The Maine Supreme Court dealt a blow to those hoping for legal backing of locally sanctioned private food sales, outside government regulatory auspices, by upholding farmer Dan Browns conviction last year of violating state dairy and food laws.
In the end, the justices indicated, regulators interpretation of public health trumps all arguments that might be put forward to justify food rights–in the town of Blue Hill, Maine, where Brown’s case originated and which has a Food Sovereignty ordinance, and throughout the state. The States responsibility (is) to protect the public health by ensuring sanitary conditions and proper business operating practices for the preparation and sale of food to the public the Town of Blue Hill has left the protection of public health with respect to the sale of local foods to market forces.
The seven judges rejected all arguments put forth by Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund lawyers and sought to discredit Maines expanding Food Sovereignty movement, which had seen ten towns pass ordinances over the last three years exempting direct farmer-to-consumer food sales, outside the auspices of state and federal regulations. (It’s not clear from the written opinion how the justices voted.) Three additional Maine towns were poised to add to the total, and a scattering of locales around the country as far away as Santa Cruz, CA, had taken Maines lead and passed their own Food Sovereignty ordinances.
In Maine, at least, Food Sovereignty now has been re-defined by the court: We construe the plain language of the Blue Hill Local Food Ordinance to exempt local food producers and processors only from municipal licensing and inspection requirements, the justices stated in their decision. The Ordinance would be constitutionally invalid and preempted only to the extent that it purports to exempt from state or federal requirements the distribution of milk and operation of food establishments.
The Blue Hill ordinance, passed in 2011, was very specific about its intent, We have faith in our citizens ability to educate themselves and make informed decisions. We hold that federal and state regulations impede local food production and constitute a usurpation of our citizens right to foods of their choice.
In a footnote, the justices added, It is important to again note that, to the extent that Brown sells primarily produce and not dairy products from his farm stand, he is exempt under state law from obtaining a food establishment license. In other words, Brown and other farmers are free to sell all the veggies they want without licensing, but no town in Maine has the authority to allow the sale of raw milk privately, outside state permitting auspices.
The justices also came down against Brown on his argument that state regulators had, in effect, encouraged him to start his unlicensed operation when he launched in 2006 via a thirty-year-plus policy of allowing small dairies like his to sell directly to individuals without a license, so long as the dairies didnt advertise. The state argued that it changed its policy in 2009, banning the unlicensed option, and that all farmers, including Brown, needed to comply.
While government agencies can in certain cases be held at fault for arbitrarily changing their regulations, not in this case, said the justices.
The State Veterinarians statements to Brown in 2006 were accurate when they were made because, at that time, the Dairy Inspection Program did not enforce licensing requirements on distributors of raw milk who did not advertise their sales, the Supreme Court said. The subsequent change in policy by the Quality Assurance Division did not render the State Veterinarians earlier statements misleading or fraudulent. Accordingly, there was no misrepresentation by a governmental entity or official to justify prohibition of enforcement.
Once again, public health took precedence, in the courts view, as it backed the lower court. That court determined that, under the totality of the circumstances, the public health implications of permitting Brown to sell milk without a license outweigh the injury to Brown to obtain a license. The Maine Supreme Court became another in a lengthening list of state courts–including Wisconsin, Missouri, and New York–to completely back regulator authority over food standards and availability.
The justices also rejected any easing of the penalty levied against Brown by the lower court, which was a $1,000 fine, plus about $300 of court costs.
What are the options for Maine’s Food Sovereignty movement from here? While an appeal to a federal court of the Maine courts decision is a technical possibility, its difficult to imagine that federal judges would be any more sympathetic than the ones in Maine.
So that leaves three options that I can see.
1. Convince the state legislature to sanction Food Sovereignty statewide. Maines legislature has a growing number of food-rights supporters among its members, and I understand they will be meeting shortly to consider how to deal with the state courts decision.
2. Another option would be for a farmer to defy the latest court decision, engage in civil disobedience, and invite criminal charges. Then, the farmer could be tried in front of a jury, and so far, these have been the only legal entities in recent years to side with farmers and their customers.
3. And finally, the farmers can take their food sales ever more underground. You can be sure that expanding trend has already begun to accelerate.
The human will can break this impossible wall of insanity.
