The trial of raw milk farmer Vernon Hershberger, due to begin Monday in Baraboo, WI, is becoming not just a big legal and political event, but a big media event as well.
The Wisconsin media have picked up on the plans for a major gathering of food rights supporters with a number of thorough articles explaining the background and current stakes in the trial. The coverage is eye opening for its effort to explain to readers the broader issues behind the trial besides whether raw milk is safe to drink. .
For example, the CapTimes Jessica Vanegeren provides an excellent explanation of the complex regulatory background leading up to Hershbergers problems with the state.
The Daily Page from Isthmus calls the event one of the most important trials of the decade because it will set precedent for whether individuals can enter into private food exchanges with each other, choosing for themselves what food they purchase, or whether such exchanges will be regulated — or even forbidden — by the state.
Rick Barrett of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel explains not only the legal and political background of the case, but the possibly important role of jury nullification in the trials outcome.
Nationally, The Daily Beast portrayed the trial as one mostly about the legality of raw milk.
Mike Adams of Natural News sees the case as one of an innocent farmer being victimized by an overbearing state, backed by corporate interests.
I have tried to put the case into legal and political perspective–especially related to other similar cases that have come up in recent years–in an analysis at Modern Farmer.
I also have an article examining the food safety aspects of the case due to be published Monday at Food Safety News.
Its encouraging to see a high volume of reporting dealing with some of the underlying political issues, rather than simply spouting the public health line that the case is about protecting the public from unsafe foods. Could this be the expansion of a trend?
As interest in the trial builds, it seems as if the events around the trial could be almost as interesting as the trial itself, what with a variety of speakers and a gathering of supporters in a movie theatre near the trial to watch the court proceedings. The Farm Food Freedom Coalition has been the moving force behind organizing the support nationally, together with a number of local organizations, and it has been seeking donations to help further food rights cases around the country.
This isn’t about licensing or procuring real, live foods or distribution or anything else. This is about the power of the BigAgriBusiness corporations. They want a stranglehold on ALL foods. They want all of us to have to ask for their permission before we consume.
After fighting the FDA, HHS, US Congress, states, counties and health departments for 45 years on the raw milk issue, I fear this is a government setup. Has the corporate-owned media attention been allowed because federal, state and local governments are getting ready to smash people’s right to freedom of food choice with this case? Does that sound paranoid and a conspiracy theory? We have to weight how much money has been and is being spent on this case, and how meticulously the DOJ and Judge Reynolds have tunneled and thereby stacked this case. Raw milk freedom is the major issue in this case and it has been excluded from mention in the trial. Private food contracts have been excluded as irrelevant to the charges. Any one with a brain the size of an oyster can see the setup.
I have seen trials in which the government stacked the jury, falsified evidence and got away with it because government-beholding judges. The greatest offense of that was the 1986 facade trial of Public Citizens vs. FDA that supposedly forced the FDA to uphold its ruling that raw milk cannot cross state lines. The trial was also used by the FDA to get a judge to rule that raw milk is inherently dangerous. Governments do not want a true and factual hearing on raw milk in this Hershberger-case because their raw-milk junk-science would not hold to rational jurors minds.
We will have to have background-checks on every juror chosen for the trial. If the corporate-owned media is allowed to follow this story, know that it is for very specific corporate and government purpose(s).