Most MAGA supporters reinforce their bitter views of the world vicariously, via the thrill of Alex Jones conspiracy theories or the grievance of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson or the anger of Donald Trump.
For a few, though, the ongoing alienation is the result of lived experiences. One of those few is Sam Girod, an Amish farmer from Kentucky who got himself into a boatload of trouble for producing and selling various skin salves made from chickweed, a wild growing herb. I wrote about Girod a number of times on this blog (just search under “Girod”) and how, incredibly, he was convicted of violating FDA drug laws, including selling chickweed as a drug not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He was convicted in a jury trial in 2017 and sentenced to seven years in federal prison (which the judge in the case felt was lenient, since Girod could have been sentenced to more than 50 years).
He was released early in the covid pandemic to house arrest to complete his term earlier this year, and he’s just published a book about his experience, A Good Life Interrupted. It’s a highly readable account of how he was investigated by FDA agents, put on trial, convicted, and then shuttled around to serve his sentence in several federal prisons. It’s a very sad story, in large measure because of all the upset and losses endured by Girod and his large family of children and grandchildren.
What makes it even sadder for this reader is that Girod squandered a major opportunity to challenge the FDA’s opaque drug laws and regulations, along with its arbitrary enforcement process in going after basically honest people like Girod. Compounding this missed opportunity is his positioning of himself as a victim of massive government corruption rather than as a farmer who naively hoped government lawyers and judges would see the errors of their ways in going after him and declare him innocent, or at least not sentence him to anything more than the six months he served prior to his trial.
He backed up this hope by failing to engage lawyers to represent him through the entire trial and sentencing process, a failure that many people, myself included, tried very hard to get Girod to reverse himself on. As Girod says in the book:
“When I finished the case without a lawyer, I received a lot of criticism for this decision. Upon reflection I can see how I should have done things differently; and if I had them to do over, I probably would do them differently. Yet in our attempt of nonresistance and peace, of our loyalty to truth, I attempted to stay true to what I knew to be the truth. I just didn’t feel comfortable using a lawyer.”
The problem for those of us fighting for food rights is that the fight isn’t always a matter of what makes you “comfortable.” It’s a matter of exploiting the leverage conferred on a defendant confronting government prosecutorial arrogance along with a weak case like that against Girod to fight back, and win gains for yourself, and for other farmers. Girod wouldn’t have needed to pay for top legal help, since significant funds would have been raised for his defense. A talented legal team would have dramatized the weakness of the case against Girod in front of a jury of his peers, likely helping them to empathize with his victimization via government overreach.
All we need to do to understand the opportunity is recall another case similar to Girod’s—the criminal prosecution of Wisconsin dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger in 2014. Hershberger, who was from an Amish background, was inclined to go the ‘sovereign citizen’ route like Girod, until just before his jury trial, when he finally decided to take the advice offered by many supporters, to get real legal help. With assistance from the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, he engaged a top trial lawyer, and beat the pants off the Wisconsin regulators. (For more information, search under “Hershberger”.) Not only have Wisconsin regulators since steered clear of going after farmers like Hershberger, but regulators around the U.S. backed off, and there’s been much less legal and regulatory friction for raw dairy farmers around the country as a result of this one case.
That gets us back to the MAGA perception of the world—that all such screwups by the system are evidence of massive corruption that can only be fixed by…..Presumably by some all-knowing dictator. In Girod’s acknowledgents, he thanks a number of people who tried to get him a pardon from former President Trump near the end of his term—just further naivete when there was no way Girod could make the kind of financial contributions expected by Trump (and many other presidents) to get a pardon.
So I guess what I’m saying is that I liked the book a lot, because the author is authentic and tells a compelling story. But it is a story with a frustrating ending because Girod took the MAGA path of bitter grievance instead of the enlightened path of smart defendant standing up on behalf of a real cause.
Our legal system provides the accused with many more tools for exoneration than nearly any other country in the world—primary among these tools being our jury system. But one needs expertise to take full advantage of them. Sam Girod’s failure to use them in effect let the FDA off the hook when it should have been so badly embarrassed it wouldn’t so easily again commit heavy resources to going after an honest salve maker.
This has become such a punitive society. Maybe the FDA employees who pushed for this deluded themselves that they were “protecting society,” by locking a peaceful person up for so long. This fetish with incarceration for every small dislike needs to stop. It is not just food freedom at stake. The prison industry is sick, from the inside out. The lobbyists who keep that machine going are more sick. This is not just about food.