Let’s dance, let’s celebrate, let’s embrace injustice and make it visible to those who have still left an ounce of humanity.
It just needs one thing. COURAGE
Michael,
I love your expression, “let’s embrace injustice and make it visible…”
The people in Maine who have promoted the Food Sovereignty movement among Maine towns did so after much consideration about how to add legitimacy to our basic rights to provide and access good food. They have been at this Food Sovereignty movement for five years. I know they have thought seriously about the alternatives if this case was unsuccessful. They are a very courageous group. They have also paid much attention to building local community support for what they are doing. My sense is that they are not about to give up.
I say…take what the courts have declared and make it your strength. Make food safety your greatest strength…your shield of excellence. Invite the inspectors to come see how it should be done. Show them the best practices…the best counts.
The most unnerving action would be a turnabout on just the subject matter that is of issue. Make your weakness your greatest strength. That’s what we did in CA and we are thriving and we are also free, because we have denied any agency or any one the ability to criticize our practices or our counts. At some point…strategic brilliance must take the lead. Fighting with a losing tactic…is fighting a lost cause. At the end of the day….do we want to fight for the sake of fighting or do we want to win and thrive? That is the question.
One must ask….why is it that farmers can not evolve and become great at food safety and be very proud of this. I have seen farmers make this powerful turn. It is the most powerful act the a raw milk farmer can make. Stop being a target and start being beyond reproach and lead with excellence. In other words….take their critical food safety point…and stuff it up their backsides as a matter of pride.
Mark,
Your comments about safety are well taken. The situation in Maine is a little more nuanced than simply having farmers demonstrate safety. Maine has a long tradition of producing safe milk. It did so for decades beginning in the 1970s, when the regulators allowed small dairies like that run by Dan Brown to sell raw milk to their friends and neighbors without need of a permit. No one knows for sure how the old rule evolved, but likely part of the reasoning was that tiny dairies that were doing what they were supposed to do shouldn’t have to spend many thousands of dollars to add new facilities inappropriate to their production scale so as to qualify for a permit. The regulators arbitrarily changed the rules in 2009, likely at the “encouragement” of the FDA. There was no safety issue that had developed. Brown’s town, Blue Hill, responded by essentially legalizing the old arrangement within its town borders, believing that its citizens could exchange food “the old-fashioned way,” among themselves. Now, the Maine Supreme Court has basically said that, even absent any safety issues, the Maine dairy regulators can decide on the basis of some vague notion of “public health” to not only change the rules, but ignore a locally approved law specifically allowing the sale of raw milk. People there are rightfully pissed.
And the feds and state have achieved a big part of their underlying goal: to drive small dairies like Dan Brown out of business.
Towns/communities/local jurisdictions continue to respond to the citizens and ignore the state. Basically, “refuse to comply” on a local level, all while farmers are encouraged to continue with civil disobedience. Farmers will be somewhat more likely to continue to defy the state if they have backup, no matter how big or small.
I think producers are willing to take a stand even in small numbers and with the small backup local ordinaces give. It is really hard for most to stand alone…it takes a lot of cajones…
The courts have merely reinforced the regulatory framework, which encourages government intrusion on the grounds of its so-called excuse for food safety.
Its ironic that the court would use a constitutional argument to invalidate the ordinance and defend current regulation!
Clearly there are people who have a different point of view as to what constitute food safety, are unwilling to compromise that view and want to be free to make choices as they see fit. Are there no grounds for a constitutional argument here?
As well Davids point that, Maine has a long tradition of producing safe milk. is indicative that issue is not about food safety. If it were merely about genuine, undisputed food safety your argument would hold water. However you know very well that its not, and if the government along with its cronies wishes to control the dairy industry they will certainly attempt to do so by hook or by crook.
Your attempt to defeat them at their own game via RAWMI standards will undoubtedly make life somewhat difficult for them to justify their food regulations yet on its own will not achieve genuine food freedom.
Ken
Bob, it will be interesting to see how the towns that passed Food Sovereignty ordinances react. I know that one of the obstacles to getting these ordinances passed in some towns (two or three have rejected them, I believe) has been concern about just the issue you raise–what happens if these ordinances are somehow legally challenged/upset by the state. Will we have to commit scarce local resources to defending ourselves in court?
