Feds sting Amish farmer selling raw milk locally

[Patriot]

Feds sting Amish farmer selling raw milk locally
Cite interstate commerce violation
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times


A yearlong sting operation, including aliases, a 5 a.m. surprise inspection and surreptitious purchases from an Amish farm in Pennsylvania, culminated in the federal government announcing this week that it has gone to court to stop Rainbow Acres Farm from selling its contraband to willing customers in the Washington area...

..."I look at this as the FDA is in cahoots with the large milk producers," said Karin Edgett, a D.C. resident who buys directly from Rainbow Acres. "I don't want the FDA and my tax dollars to go to shut down a farm that hasn't had any complaints against it. They're producing good food, and the consumers are extremely happy with it."

Full story: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/28/feds-sting-amish-farmer-selling-raw-milk-locally/

[Lookatmeknow!!]

Ok, my opinion about this is this is crap!! That's just like saying don't eat the eggs that your chicken produces unless you examine them like the big companies do. Holy Terror!! What is the government doing?? If the people want to drink raw milk that is their choice, and if they get sick they have no one to blame. Man, enough said!!

[flintauqua]

I'm just going to make one short comment on this.  What if the FDA or any other federal food inspection service (federal because interstate commerce is involved) had turned a blind eye, allowed this to continue, and listeria or ecoli or some other pathogen made its way into the milk and caused injury to, or killed, one or more of the consumers. 

Wouldn't the cry then have been "why didin't the government do something to prevent this?  We have laws in place to keep this from happening, why weren't they enforced?"

[srkruzich]

I'm just going to make one short comment on this.  What if the FDA or any other federal food inspection service (federal because interstate commerce is involved) had turned a blind eye, allowed this to continue, and listeria or ecoli or some other pathogen made its way into the milk and caused injury to, or killed, one or more of the consumers. 

Wouldn't the cry then have been "why didin't the government do something to prevent this?  We have laws in place to keep this from happening, why weren't they enforced?"

Actually thats what the civil law is for, if your product causes harm, you sue them.

[Lookatmeknow!!]

I see your point on that. But they are not being forced to drink or buy the milk. If the people were putting it in stores on shelves to sell then the feds have a right to complain. What about at farmers market you go and buy farm fresh eggs, or even canned goods, are not the ones that buy these items the ones at risk for those things??? Feds have no control onver farmers markets do they?

[srkruzich]

The simple fact is the feds are out to destroy any business that produces without regulation.  Look at Morningfresh farms where they were forced to recall all of their cheese after one of those fed raids where they found a block of their cheese being sold and it was tossed into a container and stored improperly.  It was tested like several months later and found to have something wrong with it.  How can you test months after the siezure of a refridgerated product and say a company isn't in compliance.   Morningfresh farms tested at their own expense all of their cheese and it tested pure no contaminantes but the state of Mo and feds forced them to destroy their product. 

Feds do not care about food safety.  IF they did they wouldn't waste their time on farms that are compliant.  They only go after those who get big enough to prove that you can put out raw foods safely

[Ross]

i was raised in a large poor family and if a farmer would not have given us raw milk i would probably have never had milk period.
As I grew older and visited an unoum.cle that milked his own cows I got the treat of my life. Chocolate milk with fresh farm cream on it, yum.

What the fed is doing is very wrong in my opinion. I'd like to have some of that milk right now. My bet is those people are cleaner than the big guys.

[srkruzich]

i was raised in a large poor family and if a farmer would not have given us raw milk i would probably have never had milk period.
As I grew older and visited an unoum.cle that milked his own cows I got the treat of my life. Chocolate milk with fresh farm cream on it, yum.

What the fed is doing is very wrong in my opinion. I'd like to have some of that milk right now. My bet is those people are cleaner than the big guys.

When my cow and goats are fresh, i drink it raw and creamy!  No other way. In fact i can't stand the crap they sell in the stores.  I end up throwing out more than i use as it is nasty.   I have buttermilk from my cow that i made last summer before she dried up.  i keep it full just by adding pasturized.   Makes some of the best dang bisucits or pancakes ever!

[redcliffsw]

Some might think it better to get sick or die consuming Federally approved food.

[Diane Amberg]

You've missed the point. PA allows the sale of raw milk and raw milk products like cheese from farms that have a PA permit to do so. Rainbow Acres is a totally organic farm that also sells organically raised beef and pork. Anybody can eat their own products, the rub comes when you sell it. PA has very tight standards for raw milk herds...must be proven by a licensed vet inspection to be TB and Brucellosis free and the animals' drinking water has to pass a ppm test for bacteria and viruses and the milking equipment must be cleaned in water that passes the same test. The milk must meet certain refrigeration temperature standards for keeping the milk cool.     
   Rainbow Acres got in trouble when they were transporting across state lines into Maryland.They have no MD license to sell raw milk there in unmarked jugs and containers. As far as I know MD does not allow the sale of raw milk at all. That's how the fed got involved, interstate commerce. States have the right to control the permitting and safety of the food they allow to be sold in their state. I grew up in Chester County right in the middle of dairy country, mostly Guernseys with some Holsteins, and some Jerseys and Brown Swiss here and there. My best girlfriend's Mom sold the extra milk from their one family cow, but had to have a PA raw milk permit to do it. She could not have transported it into Delaware to sell it.