The foreman of the jury that acquitted Wisconsin farmer Vernon Hershberger of all licensing charges is wondering if state lawyers who prosecuted the case should be sanctioned by a bar association for their conduct during the trial last May.
He is especially upset about the contention by state prosecutor Eric Defort, made several times during the trial, including in his closing statement, that all Vernon Hershberger needed to do was pay the nominal licensing fee (about $250), and he’d have been in compliance, making unnecessary all the brutal enforcement actions the state took against the farmer, including four raids of his farm, confiscation of his computers and business records, and the placement of a hold order on all his food.
“That really wasn’t true,” the jury foreman, Paul Freitag, told 200 or so attendees at a thank-you social put on by Hershberger at his farm in Loganville on Saturday. Of course, if he had had a retail license, Hershberger would have been prohibited under Wisconsin law from making available raw dairy products to his 200 food club members.
Freitag, the jury foreman, joined another member of the jury, Michele Hopp, and alternate juror Sandy Lutas, in a press briefing at the start of the social.
Hopp recalled that prosecutor Defort’s statement about the licensing fee convinced a number of jurors to side with the prosecution, at least during initial deliberations. “That closing argument affected one of the jurors who said he would pay the $250 for a retail license” if it would solve Hershberger’s legal problems.
Hopp also recounted how badly she felt after the trial, when she learned that the state’s June 2010 hold order on Hershberger’s food would have been invalid, based on the jury’s decision that Hershberger didn’t require retail and dairy licenses. “I felt sick,” she told attendees, especially since Hershberger could have been sentenced to a year in jail and fined $10,000 for ignoring the hold order the day after it was imposed. (Hershberger has already filed an appeal of the single hold-order conviction, for which he was fined $1,000, plus court costs.)
Hershberger, for his part, told attendees Saturday that he has no desire to see state prosecutors sanctioned for unethical or illegal behavior. “We as a family have forgiven them,” he said. “If they can live with their consciences….”
After the press session, both Freitag and Hopp joined Hershberger’s food club, and made their initial purchases of dairy products. They were among 14 new members the food club picked up on Saturday, and dozens of others who have joined since the trial concluded.
He will no doubt attract more members, thanks to the ongoing publicity the case continues to attract, such as this report from a local television station. It’s an unusual way for a state to help market its farmers, but it seems to be the farmer-promotion vehicle of choice in Wisconsin.
P.S. The auction at Hershberger’s farm was entertainment in its own rite. For a taste, click on the video at Hershberger’s web site.
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Alvin Schlangen explains his conviction by a jury on five misdemeanor counts last week as the outgrowth of his efforts to help out a local food coop, Taditional Foods Minnesota, obtain various foods during 2010. “This case was not about our food club, but about me, the organic farmer, that was helping our local food coop source Minnesota-grown food efficiently,” he wrote on Facebook. “No laws were broken, nobody harmed, just another stupid commercial rule (in the land of 10,000 new statutes per year) that disallows an experienced food handler the right to serve the local organic consumer, and a court system that orders the jury to disregard the Constitution….” (Traditional Foods Minnesota was permanently shuttered by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture back in June 2010.)
He added that if he had obtained a food handler’s license back in 2010, his food club “would not be a reality today, hundreds of families would have no option for local wholesome food. I would not think twice about doing the same again. These thugs have no fear control over me.”
Here’s a great analysis from food rights lawyer Amy Salberg on what went wrong in the Schlangen legal defense. In short, complacency and lack of community support may have undermined Schlangen.
It is wonderful to see Vernon sitting with his jury members and discussing what is right and what is fair and what is wrong. The people did not only speak at the trial…they continue to speak after the trial. Wonderful!!
Save the date:
RAWMI is scheduling its second annual ” RAWMI Raw Milk Training Day” for October 8th 2013 in Richvale CA at the Lundberg Family Farms center just south of Chico CA. This facility is about 1.5 hours north of Sacramento. A flier will go out in a week or so inviting all raw milk dairymen ( or potential dairymen or their customers ) from anywhere to attend. It is free with donations suggested at $20 each.
Dr. Cat Berg PhD DVM ( RAWMI board member ) will be speaking along with Dr. Bruce German of the UC Davis International Milk Genomics research group at UC Davis. He is perhaps the most published and peer reviewed raw milk researcher in the world. Our 4 US RAWMI LISTED dairymen will be attending and forming a panel to share what they discovered and uncovered in their RAWMI LISTING process.
Bad bugs and their risk and management will be discussed. Food safety plan development and mind set will be discussed and as always we will go from “Grass to Glass” and identify risks and how to manage them with a plan.
Stay tuned for more. A formal flier will be flying all arround in a week or so.
