For a long time, I have argued that the state and federal judges hearing food rights cases are living on a different planet than the people. The judges nearly always come down entirely on the side of the regulators. The people, in the form of a jury, see things much differently.
Now we have clearcut evidence in the case of Alvin Schlangen, the Minnesota farmer and food club owner who has for three years now been in the crosshairs of the super-hostile Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
Youll remember that last September, a Minneapolis jury acquitted Schlangen of three criminal misdemeanor charges associated with distributing raw milk as well as distributing other foods without a retail license to 100-plus members of his food club.
Rather than accept a decision by a constitutionally designated jury of Schlangens peers, the MDA instead revved up its pursuit of the farmer. It pushed for another criminal trial in Schlangens home, Stearns county. And it pushed forward with a case in an administrative court. While such a court cant throw someone in jail, it can give legal backing to a state agency, and if its dictates arent followed, can lead to further criminal charges.
For the administrative court case, the charges were essentially the same: illegally selling food without a retail or food handlers license and operating a dairy plant without a dairy plant permit.
Now, the administrative court has issued a decision and, surprise, its decision is the exact opposite of what the Minnesota jury came up with. The administrative court judge, Amy Chantry, gobbled up the Minnesota Department of Agricultures arguments, hook, line, and sinker.
Technically, the administrative court granted the MDAs motion for summary disposition, which means that the court agreed with the MDAs case against Schlangen. Now, it should be noted that the Judge Chantry was irritated with Schlangen for his willful refusal to comply with the Departments discovery requests. Schlangen had refused to comply with the administrative case while he was grappling with the criminal charges in Minneapolis Hennepin County, which could have resulted in him being jailed.
But from the tone of the judges opinion, it seems as if he was doomed in her court regardless of what explanations he might have provided in response to MDA accusations. For example, to Schlangens arguments that he was privately dispensing and giving food to his club members, she said all food distribution in the state is under the MDAs jurisdiction. Minnesota food law is not limited to regulation of only such activities that could be deemed sales. The plain language of (Minnesotas statute) prohibits all persons from engaging in the business of manufacturing, processing, selling, handling, or storing food without having first obtained a food handlers license.
The legal interpretation is reminiscent of a judges ruling in New York, where Meadowsweet Dairy was told it couldnt even give milk away via its limited liability company without the involvement of regulators.
Judge Chantry also concluded that Schlangen operates an online grocery store, even though access to his web site is limited to his food clubs members.
The judge noted that her decision granting summary disposition is a recommendation, not a final decision, subject to final approval of the MDAs commissioner. There is no doubt that will happen. To enforce the decision, though, the MDA will likely need to pursue further court action. There is little doubt that will happen, either. The MDA has shown itself to be obsessively driven to take down farmers like Schlangen, even if it means shopping around from court to court to get the decision it wants.
The next stop on Schlangen’s seemingly endless legal journey: a criminal trial in Stearns County featuring…yes, the same charges as in Hennepin County and the administrative court, now due to be held in June.
I didn’t even know that judges will just resort to making recommendations rather than decisions after hearing evidence, until the corporate influence gets what they want or run into too much public resistance. Shocking.
Minnesota food law is not limited to regulation of only such activities that could be deemed sales. The plain language of (Minnesotas statute) prohibits all persons from engaging in the business of manufacturing, processing, selling, handling, or storing food without having first obtained a food handlers license.
Processing: Making salsa from tomatoes you grow is a form of processing food. So it would be illegal to make salsa for your kids?
Handling: Don’t you have to handle a steak to grill it? Don’t you have to handle eggs to scramble them? So, by definition, the July 4 BBQ and making breakfast for your kids are both illegal. Would that be a fair cop?
Storing: Farmers have been keeping potatoes in the root cellar for ages. Same with cabbages. However, modern standards usually keep both in the fridge. Does this mean that the farmer that utilizes a root cellar is doing something illegal?
I understand that the judge is following the rules as set forth by the MDA, but doesn’t this seem a hair extreme? Even without the raw milk angle, it seems like a MAJOR overreach on the part of the MDA that could very easily be used to get pretty much anything that they wanted, without the people they are going after having a chance to fight.
Say that you are a farmer, who is experimenting in … I don’t know… using hybridization to make a snap pea that registers more on the UV scale than others, as a way to attract bees for pollination. Now, say that someone else, who is also interested in the same, finds out that you are that farmer, and sends a complaint to the MDA about how you are processing the honey, handling it, and storing it. What you are doing in reality, is to gather honey from your own hives, and measuring each years output as opposed to the hives of bees that are using non-hybridized snap peas.
