Uncle Sam doesn’t like to lose in court, especially when the winner is a legally clumsy Amish farmer selling healing food via private food clubs around the country. That much became clear during a phone hearing before federal judge Edward Smith Friday, following up on his surprise decision in late August to suspend payment of a $250,000 fine due the next day from long embattled Amish farmer Amos Miller.
Government lawyers and investigators who testified before Judge Smith could barely hide their irritation with the judge’s late-August decision, and their desire for revenge, as they described an expanded investigation of Miller that is grasping for any and all evidence that Miller is somehow angling to ‘defraud’ the government by failing to fully comply with a court order prohibiting Miller from slaughtering animals on his Pennsylvania farm; the order requires Miller have his animals slaughtered at USDA-inspected facilities. “In our view, Miller continues to take a number of deceptive actions to avoid the court’s orders,” assistant U.S. attorney Gerald Sullivan told Judge Smith.
In anticipation of the Friday hearing, the U.S. Department of Agriculture sent five investigators a couple weeks ago to rummage through Miller’s facilities and inspect its meat inventory, Miller told me prior to the hearing. In past inspections, the USDA has sent two investigators at a time. “They’ve become increasingly aggressive,” he said.
One of the things that has clearly irked the USDA and its lawyers is the broad show of financial support Miller received from his food club members and other supporters after Judge Smith in July went along with a government recommendation and imposed a $250,000 fine on Miller, plus more than $13,000 in expenses. Sullivan argued that Miller should be forced to pay the $250,000 fine into some kind of holding account until the judge issues a final decision about whether the fine is to be imposed, suggesting that such a huge fine was somehow small potatoes to Miller. In a voice tinged with sarcasm and resentment, Sullivan stated: “Obviously the fine means nothing because he is able to raise money so easily.” He was referring to the $133,000 Miller raised in two GoFundMe campaigns; Sullivan chose to ignore the reality that the money Miller raised came from more than 1,300 supporters. Perhaps Sullivan was assuming Miller was like the corporate food producers he is accustomed to dealing with for which fines or penalties really do “mean nothing.”
Much of the rest of the hearing was filled with the kinds of guilt-by-association conclusions that have come to characterize the government’s case against Miller. In previous hearings and filings, the USDA has made a big deal about Miller buying land or making arrangements for a daughter’s wedding to argue that the Amish farmer isn’t a poor small farmer as some people might have inferred. In reality, Miller’s members don’t begrudge paying for his natural food or that he might actually make a profit on his sales.
In the hearing today, an investigator provided evidence that Miller over the last month has had animals slaughtered at a facility in Maryland, rather than Pennsylvania. He also said Miller continues to acquire significant numbers of pigs, cows, turkeys, and other animals. And he said Miller acquired some neighboring land that he then leased to an Amish man who also has worked for Miller.
In a brief cross-examination, Miller’s lawyer, Steve LeFuente, questioned the agent about whether any of those activities were at odds with federal law or orders instituted against Miller. At one point the agent stated: “We are presenting evidence of a large number of animals purchased….”
“But none of that activity violates the order, correct?” Fuentes challenged.
“Yes, that is correct,” the agent admitted.
The cross examination was cut short by difficulties with the phone connection; Judge Smith requested that the government complete its investigation and file a written motion for what it wants done. But he expressed concern there could be “continuing violation of the order….that will endanger the health of the citizens who are receiving this product.” That said, Judge Smith has been tough to predict over the five years the government has pushed its case. He has always been left with the reality that there’s never been an allegation of illness from Miller’s meat, or even a complaint from a food club member about it.
Thanks for keeping us informed of this case, David. I sure hope the judge realizes the need for people to have access to clean, whole, healthy food!
