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UDDERLY
RIDICULOUS

Feds tight-lipped about raid on milk
farm

'The investigation is ongoing'

Posted: April 23, 2010
11:15 pm Eastern

By Bob
Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

Federal agents are being tight-lipped about a 5 a.m. raid on a
Pennsylvania milk farm, where law-enforcement officers accompanied FDA
inspectors to meet a single farmer trying to milk his cows.

WND
reported Thursday on the farmer's description of being served with a
warrant for a federal inspection of his private farm.

Today, a spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration responded to
WND requests for comment that had been submitted Thursday.

Agency spokesman Michael Herndon declined to release information on
what alleged violations were discovered at the family-farm operation.

"The investigation is ongoing," he wrote in his response e-mail.

And asked about what evidence there was of illegal activities, he
wrote, the FDA "found cause to conduct an inspection at the farm."

What was the purpose?

"FDA, working with information from the Pennsylvania Department of
Agriculture, was investigating whether the farm was delivering into
interstate commerce, selling, or otherwise distributing raw milk in final
package form for human consumption," he wrote.

Asked why the inspection was done at 5 a.m., he responded, "Routine
inspections at agriculture sites can begin very early."

And law-enforcement officers were sent with the milk inspectors, he
wrote, because the farmer previously refused to allow an inspection.

The federal agents invaded the Amish farm at 5 a.m. on Tuesday to
inspect cow-milking facilities, then followed up the next day with a
written notice that the farmer was engaged in interstate sale of raw milk
in violation of the Public Health Services Act.

A failure to correct the situation could result in "seizure and/or
injunction," the warning letter from Kirk Sooter, district director of the
Philadelphia office of the Department of Health and Human Services, told
farmer Dan Allgyer of Kinzers, Pa., on Wednesday.

The farm invaded Tuesday is the one agents
visited in February, driving past "Private Property" signs to demand
Allgyer open his property for their inspection, saying, "You have cows.
You produce food for human consumption."

The case is being publicized by the
National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, which promotes
traditional methods of linking farmers with consumers.

Spokeswoman Deborah Stockton told WND Allgyer "is the type of farmer
who exemplifies what we are trying to restore." On her organization's
website is the commitment "to promote and preserve unregulated direct
farmer-to-consumer trade that fosters availability of locally grown or
home-produced food products."

She reported she got details directly from Allgyer of Tuesday's
early-morning inspection, which highlights the growing conflict between
farmers who want to provide health food locally and federal
regulators.

Allgyer could not be reached immediately for comment.

(Story continues below)

The farmer told the association he came out of his house about 4:30
a.m. for his milking routine and noticed a lot of traffic on Kinzer Road.

Shortly later, the cars were coming up his lane.

"I stood back in the dark barn to see what they were going to do. They
drove past my two 'Private Property' signs, up to where my coolers were,
with their headlights shining right on them," Allgyer reported.

He called to the five men as they were preparing to knock on his home,
where his wife and family remained asleep.

"Two were from the FDA, agent Joshua C. Schafer who had been there in
February and another. They showed me identification, but I was too
flustered to ask for their cards. I remember being told that two were
deputy U.S. marshals and one a state trooper. They started asking me
questions right away. They handed me a paper, and I didn't realize what it
was," he said.

"Schafer told me they were there to do a 'routine inspection.' At 5:00
in the morning, I wondered to myself? 'Do you have a warrant?' I asked,
and one of them, a marshal or the state policeman, said, 'You've got in
your hand buddy.' I asked, 'What is the warrant about?' Schafer responded,
'We have credible evidence that you are involved in interstate commerce,'"
the farmer reported.

Allgyer said he confirmed his identification but then said he wouldn't
answer anything further.

He said he questioned their arrival at his farm at 5 a.m. when the
warrant clearly stated it was for "reasonable times during ordinary
business hours," but one of the agents said "ordinary business hours for
agriculture start at 5 a.m."

The agents spent their time "rooting around, like a couple of pigs, in
the freezer and cooler area and took many pictures," Allgyer reported.

"They came in the dark, shining bright flashlights while my family was
asleep, keeping me from milking my cows, from my family, from breakfast
with my family and from our morning devotions, and alarming my children
enough so that the first question they asked my wife was, 'Is Daddy going
to jail?'" Allgyer said.

The subsequent warning letter was an all-inclusive notice that federal
regulations prohibit "the delivery into interstate commerce of milk and
milk products in final package form for direct human consumption unless
they have been pasteurized."

"It is your responsibility to ensure adherence with all requirements. …
Failure to make prompt corrections could result in regulatory action
without further notice," the letter said.

The letter directed Allgyer to notify Compliance Officer Richard Cherry
of the corrections.

Stockton warned the requirement now is for federal agents to claim they
have "credible evidence" regarding a case, but a proposed federal change
would strike those words in the law and replace them with "reason to
believe."

"The phrase 'reason to believe' would be inserted 14 times into the
code with S. 510," she said. "If this bill goes through, the FDA will have
control of farms. They will not need 'credible evidence' to act. They will
essentially be given a free hand to act as they want. And look at how they
already act, even with the existing constraints in place."

Allgyer previously had told the officers that as a private farmer, he
does not sell to the public.

Advocates say raw milk is healthier.

According to natural-foods blogger Kimberly Hartke, Kevin Trudeau touts
raw milk in his New York Times best-seller "Natural Cures They Don't Want
You to Know About," and Sally Fallon Morell's cookbook, "Nourishing
Traditions," which has sold 350,000 copies.

On
a forum page at Chronwatch-America.com, a participant concluded, "The
food produced on that farm is probably far safer than anything you get at
the grocery store."

That
opinion was endorsed on the Food Freedom blog, where one participant
wrote, "Factory foods are the ones making people sick & getting
recalled."

The Weston A. Price Foundation, which is among the nonprofits that
educate consumers about more natural food-production methods, said demand
for such products is growing.

"Raw milk … is a supremely healthy food that should be available to
those who want it," said Morell, the foundation's president.

In
January, Canadian farmer Michael Schmidt won a court victory when he
was found not guilty of selling raw milk to members of a cow-sharing
consortium.

In
a previous U.S. case, Mennonite farmer Mark Nolt of Maryland had his
farm raided by SWAT-type agents. He was fined more than $4,000 and had his
equipment confiscated for providing unpasteurized milk to participants in
his program.

Special offers:

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Reclaim
your health!

Previous stories:

Feds
invade farm for 5 a.m. inspection

Judge
sides with activist in raw milk dispute

Feds
mooove against farmer – for having cows!

Farmer
cleared of 'raw milk' charges

Society
soiree to benefit embattled dairy farmer

Farmer
fined $4,000 for dealing raw milk

Feds
launch 'Gestapo raid' over raw milk

Plan to
call fruit juice 'drug' delayed

Feds eye
control of vitamins, supplements – even water!

Food
supplements targeted by trilateral deal

Civilians
could be facing mandatory anthrax shots

China-made
blood thinner killing Americans?

3
companies indicted for poisoned pet food

Is China
trying to poison Americans and their pets?

Bob
Unruh is a news editor for WorldNetDaily.com.

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Friend

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