Mark McAfee
Chairman RAWMI
As for as the auction entertainment….that sounds just like every cattle auction I’ve ever been to…except instead of a painting there’s a pen full of bawling cows! And of course the smell of cow manure mixed with hamburgers grilling….As a child, I used to thing the auctioneer must be from another country because of the foreign language he was speaking. But yes…country entertainment is very special. Ever been to a rodeo a the country fair? It is a very unique cultural experience!
The bias and intensional cover for their Guarantee of safety is so very clear. The fDA loves to say….”pasteurization is the ONLY guarantee of safety”. They claim that No other process can Guarantee safety. The FDA clearly is too close to problems of their own creation….that they have lost all ability to critically or objectively think. They have lost even the remote cover of objectivity….the FDA is all FOOD Inc. Maybe English takes on new meanings at the FDA? Life is death….and death means GUARANTEE!
Maybe they really do think we are all completely naive idiots. Surely they are demonstrating that the opposite is true.
Mark, I believe the situation with regard to Crave Cheese is even worse than you describe. Not only did the CDC and FDA make no mention in their announcements that the cheese was made from pasteurized milk, but they seem to have intentionally buried the fact that of five people sickened from the cheese, one individual died, and a pregnant woman miscarried.
AND, this outbreak seems not to have been the first time listeria was found at Crave. This from the FDA announcement: “The pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) subtype of Listeria monocytogenes, or the bacterias “DNA fingerprint, isolated from cases in the cluster is indistinguishable from isolates retrieved during 2010 and 2011 environmental sampling efforts by the FDA at Crave Brothers Farmstead Classics Cheese.”
http://www.fda.gov/food/recallsoutbreaksemergencies/outbreaks/ucm359588.htm
In other words, listeria has been found on at least two other occasions at this producer, and not only was the producer not shut down, it was allowed to continue operating, despite the danger. It seems as if the FDA must bear direct responsibility for the death and miscarriage that resulted.
As if all that isn’t enough, Crave seems to be operating as before. It shows on its web site that it is selling at farmers markets and taking orders for Christmas. http://www.cravecheese.com
Just think back to what happened to Morningland Dairy of Missouri and Estrella Cheese of Washington. In both cases, listeria was discovered in either cheese samples or on the premises, and the companies were shuttered completely, never to re-open. You don’t think there is a double standard here?
My apologies, I have not seen your RAWMI application. On the same hand, my assistant Marcy and the secretary for RAWMI is off on pregnancy leave. She will be back in mid October. Perhaps this email application got stuck in her email system. I will check on this.
Regardless, I would love to speak with you and discuss your application and how it was sent to RAWMI.
Call me when you can 559-846-9732.
Has the FDA realized that raw milk is here to stay??? and that it is growing and they better join responsible producers, RAWMI etc and do something constructive and progressive to help. I do not know…I just know I feel a change in the winds and they are either deeply good and human or the exact and I have caught deep cover spies entering our camp through the front gate in broad daylight. Back to reading my favorite book….the Art of War. Deception is the true art of war.
One of my goals has always been building bridges of trust and understanding with regulators and even the FDA. RAWMI seems to have built a little of that bridge…now it is scary as hell, someone is crossing it towards us. Do we drop down behind the sand bags and take up defensive positions or do we shake hands with an educational treaty and a welcome or even a hug??
There is a change and we have wanted this change. Now to manage this change and this bridge building venture. I have asked the bridge walker to stop walking for a few weeks so we can vet them. I want to see what they are bring with them…is it friend or foe. What are the intentions?
Time to take it slow…but take it. They have already said that they like what RAWMI has shown and want to help RAWMI to do even more. I am glad that RAWMI is small and well controlled with people that I know and trust with my life.
All government intentions are “to be in control”. Show me just one example otherwise…
Mark, you said the key words, “…small and well controlled with people that I know and trust”.
DON’T EVER GIVE THIS UP…Once you do, it will be the beginning of the end for RAWMI.
Take a look at the Organic Standard….the government took it over…and now it is being run like ALL OTHER government programs that benefit the industrial (in this case organic) business…
Do you really trust organic food today?????
I see at least three possible reasons for their visit:
1) To give you a pat on the back and to tell you to keep up the good work [not very likely]
2) To get you to volunteer information for their investigation
3) To learn about what you are doing so they can make a proposal to take over RAWMI standard for the “benefit of the general public”.
Matthew 10:16 Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
Matthew 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 But test everything; hold fast what is good.
Mark, you have started a good thing…hold onto it as long as you can.
While defending the profits of the pharmaceutical industry is huge, of far greater importance is to maintain the chains of servitude that bind our farmers and society via the regulatory system. Once it becomes clear they can’t keep a lid on this they will switch gears to try and subsume and control it. Raw milk for everyone, so long as it comes through the usual regulated channels that keep customers beholden to government and farmers enslaved to distributors and regulators. Never mind that it will likely destroy the quality, safety and profitability.