It’s time we enlighten enough people to punish the punishers. There are too many mindless drones in government who will blindly follow the rules handed down to them from a few neurotic superiors who conspire to misrepresent a danger to law makers to influence them to outlaw a healthy activity. It will never stop until those superiors feel the pain of a large segment of society cancelling their ability to do so.
If smart strategies are not utilized a high personal price is paid.
Using the best lawyers. Creating the best strategies and out foxing Pharma FDA reps…. Is a sacrifice paid by those that consider the consequences!
When fighting the FDA, it can not a personal fight for personal gain it must be a far larger mission. One that serves humanity. The low lying fruit hanging all around the FDA corrupt regulations about “only FDA drugs can cure” is too easy to pick.
You just don’t screw around with Superman. It’s serious business.
However, a cause backed by tens of thousands of people is a worthy fight. You don’t fight Superman unless you have the best lawyers and millions of pissed off moms dads and kids.
It must be a force of good against clear corruption and greed. Be smart or enjoy prison food.
It’s just not worth it. Only fight worthy causes with the force of people and smart lawyers.
I feel very sorry for this Amish man. The judge should have never allowed this litigation. It’s a totally unfair match up. It’s unjust. Unbalanced and unfair.
Shame on the judge.
Never mind the judge is only a drone of the status quo and misguided lawmakers. You’d be hard pressed to find a judge, now, who really thinks about right and wrong.
Thank you for reporting on this David
Yes, shame on the judge. Judge Danny Reeves is a disgrace to KY courtrooms. Grandpa Reeves when the jury was present, Roland Freisler when they were not. I know a few KY attorneys and they all said without fail, a dark look in their eyes: “Reeves bats for the prosecution.”
Hal and I fought with Sam every step of the way, as so many other of the English and a few of his Amish family as well, to hire an attorney. We used your argument: this is bigger than just you. This is about freedom of choice, something Sam is passionate about.
His court-appointed attorney, Michael Fox, was excellent, but after Fox successfully cross-examined one of the state’s witnesses, Reeves refused to allow Fox to help Sam unless Sam engaged Fox (free). Several other high-powered successful attorneys practically begged Sam to let them help him, but Sam could not.
Sam’s faith is huge and he believed that God would guide him. Who are we to say that didn’t happen?
Remember, too, that the decision on hiring an attorney was not Sam’s alone. That decision is made by his community and they said no. They didn’t know us, they didn’t know you or any of the other hundreds of people following the story.
So much wrong with this case. Sam is home, we’ve visited. He said flat out that, looking back, he might have done things differently. He is unbroken and boisterous as ever. In fact, he is stronger.
Thank you, David, for all you’ve done for him and for keeping the story alive. I too wish he’d fought in a way that would have won — which I believe he would have done EASILY with almost any attorney. The prosecutor was a novice, her first case… she learned her courtroom tactics from TV and her performance might have elicited chuckles from the small audience had we all not been horrified by what was happening.
Thank you, Sally, for all you and Hal have done for Sam. I know he very much appreciates all your support.
from the local newspaper in Lancaster Pennsylvania : 18 hours ago
Embattled Amish farmer’s saga with FDA becomes grist for conservative media
article is not about raw milk …. rather, about differing views on the Justice racket
https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/embattled-amish-farmers-saga-with-usda-becomes-grist-for-conservative-media/article_ad97b98e-2630-11ed-bf68-172014e8a0c1.html
This is an interesting article about Amos Miller’s long-running USDA case.
It quotes Tucker Carlson as blaming President Biden for Amos Miller’s current legal mess, when the reality is that it moved into high gear under administration of former president Trump.
It makes the point I’ve made previously that the judge in the case has tried very hard to push Amos Miller toward USDA meat inspections, while ensuring he remains in business. He doesn’t point out, but I have, that the judge is an appointee of former president Obama.
One final point this article makes that I think is inaccurate is that the legalities of private food sales have been dealt with extensively in the courts, and that there’s no real argument for private food sales; it suggests that private clubs are bogus across the board, without pointing out that we have country clubs, shopping clubs, food coops, religious groups, car clubs, etc., etc. The matter of private food clubs hasn’t been decided legally as far as I have been able to determine.
