What were the key factors that swayed the Minnesota jury to acquit food club operator and farmer Alvin Schlangen three weeks ago?
Schlangen’s lawyer, Nathan Hansen, told me he thought the fact that Minnesota Department of Agriculture investigators in their courtroom testimony were inconsistent in defining “occasional” raw milk sales may have swayed the situation. One investigator said three or more purchases during any month and another said six purchases a month exceeded the bounds of “occasional”.
The MDA in its defiant statement issued immediately after the acquittals were announced September 20 suggested that the jurors agonized and could have gone either way except for some unknown arbitrary issue or another–” the fact that the jurors deliberated for as long as they did shows that they found the decision a difficult one to make.”
In fact, neither assessment is correct, according to the jury foreman, Eric Hemingway. No, the disagreement on how “occasional” was defined (the Minnesota statute limits dairies to “occasional” sales of raw milk) “wasn’t really up there” as an issue in jury deliberations, Hemingway told me in an exclusive interview.
And, contrary to the MDA assessment, the reason the jury took nearly an entire day (spread over parts of two days) was because the judge had provided highly detailed instructions for determining guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt, and we tried to be very methodical in going through his instructions.”
In the end, there were two key factors in the decision to acquit, Hemingway explained. First, the fact that no one got sick from Schlangen’s food was very important. One of the three misdemeanor charges accused Schlangen of providing “adulterated or misbranded” food, and the absence of illnesses suggested no adulteration. According to Hemingway, a Minneapolis-area investment adviser, “No one was injured…If anyone had gotten sick, that would have weighed on me.”
A second important factor was the notion that Schlangen wasn’t selling, but rather distributing food he obtained on behalf of members. “He was just connecting up people who wanted this food through his club,” according to Hemingway. “People went in with their eyes wide open.” And Schlangen “was a very credible witness.”
Hemingway indicated that there never was a lot of disagreement among the six-person jury of three men and three women. “Different people had different ways of explaining things to the others. Some played devil’s advocate, some did what-ifs.” In the end, though, there wasn’t a situation where one or two jurors dissented and had to be convinced by the others, he said.
Hemingway tole me that he knew little about the struggle over food rights before he was assigned to the jury, and that food choices aren’t a huge deal in his family. He knew vaguely that more people were drinking raw milk, “but I’ve never had raw milk, I didn’t grow up on a farm.” He said when it comes to food in his family, “My wife does the shopping and I go to the refrigerator.” She shops in area supermarkets.
Nor were other jurors raw milk drinkers. They were a diverse group, including a mechanic, a molecular genetic scientist, a corporate district manager, a marketing consultant, and technical solutions architect, along with Hemingway, the investment adviser.
Hemingway said his focus was on “being impartial. We were very deliberate and thorough.” In the end, though, “The state failed to make its case…You have to look at the law. You can’t look at your own beliefs of what the law should be…He (Schlangen) was not in violation of the law.”
The law wasn’t very clear in a number of areas, he noted. For example, the state charge that Schlangen was selling food without a retail license fell short in part because the law isn’t specific in requiring food licenses for distributing food privately.
The message from the six jurors–people without a vested interest in the outcome–seemed to be that so long as private food distribution isn’t making people sick, the government should steer clear. This is a much different view from that of judges who have ruled in food rights cases up until now.
The Schlangen case is looking more significant each day, and it’s only been three weeks since it came through.
http://fija.org/document-library/videos/
Charlotte Smith is the first raw milk dairy in the US to be Officially LISTED by RAWMI. It was fascinating to read her post LISTING comments that she submitted to RAWMI. Her comments will be posted at RAWMI later this week. She is so uplifted by the LISTING process and her consumers have noticed the difference. Her insurance company and raw milk policy is even being positively effected. RAWMI raised her standards from good to stellar and now her hard work and efforts are displayed for all the world to see and appreciate.
http://rawmilkinstitute.net/listed-farmers/listed-farmer-champoeg-creamery/
Not sure if your assessment of this jury is correct. Perhaps they were very intellegent and very fair. Not everyone sees the world the way the raw milk people see the world. In the courts we are measured by a jury of peers…BUT there are very few raw milk peers sitting in the jury pool. The best we can hope for is smart people that can think for themselves. Illness is the first thing on peoples minds. That is injury and that is serious and that is the focus of liability. No injury…equals no liability.
Think RAWMI….we need a track record of being very serious about standards and safe raw milk. This high set of standards, transparency and ethical practice would in itself will sway juries.
I think you are right, the jury likely wasn’t at all aware of nullification. However, it’s misguided to consider them “dummies.” This was a group of randomly selected individuals, bright and committed to doing the right thing, who came to the same conclusion about this case–that it was unwarranted. The path they chose to come to their conclusion may not be the one you and others would have chosen, but it demands respect all the same.
