Florida Raw Milk Needs All of Your Help |
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| October 10 2005 |
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October 10, 2005 Message from Sally Fallon: We are very grateful for how our members have responded to urgent situations, such as submitting testimony to the FDA on soy (almost 500 of you!) and sending letters to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture when they were considering banning raw milk (your letters helped turn the situation around.) This Action Alert requires response from as many of you as possible, so please email or fax to the numbers given below. Your help for Full Circle Farm could mean the difference for hundreds of families and children in the state of Florida, and ultimately in other states. Thank you for your support of small farmers and Real Milk! BACKGROUND Dennis Stolzfoos, a Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader and farmer who owns Full Circle Farms in Live Oak, Florida is under attack from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS). The Division of Food Safety (DFS), a branch of FDACS, has filed two administrative complaints against Full Circle Farm alleging numerous violations of the Florida Food Safety Act (FFSA). Unless FDACS withdraws the complaints, a hearing will be held before an administrative law judge within the next few months. Should the judge find Dennis guilty of the charges against him, he faces potential penalties of a prison sentence and thousands of dollars in fines. Full Circle Farm is a small farm not open to the general public that sells raw dairy products, eggs, grass-fed meats and other health-giving foods, primarily to Weston Price chapter members living in west and central Florida. While sales of raw dairy for human consumption are prohibited under Florida law, sales of raw dairy for pet consumption are legal if the seller has a commercial food registration certificate issued by FDACS. Having the certificate enables its holder to also sell meat for pet consumption and conceivably almost any other food as well. Full The legal issues involved in Dennis's fight against the Division of More important than this particular legal issue, FDAC versus Full The public policy of the State of Florida is to eliminate the small Florida is a bellwether state. What happens there can have an impact in what goes on in many other states. Dennis has been a tireless worker in fighting for the freedom to farm and in making it possible for the consumer to have access to the health-giving foods they want to purchase. WHAT YOU CAN DO Please email, fax or call with the following message: 1. Tell FDACS and DFS to stop harassing Full Circle Farm and to drop the administrative complaints against it. A stated purpose of the FFSA is to "safeguard the public health." Ask FDACS and DFS how they are accomplishing this by prosecuting a farmer who has never had a customer file a single complaint against him. Not one. 2. Urge the Florida legislature to pass farm-consumer freedom-of-choice legislation exempting cowshare and farmshare programs from the burdensome regulations of the FFSA and the Pasteurize Milk Ordinance (which Florida has adopted). Say those regulations shouldn't apply when consumer are knowledgeable about the producers of their food and obtain their food directly from them. Say that consumers have a right to obtain these 3. Provide your own individual story about how farm fresh foods have contributed to improved health for yourself, your families, and especially for your children. CONTACTS 1. Charles Bronson, Commissioner of Agriculture 2. Joanne Brown, DVM Commissioner of Agriculture 3. Dr. Marion F. Aller, DMV, DABT 4. Representative Ralph Poppell, Chairman 5. Representative Dwight Stansel, Vice Chairman 6. Senator Rod Smith, Chairman 7. Senator Larcenia Bullard, Vice Chair 8. Govenor Jeb Bush |