FSIS regulations have indeed singled out small independent abattoirs in that they impose excessive, costly and often frequently changing rules/guidelines/requirements that make it next to impossible for the smaller operations to continue to be viable. In that sense there is a bias that favors the large corporate operations and that is the main reason why we have seen large numbers of small independent abattoirs disappear over the years… In my neck of the woods alone there used to be up to six small independent abattoirs within a 15-minute drive of each other serving farmers and the community. There are now zero, and farmers currently have to book over year in advance and travel up to two hours in order to access an abattoir, to get an animal slaughtered and therefore provide meat for themselves and their customers. Indeed, a similar parallel can be drawn in the dairy industry where small local milk processing plants have been compelled to shut down and the few small dairy farms that are left must now ship their product, at their own expense, to larger corporate run operation two to three hours away. In fact, Northern Ontario has gone from being self-sufficient to dependent on Southern Ontario for its milk.
Of course, all of this is done in the name of “safety” …or is it??? As Anke Meyn in the article above pointed out, and it is much the same In Ontario Canada, “why the government inspects beef slaughtering, but not water buffalo or rabbits… antelope, reindeer, elk, deer, migratory waterfowl and game birds”?
I was talking to a man who immigrated from Switzerland several years ago and bought a small farm in my area. Shortly after acquiring the farm, he purchased a trailer and equipped it with all the equipment he needed to slaughter livestock for farmers at their farms, then he would take the carcasses to his home where he had a cooler and the facilities to cut up the meat. Of course, some self-righteous busy body squealed on him and food inspection regulators shut him down. In my conversation with him he exclaimed that his method of killing and cutting up meat was common practice in his home country and couldn’t understand why in Canada had such harsh rules.
Under Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden, just to name the most recent, food regulators are implementing and enforcing regulation that favor larger operation. Obama’s signing of the Dark Act is but one small example of how politician backtrack on their promises and cater to the corporate food conglomerate.
Thank you for sharing this, David. Sam Girod’s case is disconcerting indeed. I join the many others who wish it had unfolded differently. May he live his life in peace and freedom going forward.
all things work for good, for those who love God, and are called according to His Purpose.
I am most interested to read Mr Girod’s book … did he ever get right down to brass tacks, and humble his-self?
Once a man figures out that the whole world lies in the power of the Evil One = then what?
Those are good questions; in regards to the “Evil one”, we expose evil. Ephesians 5:11
The FDA is brazenly partial to the pharmaceutical industry and has repeatedly demonstrated that it is no friend of natural remedies and those who promote and sell them… We need to keep in mind that Sam Girod is the victim here and we should be careful not to blame him for the predicament he is in simply because he chose not to adhere to the judicial system’s protocol. if I understand Sam correctly, he doesn’t believe that true justice can be attained via the current judicial system. His conscience and faith in God are what prompted him to be a peaceful nonconformist against the arbitrary and unrestrained exercise of power. The public perception that we have to rely on the legal system in order to acquire simple justice is indicative of how distorted our society has become. As Gandhi correctly pointed out, “There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.”
I believe the “higher court” Gandhi spoke about is the one we live our personal lives by. When it comes to selling products in America’s public sphere, you are governed by a framework of laws and regulations that, however cumbersome and onerous, are the ones American citizens need to live by. Yes, you can lobby to change them, or try to develop alternative vehicles, like private distribution. But if you are targeted by the regulators and lawyers of the public system for violations, you need to decide how you’re going to respond, within the parameters of the system, knowing that your response may set a precedent for others operating similar businesses. As Harry Truman once put it, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
Very interesting re REAL MILK in Japan
Go to the link to appreciate the beautiful photos that go with the article
https://japantoday.com/category/features/food/we-try-the-only-raw-milk-legally-sold-in-japan
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We try the only raw milk legally sold in Japan
TOKYO
In the last decade or so, unpasteurized (or “raw”) milk has become a popular food fad among health-conscious and organic food lovers. While some raise concerns about bacteria, proponents say that the milk, which goes straight from udder to bottle, can be made safe through strict hygiene standards and quality control, and that it retains beneficial probiotics which would otherwise be destroyed, along with harmful bacteria, in the pasteurization process.
If you appreciate raw milk and are visiting or moving to Japan, it’s not unreasonable to assume that you’d be interested in having some while you’re here.
However, buying raw milk in Japan is easier said than done. In the U.S., for example, you can buy raw milk in various stores and high-end supermarkets, but that’s not the case here. You can drink raw milk if you actually visit the farm in some cases, but when it comes to commercially available raw milk, the choices are extremely limited. In fact, there’s only one: 思いやりファーム Omoiyari Farm in Hokkaido.
Omoiyari Farm
Omoiyari Farm milk is “special” in many ways. To begin with, Omoiyari Farm is only one of four currently operating in Japan producing what is called 特別牛乳 tokubetsu gyunyu, or “special milk.”
