At the end of the Q&A following my presentation at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT, last Thursday evening, one woman among the 25 or so people in attendance raised her hand. I was expecting an uplifting presentation, and what I got was just the opposite, she said.
What she was saying was that she wanted to hear that we, the people are winning. That we have pushed back the regulatory onslaught against small farms that is nearly unprecedented anywhere in the world, with the possible exceptions of Cuba and North Korea. And even in Cuba, I read recently in The Economist, permissiveness for private food sales is expanding. So pretty soon, the world competition for most authoritarian anti-small-farm country could come down to the U.S. versus North Korea.
Actually, I had said in my presentation that there have been some notable victories over the last year or so. But those victories are occurring only in the face of huge enforcement onslaughts, of the sort being endured by Alvin Schlangen in Minnesota. Its discouraging, the woman added.
Thats exactly what the authorities want people to think, that its discouraging, even hopeless. A big part of the campaign against Americas small producers of nutrient-dense food is psychological in nature. Wear people down so they become discouraged enough that they cant summon the energy to organize and fight back.
I mentioned to a friend who is a savvy observer of the governments anti-small-farm campaign that I thought the prosecutor in the upcoming Schlangen criminal trial was showing signs of desperation by seeking to play the illness card, to make a connection between Schlangen and a single case of campylobacter by someone who said they drank his raw milk. Its not desperation, she suggested. Theyll do anything to defeat us. If this (illness thing) doesnt work, they will try something else. They will become ever more repressive. They dont care. They have all the time and money in the world.
Well, the optimist in me has to disagree. Not that certain prosecutors and public health people wont stop at anything, but I have to think that if farmers, with support by ordinary people, keep winning the criminal cases, more prosecutors will get the message that the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations scorched-earth campaign on behalf of Big Ag against farmers producing and selling good food isnt a winning idea.
A little history here: Back in 2007, a Michigan prosecutor by the name of Victor Fitz decided after six months of investigating Michigan farmer Richard Hebron, against filing criminal charges, as the Michigan Department of Agriculture had wanted. Hebron had come under investigation via an MDA sting operation for selling raw milk to members of an Ann Arbor food club. When prosecutor Fitz turned away from the case, the Michigan authorities quickly settled with Hebron, with the states attorney general sanctioning herdshare arrangements, at least on a temporary basis.
A study group that included proponents and opponents of raw milk was formed in the aftermath of the embarrassing case, and its members met and negotiated endless disagreements about raw milk over six long years, eventually agreeing to endorse a permanent policy allowing herdshares in the state that was the first to ban the sale of raw milk, back in the late 1940s. I just wrote an article about the Michigan raw milk report for Modern Farmer, and it is pretty amazing that the group came to agreement , since many of its conclusions fly in the face of FDA dogma about raw milk.
The article is worth reading as a small ray of hope about what can happen if people committed to food freedom and food safety can come together in common cause.
Sure, Michigan is only one state. And while its agriculture authorities have moved toward reconciliation with raw dairy producers, the states Department of Natural Resources is battling pork producers like Mark Baker for raising so-called feral pigs as natural premium meat for private sale.
You put out one fire, and another springs up. For believers in food rights, its important to understand that the enemy in places like Minnesota, Wisconsin, and even Michigan, is tough. But the enemy will eventually bend in the face of persistent and committed ordinary people standing behind their farmers. Thats why people in Minnesota need to demonstrate forcefully that they are backing Schlangen. As Schlangen puts it on the Facebook page for his trial (beginning August 12): You can beat up on one organic farmer, unless he is part of a tag team of educated and purposeful members of this great food rights movement. Now you dont stand a chance!
**
There was a different kind of redemption for Amish farmer Leroy Miller recently, when he hosted a group of 22 master chefs from around the world, including a chef who serves President Obama (along with chefs serving heads of state and royalty). Leroy Miller got into trouble some years back with Pennsylvania agriculture officials for selling raw milk privately, without a permit.
The video accompanying an article about the event has Leroy Miller explaining that the menu includes, early on, a palate cleanser choice–raw milk or pasteurized-milk yogurt. You can see the little glasses of raw milk and yogurt being passed out, but we dont know who took what. Maybe Obama’s chef wants to introduce the prez to some new foods.
I believe we are at a similar place with food freedom. People are demanding another choice. They are pushing hard at every loophole, and the tide is shifting.
One other interesting parallel with homeschooling that bears mentioning is that for all those who cried that homeschooled children would be ingorant, illiterate, indoctrinated, unsolcialized misfits, it has been shown time and again that statistically (of course there are exceptions) homeschooled students out-perform their public schooled counterparts. Prestigious universities recruit homeschooled students. And so it will be, I’m convinced, as food freedom becomes more culturally accepted. Food produced transparently, ethically, locally, and with small-scale innovation, will (and does) out perform it’s industrially-produced counter part. And all those who cry out that people will get sick and die from un-regulated farm-food will be like the out-of-touch generation that still, occasionally, wonders how that homeschooled kid is ever going to get into college.
Shawna, excellent point about home schooling. In my book, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Food Rights”, I compare the fight for home schooling rights to the black struggle for civil rights. Like you, I see closer parallels in the struggle for food rights to the campaign for home schooling, even allowing for the fact that each movement has its own special character.
http://www.naturalnews.com/041497_fake_gurus_donation_scams_fraud.html
Also, this video is a somewhat parallel to what’s been happening lately with raw milk and shows how ludicrous “cancer cures” are, prevention is the best cure. Long but very informative:
This takes a presence of mind on both sides of the argument. It takes a regulatory agency that is open to dialogue and this takes a producer consumer group that can sit down and engage in process. In CA this process did not start until some pretty radical stuff went down. There had to be criminal charges pending against a cow share owner and a refusal from a local DA to not press charges and a local sherrif that said….”I will not be the Raw Milk Police arround here”. That is when the CDFA sat down and a peace treaty and good guidelines were drafted by the working group that included a wide shareholder audience including RAWMI.
To win our battle will take persistent effort. We cab not be worn down or retreat!!! That is the hardest part. We have limited time and resources. The regulatory agencies have all the time and all of our resources to wait and fund and pick their battles.
Patience and persistence…..
Yes, if you read my July 29 post about Larry Otting (I know you don’t like to read about Rawesome), he says that he and Vonderplanitz went to the Ventura County DA to complain about Palmer and Stewart. Otting accused Palmer of not paying individual lenders associated with the farm back in a timely way and Vonderplanitz accused Palmer and Stewart of selling food that came from commercial sources.
Anyhow I just found this, days late and dollars short but nice review of David’s new book:
http://foodriotradio.com/2013/08/life-liberty-and/
He comes to Jesus on Marijuana and apologizes for misleading America as to its medical value and usefulness.
Replace the Good Doctors words on marijuana with “raw milk”….and you are watching a video that will be broadcast in the next few years. First gay marriage, now marijuana and very soon Raw Milk!!!
Things are changing and it is driven by truth and the experience of individual people and consumers.
The things that Dr. Gupta says are all 100% applicable to Raw Milk. He even makes a reference to good science in EU….but not the USA. All applicable to Raw Milk!! We are watching change!!
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/dr-sanjay-gupta-reverses-opposition-weed?akid=10776.174761.K9Giuh&rd=1&src=newsletter880240&t=5
Go Gupta!!
the famine of nutrition ‘midst the image of plenty, which Ham-merica now suffers, is no mere accident. “The curse causeless doth not come”