Theres something weird….no, make that sinister….going on in the Minnesota prosecution of raw dairy farmers.
Ive written a number of times about the apparent prosecution effort to link a single uninvestigated illness from campylobacter to Alvin Schlangen, the Minnesota farmer who goes on trial beginning next Tuesday.
Apparently concerned that a single illness, which could well have come from fast food the sickened individual was consuming at the same time as raw milk, wont have much of an impact, the state is reaching even further afield: It seems prepared to make the suggestion that illnesses linked much more tightly to another dairy–this one owned by Michael Hartmann–could be connected to Schlangen as well. Presumably the purpose would be to scare the jury into believing that raw milk is inherently dangerous, in hopes of convicting Schlangen.
Schlangens lawyear, Nathan Hansen, received what at first glance seemed a puzzling written communication from the Stearns County prosecutors office earlier this week. It was an affidavit from the Minnesota Public Health Veterinarian, Joni Scheftel, explaining the connection between an outbreak of E.coli O157:H7 among eight people in May 2010, and farmer Michael Hartmann.
Hartmann has contested the states ongoing prosecution of him in connection with that now-three-year-old episode. The affidavit was a response to Hartmanns contention that the pathogens that sickened individuals werent found in his milk, and thus there wasnt a conclusive association between his milk and the illnesses. The state vet argues in the affidavit that such a connection need not be made based on protocol used to link illnesses to food in general; the pathogen found in several ill individuals who consumed Hartmann raw milk was found in areas of the Hartmann farm, the state has said.
Indeed, a hearing on Hartmanns motion to quash the states evidence is due to take place this Monday, the day before the Schlangen jury trial gets under way. And just to re-emphasize its determination, the state had a truckload of Hartmanns food confiscated a couple nights ago as he was driving near his farm.
Why would Schlangens lawyer be receiving the state vets affidavit in a totally unrelated case? Apparently because the Schlangen prosecutor, William MacPhail, is planning to try to connect illnesses from Hartmanns milk to Schlangen, and make a second inference about the safety of his milk. Prosecutors don’t just send defense lawyers documents because they are offbeat FYIs.
As Ive pointed out a number of times, the prosecution in two previous criminal cases against farmers Schlangen and Vernon Hershberger of Wisconsin seems to have been weakened by the absence of illnesses that could make the farmers look like bad guys. So the prosecution in this second Schlangen case (and third criminal trial overall), desperate to make such a connection, seems prepared to go to extreme lengths, to make a nearly unfathomable stretch.
Pete Kennedy, head of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, is astounded by the prosecutions effort. Ive never seen the prosecution in one case use evidence from another case to go after a defendant. It would be outrageous if that happens in the Schlangen case.
Outrageous doesnt seem to be any kind of inhibition on the state prosecutors determined to undermine private food sales by farmers in Minnesota. Anything goes.
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Ill be speaking Sunday morning (8 a.m.) at the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA-MA) annual summer conference in Amherst, MA. In preparation, I was interviewed, together with Ben Grosscup, a conference organizer, on the Whats For Dinner news site.
I also did an interview with Derrick Freemans Peace News Now show that can be accessed here.
Lynn
“The key insight is that ordeals werent just widely practiced. They were widely believed in. Its this belief – literally, the fear of God – that could have allowed the ordeals to function effectively. iudicium Dei – the judgment of God. According to this belief, God helped man resolve judicial matters through trials of fire and water. The superstitious logic that underlay ordeals was based on divine intervention.”
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/01/31/justice_medieval_style/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed7
Which would somewhat correspond to what we call mainstream media today, if you ignore the corporate money interests. This is not meant to be a religious post so please ignore if it suits you.
This seems to be an American cultural thing. We love to sue for damages….we describe damages in a weird way and even include immune system improvement as part of damages.
When your immune system is depressed…the only way to get it back up to strength is by exposure to biodiversity….that means doing immune system push ups.
We are on a track to immune hell in this country. All of the cultural measures that I see point towards retards taking all the regulators jobs and the legislature usurped by FOOD INC corrupt interests.
How are we supposed to make any progress on true food safety and true immunity enhancement and true preventative health through whole food nutrition if all we do is feed the sickness machine????
We need more legal cases that use juries….we need to empower the people to kick FOOD INC ass.
I am so very proud of progress in CA. Our RAWMI LISTED Cow Shares have had supportive visits from local authorities and bridges are being built. This is progress.
What Minnesota is going through is a nightmare from some weird sick place. Truly sick and indicative of the Powers of the FDA feeding on the archaic weakness shown in these midwest areas. When will Minnesota join the rest of the world!!!
Sorry about that….should be working now.
http://www.dqrm.com/whatsfordinner/
Or Ora’s link will take you directly to the podcast.
Sounds like our friends in North Dakota should consider a full on demand for answers and press for settlement of damages. If there is no link… Expose the story and make them beg. It is about time that the regulators be mare accountable. A jury will open this up and show the absolute corruption and double standards. Kill with pasteurized Cheese and it is disregarded or even blamed on raw milk…cause some diarrhea from an unknown source and send the nearest raw milk dairyman to the gallows. There are only 2 million cases of campy every year in the USA. Used to considered travelers diarrhea. Now it is a capital case against a whole food. What a grand distraction !!