I know that as the Dan Brown case evolved, some of these town officials have become upset with the state’s unwillingness to give the ordinances a chance to peacefully work for a while, to determine possible glitches. So, now that the state’s highest court has essentially ruled that they can’t be applied as originally intended, the ball is in the towns’ court, as it were.
http://www.kctv5.com/story/25812411/city-to-fine-owners-of-little-free-libraries
This statement: “We hold that federal and state regulations impede local food production” is one that I respectuflly urge state and federal governments to consider. Why are municipalities trying so hard to opt out? Because their access to local food is impeded. This is a big problem, and one that state and federal governments have an obligation to address. By simply saying “no, you can’t opt out”, but providing NO alternate solution to the root problem…by just say “no, you cannot buy milk from Dan Brown because its not safe”, but providing NO reasonable alternative to address their specific safety concerns in a sensible and scaleable manner (and no, $70,000 in upgrades is not reasonable)…they are creating anarchy. This kind of posturing creates extremism, black markets, riots, Farmaggedon-style confrontation and civil disobedience. It makes everyone want to leave the table in disgust and frustration.
Shawna, good points about dairy farmers voluntarily becoming students of food safety, and consciously finding ways to reduce risk and increase quality. I see RAWMI spreading that message, even for farmers it doesn’t directly train, that safety is a huge priority. As far as Maine’s pursuit of Dan Brown goes, be aware that Maine for many years (until 2009) had, in effect, a two-tier system, where farmers like Brown were allowed to sell directly to neighbors and area residents so long as they didn’t advertise. If they promoted themselves, or wanted to sell at retail (allowed by Maine), they had to have permits. Essentially, Maine got the courts to rubber stamp their elimination of the second tier that Brown represented.
However, Maine isn’t alone in having a two-tier system. Neighboring New Hampshire and Vermont have very similar two-tier systems. Dairy farms that sell less than a certain amount of milk direct from the farm (I believe 20 gallons a day for NH and 12.5 gallons for VT) don’t need permits–they only have to have warning signs, keep lists of customers, and give their cows TB shots. Neither of these states is going after the smaller dairies–in fact, VT in recent years liberalized the requirements for Tier 1 dairies, and NH allows the small dairies to sell milk at farmers markets. The systems seem to be working well in both states.
Our society in its thirst for a safe life (through regulation) has ALLOWED ITSELF to be manipulated to the point we lay down and bow to the American royalty, A.K.A. the judicial & legislative systems. Unless and until people stop drinking the kool-aid and stand up for their rights – and activists get better funded – this will only get worse. A few regulated raw dairies dont mean much in this context, its freedom and self-reliance under attack, not raw milk. There are bigger players than the milk cartel in this game; they are just an incredibly well positioned pawn for the powers that be. Think about it, does the FDA really specifically have it in for raw milk? As much as they declare the public health risks the facts just dont support it, and everyone knows it so absurd.
What happened in 2009 that transformed states policies of acceptance, even encouragement, of local raw dairy sales? This happened nation-wide, this fact came out in court during the trial of Vernon Hershberger. So, why & how, was it legal? Who initiated it? Allowing ourselves to be distracted and divided with the all too convenient safety VS freedom argument works against both. Michael is right that change starts with courage; but it also needs to be backed up with a deliberate long term offensive strategy to purge our courts and legislative halls of people who are bought and paid for by the powers that be. The ignorant we can educate; those turning a blind we need to invalidate.
What if everyone with awareness actually got involved, however they personally can, to help the fight in Maine where many communities embrace the sanity of a sustainable local food system, farmers are supported, and at least some legislators seem to be paying attention beyond the next election? It could have a national impact on our eroding constitutional rights; rights that include but are not limited to choosing what we eat and where we get it.
http://www.hangthebankers.com/australia-planning-to-produce-gmo-milk/
http://www.ij.org/images/pdf_folder/economic_liberty/perspectives-food-freedom.pdf
http://www.keepfoodlegal.org/content/wisconsin-law-review-publishes-food-law-policy-article-co-authored-keep-food-legals-baylen-l
Although OPDC does not normally take interns…we made an exception this summer and invited two young veterinary students to spend several a weeks doing everything organic and raw. One even had directions from her mentoring PhD to study our RAMP plan and participate in how we reliably produce safe low risk raw milk with ultra low coliforms and report back!! One of the interns is a Cal Poly SLO vet student that is attending vet school in Scotland. The other student is from a vet school in Paris France.