Shana, I share your hope about the judge. As I’ve said, he seems at least a bit sympathetic to Amos Miller as the owner of a comparatively small farm. His problem is that he has to follow the law, and the law regarding meat inspection, licensing, and such can get quite complex. The USDA and DOJ obviously know the laws and regulations inside and out. As with any enforcers, from traffic cops to customs inspectors, they can choose to be flexible in their enforcement, or they can choose to be brutally strict. For Amos Miller, they have decided to be ever more strict. And the fact that he is fighting back by having competent legal counsel and seeking financial support from his members and other sympathizers has clearly infuriated the USDA and DOJ so that they are now grasping at any and all legal straws to try to convince the judge to punish Miller via the $250,000 fine that was lifted, and then with ongoing penalties. If the judge decides to overrule the USDA and DOJ, he runs the risk that an appeals court will overrule him, and create a blemish on his record. As I said in my post, I thought the complaint from the DOJ lawyer Sullivan about Miller’s ability to raise funding was quite telling; he was bitter because Miller is now potentially on the same level as the government–able to spend endlessly to pursue his legal goals. Of course, Miller could never get to even a fraction of the government’s financial resources, but the government lawyers hate it that the owner of a small farm could actually hope to mount a credible legal campaign. They prefer to bully and taunt farmers who are financially and emotionally desperate to end the enforcement, not deal with them as equals.
just a minit …. Amos Miller is not “the owner of a small farm”. he is the mastermind of an horizontally-integrated conglomerate which merchandises foodstuff nationwide … with the brandname “Amish-Amos” (c) mis-( ? )-appropriating the constellation of moral superiority arising from the reputation of the Amish cult. The fact that it’s good food is ‘way down the list of considerations
Herr Miller tried to straddle 2 worlds … He got too big for his britches … he’s paying the price for compromising his theology = trading with the Enemy, ie The English, whom his Volk despise as profane.
As I’ve said on this forum from the start of his troubles : , trafficking in currency of the Federal Reserve which is predicated in usury, Amos Miller found out the hard way : You cannot serve God and Mammon
Watson, you should be advising the USDA as to how it can demonize Amos Miller even further. They’ve already got the national conglomerate part, but you could definitely help them on trashing him about his religion, or “cult” as you put it.
I am not going to get started about Christian apologetics on your forum. Suffice to say = you’re already out of your depth on that topic. Amish Volk certainly do fit in the definition of a ‘cult’
A much better use of your time + talent, is > investigating the Crime Against Humanity mythologized as SARS2 Covid19. … you are missing the biggest story of your career
Let’s just say that about the only thing you and I have ever agreed on over many years is in the benefits of raw dairy. Otherwise, I’ve found the best approach is to look at what you are arguing or postulating…..and go for the opposite.
I am no fan of the blowhard Alex Jones. Yet what he sez on this one, must be considered, scrutinizing the Central Party Line on the ScamDemic. This is the kind of thing which will stand up in Court, evidencing fore-knowledge = that the SCAMdemic was contrived for an ulterior, wicked purpose
……………
Last night Alex Jones of Infowars.com did a special broadcast regarding an October, 2019 video that they had just become aware of that was a panel discussion hosted by the Milken Institute discussing the need for a Universal Flu Vaccine.
The video clip that they played of this event was a 1 minute and 51 second dialogue between the moderator, Michael Specter, a journalist who is a New Yorker staff writer and also an adjunct professor of bioengineering at Stanford University, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Rick Bright, the director of HHS Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).
In this short clip, which was extracted from the hour-long panel discussion, Anthony Fauci explains that bringing a new, untested kind of vaccine like an mRNA vaccine, would take at least a decade (“if everything goes perfectly”) to go through proper trials and be approved by the FDA. He would know, because he had been trying to do it for about a decade already by then (October, 2019), trying to develop an mRNA based vaccine for HIV. But now they were discussing something much bigger than just a vaccine for AIDS patients. They are talking about a “Universal Flu Vaccine” that everyone would have to take – a huge market for Big Pharma! Rick Bright, the director of HHS Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), then speaks and states that what could happen is that “an entity of excitement that is completely disruptive and is not beholden to bureaucratic strings and processes” could change that.
I have found the full 1 hour panel discussion and uploaded it to our video channels. In short, this panel discussion focused on what they perceived as the need for a universal flu vaccine, but they admitted that the old way of producing vaccines was not sufficient for their purposes, and that they needed some kind of global event where many people were dying to be able to roll out a new mRNA vaccine to be tested on the public.
They all agreed that the annual flu virus was not scary enough to create an event that would convince people to get a universal vaccine. And as we now know today, about 2 years after this event, that “terrifying virus” that was introduced was the COVID-19 Sars virus.
