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Action Against Raw Milk in Michigan and Indiana
Dear Members,
The purpose of this Alert is to provide you with information on the
current situation regarding raw milk in Michigan and Indiana. We have
delayed sending out this Alert so that we could give you with accurate
and complete information. The situation changes daily as more information
becomes available.
This is an Information Alert, not an Action Alert. We will advise you
about writing letters and other forms of action when we have a better
idea of where best to direct our efforts. Elected officials are currently
campaigning for the upcoming elections and charges have yet to be filed
against either of the farmers involved. So it is best to put off a concerted
letter-writing campaign at this time.
MICHIGAN
On October 13, 2006 the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) executed
a sting operation against Richard Hebron and the Family Farms Coop (FFC),
a private membership farm cooperative with about 1,000 members in Michigan
and Illinois. Michigan state police and MDA agents pulled Hebron over
on his way to his weekly Ann Arbor distribution site and served him
a search warrant for the contents of his truck. Agents seized 450 gallons
of raw milk, 29 quarts of fresh cream, 11 quarts of kefir, 4
quarts of buttermilk, 9 quarts of yogurt, and 29 pounds of butter,
Hebron's cell phone, and invoices for that day's distributions. Agents
refused Hebron any calls during the four hours he was in their custody.
At the same time Hebron was stopped on the road, officers served Hebron's
wife Annette with a search warrant on their farm and seized their computer,
all cow share records, cow herd release agreements, rolodex, invoices,
current order sheets, product sheets, delivery schedules, and all raw
dairy products in storage on the farm.
In an affidavit left with Annette Hebron, an instance of illness among
children of one of the member families was documented as impetus for
the investigation. The illness had occurred in April, six months earlier,
but did not actually involve consumption of raw milk at all. The family
had missed the previous week's milk delivery and had purchased commercial
milk from a grocery store. Three days later all children had become
violently ill with gastrointestinal symptoms. The mother's casual remark
to their doctor about the family also drinking raw milk led to the notification
of the county health department, and then the department of agriculture.
No investigation into the actual cause of the children's illness has
ever been made.
MDA planted a "mole" in the group last May, who signed a
lease
agreement after being refused purchases of milk and who subsequently
obtained various products through the lease agreement between May and
October 2006. It was noted in the warrant that the milk was tested by
the Michigan Department of Agriculture on more than one occasion. The
tests
confirmed that the milk was raw and of very high quality. At this time,
there are no charges pending investigation.
INDIANA
In a related incident, on October 20, agents from the Indiana
Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
visited the farm of an Amish dairy farmer and member of the Family Farms
Coop in Middlebury, Indiana. Agents gained permission for an inspection
of the dairy by threatening to return with a search warrant and the
state police if refused. Agents returned on Monday, October 23 with
an affidavit of the inspection and interview details for the farmer
to sign, which
he refused. Agents indicated that the farmer and Mr. Hebron were violating
codes of commerce by crossing state lines with a finished food product.
WHAT WE ARE DOING
A number of groups have sent out emails to elected officials and
Department of Agriculture officials in both states, and they have been
flooded with faxes and letters. We ask that if you do write at this
time, please keep your letters respectful and polite. Many officials
are sympathetic to our cause, and we don't want to turn them off with
inflammatory language.
The Weston A. Price Foundation is working with both farmers to help
find good legal representation and to formulate an effective legal strategy,
and we are standing by to help with legal bills as necessary.
Updates on the case will be posted regularly at www.familyfarmscoop.com
where there is information on how to contribute to the Hebrons' legal
defense fund.
For further updates on this situation, visit the site of David Gumpert,
a raw-milk friendly reporter with Businessweek.com:
www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/
oct2006/sb20061025_806210.htm.
Heather McDougall has kindly offered to serve as the contact person
for any farmers who encounter similar incidents in Michigan, Indiana
or any other state. She has set up a Yahoo group to keep tabs on this
situation at
. She can be reached at (734) 320-3722 or
.
While this situation may seem discouraging, it's helpful to reflect
on other emergency situations we have encountered elsewhere-in Colorado,
California, Washington, Virginia, Ohio and other states-all have had
positive outcomes and I am certain that this situation will result in
a positive outcome as well.
Sally Fallon
President
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