Those inclined to jump through government hoops in pursuit of profits will probably see this as a good thing. But we’d do well to remember the lessons of history. We have so few, and so old of farmers, because the corporate-government complex consciously decided to eliminate all the profits for farmers and get rid of most of them (which they did). The FDA/USDA/CDC/Monsanto/Tyson etc are no friend of farmers. They are only foe.
Your wonderfully written email to me with your comparison of RAWMI mentoring methodology verses FDA raw milk police ideologies is worthy of publication. I encourage you to think about sending it to David for possible publication. Your perspective needs to be shared with others. I know that the FDA and regulators read this blog and they need to see what you have written. It is educationally critical. It is perhaps the future of properly designed and properly motivated food safety systems.
In my opinion you’re on the right track here.
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
A five man and one woman PBS film documentary crew just spent the last 2 days at OPDC. Yesterday they spent several hours with Blaine, the kids and grand kids in the kitchen and in the back yard getting family story and footage while we ate out under the stars and celebrated life together. Today they rented a helicopter and a pilot and spent several hours doing aerial footage of cows our team at OPDC, milking cows, making cream, churning butter, and loading trucks. They spent 3 hours interviewing me all about the raw milk movement and why consumers are voting for raw milk.
Next week they go see Charlotte Smith in Oregon to continue the story and finish up the segment they are producing about the emergence of raw milk. This will air in April 2014 as a national special called Raw Milk Food Forward.
When PBS spends thousands of dollars and they are sponsored by Chipotle and Organic Valley and they choose to cover raw milk as an national story and an emerging market….we have hit the big time. Markets for fluid pasteurized milk are about to completly crash and demand for raw milk is about expode…if it already hasn’t.
Wow….what a day. They even demanded that they take a ride in my plane to get the aerial perspective of of the Green OPDC and correlate the comparison of a pilots complete “freedom” that is completely connected to a pilots absolute “personal responsibility”….Just like raw milk production.
The freedom to produce raw milk is directly associated with the absolute responsibility of planned production systems….yep….just like flying. Flying can be the very safest form of transportation or it can injure or even kill you….just like production of raw milk.
They have one heck of a story and it is going to hit the main stream right in the GUT…hard. Here comes the tipping-point. We are watching it happen right now. RAWMI is right there to show the plan and its rapidly developing track record of excellence.
BTW….I did not call them, they called us.
Here’s a link to that doctor’s information which was excluded from the PBS special.
http://recoveringnicholas.com/2010/04/28/pbs-show-on-vaccines-omitted-the-interviews-of-dr-jay-gordon-dr-robert-sears/
Shazam.
I know a little about Raw Camel Milk. I was at the NCIMS when it reviewed a proposal about camels raw milk. Bottom line, FDA controls any and all milk but only if it crosses state lines. Raw milk inside of a state is controlled by state laws. Camels are not hoved animals and are not regulated as bovine or cows. They have pads on their feet. Not a hoof. The USDA has nothing to do with raw milk or milk this is FDA territory.
So what is this confusing mixed up story about camels raw milk ? Please explain
http://www.naturalnews.com/041755_raw_milk_vending_machines_New_Zealand.html
Remember this, in countries that embrace socialized medicine rather than funding medical industries, nutritional prevention will be a cost effective humane method to improve Health and prevent chronic disease. When American medicine extracts its swollen money pharma centric head out of its hemorrhoidal ass, then we will see serious disease prevention through whole food nutrition. That is when raw milk will fully take its rightful seat at the nutritional table of cost effective truly sustainable human medicine.
Rather then less caring, the regulators in Europe are engaging in a more pragmatic approach and are therefore less obsessed with excessive control.
I welcome bacteria including these so called pathogens in the raw milk that I drink and feed to my family as long as its flavor is not compromised.
In answer to rawmilkmikes query a while back, Im the one who raised nine children on raw milk. Two of those children (twins) were born premature, weighed between 4-5 lbs. and since their mother passed away at the time of their birth, were fed a formula that consisted of raw milk from the jersey cows that I milked, raw honey from the bees that I kept and fresh water from the well. Those twins are now 27 years of age, and have never seen a doctor since their birth.
Ken
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/08/26/mucus-phages.aspx?e_cid=20130826Z1_DNL_art_1&utm_source=dnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20130826Z1
These created organisms are governed by an innate intelligence far superior to current human understanding.
Ken
Natural cleaners like sunlight, soap and water, microbial diversity, grace, and generosity, are not only better, but essential for healthy life. Obsessive cleanliness is toxic–the opposite of healthful–but is the standard by which we today measure quality. We are upside down.
Escape the system, and live.