And so now we know why the flu just “disappeared” in the 2020-21 flu season. It was simply replaced by COVID-19, in a worldwide cleverly planned “pandemic” to roll out the world’s first universal mRNA vaccines. This was always the goal, and previous efforts through various influenzas, AIDS, Ebola, and other “viruses” were all unsuccessful in leading to the development of a universal vaccine to inject into the entire world’s population
In Pennsylvania the raw milk rules are about as fair as I have seen anywhere. There are places far more draconian.
The problem here is that Amos has pissed off Superman.
Early in life my dad taught me to avoid litigation and the police ?♀️
They have the money and the guns. It’s better to build good things and spend your resources on building not fighting. Especially when you have reasonable raw milk laws and access to butcher facilities.
What the regulators and police don’t have are the people and whole food.
My very old quote is this: “they may have the guns and the money, but I have the moms and the truth”.
The secret is to build powerful markets filled with smart healthy supportive consumers while avoiding conflict in order to build that new paradigm.
I don’t understand why Amos does not get a raw milk permit in Pennsylvania? There are 150 other farmers that got one and operate with one.
I know of one farmer in Pennsylvania that has rebranded and renamed raw butter as Raw Rettub….And Raw Kefir as Raw Rifek. They are selling the heck out of both and the regulators are not getting ugly. This farmer holds a raw milk permit and tests his raw milk for ultimate low risk and safety.
There are ways to comply and dominate and not upset Superman.
There are even Mennonite farmers that have started USDA inspected slaughter butcher facilities. That’s the pathway to growing market with high value food.
There is no need to piss- off Superman. It’s a waste of time and resources. When you are big enough and powerful enough,… then you can get a little more brave.
But until then. Be smart. Be strategic… be safe. Be consumer beloved.
Amos has many of those elements down really well. But I strongly recommend that litigation and battling is not terribly constructive when you are small and the MAN is huge and kinda upset.
Best of luck Amos. God Speed.
Mark, it’s important to understand that Amos has never gone out of his way to step on Superman’s cape. Quite the opposite. For a number of years, Amos operated completely under the radar, just doing his thing selling good food directly to members of food clubs he helped customers set up around the country. No licenses, no regulators, no slaughterhouses. Not even a Pennsylvania raw milk license, since those essentially preclude farmers from selling out of state; yes, there may be 150 farmers with PA licenses, but there are probably another 150 that avoid the licenses, or have actually turned in the licenses, so they can sell privately to consumers outside of PA. Unfortunately, the regulators found Amos….first, when the ill-fated Rawesome food club in Venice, CA, was raided, and regulators discovered his milk. Then, a few years later, he made a very bad error of judgment by allowing his food to be sold at that Weston Price Foundation event in CA, which led to claims of illness, and more regulator attention. Amos has tried like anything to go back to the way things were, but the regulators weren’t about to allow that. He had become too successful. The last thing they want to see is lots of farmers selling food directly to consumers, outside of regulator control. The good news is that we may see a serious test of the farm-to-consumer food sale model legitimized at long last….in Maine. There’s an amendment allowing it coming up for a vote next month. I’ll have more on that pretty soon.
Nonsense. If he is a PMA, they don’t have jurisdiction to even enter into his farm. Food inspection rules don’t apply. The fact that the USDA can’t prove it’s case of food borne illness and the case still lingers only shows that the judge is incompetent, which is sadly the state of affairs in all courts. We need a new judiciary and the return of the 13th amendment.
Your theory about “jurisdiction” hasn’t been upheld in a federal court up till now. In addition, the USDA isn’t trying to “prove its case of food-borned illness….” The USDA has accused Amos Miller of failing to follow USDA rules about meat slaughter and inspection.
I tend to view the Amish as cultish in nature but not in a pejorative sense… I am literally surrounded by them, but that is currently changing… Due to the fact that most of the adults have United States citizenship (with the exception of their children) they are all returning and dispersing to different and larger communities in the US with the bulk of their properties, but not all of them, being sold to a different sect of their faith from Southern Ontario.
As i understand it, the reason why they are leaving at this time is because of the covid restriction that are inflicting undue hardship on their community via fines and police harassment etc., especially given that they travel to the US which they seem to do frequently. The young family on the farm just across the road from me for example, as well as many others, have received numerous fines (5000 dollars each) for refusing to submit to vaccination and testing. I’ve seen the police entering onto their property, two cruisers at a time on a weekly basis to enforce the Canadian and Provincial Government’s absurd and autocratic Covid directives. Hell, we barely noticed a police presence in this township before Covid came along and it is clearly all directed at the Amish.
