Posted on 09/02/2012 4:47:26 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A trial that has become a symbol, in Wisconsin and across the U.S., of government criminalization of farmers for providing food directly to consumers has been rescheduled for January.
But the delay from the previously scheduled September court date is expected to focus even more attention on the dispute that has dragged Wisconsin dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger to the court’s defendant’s table in the Sauk County Circuit Court, presided over by Judge Guy Reynolds.
The state’s case against the Loganville farmer has him accused of four misdemeanor counts of violating Wisconsin’s food and dairy code.
Officials with the Farm to Consumers Legal Defense Fund said Hershberger will be represented by the fund’s attorneys in the case, which already has created ripples across the industry.
In Wisconsin, while the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection “once supported farmers who offered raw dairy through direct-to-consumer sales,” officials said the state agency reversed its position under pressure from the Food and Drug Administration.
When the state legislature tried to block the newly developing crackdown on farmers who provide their products directly to consumers, the governor vetoed the proposal.
That leaves Hershberger facing the January trial on the four misdemeanor counts. He will be represented by Elizabeth Rich, the vice president of the fund, and a Wisconsin attorney.
“Hershberger has been charged with operating a retail food establishment without a license,” explains the fund, “operating a dairy farm as a milk producer without a license and violating a holding order issued by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection. The holding order prohibited anyone from removing food products from coolers that had been taped in Hershberger’s farm store.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
I thought this was going to be about the new civil unions law in Brazil
Nanny State PING!
I wonder if this might end up at the Supreme Court. It might help in Wisconsin if the cows all belonged to a Union and had the mafia protecting this mis fits from selling milk direct.
It’s those damn Amish troublemakers again.
New addition to the Democratic Convention platform.
The peasants must not be allowed to purchase food that has not been adulterated by ADM.
Government mandated middleman. Job creation, doncha know.
This case represents the Nanny State at its worst and most officiously intrusive.
The next "marriage" push.
The title sounds like marriage in homotown.
There’s little economic clout to oppose such nannydom, unfortunately. Most are aware of the ubiquitous warnings on US restaurant menus about undercooked meat, eggs, and seafood. Well those warnings are what was left after American restaurant associations fought back tooth and nail against an outright Federal ban on serving such food that hadn’t been assessed (at great expense, per strict government protocol) for micro-organisms. Can natural milk dairies push back with this sort of vigor? They don’t have the clout that restaurants do. Warnings might be in order, but phooey on these bans.
A long time ago, these crazy dudes we call the Founders had this really neat idea about Freedom, and all the Freedoms Liberty contained.
One of these was the Right to private contract.
Now and the government that was originally to be based in Liberty has become the oppressor.
[sigh]
Not many Amish in Sauk County. I was born there and to the dismay of the gov., drank raw milk daily.
There are a lot of Amish there now. I grew up in Baraboo but live in SE Monroe county now.
Is it wrong to look forward do the day a bureaucrat looking to make an example of a citizen gets made an example of in return?
Why is it I’m never called to serve on a jury for a trial like this. I’d nullify this stupid law and have the defendant out of the courtroom in time for lunch.
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