Both of these young gals fit into our family like family and the raw milk education is none stop. They each spend hours each day on every part of the Grass to Glass vertically integrated operations. Today they spent hours with our own vet checking pregnancy. They have both fed calves and milked cows.
When they leave in several weeks, two little organic raw seeds will be sent out into the world with knowledge that low risk raw milk is possible. They will have personally experienced this reality and will be able to think for themselves when exposed to the dogma that will eventually hit them as they earn their doctorates in vet medicine.
Never to early to plant seeds….these seeds will be planted and go internationally, but will return I am sure. Educational investment in our future is always extremely rewarding.
“According to medical experts, there are hundreds of thousands of people who have Lyme disease and dont even know it.
Let me ask you this question, how is it possible that one person can have Lyme and have no symptoms, and yet others can have chronic symptoms that can be crippling at times?…”
He cautions against using antibiotics, but recommends probiotics:
“The most common treatment for lyme disease today is prescription antibiotic use. The problem here is that its simply treating a small part of lyme and not the entire condition. Also, antibiotics use can weaken the immune system over time making the lyme bacteria spread and worsen.
To truly kill off the bad bacteria we must overcrowd it with good bacteria and here is how I recommend you consider doing that.
Probiotic rich foods like kefir, amasai, and raw goats milk yogurt are your highest sources of probiotics…”
Sounds quite similar to what Miguel has been saying here for years. I lived in a tent in the woods for a couple years, not that long ago. I didn’t freak out with the numerous bites I’d get, I just let my immune system work properly, integrating the local microbes into my system. Never had a problem that lasted long. Of course I don’t watch tv or read govt funded “studies” or textbooks.
I am trying to do the alternative along with the antibiotics. Also am hoping this was caught early. The stories about lyme are scarey indeed. In the last few days, I’ve learned more than I ever cared to about ticks.
When Lyme was first brought to the attention of others, it was from a woman in Lyme Ct, She had symptoms along with numerous children and others in her town and she pushed for investigation. Numerous children had symptoms of Rheumatoid arthritis. Very unusual for clusters of that. To make a long story short, I think it was within a year or two of the investigation they discovered it was from the tick and eventually isolating the bacteria spirochete as the cause (Later it would be discovered there are numerous variations of this spirochete. There is no test to show you are cured either.
There is a study (small one) the brains of 10 Alzheimer patients were examined, 7 of them were positive for Lymes and never diagnosed with it. Perhaps a contributing factor to the rise in alzheimers over the years?
The antibiotic of choice for early Lyme is doxycycline, (doctors just can’t agree on the amount and length of use) a very old antibiotic (I feel it’s safer than a lot of the newer ones). I believe that using both traditional and nontraditional medicine will work.
Eradicating deer in Ct has shown to decrease the amount of cases significantly. (No they didn’t kill off all the deer, just decreased the population) Lyme disease has been around for centuries.
I don’t like the taste of kefir or goatsmilk.
You have not tried OPDC raw Kefir….if you live in CA make a smoothie with it. Add honey, berries, a banana and an ice cube. Shazzam!!! Delicious cup of lymes healing juice with hundreds of different kinds of probiotic bacteria and billions of them to the rescue!! Most importantly…also the probiotics to feed and help the bacteria to recolonized the gut. I convert vegans back to rational diets with this smoothie all the time.
We all want this raw milk vet and little organic seed to thrive!!
Sylvia, sounds like there’s nothing wrong with you, aside from harm being done by antibiotic use, and psychosomatic illness from reading establishment propaganda.
The idea of syphilis being the great pretender, lurking inside you, … eventually causing brain damage if left untreated… was debunked long ago. Start looking into “syphilis hoax”, since you like to read, … and then read Inventing the Aids Virus by world renowned retrovirologist Peter Duesberg. Filled with helpful information, he goes into how “neurosyphilis” (late stage syphilis) is actually created by the “treatment” of giving people mercury, which can get lodged in your brain causing heavy metal poisoning and making you go crazy.