It’s good to see the support that Amos is getting… not sure if that is enough however to hold the swamp creatures at bay considering their vindictive arrogance, “especially” as you say David “when the winner is a legally clumsy Amish farmer” or any small farmer trying to sell wholesome fresh food direct to the public.
Here is a dream. In 16 months a new suit case sized, portable, on farm lab will be available. This lab will test campylobacter, salmonella, ecoli 0157H7, listeria from a simple sample of raw milk and text you the results in 4-5 hours.
Ok…. It’s not a dream. You can wake up now. It’s a reality. The system has already been field tested at our dairy. It works awesome.
It is now being automated and micronized.
It’s also a fraction of the cost of lab test cost and is fast. Really fast and accurate !
My gut tells me this will completely change the Raw Milk battle dynamics in Canada and Australia and across the USA. It will also reduce insurance costs.
Testing does not produce better raw milk. Your conditions, cow health, milking practices produce better safer raw milk. This new system just validates your hard work. It becomes a Critical Control Point verification reference point resulting in better safer raw milk ! You can test garbage raw milk all day long…. and it will test as garbage raw milk.
It will also really help leafy greens ( wash water testing ) and ground beef producers.
Technology is rapidly developing and it will be a huge force allowing better food. Nutrient dense Whole Foods direct from farmers.
Processors are going to have a temper tantrum. It’s payback time for all the times processors screwed over farmers and consumers. The FDA will now have to contend with raw milk that is tested and verified safe using a FDA validated system!
That’s going to be very interesting. What can they complain about if it’s pathogen Free!!?? Not much.
Brilliant
thank you Mark and Organic Pastures team, for persevering
25 years ago when I came along in the Campaign for REAL MILK, I predicted that technology would be part of the resolution. And here we are.
Gordon,
Your view into the glass ball was visionary and correct.
My the way…. Organic Pastures Dairy Company has legally and officially changed its labels and it’s name to Raw Farm. It started 18 months ago. The marked has responded with sales at 15-20% year over year growth depending on product.
All of our land, crops we grow and pastures are certified organic but we moved away from labels with organic. Why???
If you want organic then buy Organic UHT thoroughly dead and homogenized. That’s not us. We instead moved to a hybrid of organic and Non GMO certified with Test & Hold and RAWMI listed! A fantastic combination. Unlike so many organic mega CAFO operations, Raw Farm pastures our cows
URL to an excellent little article by Monica Corrado, re the advantage of REAL MILK over pasteurized milk, when making cultured milk products
https://www.seleneriverpress.com/now-more-than-ever-raw-milk/?mc_cid=c86d77750b&mc_eid=d8e53d8617
Thank you Gordon for the link. The Selene Press has been passionate about raw milk for years. I wrote an article for them right at the beginning of the pandemic. The link is buried in your link. In retrospect the content is still accurate and better than ever.
The flue is a cold. Consumption of raw milk protects against colds. Peer reviewed and even FDA NIH Pubmed published journals say the same thing !!
re Amos Miller
a very bad move/ rash statement made by one of his supporters. These guys are on very, very thin ice
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https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/judge-appoints-expert-to-help-lancaster-farmer-comply-with-food-safety-laws/article_ac5568c0-8548-11ec-baa8-77ac05bb1bf8.html
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At the end of yet another hearing in a case involving one man’s unwillingness to follow federal food safety laws and court orders, a federal judge on Thursday gave Upper Leacock farmer Amos Miller another chance.
“Your operation is very lucrative. You are making a lot of money. You are buying a lot of farms,” U.S. District Judge Edward G. Smith said at the conclusion of a more than two-and-one-half hour hearing in Easton.
Miller, who skipped a similar hearing in December, was 40 minutes late for Thursday’s proceedings, where Smith told Miller to come into compliance with federal regulations. To help, Smith appointed a neutral expert in federal food safety laws to serve as the court’s agent and work directly with Miller.
Miller and the government have been at odds over the issue for years. His business, Miller’s Organic Farm, describes itself as a private club that sells only to members; Miller has claimed that arrangement exempted his farm from federal regulations.
