Feds sting Amish farmer selling raw milk locally

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/

: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.

Sounds like a terrible idea.

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.

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:

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.

Freshness improves the taste of almost everything.

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

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

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

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

Cholera is a perfectly natural and beautiful thing.

Throw the book at them.

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.

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.

instead of wasting their time on terrorism.

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

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."

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.

"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???

that aid in the digestion of milk.

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

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 ...