Never been to The Dakota’s.
Mark,
I doubt MN officials (or South Dakota officials) would ever do anything even close to what CA officials did in your case. The MN enforcers feel they can ignore and/or violate the law, since they have Hartmann and Schlangen so tied up in legal knots that there is no way they can take aggressive action.
BUT, there may be another option, a creative approach that puts the MN officials on the defensive for once. Someone on a MN food rights listserve suggested that the consumers who didn’t get the milk they already paid for should file theft complaints with their local sheriff. Here is part of what the individual wrote: “Every person who has milk taken really needs to file the paperwork to get it back so it does not all rest on the hartmanns. As long as it was paid for in advance those owners need to really step up to the plate and take action–other than just showing ip in court. They can get the paperwork and file they can also make complaints at he sheriffs office. They will need proof of ownership/receipt for the products and probably list how it was ordered and state that it was paid for prior to leavin he farm. If no delivery fee is added on then there should be no problem.”
That would be a great move. 50 theft case reports taken by the local sherrifs officefor theft of personal food stolen by regulatory action. That would make some regulators and their inspectors think twice about taking raw milk from the people???!!
In no place in the USA ( that I know of anyway ) is it illegal for a consumer to buy or consume raw milk…it is only illegal to: produce, distrubute and offer for sale and or sell raw milk. The consumers have the clear upper hand on this one. Perhaps even a class action lawsuit…a jury trial for sure. They need to name the names of those that placed their sticky fingers on their food and call them out on this. It takes guts to make a win for the gut… where is the gutsy nerve to do this one. Someone needs to legally bite back and attack and show these out of control and out of touch food police who is in charge. A jury trial would change everything and shift this power curve back were it should be: With freedom and the people.
Ok South Dakota…who is going to step and file the first Sherrif theft report??
Thanks to Liz for another great article.
http://hartkeisonline.com/2013/08/12/minnesota-milkman-hartmann-suffers-seizure-of-truck-and-products/
I am blushing…I love my family like nothing else on earth. Thank you for the very public display of my pride and joy!! My marketing and brand genious daughter Kaleigh Lutz did the video.
We should all know that very important people read this journal. David has created quite the channel for distribution of information regarding our favorite subject matter Raw Milk!!
I received an email “out of the blue” two days ago from someone very high up in the ranks of…lets just say an “organization that has been very well funded to educate the public about how dangerous raw milk is and to discourage consumption and production of raw milk”. The PhD author of this email and I will meeting shortly at a local university to discuss how RAWMI is able to achieve consistently low bacteria counts and other RAWMI Food Safety Plan achievements.
Seriously…..this is exactly what trust and bridges of understanding look like. This is seriously important history making progress. In order to protect this process, I am going to leave the names out of the public view. Just suffice it to say….these are the most connected FDA and high level University PhD’s in American food policy circles. I am proud of this. It is all related to RAWMI and the efforts of the “producers” that have worked so hard on their custom unique location specific RAMP programs & becoming LISTED.
All compliments go to the LISTED RAWMI dairymen. In the last month or so…it has been interesting to see the small community of LISTED dairymen sharing information and mentoring openly among each other about their observations and challenges. Each learning from one another. Who benefits?….everyone benefits and mostly the kids with asthma and all of our families immunity and their health. America benefits!
So every time you post, remember this….people in very high places read what we say and what we share. We have opened up what was once a one way street of communicatons into now what has become a two way street of communications. Awesome!! Thank you David!!
Love it!!
MFP…I would expect the owners would file their complaint in the county where the theft took place. If someone steals your car while you are traveling, you report the theft to the local law enforcement authorities, even if you live a ways away.
Thanks, Mark, for all your hard work to make good things happen.
BTW, compliments to Ed Shank ( and Brian Snyder of PASA ) and his work with his team in Pennsylvania. He met with a team of regulators today and the meeting broke new ground in trust and understanding. representatives from PASA were included in the meeting….great progress was made on food safety understanding. Finally Ed was given the appreciation for his food safety plan and all of his work. He is well on his way to much greater things with his newly enhanced and more developed relationships with in the higher levels of Pennsylvia regulators.
Raw milk is being taken very seruiously and a place at the table has been earned. Great work Ed and to your wonderful team.
Your Mindset and attitude about learning from lessons and using love in all you do will return the fruits of all gods harvests to you and all of America. The seeds you plant and nourish are harvested by all.
Ora, I don’t have a definitive answer for you. Some people are probably scared to post in public. Others may have tired of “the clashing diversity of opinions” and moved on. It could be, as Deborah suggests above, that the nature of the debate is changing. Or possibly the world is passing us by. In any event, I haven’t banned anyone in many months now.
I suspect the lack of comments is at least partially due to its being near the end of summer. People will probably start commenting more once they get into their fall routines.
Color me weird or challenge me I like competition it keeps you alive.
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Internet drones? I don’t think I’ m that dangerous but who knows what others think, it’s only about raw milk but we might be in a bigger war than I realized. Sorry if it seems like conspiracy theory maybe I’ll just go away for a while and rethink,