Special milk is whole milk produced at a facility licensed by the Ministerial Ordinance Concerning Standards for Ingredients of Milk and Milk Products to operate a “special milk milking and processing business,” and commercially sold as “special milk.” It requires a particularly excellent breeding environment and special milk processing facilities.”
Among these four farms, Omoiyari Farm is the only one of them officially licensed to sell seinyu, which literally means “raw milk.”
A small farm situated in Nakasatsunai Village, in the Kasai District of Hokkaido, it currently has 7 employees, 19 cows and 28 hectares of land. Opening in 1991, it was first incorporated in 2000 as the Nakasatsunaimura Ladies’ Farm LLC (since almost all of the employees were women), and then changed its name to Omoiyari Farm LLC in 2008. The word omoiyari means caring and consideration in Japanese.
For Omoiyari Farm, this means caring for cows, employees, and their environment. As outlined on their website, their company philosophy is focused on the cows’ best interests. They care for the cows’ physical and mental well-being since it affects the milk they produce. They are also focused on providing a lifelong workplace for women, valuing their viewpoint. Finally, they seek to maintain the land in its natural state, using no pesticides, fertilizers, or compound feed.
Trying Omoiyari Farm’s raw milk
If you want to buy omoiyari seinyu, you can find it at some exclusive locations, like the posh department store Isetan in Shinjuku, or you can order it online and they’ll send it to you through a refrigerated delivery service. If you do, you have a choice of buying a set of eight 180 ml (6.1 oz) bottles or three 720 ml (24.3 oz) bottles.
We chose the former option.
The milk came with a letter from Omoiyari Farm with an adorable photo of two cows “kissing.”
Look at all the paper caps! There are a few farms that still sell milk in glass bottles like this in Japan but the format is usually reminiscent of the Showa Era. Moreover, Japanese people of a certain generation may have memories of playing milk caps when they were kids.
The bottles have a cute design all in pink, with the product name, a logo of a seated cow angel with wings holding a milk bottle, and the slogan shibotta mama, meaning “milked ‘as is’ (in an unaltered state after milking).”
On the back, you’ll find nutritional information. 180 ml (6.1 oz) contains 134 kilocalories, 6.9 g of protein, 8.0 g of fat, 8.7 g of carbohydrates, 87 mg of sodium (0.22 g table salt equivalent) and 256 mg of calcium. You should store it at temperatures 10 C (50 F) or below.
You’ll find the expiration date on the cap. The milk will keep for 5 days after you receive it.
Tasting
Time to open the cap. We immediately noticed some cream on the underside. As for the milk itself, it was more cream-colored than we were used to and we could see small particles on the inside of the neck of the bottle, which is something you wouldn’t see with pasteurized milk.
So how did it taste?
Compared with the standard pasteurized milk we had in our refrigerator, Omoiyari raw milk was utterly (udderly?) different. It was delicious and went down so smooth. We were expecting it to be rich and creamy but that wasn’t the case. It was slightly sweet, a bit malty, only lightly creamy and very light with almost no aftertaste. In fact, it was quite a revelation. We even began wondering if the sweetness and creaminess in the Japanese milk we had been drinking all these years was not naturally occurring but rather intentionally “produced” in the various steps between udder and milk carton, including but perhaps not limited to the pasteurization process.
omoiyari seinyu is more expensive than pasteurized milk but according to the pamphlet they sent with the bottles, it has numerous advantages, such as:
Some people who have atopic dermatitis or some types of allergies claim that it’s the only milk they can drink
Some people who have stomach rumbling and some people who have negative reactions to milk due to lactose intolerance find that their symptoms are alleviated when they drink it.
All of the enzymes that help with the absorption of calcium are alive, so you can get more calcium in your body than with pasteurized milk.
Compared to pasteurized milk, it has more lactoferrin (233 mg/ml) which promotes the absorption of iron and strengthens the immune system.
As a healthy habit, we could easily imagine drinking it on a regular basis.
If you reside in Japan and would like to have it delivered, or if you’re interested in finding it in one of the 48 retail locations where it is sold, visit the official website at 思いやりファーム Omoiyari Farm
commentary below, is from Food Safety News … no friend of the Campaign for REAL MILK>
the last bit is pathetic : Amish Amos (c) wants to have it both ways… no problem compromising the much-vaunted “traditional values of Amishvolk…. making merchandise of their reputation so as to profit in the currency of the US of A, but then, when it suits him! bleating about his ethical dilemma accepting charity for paying the fine !!
a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways
it gives me no pleasure to say >>> as I predicted 6 years ago : this guy will be incarcerated. And = showing the unspeakable malice of the directing mind of the bureaucracy … threatening his wife, too. A page taken from the operations manual of Soviet commissars.
and to allayouse folks who promote the “sovereign citizen” claptrap … let this be a lesson in how NOT to go about it in a real court of law. Between the whole lot of his advisors, they couldn’t even put together the basic element of an Appeal?
