Feds sting Amish farmer selling raw milk locally

[Liberal_in_LA]

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.

The product in question: unpasteurized milk.

It’s a battle that’s been going on behind the scenes for years, with natural foods advocates arguing that raw milk, as it’s also known, is healthier than the pasteurized product, while the Food and Drug Administration says raw milk can carry harmful bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria.

“It is the FDA’s position that raw milk should never be consumed,” said Tamara N. Ward, spokeswoman for the FDA, whose investigators have been looking into Rainbow Acres for months, and who finally last week filed a 10-page complaint in federal court in Pennsylvania seeking an order to stop the farm from shipping across state lines any more raw milk or dairy products made from it.

The farm’s owner, Dan Allgyer, didn’t respond to a message seeking comment, but his customers in the District of Columbia and Maryland were furious at what they said was government overreach.

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

[TheWraith]

1. Dammit, we've got the right to sell shit that makes people sick!

:eyes:

And yet some people defend this because it's "natural," even though if a major conglomerate were knowingly doing something which had no health benefits, and made people sick, the same people would tear them to shreds.

[Paradoxical]

2. Wait, why is raw milk healthier? Do they want to die?

Sounds like a terrible idea.

[Recursion]

7. It's safer than, say, spinach

Pasteurized milk isn't particularly safer when fresh, it just stays safe longer. There's also an argument that pasteurization kills beneficial bacteria; I'm agnostic on that, but the stuff tastes damn good.

[TheWraith]

8. It's not healthier.

At least, there isn't scientific evidence to suggest that it is--just the "primitive is better" belief that also tells us going without childhood vaccines is also preferable. :eyes:

[Recursion]

11. I've heard the health arguments and am agnostic

That is, I'm sure pasteurization does kill beneficial as well as harmful bacteria, but I have no framework for doing a cost-benefit analysis there.

I drink it because it tastes ridiculously good.

[TheWraith]

19. Pasteurized milk would taste that good too, if you got it fresh.

Freshness improves the taste of almost everything.

[Recursion]

21. I've done the Pepsi challenge on this

I can taste the grass in raw milk and not in pasteurized milk.

[housewolf]

15. Delete - wrong place

[Ian David]

3. I have no problem with ADULTS drinking the stuff.

IMHO, make it legal for anyone over the age of 18, but make it illegal to give it to a minor.

[Ian David]

4. Also, let's do away with things like plumbing, soap and hand-washing.

It's more "natural" to just shit in a bucket and dump it out your window and into the street.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

13. Hey! That's how the Founding Fathers did it!

Who are you to say you're better than George Washington?

Cholera is a perfectly natural and beautiful thing.

[Modern_Matthew]

5. Let people sell and consume what they wish. Just make them aware of the risks via labels. nt

[mwrguy]

6. Religious fundamentalism does not excempt one from following health laws.

Throw the book at them.

[Recursion]

9. Most people get around this with cow shares

You buy a share of a cow and get a portion of its milk; it's totally legal to drink your own cow's milk. As I understand it there's a question here whether or not that is what this setup was doing.

[csziggy]

14. Yes but being a big corporation does seem to exempt one from the laws

I wouldn't object if the same diligence in relation to the size of the organizations and the amount of foods sold were taken for products from large corporations as is being used against these small, "organic" and "natural" foods farmers. The corporations do not get an equivalent level of oversight even though their "mistakes" endanger far more people and have the capacity to do millions more in damages.

I am not an advocate for raw milk, organic products or those claimed to be health foods but it seems as though there is much more money spent for the size of the impact they have than is warranted.

[smirkymonkey]

10. I'm glad they're finally going after those fiendish Amish people

instead of wasting their time on terrorism.

[jmowreader]

18. They need to go after those fiendish Amish people...

being as the Amish run a lot of the puppy mills in the US.

[TorchTheWitch]

12. He was NOT selling it locally

He was selling it across state lines all the way in Washington. Says right there in your OP that the complaint was about him selling it across state lines and NOT locally...

"...seeking an order to stop the farm from shipping across state lines any more raw milk or dairy products made from it."

[housewolf]

17. Is he "shipping across state lines" when the customer s come to him

Buy their product and take it home with them, wherever their home might be?

I don't know the legal definition of "shipping across state lines" but it seems to me, to my sensibilities, that the dairy farmer isn't doing any shipping at all; rather people are coming to him by their own accord, purchasing the product and taking it home with them.

[TorchTheWitch]

23. what part of this do you not get?

"It is the FDA's position that raw milk should never be consumed," said Tamara N. Ward, spokeswoman for the FDA, whose investigators have been looking into Rainbow Acres for months, and who finally last week filed a 10-page complaint in federal court in Pennsylvania seeking an order to stop the farm from shipping across state lines any more raw milk or dairy products made from it."

Just how much more clear does it need to be???

[housewolf]

16. Some say that important enzymes are dactivated by the pasteurization process

that aid in the digestion of milk.

But I've never had it, so don't really know.

[KittyWampus]

20. I actually think this should be a state decision.

[NashVegas]

22. Milk Pasteurization Is the Law Because of Abuse

You have to look at the conditions before regulation in the early 20th century, when mass producers were basically, knowingly, selling filth.

Be careful what you wish for ...