Imagine leaving the military after a long career, enthusiastically launching a new business, and then, after much business trauma, concluding that the system you spent years defending with your life is corrupt.
That kind of summarizes Mark Bakers experience over the last few years. He spent twenty years in the U.S. Air Force, left to launch a hog farm specializing in producing gourmet heritage breeds that were prized by high-end restaurants, and then suddenly found himself fighting one of the states he had committed to giving his life for.
The problems began in 2011, when the state of Michigans Department of Natural Resources issued the Invasive Species Ordinance, signed by the states governor, banning essentially all heritage pigs. (More background from a post I did on the ISO and Baker last April.) Baker filed a suit challenging the state, as did a number of farmers and hunting clubs. The suit points to the inherent corruption of the ISO, when it argues the ISO literally outlaws every pig in the State of Michigan. Then, in an obvious concession to special interest groups, the DNR exempts pigs used in undefined domestic hog production. Although according to Legislative definitions [Baker] is engaged in precisely that activity, nenetheless he is informed by the DNR that his particular breeds of pig are prohibited while the breeds of pig used in large factory-style pork production facilities are lawful, even though they are all the same species.
Now, the various regulators are closing the barn doors on Baker. He can’t send his pigs to be slaughtered at a USDA-regulated slaughterhouse because he risks having the animals rejected under the ISO–once the pigs have been given over for slaughter, they can’t be taken back. So if they are rejected, they would essentially be turned into trash, and both Baker and the slaughterhouse could incur substantial fees from the USDA in the process.
Hes finding vets reluctant to certify his hogs for state-owned facilities–apparently they dont want to risk problems with the DNR.
Essentially, Baker says his farm has been embargoed. He cant service his restaurant customers, and they have gone elsewhere for meat. He couldnt afford to continue feeding his 40 or so pigs, so over the holidays he and some friends slaughtered the 15 biggest pigs, the sows, weighing about 400 pounds each, and gave the meat to two churches.
I have given my food away to people who dont have enough to eat, he told me. Where did I miss them? I didnt know we had so many people who are hungry.
In the meantime, hes holding his remaining hogs, desperately trying to get by financially in hopes he will win his court case to get the ISO thrown out. If I kill off the rest, I will have nothing.
In addition to trying to stave off financial collapse, he tries to stave off bitterness. I am dealing with a system where we have lawyers I pay very well. Then there are state lawyers I am also paying, and the judges who work for the state, whom I am paying as well.
The upshot: My state, Michigan, has become my mortal enemy. They are destroying my livelihood and trying to put my family and me on the streets.
He says that other farmers have destroyed their heritage pigs under threat that the state would come in an do the job. He speculates that the reason the state hasnt come in and destroyed his hogs is because Im a veteran.
As a former military man, he understands in military terms what is happening–he has compared Michigan’s isolation of his and other farms to the Soviet Union’s blockade of Berlin in the years immediately after World War II. It was a blockade the U.S. helped break by flying in food to keep Berlin fed. Now, Michigan is playing the role of the Soviet Union, and Baker wonders whether enough people will care to keep his farm afloat for the next few months of winter.
He is asking those who support his stand here to donate to his defense fund–just go to his web site, and click on the Donate button to the far right.
Here is more from ActivistPost.
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A good and complete update on Canadian farmer Michael Schmidts legal situation from The Bovine–good and complete is quite a compliment, given how complicated Schmidts legal life has become. His own raw milk case in Ontario, the case of a British Columbia farm he helped out, and the case involving the protection of rare breed sheep. The unpredictable and legally dangerous life of a farmer-activist.
Unbelievable. Don’t these individuals have a conscience? I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes and someday explain what they did for a living to grandchildren.
David, maybe you should consider temporarily changing the blog name to “good and complete patient” in their honor. But that might land you on the no-fly list or worse, so forget I suggested that.
Now for some really great news!!
The Progressive Dairyman Magazine featured on its national cover this week, a picture of a Texas dairy family that was saved by selling on farm raw milk!!!!!!! http://www.progressivedairy.com/~prodairy/digital_edition/2013/01/01PD/#?page=0
This really shows our progress and our evolution. When maintstream starts seeing consumer connected farming as good and touts the benefits of raw milk and the smart consumers that choose it….we are making huge progress.
