Posted on 04/22/2010 2:54:13 PM PDT by EllenMarie
Kinzers, PA-At 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday April 20, Amish farmer Dan Allgyer went outside to begin milking his small herd of dairy cows. On the normally quiet Kinzer Road in front of his farm, just a few miles from the Nickel Mines Amish massacre of 2006, several unfamiliar vehicles drove slowly past. Two months prior, on February 4, FDA agents had trespassed on Allgyer's farm, claiming to be conducting an "investigation." Allgyer had suspected they would be back at some point, because many other small dairy farms around the country have been similarly treated by the FDA. Following is Dan's account of Tuesday morning's events:
I became aware of the cars as soon as I walked out on the sidewalk as part of my morning routine around 4:30 a.m. and immediately said to myself something is going on, there is too much traffic on Kinzer Road. I was watching and noticed three cars were cruising down Kinzer Road right behind each other, and immediately thought, hey, that looks like trouble. I watched and pretty soon one car came back and parked on my neighbor's farm, on private property, just as the FDA agents had when they came on my property in February; it was exactly the same place.
A couple minutes later, the other two cars pulled up and joined the first on my neighbor's property, where the occupants appeared to be in conference with one another. Shortly after that, they turned their headlights on and drove in my lane - this would have been at about 5:00.
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. They all got out of their vehicles - five men all together - with big bright flashlights they were shining all around. My wife and family were still asleep. When they couldn't find anybody, they prepared to knock on the door of my darkened house. Just before they got to the house I stepped out of the barn and hollered at them, then they came up to me and introduced themselves. 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. Agent Joshua C. 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."
They wanted me to answer some questions, my name, middle initial, last name, wanted to know how many cows we have on the farm. I answered those questions and some more. Finally, I got over my initial shock and said I would not be answering any more questions. They said O.K., we'll get on with the "inspection."
I went to go talk to my wife. As I walked away, they held a quick excited conversation and I heard one of them say, "I'll take care of him." At that point, apparently, they had designated one of the marshals to stick close to me and dog my footsteps. He followed me as I walked toward the house. I went in the house quickly and told my wife a few words to let her know the situation, then immediately came back out of the house before the marshal had time to follow me in. When I came back out, they were inspecting all the coolers sitting out. They spent about a half hour digging through the packed coolers filled with milk and other food - all private property - taking pictures.
At one point during the cooler inspection the state trooper said to me, "You have a nice farm." I responded, "We're trying to be sustainable, but they don't want to let us."
While they inspected the coolers, I read the warrant. Among other things it said that any search was to be conducted "at reasonable times during ordinary business hours." When I exclaimed, "Ordinary business hours!" and pointed this out to the marshal who was dogging me, he said, "Ordinary business hours for agriculture start at 5:00 a.m." I challenged him that the warrant does not say agriculture hours, it said ordinary hours. He replied, "That's what the government told us."
Then they started looking around, as though in search of something in particular. They went up to one door that had a clear No Trespassing sign on it, specifically including government agents, and they did not go in the room, though they shone their flashlights around in it. Then they asked me, "What is on the other side of the door in that [same] room?" Agent Joshua Schafer asked this. I looked him in the eye and did not answer. When they saw I was not going to answer, the other FDA agent said, "Okay, come on," to agent Schafer, and they went into the room and through the closed door on the opposite side. I had another one of those signs on my walk-in cooler adjacent to my freezer, so they went through that door also. They spent probably another half hour rooting around, like a couple of pigs, in the freezer and cooler area and took many pictures.
When they came out, they asked me where I keep my containers and jugs for milk, and I refused to tell them. I figured they could look for themselves. Then they were walking all over the farm, checking everything out, everything except the house. Agent Joshua Schafer even opened my dumpster and inspected inside it, as though he thought I was hiding something in it. At that point I went and started milking my cows - it was way past milking time.
When I was just about done milking, Schafer and the other agent came in the barn and wanted me to answer some more questions. I told them I would not. The second agent said, "Are you gong to deliver those coolers to Bethesda and Bowie Maryland?" I just looked at him. Then Schafer made a gesture and said, "The stickers with those towns names are on the coolers," as through to say, you might as well tell me.
I replied, "I told you I won't answer any questions." After that they said, "We are done for today. You'll be hearing back from headquarters."
Then they got in their car and left. The state trooper and the marshals had left already.
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 they first question they asked my wife was, "Is Daddy going to jail?" THE NEXT MORNING Allgyer received an overnight, extremely urgent Letter of Warning from the FDA stating that "Failure to make prompt corrections could result in regulatory action without further notice. Possible actions include seizure and/or injunction."
