Big Government Has Come for This Small-Town Amish Farmer. Here's How He's Fighting Back.

"They came with a search warrant," softly spoke Samuel B. Fisher, a mild-mannered cattle farmer operating a 100-acre farm tucked away in Virginia's heartland. Fisher's bread-and-butter, Golden Valley Farms, carves out the scenic countryside that's a hop, skip, and a jump away from historic Farmville, a postcard-perfect small Southern town with classical Main Street charm.

The father of five had graciously invited us down to his idyllic pasture to rehash the whirlwind of unforeseen events that unfolded over the cruel summer. It was a tumultuous time on the Fisher farm, an upheaval that threatened to upend the man's livelihood.

"Then, they tagged the meat, so that we can't touch it; we can't sell it; we can't feed our family with it," Fisher told Townhall.

There, we sat in Fisher's office on the periphery of a multi-purpose barn, surrounded by sparsely scattered cardboard boxes of farm-fresh squash situated across the concrete floor and vintage-style empty half-gallon glass jugs labeled with "Golden Valley Farms CHEMICAL FREE A2/A2 Goat Milk" stickers that lined the nearby shelves, awaiting to be filled and delivered statewide.

Moments earlier, upon our arrival, we were greeted by the welcoming committee: a trio of barefoot, dirt-covered kids holding four-week-old kittens, sized smaller than an ear of corn and clutching the children's arms for dear life. One of the young boys, sporting suspenders and a straw hat with an LED headlamp strapped to it, left to fetch his father—whose workdays begin before daybreak at 5:30 a.m. and end past sundown—from the fields. The other boy, his sandy-haired brother in a bowl haircut, asked if we'll "put it on the news." Now, the children were captivated by the camera, gathered wide-eyed around Fisher after dragging a handful of upside-down milk crates over to perch themselves upon. A little girl, draped in a sunflower-colored dress, bobbed in-and-out of frame to wrangle one of the family's dogs, as Fisher hushed her in Pennsylvania Dutch.

The firestorm of Big Government saber-rattling ignited in mid-June when an inspector with the Virginia Department of Agriculture (VDAC), without warning, paid the Fisher family a visit. To date, Fisher has no idea what could've prompted VDAC's impromptu inspection on June 14, except "maybe they just finally found us through word of mouth," the farmer speculated.

What was clear: The state sought to penalize Fisher for selling meat that was not processed by a USDA-inspected facility (U.S. Department of Agriculture).

Fisher processes—an industry euphemism for butchering—his farm-raised meat on-site and sells it directly to his customers, feeding about 500 consumers and their families, who are part of a buying club. As members enrolled in the Golden Valley Farms program, they're buying into the herd of 100% grass-fed golden Guernsey cows.

"They own part of the business. They own some of the herd," Fisher explained. "My thinking was [...] We can butcher their cows, process it, and sell it to them. I told the state all of this, but they said, 'No, there's no way around that. You can't do that.' They asked permission to get in here" to search the farm, which Fisher denied. "And, they told me, 'We'll be back,' and left."

The next day, on June 15, the VDAC inspector did, in fact, return, this time with a Cumberland County sheriff's deputy to serve Fisher a search warrant. "They went through everything, house, every building, in the barn. They just raided through everything, put their nose in everything, and wanted to know every detail of everything. They went out back, trying to find all the failure they can find on a farm, which, of course, some of their stuff, which they think is wrong, is just normal stuff on a farm," Fisher stated.

"I wasn't on the farm at the time" of the full-scale raid that lasted approximately three to four hours, Fisher added.

Then, the state slapped a tag on Fisher's walk-in freezer, placing the meat under "administrative detainment" and declaring that he wasn't supposed to take any meat out of his own storage room. By the weekend, his kids were crying for scrapple, a mush of pork scraps and trimmings characteristic of Amish country, that sat behind the door on Fisher's property that should, otherwise, be open and easily accessible. The following Monday, Fisher "even made a special phone call," asking again, "if that's the way it is." And, as Fisher recounted, the VDAC inspector replied, "Yes, [you] cannot feed your family with it, cannot do anything with it."

There's "nothing illegal" about Fisher processing his own meat and eating it for his own consumption, asserted Mindy, the farm's officer manager, who oversees sales, handles email marketing, and fulfills online orders. "So, he decided he was gonna go and feed his family, and since he would most likely be fined for doing that, he decided to open up meat sales again. Because if he's going to be fined, he's going to be fined, and you might as well do it," she, wanting to go by "just Mindy," stated matter-of-factly.