I recall a quote by a medical doctor in the early 1900s, speaking to syphilis patients, it went something like this: “Ignore the gloom and doom paranoia imposed by the medical profession, get some rest, and it quickly goes away.”
The Forward to Inventing the Aids Virus is written by Nobel Prize winning virologist Kary Mullis, inventor of the polymerase chain reaction test used by hospitals.
Start looking into this stuff and you will see that long long before Dueserg and others started blowing the whistle on these medical hoaxes, others have said the same thing.
I’d definitely recommend you read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Price. I know there are groups today based on their interpretation of his research, but I’d read his exact words. That book is a gift to Humanity. It debunks 95 percent of what you were taught in school, the real world evidence from visiting “primitive” and “modern” cultures around the world in the 1930s, and documenting their health and diet.
It’s real world evidence with pictures he took and xrays. To give but one example, when he visits the Indians of North America he finds many of the children dying of tuberculosis, the ones eating reservation “modern foods”, but the Indians living off the reservations eating their whole food diets don’t have any problem with tuberculosis.
I’m rereading his book at the moment. He points out that the healthiest peoples had at least one of the three following items in their diets:
raw dairy
animal organs
seafood particularly shellfish
Regarding the idea of microscopic things lurking in your body ready to pounce some day in the future, a quote from Peter Duesberg comes to mind:
“Indeed, there are no such thing as slow viruses. Only slow virologists.”
http://joettecalabrese.com/blog/protocol-lyme-disease-using-homeopathy/?inf_contact_key=d22750e321079a7f738d92a8b477781378359ffbbdcb2f3c052fecaeb9c43e44
Thank you everyone for your input, it is more reading for me.
Is there a definition of “public health” in either state or federal statutes?
thanks,
–bill
Sylvia, what you say there is right out of Medical Hoaxes 101. I could say the same thing about water. Water is found in the cells of cancer victims, it’s found with people with Altzheimer’s, MS… Yeah but water is also found in the bodies of healthy people? Well, er, that’s what makes the water disease so dog gone mysterious. You never know when or where it might strike!
Looks like “Lyme disease” is yet another establishment technique to alienate people from Nature, keeping them indoors, sitting in front of a tv or computer, text messaging… with a Smart Meter pulsing twenty feet away from their noggin….
Get some rest, eat some real food, and your infected tick bite should quickly heal.
Apparently the WHO does most of the describing of what public health is (even agriculture is a part of what falls under the heading of public health), but a lot of the documents concerning their “regulations” go straight to a 404 page (meaning it’s no longer available for public viewing – imagine it). I think it’s a pretty convoluted subject. Possibly on purpose.
Now his greatest challenge is: hiring his A Team and training them fast enough. It is so wonderful to see American small dairy reconnecting to consumers and reinventing itself and seeing food safety lead the way with low risk raw milk. New Mexico permits 50 coliforms….Mike tests rarely above a just a couple per ml and mostly less than one. He submitted his RAWMI application last week after he realized that reliable bacteria counts and a production team, and a plan to achieve them are critical. Those of us that have done raw milk for awhile also appreciate being Listed in a community of like minded producers. It is good to know that there is someone to call. We are not alone.
Today….Marcie McBee submitted her RAWMI application!!! I have not spoken with her in several months. So proud of her as well. She has become an expert in Tennessee low risk raw milk and has her own on farm lab after mentoring help from Edwin Shank. Seeds are germinating all over the place!
Awesome….simply awesome!!
http://www.youngfarmers.org/western-water-profile-de-smet-dairy-farms/
http://desmetdairy.com/
Currently only about 16-20 cows, so I can see why people are waiting in line for it, and per the other story, he knows the limits of his land.
http://ediblesantafe.com/read/de-smet-dairy-bringing-new-mexico-raw-milk/
http://abqstew.com/2014/04/17/why-raw-milk/
This is the kind of math that leads us astray, into the land of fantasy and jealousy. It is also the land of the anti-raw-milk types, who criticize raw dairy farmers for wanting to “get rich.”
Just to take the math a little further, $10,000 per week translates into about $500,000 per year. Half a million in annual revenue is a quite modest small business. I guarantee you the farm has something approaching that amount in expenses. I also guarantee you no one is getting rich at that rate.