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Pay up or go to jail for contempt is worst case scenario for Amos Miller on Sept 26
By Dan Flynn on September 5, 2022
Since it began almost six years ago, the definitive court hearing always seems to be about one month away.
The United States v Miller’s Organic Farm and Amos Miller’s next such hearing is set for September 26. At this one, Amos Miller of Bird-in-Hand, PA must have his $305,000 fine paid up or he risks going to jail.
Federal Judge Edward G. Smith has called this hearing “after considering the plaintiff’s motion for an order to show cause why 1) Amos Miller should not be incarcerated as a further civil contempt sanction, and 2) Rebecca R.Miller should not be added as a defendant to this action…”
Rebecca R. Miller is the wife of Amos Miller and co-owner of Miller’s Organic Farm.
Smith has ordered all parties in the case to appear in his Easton, PA, federal District Court. At the hearing, the court will entertain a “more complete judgment order” to bring about compliance with the previous but still unpaid order, demanding Miller pay $305,065.72.
Incarcerating Miller for his continuing civil contempt until defendants “make such payments” is also under the judge’s activity consideration.
In August, Miller successfully brought national attention to his cause, primarily by getting his version of his story told by Tucker Carlson on Fox News.
“This is one of those stories that is hard to believe,” said the Fox News host. “They’re going after an Amish farmer.”
The report was about the federal government making an example of an organic Amish farmer. But as everyone who followed it for years, it isn’t that simple.
Miller owns farms in multiple states and distributes food nationally through a club system. His raw milk was linked to a death in 2014. And USDA has worked since 2016 to bring Miller into compliance with food safety regulations, including those for slaughtering animals then sold for human consumption.
Miller has a knack for promising to comply and resigning from any commitment. After changing attorneys several times, he’s engaged a “sovereign citizen” organization in his defense that also muddies the waters.
For the Sept. 26 hearing, he says:
“Defendants created go fund me accounts specifically to raise money to pay the civil contempt sanction. Defendants have raised $20,000 and anticipate more over the coming weeks.
“Defendants now give written notice that they intend to present evidence to affirmatively establish their inability to pay $305,065.72 in civil sanctions.
“However, Defendants acknowledge that they are raising money daily through a newly created GoFundMe account, which should provide more resources by Sept. 26, 2022.”
Miller plans to testify at the Sept. 26 hearing.
“He will testify that it is against his Amish beliefs to request money from individuals without having earned it through work, but he reluctantly consented to the creation of GoFundMe accounts to raise funds needed to keep his farm operating and at least one fund created to raise money to pay the civil contempt sanction.”
Miller witnesses are also expected to testify that funds cannot be released to pay a federal contempt fine because of the terms of service under which they were raised.
Meanwhile, the Third Circuit returned Miller’s recent request for a review of Smith’s rulings, dismissing it for lack of appellate jurisdiction. “There is no basis for jurisdiction over Appellant’s appeal, which seeks to appeal ‘comments’ by the District Court but fails to identify any specific order being appealed,” the Third Circuit ruled.
this is an excellent article by Charles Hugh Smith : the end of cheap food. Directly on-point what we are doing in the Campaign for REAL MILK = re-inventing dairying
https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-end-of-cheap-food.html
“Of all the modern-day miracles, the least appreciated is the incredible abundance of low cost food in the U.S. and other developed countries. The era of cheap food is ending, for a variety of mutually reinforcing reasons.
As industrial agriculture decays, food will become much more expensive: even if it doubles, it’s still cheap to what it may cost in the future.
Due to our dependence on industrial agriculture, we’ve forgotten how productive localized (artisanal) food production can be. Small operations aligned with the terroir can produce a surprising amount of food.
The future of sustainable, affordable, nutritious food is in localized production optimized for what grows well without industrial interventions.
It’s fun and rewarding to grow food. It might even become important. Those who can’t grow any food would do well to befriend those who do.
The goal isn’t to replace industrial agriculture. The goal is to reduce our dependency on unsustainable global systems by reinvigorating localized production.”
Raw Milk Institute teaching in Montana
https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/agriculture/following-new-montana-law-nonprofits-teach-raw-milk-safety/article_ac2a60ee-35dd-11ed-a0aa-27b833a44b20.html