Should you be able to buy food directly from farmers? U.S. local and federal governments disagree over food rights

From David E. Gumpert on Waking Times.com

Some people like to buy their food direct from the farmers who grow it. Click image for source.

“This would seem to embody the USDA’s advisory, “Know your farmer, know your food,” right? Not exactly.

For the USDA and its sister food regulator, the FDA, there’s a problem: many of the farmers are distributing the food via private contracts like herd shares and leasing arrangements, which fall outside the regulatory system of state and local retail licenses and inspections that govern public food sales.

In response, federal and state regulators are seeking legal sanctions against farmers in Maine, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California, among others. These sanctions include injunctions, fines, and even prison sentences. Food sold by unlicensed and uninspected farmers is potentially dangerous say the regulators, since it can carry pathogens like salmonella, campylobacter, and E.coli O157:H7, leading to mild or even serious illness.

Michael Schmidt’s raw milk tribulations as an example of the evisceration of liberty in Canadian courts

From the Fraser Institute.org

by Karen Selick, Derek From, and Chris Schafer

A scene from the operetta “Milk Trial by Jury”, a retelling of the Michael Schmidt story with music by Gilbert and Sullivan. July 2010

“….A constitutional guarantee of liberty, to be consistent with J.S. Mill’s description, should ensure that everyone has the right to freely pursue their own happiness as long as their actions do not harm others. Such a constitutional guarantee would protect individuals from unjustified state inference with their chosen way of life. But there are many ways in which the courts in Canada have permitted the government to impede individual liberty.

For example, the government may confiscate your property without compensation (R. v. Tener). It can force you to have your photo taken even if it conflicts with your deeply held religious beliefs (Alberta v. Hutterian Brethren of Wilson Colony). It can force parents to educate their children in a particular fashion (R. v. Jones). It can force individuals to pay union fees even if they are not union members (Lavigne v. Ontario Public Service Employees Union). It can punish you for putting certain substances in your body (R. v. Malmo-Levine; R. v. Caine). And it can prohibit you from entering into mutually agreeable contracts with other individuals (Reference re ss. 193 & 195.1(1)(c) of Criminal Code (Canada)).

Raw milk cow share meeting Dec. 5th with Michael Schmidt, farmers and regular folks, in Regina Saskatchewan

Michael Schmidt met today with people in Saskatchewan who are interested in the cowshare approach to raw milk. He sends these pictures from the meeting:

Of course raw milk was an important part of the event!

About the workshops, Michael Schmidt wrote: “Great meeting in Regina. First with over 70 people and then with about 10 farmers discussing cow share Canada. Planning cow share college in the spring.”

Dairies try to force an Illinois farmer to cease farm-gate direct raw milk sales — even though it’s perfectly legal!

Here’s an excerpt from a fascinating and significant post by midlife farm wife Donna OShaughnessy, from Chatsworth, Illinois:

“….Which brings me to our issue with the company who buys our milk, or I should say, the issue our milk company is having with us .To recap, for the last 11 years we have shipped milk to company A. They pick up the milk every other day. On the off days we have several people who buy raw milk from us directly following Illinois State law. They come to our farm with their own containers , fill them and then drink the unpasturized, non-homoginized milk in the privacy and comfort of their own homes. Renegades, all of them. Recently milk company B made an uninvited visit to our farm suggesting we sign up with them as company A was planning to stop buying milk from dairies in our area.

The catch; company B tells us we must sign a statement saying we will not sell raw milk to private customers. Even though it is legal to do so in Illinois. Even though there is not a single proven case of raw milk related foodborne illness in Illinois, even though farmers have the right to sell products from their farm as a manner of making a living. Even though the conventional milk company pays us only 1/3 the price our private customers pay us.