Also…this week OPDC became the second dairy to be LISTED at RAWMI. Several more are pending in the LISTING process. http://rawmilkinstitute.net/listed-farmers/listed-farmer-organic-pastures-dairy-company/
The RAMP program, SSOP’s and CCP’s with the associated checklists are worth looking at. They are extensive and show the real effort that we make for food safety. The bacteria counts really show it.
Mark
Summary of Submissions on the Proposals for Continuing to Legally Provide for Farm Gate Sales of Raw Drinking Milk MPI Information Paper No: 2012/12?
http://www.foodsafety.govt.nz/elibrary/industry/farm-gate-raw-milk-sales/2012-12-summary-submissions-raw-milk.pdf
an excellent summary of the reasons that informed consumers prefer raw milk on “the largest dairy farm in the world” = New Zealand. Amusingly … the notion that raw milk could be outlawed, was not even one of the options the govt. considered !
Right, they are defining us, instead of us defining ourselves. See the most recent post, with insights into this dilemma.
Ken
once upon a time, Americans did have Liberty under God’s Law, but ( misled by false teachers in the pulpits) the nation reverted to a guardian-ward relationship … a nation of sheep begot a government of wolves. Raising one’s head out of the rut to rail against wickedness in high places, will get you hammered-down. The stories of Gordon Kahl and Robert Matthews and so many other dissidents, are most instructive. In this milk thing, so far, the govt. is only using the velvet glove, compared to what they can and will do, when they get frantic about losing their grip.
Abusing govt. resources and $$, to entangle activists in the thickets of the law, is how the tyrant draws an issue off into the weeds, farther and farther from what the law-abiding citizen started out to accomplish. Charges of “contempt of Court’ being the tactic when an activist proves too wily in the early going
Bob Dylan sang “you’ve got to serve some body” … having had the corners knocked off me in the school of hard knocks, I can compromise in order to get what’s most important … I’m content to abide-by govt. regulatory oversight as long as we get to do the dairying the way we want. Paramount to me is : white children getting the precious REAL MILK they need to thrive … otherwise = ain’t going to be no ‘next generation’.
My hat is off to those who actually do the chores so as to keep the REAL MILK flowing in the face of all the dust raised around the issue. We have already won the point in terms of public sentiment. Just keeping on producing and delivering the good stuff, is the most powerful political statement, of all
The wicked cartel would like nothing better than a confrontation where they can use firepower then the propaganda outfalls, to portray us as happened with the “Montana freemen/ Waco / Bill Cooper”. At this stage, we have to be on guard against a provocateur coming along, tricking a producer into some rash incident.
My role is to make the Courtroom, the classroom. I am called to walk through the legal nonsense, turning the contempt of Court charge against me into a “teachable moment”. In British Columbia, they are about to fall into the pit they dug for us. Fraser Health’s lawyer, Susan Beach, has botched her prosecution so badly that on Feb 13th ( start of the trial) she’s going to be supremely embarrassed
Here’s a short, good article on the wide margin of folks who want food freedoms: http://reason.com/archives/2013/01/12/americans-support-food-freedom-by-wide-m
For those of you who like Mark Bittman (NYT), well, be sure to read the 2nd page.
My guess would be that too many people just don’t want the hassle they know is coming, to get into a business like raw dairy. The oppression has been an ongoing thing for Mark, and people see that. Heck, that’s been reason enough for people not to BUY raw milk even if they want to drink it. In that regard, the corrupt agencies are winning, I suppose. But I like to think the good guys always come out ahead. We’ll see.
http://healthimpactnews.com/2011/california-raw-milk-farmer-stands-up-to-california-department-of-food-and-agriculture/
Chelseth, operator of My Sisters Farm in Shingle Springs, keeps two cows owned by 15 people. “She said, for her to be regulated and inspected for milk would be a $100,000 proposition.”
Personally I don’t care for the taste of Claravale’s milk, that’s why I buy only Organic Pasture’s milk.
I drink raw milk because I feel it does taste better and because it isn’t adulterated in any way. pasteurized milk has a burnt taste to me.