"Anybody can go and raise animals for their own family to eat. That's where I got to the point: He [the VDAC inspector] crossed the line, so I'm going to cross the line," Fisher stated. "He crossed the line by telling me I cannot feed my own family with this meat. So, I decided I'm going to cross the line, I'm going to sell it. And that's why I didn't honor the state."

"This ain't right," Fisher decided. "We're going to feed our family. We're going to feed our customers [...] We did not honor that tag. We sold some meat out of there, whatever customers ordered. Then, the state came back and saw what we did."

"They really gave me a mouthful for doing that," Fisher said. That's when the state took Fisher to court.

After photographing every inch of the farm, stockpiling pictures as evidence that the Fishers were slaughtering and selling raw meat, which the Commonwealth of Virginia claimed was "mislabeled, uninspected, and possibly unadulterated," the state summoned the farmer to a hearing on July 18 in Cumberland County Circuit Court to try the civil case. At its conclusion, a judge authorized the state to seize and forfeit Fisher's products.

Later that day, the state wasted no time pouncing on the court's order with glee. Within hours, two men backed a U-Haul truck right up to Fisher's door, cleared the premises of Golden Valley Farms meat products, and hauled it all to the dump for disposal.

Fisher was also criminally charged, accused of violating state law, Virginia Code 29.1-521(A)(10). And, on Aug. 3, Fisher was found guilty of "unlawfully possessing, selling, and/or transporting animals," a Class 3 misdemeanor, and forced by a Cumberland County criminal court to pay a fine as punishment.

Though the future is uncertain, Fisher is considering next steps, including consulting with attorneys, if the state seeks to continue targeting him and Golden Valley Farms. Fisher is one of many targets in the government's wars of attrition that drag fiercely independent farmers through shock-and-awe judicial proceedings.

Unsanitary conditions were not found at the farm and no one has ever been sick from the meat. Quite the opposite. Fisher calls the meat "medicine." Customers with allergies and medical conditions claim that their ailments are alleviated when switching to a chemical-free, certified organic diet. Fisher's food appeals to that need.

Backed by a loyal customer base, Fisher has received an outpour of support from consumers, who've written testimonies attesting to the high-quality of his products. Fisher once sold USDA-inspected meat, but that was before the government-mandated shutdowns, when access to the nearest USDA processor became burdensome during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The drive was hours away and the cost was hefty. Plus, the pandemic meant "you'd have to schedule your animals around eight to 12 months ahead of time," Fisher said, making the timing hard to predict. "So that's when the trigger pushed us to do it ourselves [...] We put an addition to the building and made a processing room and we certainly like it now," Fisher stated.

"Amish people—They don't follow the rules. That's the point," Mindy said. "So, it shouldn't be a surprise to somebody that an Amish person is not following the rules. They opt out of everything. They don't send their kids to school. They don't have to be involved in the [military] draft. They don't pay into the Social Security system and they don't receive money from the Social Security system. Why would anybody think it'd be a stretch that he wasn't getting his meat inspected by the government, too?"

"He thought he can do it himself, so why not do it himself?" Mindy questioned. "And, you know, these people that are buying from him, they're choosing to not buy USDA-inspected meat. That's their choice. They're adults. They can make choices like that."

In fact, a survey was sent to Fisher's customers, asking if they'd prefer the meat to be USDA-inspected or processed here himself. The poll came back overwhelmingly in support of the latter—92% of customers wanted Fisher to process on the farm.

Asked why he's become the consumer go-to source for meat over big-box retailers, Fisher responded: "Oh, because it's a huge differs. When you go to the store, you don't know what's in your food." Fisher went on to describe how whole carcasses of animals are often shipped into assembly-line warehouses. Though they're partly rotten and emit a putrid odor, factory workers dip the meat into some kind of preservatives, be it sodium chloride or another nitrate, to manufacture a red, pinkish "fresh look."

"And they send it off to the people. They don't care if people get sick or what happens because you can't track it," Fisher explained. "If you buy stuff from a store, you can't track where it comes from [...] So, that's why I say if you buy food from a farmer, go to that farm, ask the farmer you want to see their animals, you want to see the farm, you want to know where your food comes from. You do have the full rights. Ask for that. If you are not given it, take it as a warning," he advised.

"I want this world to have the opportunity of finding raw real food, because I've seen what you're buying at the store," Fisher said.

They keep forgetting this:

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

There must have been many people served by his food. Why didn’t they gather together in a firing line? What would our forefathers have done? Taking and destroying food? I know the government has an endless supply of money, stolen from the common people, but everything this guy has worked for is taken on a whim. My Gawd people, Americans are no longer Free, because we are not Brave.

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