The principle of private food should get a test in front of a jury of ordinary citizens when raw dairy farmer Vernon Hershbeger goes on trial in Wisconsin on Jan. 7.
I should say the principle should get a test, because initial indications are that the state will work like the dickens to sidestep that issue in favor of a ton of fear mongering designed to scare the jury that raw milk is too dangerous to distribute publicly, privately, or any which way, and thus seek to justify both the state's ban on raw milk sales and its relentless prosecution of Hershberger, a farmer who provides raw milk and other food to more than 100 members of a private food club around his town of Loganville.
August 2012
At first glance, the U.S.
One of the things I do to help people access real foods in my area is I help run a buying club that makes local deliveries of real, non-GMO foods. About two and a half years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began an undercover investigation and sting operation on my buying club and on one of the farmers supplying fresh, healthy food to the members.
Liz Reitzig has, over the last few years, become a national leader of America’s rapidly expanding food rights movement. She is the co-coordinator of Grassfed on the Hill buying club serving the greater Washington, DC, area, and co-founder of the Farm Food Freedom Coalition. Liz has spent the past six years working on the state and national levels representing small farms and consumers at the state legislature and in the halls of Congress lobbying for food and farming rights. She is the principle organizer of an annual National Grassroots Lobby Day and Legislative Reception on Capitol Hill. She does all this while raising five young children.
Aajonus Vonderplanitz and Amanda Rose don't at first glance have a lot in common when it comes to food politics. Vonderplanitz is adamant about private food rights, while Rose seems much less politically oriented on the issue.
But interestingly, both have been after me during the last week for my supposed failure to call out individuals they think were guilty of outsourcing nutrient-dense food that was being sold as if it came directly from the producer. Rose was mainly after me in connection with Mark McAfee's dairy products and Vonderplanitz in connection with Sharon Palmer's egg and chicken products.
Why does this issue of outsourcing arouse so much feeling? And what are the legal realities of outsourced food?
I've spent the last few days reading through the most recent filings in the Maine Food Sovereignty case.
If the potential importance of a food rights case could be measured in the heavy weight of the many pages of these initial arguments, this is a serious case. In this initial phase, each side has moved for summary judgment--that the judge in the case decide in its favor as a matter of law.
A raiding party of twenty agents from three different agencies descended on Michael Schmidt's Ontario Farm at 7 this morning with a simple message: he could be looking at 14 years in jail in connection with conspiracy charges associated with the scrapie sheep case from last April.
This site's mission is to provide news and analysis about food rights and raw milk. Increasingly, our access to privately available food is under attack by government and industry forces that seek to impose their choices on us. The Complete Patient seeks to provide up-to-date information and encourage the development of community to maintain traditional food acquisition options.