Yes, Mark. Well said.
Which is a perfect example of what a bad citizen the foreman is: “You have to look at the law. You can’t look at your own beliefs of what the law should be.”
On the contrary, that’s exactly what any citizen can do, should do, and has a duty to do. Besides, what does he think cops, prosecutors, judges, government and corporate officers, and the rich do? “Obey the law” except to the extent it’s convenient? It is to laugh.
In any case which involves power against the people, any good citizen decides for the people, nullifying if necessary.
It just keeps growing…..
I talked with an agent of Tripple Crown Feeds the other day and was told that 95% of the alfalfa being planted now is GMO. Has anyone got a feeling for how wide spread GMO alfalfa is and how long before all alfalfa is contaminated?
Thanks
Here is some information. Apparently it has been around for quite a while. If animals eat it, they cannot be organic..
http://www.globalresearch.ca/widespread-gmo-contamination-did-monsanto-plant-gmos-before-usda-approval/
http://a-homesteading-neophyte.blogspot.com/2011/01/usda-will-allow-widespread-planting-of.html
http://www.eco-farm.org/programs/ge/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1240732/
Some things just make you go hmmmm
I fervently wish the food safety people would concentrate on the real threats to public health – CAFOs, GMOs, centralized food distribution, etc. Yesterday, NPR’s “Here and Now” covered Bloomberg Markets’ report on how for-profit companies have taken over much of the FDA’s food inspection role. The result is that millions of people get sick from food made in facilities that have been “inspected” and deemed “safe.”
http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2012/10/12/food-safety-inspections
It’s ok to consume toxic; GMOs,chemically adulterated foods, over processed foods,etc, but not ok to consume foods as Mother Nature produced.
When speaking of safety….#1 antibiotic resistance to bacteria and
#2. immune status of the general population …is NEVER addressed!!
When a population of consumers is exposed to a bad ass CAFO PMO FDA bacteria…it is the consumer with the weakened immunity that gets sick. The strong rarely do.
Gorrilla Blindness is a syndrome that is bought and paid for with tons of money. The day that Gorrilla Blindness goes away….OMG.
Or….is it that people are just frikin stupid as hell. Darwin lets stupid bacteria and stupid slow animals be eaten by faster smarter animals. Over population will not be a problem at this rate.
Those who hold that the only knowledge is scientific knowledge will not be content to restrict themselves to such knowledge; they will be tempted to pass off as scientific what is not. The prime and best example is scientism itself: it is passed off as scientific when it is a philosophical thesis with all the rights, privileges, and debilities pertaining thereunto.
(Details in Scientism category.)
The fraud that is socialist utopian hope is elsewhere referenced. When I come across it, Ill point it out.
The reason for the importance I place in these philosophical and theological areas is that they pertain to the foundations of society; in other words, they dictate much that goes on in each of our day-in and day-out lives without regard to whether or not we will admit it, whether or not we even recognize it at all. The topics dealt with here, at TCP, food and the law, are of the same root-impact quality. To build soundly on a shaky foundation is not a possibility. Build we do. Every day. And that, on the foundation of our life, whatevers down there. Ditto for our society. Ditto for our culture.
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
Not sure what you mean, but what do you think works? There’s no greater fraud than the “competition” ideology, historically and objectively. It’s never done anything but create artificial scarcity and destruction. Nature and labor provide abundance, and psychopaths want to destroy the vast majority of this abundance so they can monopolize a small portion of it. The evidence of anthropology is that throughout humanity’s natural history cooperation and community exchange have been the predominant practices. Meanwhile “trickle-down” has never worked in any form. If anything, it works the other way around – you start by cooperating and giving, and that brings personal “profit” (in any form) as well. Today’s truly innovative farmers and other natural entrepreneurs understand that.
Everything people think is “normal” today is actually, by any natural or historical measure, insane, and is 100% dependent on cheap, plentiful fossil fuels. I guess you could say humanity is like someone who came upon a huge drug stash and, in a moment of weakness, went on a hideous binge. Part of us wants to stop, but the addiction impetus remains so powerful that the junkie will probably continue to binge until the stuff runs out.
The natural world works from the bottom up. When people realize this they will realize that society works from the bottom up. Rudolf Steiner tried to say this years ago when he said that people must realize that the nerves that sense our environment are the same nerves that initiate the action to move.The nerves in our finger feel heat and move the finger away from the heat. A signal does NOT travel to the brain and wait for the signal from the brain to tell it to move away . The heart is not a pump.Each individual cell is pumping in harmony with all of the other cells. That is how our blood moves. People should not work for money. People should work for the joy of helping each other.When enough people realize this,health will return to the earth.
miguel
My point had to do with the common content of media news and the general discussions of FOOD SAFETY.