ACTION: Please call and write the number and address below. Express yourself. Tell them that you support Dan Allgyer. If you drink fresh, unpastuerized milk tell them that. Tell them that more people every day are drinking fresh milk and this is going to increase. It's not going to stop no matter how many farmers they persecute. Tell them the government has no placebetween individuals and the farmers from whom they get their food.
Philadelphia District Office Serves Delaware and Pennsylvania. Food and Drug Administration U.S. Customhouse Second and Chestnut Streets, Room 900 Philadelphia, PA 19106 (215) 597-4390 8:00a.m. - 4:30 p.m. (Eastern time)
Yours for real food freedom, Deborah Stockton, Executive Director National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association (NICFA) nicfa@earthlink.net http://www.nicfa.com
Our purpose is to promote and preserve unregulated direct farmer-to-consumer trade that fosters availability of locally grown or home-produced food products. NICFA opposes any government funded or managed National Animal Identification System
Exactly. That's what regulatory agencies do. They love to send out what they call "regulatory letters."
I think it's not unusual to hear nothing from them again. But once a year they go up to Congress and brag how many they sent out, followed by a request for another billion of our tax dollars.
are Amish people allowed black powder firearms? IIRC the range on a Sharps 50-120 was pretty good.
YEs I know. Then when they shoot the dogs you have PETA on your side, CASE CLOSED!
I’d bet they haven’t thoroughly checked out what growth hormone does either.
LOL...it’s a farm in maryland. My mother lives there, according to her they’ve built working centers(not sure what they are called)for the illegals. So they have a place to go while they wait from someone to pick them up for work.
If you think it is bad now.
See: HR2749 FDA Food Takeover
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2406579/posts
To look at the bill, click on the header with HR2749.
Look at how your congressmen in your state voted on this monstrosity.
It passed the House, but has not passed the Senate.
This is an awful power grab by the FDA.
Regulation of food is stated to be about public health, but it is really about CONTROL.
So don’t drink it. But allow others to make the choice for themselves.
I'd drink it straight from the cow, if she'd let me. ;-) Good stuff.
The milk processing monopolies don’t want any competition.
You cna’t get strep throat from raw milk. Unless some strep carrier spit in your glass when you weren’t looking.
My mother fed me unpasturized milk when I was a baby.
I’ve been drinking raw milk since I was 3 days old. The only thing I’ve ever gotten from it is strong bones.
‘I got really bad strep throat from it, which spread to my sister.”
Ok I wont ask how it spread to your sister. ;)
Its safer to pasteurize it, but the govt is treating it like its anthrax or something.
LOL I got into it with OSHA to the point of a shouting match over some forms we did not fill out and I work for another federal agency! He even threatened me which is not a good idea.
She probably would..most of the time. But, as old bossy is wont to do, every once in a while, she'd kick you in the head.
One kicked my grandmother in the arm and broke it. But as soon she got the cast on, grandma was back out there milking her. Probably gave her a few good whacks first though, just to remind Bossy who the real Boss was. :) .
Yes, there is a legitimate risk from this, and I think it gets heavy focus from regulators because milk is so often given to infants and toddlers, whose immune systems aren't well-eveloped yet, and who are thus more likely to suffer severe harm from a milk-borne infection.
I think it's reasonable for the federal government to prohibit interstate shipment of raw milk across because 1) the Constitution does give the federal government the right to regulate interstate commerce, 2) no state government has formally objected to this federal law (and in this particular case, it appears that the farmer is shipping into Maryland, creating a violation of Maryland law re raw milk, so the FDA is in effect helping uphold Maryland's sovereignty as well), and 3) this federal law does not prevent any person from legally obtaining raw milk if they want it. Dairy cows can live in any state and supply demand within that state, to the extent state law allows it (and especially with raw milk, it's a heck of a lot safer to purchase it locally, so as to minimize the additional bacterial growth that may occur during a more extended transit time, and more hand-offs from dairy to distributor, to subdistributor, to retailer, to consumer, each with a potential for partial loss of refrigeration.
I would have a much bigger problem with the federal government prohibiting interstate commerce in something that cannot reasonably and practically be produced in every state (e.g. something requiring a major investment in manufacturing technology, that can only be profitable if manufactured and sold in quantities larger than most states' separate markets for it). But as for raw milk, anyone who wants it and is having trouble getting it, should take up the matter with their state government.
Nope, the key here is the isolated low-tech farm and family. No power, no witnesses, no threat.
And probably what your dentist would call an excellent extrusion.
Easy on the inuendo there man!
Most likely a moose bit his sister.
When I was 17, I seriously broke by leg and my doctor said he’d never seen bones heal that quickly.
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