Would this recommendation not mean that the MDA should go after you too, even though it is just a complaint from someone that wants to hurt your research?
Milk-fan,
Important point. By setting it up so that nearly all of us are in violation of the law at some point or another, the judges and regulators give to themselves complete discretion as to whom to pursue, and when.
As well what if someone decides to make their own mayonnaise for the family reunion or a pot luck meal, using raw eggs, heaven forbid? The law is indeed an ass when administered by biased self-serving busy bodies.
Ken
But, indeed, what the MDA is doing will soon permeate the entire usa, in terms of what we do and how we do it in our own home kitchens. That’s one of the reasons they want us all to get used to boxed, pre-packaged foods and want us to own a microwave.
About five years ago someone at our church jokingly wondered how long it would be before potluck dinners would be outlawed by the gubment. It won’t be long. We are already ham-stringed as far as bake sales for fundraisers are concerned. How long before families won’t be able to take homemade fried chicken and potato salad to a picnic? The future doesn’t look too bright for that, either. You won’t need your sunglasses.
I don’t think our gubment today has any intention of regulating the producers, which is why the laws are being written and interpreted the way they have been in the past couple of years (gives a whole new meaning to the word twisted). Agencies only wish to regulate the consumers, which is why the way we spend our money is important. Or should I say where we spend our money. As long as we still have a choice, shop at co-ops and farmers markets and CSA’s.
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The judge said all food distribution in the state is under the MDAs jurisdiction, But this is not food distribution(selling milk into the public human food chain) and MDA is the peoples representative. Which means it must take the side of the club members not their angry competitors.
There *is* a difference between public and private food access and we’ll just have to keep hammering that home.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_11384.cfm
What this has to do with raw milk and food rights, everything.
Stefan Molyneux
It was not a group of EU Codex Scientists that had come up with QMRA’s with regard to raw milk and its assessment of risk. Instead it was several new studies that used the same approved CODEX methods to conduct their QMRA assessments for raw milk. These assessments concluded that raw milk was a low risk or even a very low risk food. Additional scientific data was presented ( PASTURE Study ) that showed that babies born from mothers that drink raw milk have a resistance to allergies and asthma as shown by their Antibody levels IgE in their cord blood. Information also showed that Listeria was not associated with raw milk and misscarrages.
Just want to be accurate here and set the record straight. Accuracy matters.
Mark
“the journal PLOS Medicine reported in 2012, 69 percent of the DSM-5 task force members report having ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
That speaks volumes…..
http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/04/11/DSM5-releases-new-mental-disorders
District Judge Dale Ruigh ruled last month that releasing the information would cause irreparable harm to Sioux Falls, SD-based Beef Products, Inc., by revealing information about proprietary food-processing techniques.
http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/04/11/judge-blocks-release-pink-slime-food-safety-research
http://www.ted.com/talks/pam_warhurst_how_we_can_eat_our_landscapes.html
OPDC just released gallon size containers of Organic Raw Milk into the retail and farmers markets in CA 10 days ago.
What has ensued has been called ” gallon fever”. When we used to sell a half gallon of raw milk now we sell a gallon. In my mind that means doubling of the market!!!
I swore that I thought that the sale of gallons would cannabalize the sale of half gallons. Not completely true. It appears not so much. We still sell as many half gallons and now we sell even more total raw milk and the gallons are flying off the shelves faster than we can return to restock.
I guess more of a very good thing…equates to lots more of a very very good thing.
We have also seen a huge jump in Share the Secret presentation requests and serious requests for RAWMI LISTING are also lining up fast. It appears that our friends at Our Cows in BC are very close to being LISTED. The bacteria counts they get under the “Cow Share Canada” program is excellent…congrats to Michael Schmidt. Consistent coliforms at 1-3 are excellent! with zero pathogens.
Wonder what the FDA is privately thinking about all of this? I guess I should not even care. It is what the people care about is all that matters. The FDA follows much later….much much later. We will set the track record, the standards and the coarse…They never lead. This is really unfortunate.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/american-dream-food-loaded-into-dumpsters-while-hundreds-of-hungry-americans-restrained-by-police/5329966
Shazam.
http://www.radiation.org/reading/pubs/HS42_1F.pdf “In the United States, Fukushima fallout
arrived just six days after the earthquake, tsunami, and meltdowns. Some
samples of radioactivity in precipitation, air, water, and milk, taken by the
U.S. government, showed levels hundreds of times above normal;…….”
So, just like high exposure to very high sound levels will affect your hearing capability (I know this 1st hand after decades of loud music, both from playing in bands and also attending many great high-decibel concerts… wait what did you say?) exposure to radiation does inevitably affect certain body organs especially in children developing bodies.