When food safety is discussed, it is never discussed in a balanced format. It is regarded as a blame game on one part of the food chain…. The farmer.
There is never any responsibility placed on PHARMA or CAFO antibiotic abuse that created the super bugs that can be found every where now…..
There is never a discussion of the pitiful immune depressed status of the Standard American Immune System. An immune system that is so depressed, that it appears as a welcome mat for any old bad bug that wants to ravage you.
That is my point. I agree….all of us farmers need to be very very concerned and diligent to control bad bugs and encourage good bugs and produce safe foods as best we can. But our efforts are only one leg of the multiple legged stool.
The other legs are broken and are never discussed for a reason. $$$$$$$$$$$$ The FDA will take no blame. PHARMA and Monsanto want no blame.
Milky Way….when was the last time you did anything to help increase the immunity of those in America. When was the last time that you sat in a Senate hearing and testified against the FDA hit Vet from DC that defended use of antibiotics in Animal feeds.
I have done both. I encouage you to do the same prior to spewing your empty tilted lopsided biased Gorrilla Blind opinions.
http://www.cityfarmer.org/milkKenya.html
It is now official, more raw milk than processed milk is consumed not only in the rural areas in Kenya, but also in the urban centers including Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city where 80% of all milk consumption is unprocessed.
Ken
Pathogenic microbes are simply something that we need to continually be aware of and implement appropriate hygienic practices for. No excuses, no blaming factors outside of the dairy barn- it starts with us. We have to face reality-Nature has no mercy-there is the reality of nasty microbes, regardless of origin, that producers need to deal with.
In this I am in (rare, but strong) disagreement with Ron.
Many so-called pathogens are likely inside and on Ron and me and many others all the time, without host illness. Even our microbiophobic medical paradigm acknowledges this. Also, it is perfectly clear that rich, diverse microbial life–the very life that the medical paradigm seeks to reduce and control–enhances vigor and health in soils, plants, and animals. Why is it so? Well, it happens to be the very wonderful and graceful mercy of Nature. On the other side is our over-confident, short-sighted meddling, our relentless focus on sterility, which has denatured that mercy. It is WE that are at fault, not a nasty, merciless environment.
If it needs to be said, let me be clear that farmers should of course strive for clean, healthful products. But the controlling paradigm of microbiophobia makes it almost impossible for farmers to do that, by prohibiting them from engaging the very mercy Nature provides. Instead, the paradigm insists that every perceived pathogen at perceived location be destroyed, with little to no regard for collateral damage. (Mark’s description of how he isolates chicken workers from dairy workers at lunchtime, and Bill’s suggestion to develop virtually sterile airlocks between sections of dairy operations shows how nutty this whole thing can get. There is no logical endpoint to that kind of thinking other than totally sterile everything, which anybody with a functioning brain must know is death.)
I want no part of what the controlling paradigm defines as appropriate hygiene–the broad-spectrum killers, the vaccinations, the chlorine, the monoculture (AKA isolation of organisms), the manipulated seeds, the centralized decision-making, the relentless downplaying of what all that has done to our immune systems and to our faith in the love of God and the exquisite beauty of the planet He created for us. I want none of it. It’s dangerous baloney, and has proven itself to be a colossally inhumane failure.
Now, for the record, here are some of the hygienic practices I employ on my own little farm: Generous exposure to sunlight, cleansing soap and water, attention to soil worm count, attention to the sweetness of my vegetables, fruits, and milk, generous mulching, joy in diversity, honest macrobiologic observation, charity, and forgiveness.
Don’t you just love the way they word things. As a senior I apparently have a target on my back as I fall into the category of requiring being targeted.
“child deaths from flu have made headlines in recent years the U.S. counted 34 pediatric deaths last year ”
How many millions of children are there in the US? Of those millions of children, 34 died from flu. What other health, nutrition issues where these children subjected to? What type of environment were they living is? Many unanswered questions. With only 34 deaths out of millions, that shows that the flu is not lethal as the govt/media spews and the flu vaccine apparently not necessary (I’ve never thought it was needed)
The govt fear mongering needs to be countered with bullet statements facts. It is the same in regards to raw dairy consumption.
http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v04n17.shtml
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/04/27/flu-vaccine-not-effective-in-elderly/
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccineeffect.htm The cdc is vague on the effectiveness.
To build a viable educated mass of consumers that institute change by “dollar voting” and change of laws when the market builds to a critical mass. This initial market building must grow under the tiranical regulations that seeks to replace. Not easy…for sure. In fact it is damn hard. All the rules and regs and natural living concepts are in conflict.
Yet….change will only happen by feeding people and education….while enduring the greed based stupidy of the current profit driven sickness paradigm.
I had Buffalo mozzarella while in Italy, nothing here in the states compares.