand up and not allow this kind of bullying or you will be left with no rights at all.
I am asking you to please reconsider what you have done to Jenny Samuelson and all of us who belong to the My Family Coop.
If the story is true that agents confiscated our farm products order based on Jenny not having a proper license to distribute eggs and honey then we have reached the summit of government overreach. To think that our taxpayer money would go to planning and executing a sting operation on a hard working lady and a farm that barely makes a living is truly disgraceful. I feel sorry for the enforcement officials that were ordered to perform this senseless act. When I think of the deaths every week in Detroit and Flint from crime that affects young children every single day, I can only wonder how state resources could be directed to honey and eggs. I think I know the real answer to this senseless raid. It is simply to put the raw milk farmers out of business to pay off the political debt to large dairy conglomerates and their poisonous filthy milk, that is outlawed in every other country except right here in the USA.
You need to stop this harassment immediately and let us Michigan citizens enjoy good fresh milk from Michigan farms as advertised in a current Michigan.org TV advertisement. An advertisement I might add that totally misrepresents the source of Michigan milk, which as you know comes from confinement farms where cattle never ever see the light of day and are all dead by the time they are 4 years old. The ad, on the other hand, shows pastoral land where cows roam freely like the farm whose milk you have confiscated.
And please don’t bother with the phony food safety speech. Save that speech for the countries that outlaw Michigan dairy products.
Thank you in advance for altering your stance on this matter.
Mike Lobsinger
on her site, she lists products such as butter, cream and buttermilk as BODY products. an obvious attempt to stick it up the state’s hiney. . .she also has no food handlers license . . . i’m sorry, do not tell me she is doing all this out of the goodness of her heart and not making a profit. . . mother theresa died!
i applaud her for identifying a need and capitalizing on it. . . it’s the american way.
but don’t grind EVERY law which is in place that retailers like myself must follow into the dirt and then jump behind an unsuspecting group for blind support.
get your facts people!
if someone is selling drugs and you know it, they get busted and you were dumb enough to leave prized possessions at their home, guess what. . . . there’s a seizure and forfeiture law and it all goes bye-bye!
On this page at http://www.myfamilycoop.com/How-to-Join.html it states that “The cost for the co-op agreement is $45.00 for a year to obtain raw dairy from Hill High Dairy in this agrrement [sic] you are entitle [sic] to receive up to 4 gallons of milk every week from Hill High Dairy. I will need a signed contract and payment in full from you, before I can except [sic] any milk order.”
So, here I am seeing an agreement whereby a customer pays $45/year to contract a personal delivery service. There is NO mention at all of purchasing a share and hence becoming a shareholder in a legally-registered cooperative as defined under the “Cooperative Corporations” part of the Michigan laws (see http://www.legislature.mi.gov/documents/mcl/pdf/mcl-act-327-of-1931.pdf and http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/forming-cooperative-corporation). Under a true cooperative, members would purchase shares in the co-op, vote in a Board of Directors to manage the cooperative, and the cooperative itself as a legally-incorporated entity would hire/contract with Jenny. The cooperative could own assets (cows? products? etc?). There would be clear line of legal chain-of-custody and ownership of products from farm to consumer.
As an example of another herdshare which is a legally-registered cooperative, see Ecoreality Co-op – http://www.ecoreality.org/wiki/Category:Dairy .
If “My Family Co-op” is not a real co-op, could this be part of why the authorities decided to act why they did, because it looked like a business?
If you are one of her customers, then you are aware that on her product page she had items of butter, cream, etc. listed under “body products”. If you are one of her customers, then you also received emails from her stating that she would be listing these food products as these “body products”. . . Sorry, that’s wrong. And obviously she KNEW it was wrong or would not have listed them on her site as such. Also, the state doesn’t like people mocking them which is what that was. And in this day and age, there’s a huge paper trail to the truth. I HAVE DONE MY HOMEWORK. . . I own a retail food establishment. If she had “4 walls” and people picked up IN the building, it would be one thing. but as soon as she is rolling down the road it’s another story. You fall into different jurisdictions; I asked my raw milk farmer who went through the trouble and expense to get a retailers license and. . . PER MY RAW MILK FARMER. . . he stated he is thrilled that things are moving forward. . . there was a time when you simply could not get raw milk. He says while they are moving slow, they at least are going in the right direction and if the state says “No Butter yet.” Then that’s the way it has to be. No one is stopping anyone from taking their milk, removing the cream and throwing it in a food processor to make their own butter. . . Admittedly you are NOT a lawyer and DON’T even know the details. . . so isn’t it rather idiotic for YOU to tell ME to do MY homework??!! LOL!! SHEESH!
No. She IS NOT a “true” registered co-op. She started doing herd shares and expanded WITHOUT the necessary paperwork. And further, the State says “No Butter, etc”. . . . which I get. . . . you CANNOT process food in someones kitchen sink! . . . If someone got sick, they would be the first one in line to sue the state because the state knew she was making/selling butter and there was no inspection of the premises being done!
Thank you so much for your eloquent take. . . sometimes I give people too much credit and make assumptions on what I deem basic knowledge….. and this is where it starts. . . she never created a co-op. . . and it was a runaway freight train from then on!
The posts here are excellent in identifying the legal deficiencies of My Family Coop. There are also excellent points on the importance of cleanliness in preparing butter, ice cream, yogurt, etc.
But the real story here is the heavy handedness and the legal deficiencies of MDARD’s actions. MDARD could have contacted My Family Coop at any time and fined her or questioned the legality of the contracts. MDARD could have lived up to its own mission statement of supporting the rights of the Raw Milk Movement.
It should be clear to any logical person that MDARD wanted to put a dent into the rights of the raw milk movement – period. Within hours of the sting, MDARD contacted every Michigan raw milk coop and instructed them that cream was no longer legal. Think about that, a sting followed by a mass communique on a policy that was finalized almost a year and half ago. (By the way, as I read it, the workgroup agreement that has been referenced here does not say anything about cream) .
http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/news_wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/MI-FUW_Policy1.40-Scan_May-26-2013-2-08-59-578-PM.png
If MDARD wanted to protect good fresh Michigan Raw Milk Farmers like it does the Pasteurized Milk Industry it would not have acted like this.
And that’s the real story here – MDARD simply wants raw milk groups to go bye bye. Everything else is noise.
The culpability trail needs to be followed back through the decision process to get to the people who are initiating and furthering this, and punish them accordingly, by making sure they are removed from their jobs. These positions have gotten too far from the direct influence of the people. We need to restrict the authority of the top level government people to appoint, and make more positions elected. I would urge people who write to them to quit being polite. The treatment they’re providing is not polite, and language sends a message, in this case it would be ‘we won’t stand for this’.
I would say she should have applied for a food handler’s license, and the agency should have notified her and urged her to do so, rather than raid. I don’t blame her for listing things as body products. That’s what bureaucracy forces people to do to get around the nonsense. Legalese. If someone wants to eat their body butter, it’s up to them.
Instead, you have had a long-standing beef with Jenny and revealed that fact only after I explained her motivation to you. You then brought up gossip and insinuated that she had done something wrong in building her business, asserting that she stole it from the previous farmer she worked with. I can’t speak to all the details of their strained relationship, but what is clear is that she built the delivery service and stopped working with the farmer because she couldn’t take the personal abuse she received from him. The state might have a lot of ways to get private emails, but one of the easiest is from someone who is disgruntled and has access to it. Did you send it? And what is your name? Because I have a pretty good idea, based on your statements and demeanor, but the readers of this blog might want to know