I should probably ask this in a different post, but will ask it here: Does Mark test for this kind of stuff, and is there anyhting he could do about it? Probably not since we’re all in the same boat. Also, would pasteurization have an effect on radiation in the food, make it better or worse? Your guess is good as mine.
It is very misleading when the govt officials stated that the plume from Japan was no different that the radiation from a plane or Xray. I beg to differ, I am not sitting in a plane 24/7 or under and Xray for 24/7, nor do I try to consume foods or water contaminated with any type of radiation.
If I remember correctly,the fallout from Chernobyl reached far and wide and still affecting people. Within 10 yrs we may be seeing an increase in thyroid cancers, bone cancers and leukemia, along with whatever else radiation exposure causes.
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling/FoodChain
http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/UCBAirSampling <~~ I didn't see any milk sampling since Aug 2012. I think Canada did some testing.
OPDC has tested our raw milk three times since Fukushima. All tests were performed by Silliker labs in Italy. All tests shows no Fukushima type radiation. The radiation released during the disaster had a definite signature. We stopped doing the expensive tests after three were all negative. The tests performed in rainy northern CA revealed something different….the rain appears to bring it down where desert climates like Fresno do not. Interesting stuff.
Perhaps one of the best foods for radiation illness is raw milk. Good fats and probiotics along with iodine…ie sea kelp are very good treatments for radiation exposure.
If we did have it we would increase the iodine to our cows and keep on going…..but thank the winds and the lack of rain that we do not.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioiodine
By saturating the body with stable iodide (for example: from kelp or sea food) prior to exposure of inhaled or ingested I-131 tends to be excreted, which prevents radioiodine uptake by the thyroid. The protective effect of potassium iodine (KI) lasts approximately 24 hours. For optimal prophylaxis, KI must be dosed daily until a risk of significant exposure to radioiodine by either inhalation or ingestion no longer exists. Caution in regards of taking any type of iodine when you have existing thyroid issues, always consult your physician before starting anything.
There are more than one type of radiation escaping from Fukushima: Iodine-131, Tellurium-129m, Caesium-137, Strontium 90, Plutonium isotopes.
Strontium will take the place of calcium in our bones, look for an increase in bone cancers, Caesium-137 gets into muscles and bones…
The Japanese govt and the US gov changed the “safe” limits of radiations, I should say they increased the “safe” limits of radiation. Anything coming out of Japan and surrounding areas, to include sea water, has the potential to be very contaminated. There are some people across the US who have their own geiger counters and have been measuring radiation since Fukushima.
Not to turn anybody off with tech geekspeak, but here’s some basics: Radiation exists in many materials in various energy levels called KEV ranges and the higher KEVs tends to be more deadly than others.
Scintillations are basically quick flashes of light given off as radiation decays but not visible to the human eye. They are measured by counting the flashes and designated as CPMs (counts per minute.) Depending on the sensitivity of the measuring equipment used (efficiency,) these are then converted to DPMs (desintigrations per minute.) In labs these are measured by scintillation counters, in the field by what is called a survey meter aka geiger counter but these while portable and convenient, are not nearly as reliable especially at lower levels. They are great tools to let you know if something is really “hot” but do not tell you what type of radiation, alpha, beta or gamma. All radiation decays and has what is called a “half-life” meaning that it is only half as strong. Some decay fairly quickly such as Tritium (H3,) Carbon-14 or I-125 and I-131 but others like I-129, and Cesium-137 last for many years and are really nasty stuff.
Glad to hear your milk is not contaminated Mark. Just remember that there are various ways for it to spread, not just airborne. Groundwater, leaks, shipping containers etc, so you should run regular testing as it continues to dissipate from Japan to the rest of the world.
[quote from book description]:
“This book tells the iodine story that has become especially important as radiation levels increase because of the nuclear disaster in Japan. Everyone needs to hear the iodine story for there is nothing more important in the entire world now than taking our daily iodine supplements. An appropriate public health response to the nuclear disaster in Japan starts with iodine because any lack of the nutritional type will attract the radioactive type like honey attracts bees. The last thing anyone wants to be walking around with is a thyroid so starving for iodine it will take on the nasty radioactive isotope of iodine instead. It is very important to know that Dr. David Brownstein has tested 5,000 of his patients and has found out that 95 percent of them are iodine deficient and other iodine researchers he has talked to have found similar trends in their patients as well.”
[end quote]
Here’s the link to the book (an ePub version): http://drsircus.com/books/e-book/iodine
If we don’t have healthy amounts of iodine to begin with, trouble will start even without a nuclear disaster!