However, half a million dollars in annual revenue with a small profit is likely much more attractive a business proposition than selling the same milk into the conventional dairy system–the difference between sustainability and a living-on-the-edge existence. That is the real reason why more dairy owners will gradually come to see the light and transition to raw milk.
Just from looking at the pictures of the man’s farm and improvements and all the other things he is doing, and plans to do, it seems he is doing well otherwise he would not be able to improve/expand as he has been doing. He appears to be “comfortable” financially. Something many strive for and never seem to reach, plus he has the added benefit of enjoying what he does. If you can do something you love, that is great. If you can make money at it, that’s even better.
Using this dairy as an example with hypothetical income figures (as we really don’t know exactly what it is, we can only guess with the figures from the articles written); To show others how he is using the land in his favor and maintaining the healthy cows/land, etc. This is a good example that small sustainable dairies (and produce farms) are obtainable and can make profits. And at $5 per half a gal, it becomes obtainable to more people. I can’t think of anyone who doesn’t want to make a profit so they can buy all those nice extras.
John
If you are not making a profit off of me then you are my slave in a sense.
Ill pass on being a slave master.
Heres to free markets, to liberty, to freedom, to truthfulness!
Have a wonderful day!
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
Sometimes it takes a pathogen as a wake up call…but what she after being awoken is remarkable!! She reached out for help….she sought advice from RAWMI and Edwin Shank….one of the best raw milk dairymen in the workd …she built an on farm lab….she wrote down the advice and created protocols….she built a team…she tests like crazy….her coliforms spike at 2…she has happy customers and cow share owners!!
Im currently rereading his book, and feel I should add that, although he was a fine detective, he still had no idea how devious and organized the global establishment is. For example, Im reading Chapter 13 here, Ancient Civilizations of Peru. He talks about how healthy these people were, and examines over 1000 skeletons at a museum, finding that all had their wisdom teeth intact and straight (mine were pulled when I was 18, they were growing in sideways.) Price clearly proves that crooked wisdom teeth and other crooked teeth are due to having something extremely wrong with your diet, ie your body is deformed. And yet dentists today are clueless about this, showing how incredibly corrupt academia is.
Anyway, he writes a bit about the culture of these ancient peoples of Peru, using information from museums, but what he doesnt realize is, these museums edit the artifacts to spin the story, and its done around the world. For example:
in 1965, the then 20-year-old university student (historian Maximo Terrazos) joined a field trip to Perus Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History. We were a group of 50 students, male and female, and we were taken through all the galleries, he recalled. At the end, we were told, Okay, the ladies can leave, the gentlemen stay for a moment. We were taken down into a basement to a room marked Private, he said. I was shocked because for the first time I was seeing huacos eroticos. Locked in glass display before him were explicit ceramic depictions of sexual acts crafted more than 1500 years earlier by the Moche, a highly organized, class based society that dominated Perus northern coast we were the first students who had ever seen them. In recent years the artifacts have helped place a historical spotlight on centuries of brutal repression by Spanish conquistadores, colonial bureaucrats and priestly extirpators of idolatry, bent on curbing sexual practices
Thats an excerpt from an article online called Sex in Peru by Rick Vecchio.
I copied that to show how incredibly corrupt academia is, these artifacts show these people had very rich varied sex lives, and those that control the museums and textbooks have decided you shouldnt know this. Youll find the same thing around the world if you do some digging, artifacts from Pompeii that have been suppressed for 200 years, anthropologists talking about secret rooms in other museums to house “obscene” artifacts, how they spin history to promote modern ideas: that our species is obscene, that Nature doesnt work, that touching others is dangerous, etc etc. Books have been written about museums getting rid of artifacts to cover things up
Of all the corrupt arms of the global establishment, the scam media, scam governments, monopoly corporations, false religions, Id say their academia arm is the most corrupt of all. Try talking to a dentist (as I have) about how cavities can be healed by a change in diet, without drilling, Price’s xrays show this, and they will look at you like you’re from another planet. How many years of “training” do they have, and they don’t know the first thing about teeth.
Any suggestions for how I might contact her in some untraditional method or how I might locate the remedy for which I’m on the search? Any help appreciated. If you’d rather send me an email, please contact David and he has my permission to give you my addy.