Smith tried to explain why that’s not the case: “We can’t just separate you out from all other food providers and slaughterhouses.”
‘Very interesting case’
As the hearing began, Smith acknowledged the man he would go on to appoint as the court’s eyes and ears at Miller’s farm.
“Good morning sir. Welcome to a very interesting case,” Smith said to George Lapsley, of Pipersville, Bucks County.
Interesting it was. Early on in the hearing, Miller asked Smith if he would consider a court filing he made.
Smith told him the filing, marked as a writ of habeas corpus, didn’t make sense and asked Miller if he knew what habeas corpus was. He proceeded to explain it was to seek a hearing on the legality of a person’s imprisonment.
“You’re not in prison, sir, and I don’t wish to imprison you,” Smith said. “I think your position is, you are not subject to the laws of the United States.”
Miller did not testify. Two of his buying club members did.
Glen Miller, no relation, criticized federal regulations generally and noted that meat is often recalled from large packing plants while Miller’s “operation is so clean, it’s unbelievable … and yet these guys are trying to regulate him out of existence.”
He also said the government was planning a famine, and at one point observed that people “can become cannibals in 10 days … I’m not making any threats. I am just stating facts.”
Glen Miller told the courtroom he was going to broadcast the outcome of the hearing: “Twenty-thousand people are going to hear about this,” he said, prompting Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerald Sullivan to ask what he meant.
“You’re going to find out. We will make sure, as free people, with freedom of speech…. We just might surround your house. I don’t know,” Glen Miller responded, then assured the courtroom he wouldn’t do any harm, but might seek to talk.
The other witness, Matthew Tischler, said Miller’s farm is the only place he can get the food he needs. He said he traveled the country looking for healthy, real food, but that only Miller’s can meet his needs.
“I live in Lancaster in my car in the freezing cold so I can get this food,” Tischler said.
Tischler said he doesn’t want his food tested for pathogens and suggested Google reviews as a better tool for ensuring food safety than government inspectors.
He also said the government was preventing him from obtaining the food he wants, such as pig intestines.
“As soon as I eat pig intestines — and I’m not going to tell you where I get it — and I eat pig intestines with trichinosis, I feel better,” he said.
Asked by Miller’s attorney if Tischler gets pig intestines from Miller’s, he responded, “I plead the Fifth.”
(Trichinosis is an illness caused by eating meat that contains trichinella, a roundworm parasite. The parasite was largely eradicated from the U.S food supply decades ago, with most modern infections sourced to people who eat bear meat, according to the Mayo Clinic.)
Expert observer
The hearing concluded with Smith appointing Lapsley and giving him broad access to Miller’s farm.
Lapsley will be paid up to $1,500 for 12 hours work at a time, plus costs, from a $250,000 fine that Smith imposed last July after finding Miller in contempt of a 2019 consent decree aimed at getting Miller and the farm to comply with food safety inspection laws.
Sullivan, the government’s lawyer, began crafting the plan for an independent expert after learning that Miller started improperly slaughtering and selling meat and poultry almost immediately after Smith’s prior contempt ruling, handed down in June.
Sullivan argued Miller tried to outfox regulators by having an employee slaughter animals on a different property that Miller owns.
Then, when Miller got caught, Sullivan said, he turned to an organization called Prairie Star for legal advice, though it is not a law firm. Instead, it espouses “sovereign citizen” beliefs, including the legally baseless assertion that individuals, and not courts or lawmakers, can decide what laws to follow.
“You became frustrated and started willfully violating the orders,” Smith told Miller. “Well, you got caught. And that’s unfortunate … but despite that, the government is trying to get a solution to get you into compliance and pay your attorney.”
‘Least coercive’ means of enforcement
Sullivan said the government’s “primary goals here are to prod the defendant in the least coercive way toward compliance” and noted the government could seek fines of more than $7 million.
Miller’s attorney, Steven Lafuente, of Dallas, Texas, said he could attest that “the government has bent over backward to try to help” Miller in the seven years he’s been involved with Miller in one way or another.
Miller’s came to the attention of federal authorities in 2016, when the Food and Drug Administration said it identified Listeria in samples of Miller’s raw milk; the agency found the Listeria to be genetically similar to the bacteria found in two people who developed listeriosis — one of whom died — after consuming raw milk