Falls Church, VA, Aug. 28, 2012 ( GlobeNewswire ) – Wisconsin dairy farmer, Vernon Hershberger of Loganville, has retained the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) to represent him in his upcoming criminal trial on four misdemeanor counts for alleged violations of the Wisconsin food and dairy code. The trial was originally supposed to take place on September 25 in Sauk County Circuit Court in Baraboo but Judge Guy Reynolds has postponed the trial until January 7. The judge has set aside five days for the trial.
Hershberger had been representing himself since the criminal complaint was filed against him in January 2012. FTCLDF vice president and Wisconsin attorney, Elizabeth Rich, will be litigating the case. Rich has over twenty years experience in the Wisconsin courts.
Hershberger has been charged with operating a retail food establishment without a license, operating a dairy farm as a milk producer without a license and violating a holding order issued by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP). The holding order prohibited anyone from removing food products from coolers that had been taped in Hershberger’s farm store.
The court’s ruling in the Hershberger case could have a huge impact on the availability of raw milk for Wisconsin consumers. DATCP has been attempting to limit consumer access to raw milk; a ruling in Hershberger’s favor would be a major setback for the agency.
The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund defends the rights and broadens the freedoms of family farms and artisan food producers while protecting consumer access to raw milk and nutrient-dense foods. Those concerned can support the FTCLDF, a U.S. based 501(c)(4) nonprofit, by joining or donating online at farmtoconsumer.org or by calling 703-208-FARM (3276).
The Bovine 
The time has come for all good ‘professionals’ (educated, highly salaried bigwigs–lawyers, doctors, professors etc.) to put their money where there mouth is.
I asked Prof. Wendell Berry (he of ‘The Unsettling of America’, ‘What Are People For’, ‘The Gift of Good Land’, fame) to help me, personally. in my struggles with CROPP (aka Organic Valley) and their wanton destruction and ruin of our tender, vulnerable small family dairy farm, but he would NOT. He refused. He chose to side with Organic Valley.
Is Organic Valley a person?
In being a person, do you help people or do you help maintain policy and select money interests and investments? What are people for?
Either I am not a person or Wendell Berry is not a person.
No ‘ands’, ‘ifs’ or ‘buts’.
Stop the collusion with bureaucracy and corporation. Stop it now. Stop the fine print. Stop the lies. Stop the hypocrisy.
Stop it.
Stop it.
Stop it.
Thank you Vernon Herschberger.
Thank you.
signed,
nedlud