Meet Kris, a cow-share farmer in Michigan, who was recently served a warrant about her operation. The milk was not proven contaminated but could have easily become that way by the actions of the inspectors. Did they employ good science? You decide!
Does the USDA Really Need Submachine Guns?
Earlier this year, the USDA solicited submachine guns. The United States Department of Agriculture! This is an agency tasked with regulating agriculture… and they asked for submachine guns. My question: Why would an agency created to regulate farmers require automatic weapons?
Win An Alaskan Adventure For Two With Me (over $4000 value)
I have always wanted to go to Alaska. Next July, I’ll finally be going. And I’ll be taking one of you lucky readers (and a guest of your choosing) with me.
Colorado Trip Winner & Monica Corrado’s Cooking School
One of you lucky readers won a trip to Colorado with me to attend Monica Corrado’s cooking school! Thanks to your generosity, we managed to raise $10,435.00 for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. You guys! I am utterly speechless. When I set the $10K fundraising goal, I thought it was total pie-in-the-sky thinking. BUT YOU DID IT.
Win A Trip to Colorado With Me ($2600 Value)
If you could spend two minutes of your life to do something to make it easier for you to support your local farmers, would you? If you could donate money to a well-managed fund that helps provide small farmers with the legal counsel they need to respond to overzealous government regulators, would you? I would. And I do. My absolute favorite non-profit to support is the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. And because I wholeheartedly support their cause, I am co-sponsoring a fundraiser for the Fund from now to December 16th. It’s a raffle. The prize? An all-expenses paid trip for you to attend Chef Monica Corrado’s cooking school with me at Sunrise Ranch, CO this coming February.
Major Victory as Jury Rules in Favor of Private Food Rights
I am doing my happy dance. Vernon Hershberger, the Amish dairy farmer recently on trial in Wisconsin for providing raw milk to his community, was acquitted last week by a jury on three of the four charges against him. The state of Wisconsin charged Hersbherger with operating a farm store without a retail food establishment permit, operating a dairy farm without a milk producer license, operating a dairy plant facility without a license, and violating a hold order that the state’s department of agriculture placed on food on his farm during a 2010 raid. Hershberger was acquitted of the first three charges and found guilty of the fourth. His acquittal marks a huge step forward in the food rights movement because it upholds private contracts between individuals and counters overbearing government regulations.
A Farm-To-Fork Fiasco
Imagine this. An over-zealous regulator shows up at a farm-to-fork dinner hosted by your favorite local farmer. But they’re not there to sample the exquisite cuisine highlighting some of the most natural, nutrient-dense, life-giving foods on the planet. No, they’re demanding that the food be destroyed while hungry, paying guests wait.
If you were that farmer, how would you respond? This is the story of Laura Bledsoe of Quail Hollow Farm. And, hopefully, it’s a lesson to all of us.
Is Your Choice Of Food A Fundamental Right?
You grow a garden; you expect to be able to harvest the food from that garden and eat it. You raise a cow; you expect to be able to milk that cow and consume the milk. You raise chickens; you expect to gather eggs and eat them. It’s uncomplicated, simple, a fundamental right. Perhaps you wouldn’t feel this way if you lived under some other form of government, but here, now, in America and other democratized countries, this is what you expect. According to Wisconsin Judge Patrick J. Fiedler, you do not have a fundamental right to consume the food you grow or own or raise.
Who Will Defend Our Farmers?
These days, our farmers face a growing threat. It’s not drought or colony collapse disorder, either. It’s our government. The very government created to protect their liberty is instead launching lengthy undercover investigations into their practices, raiding family homes at gunpoint in the early morning hours, and passing financially impossible legislation that doesn’t scale down to small, artisanal producers.
Who will defend our farmers? Who will fight their legal battles in court? Make persuasive arguments for their constitutional rights? Give counsel when overly zealous government enforcers want to take liberties with warrants and court orders? The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, that’s who.
War Story From The Local Food Front
Because I am a raw milk drinker, I hear about this sort of scenario all the time. But this time, the scene that unfolded on September 2nd in Charlottesville, VA had nothing to do with raw milk. This story is about eggs. Farm fresh eggs. You didn’t know those were criminal did you?
Turns out, they aren’t.