The Criminalization of Raw Milk -- A Mennonite Farmer is Hauled Away

We still live in a free country, right? (WELL NOT REALLY) It is my choice in which way I want to live or end my life, wether it be: riding without a helmet, driving without a seatbelt, drinking booze, smoking cigars or cigarettes, OR DRINKING UNPASTEURIZED MILK.... I am an informed human being, NOT a servant or employee of any corporation related to UNITED STATES....

Regardless the govt should not be in any of those forms of my choices other than taxing the booze or cigs. (REASONABLY I MIGHT ADD>>>)

Govt involvement in every aspect of your life is called socialism/welfarism....

Good day to you patriots

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Feds launch 'Gestapo raid' over raw milk
Rally planned for farmer whose dairy swept by government
Posted: May 04, 2008
9:24 pm Eastern

By Bob Unruh
WorldNetDaily

A rally has been set for tomorrow in front of the magistrate's office in Mt. Holly, Pa., in support of a Mennonite farmer who has brought the wrath of the government on himself for selling raw milk and other products – an act government prosecutors say violates a number of regulations.

That's when the next court hearing is scheduled for Mark Nolt, a Pennsylvania farmer who turned in his state permit to sell raw milk because it didn't allow for the sale of the other products he offered.

"They swooped in ... like a bunch of Vikings, handcuffed me and stole $30,000 worth of my milk, cheese and butter," he told the New York Daily News.

His case is just an example of what the government is trying to do to those who believe – based on medical results – that raw milk is better for them than the processed milk available in most grocery stores, according to Nolt's supporters.

Processed milk, many believe, leads to clogged arteries, strokes and heart attacks.

According to reports published by the Weston A. Price Foundation, results of a study by the Medical Research Council in the United Kingdom revealed only one percent of the subjects in an ongoing lifestyle study of 5,000 men suffered heart attacks – if they drank full-fat milk and ate butter rather than margarine.

(Story continues below)

"We learned ... that [the] study collected data on 5,000 British men between the ages of 45 and 59 for a period of 10 years. Of those that drank at least a pint of whole milk a day, only one percent suffered heart attacks!" the foundation report said. "Some researchers are already claiming the difference is due to a healthier lifestyle on the part of the milk and butter consumers. Others, however, think that milk and butter may have some yet undiscovered benefits."

Another article in the British medical journal Lancet also noted that children who consumed "farm milk," that is, raw, whole, unprocessed milk, had lower levels of asthma and hay fever.

"Researchers examined the history of allergy, asthma and 'atopic sensitization' or skin problems in 812 children, 319 of whom had grown up with a 'regular exposure to a farming environment' including the consumption of 'farm milk,' that is, raw, whole, unprocessed milk. The remaining group of 493 non-farming children acted as a control. Frequency of asthma was reduced from 11 percent found in the control group to one percent among the farming-exposed children. Similarly, hay fever occurred in only three percent of the farming-exposed children, compared with 13 percent of the controls, and atopic sensitization occurred in 12 percent of the farming group and in 29 percent of the controls," the foundation reported.

According to a blog report on the Cumberland County case in Pennsylvania, Nolt had been under threat of arrest for months, and authorities came for him on April 25.

Jonas Stoltzfus, a fellow farmer and member of the Church of the Brethren, was asked to be a spokesman for Nolt, and confirmed, "Six state troopers and Bill Chirdon of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture trespassed onto his property, and stole $20,000-$30,000 of his product and equipment."

Stoltzfus reported Nolt turned in his state permit to sell raw milk "because it did not cover all the products he was selling. he felt he was being dishonest selling stuff that was not covered by the permit."

Stoltzfus said authorities told Nolt people had gotten sick from eating his food, "but no one ever came forward and no proof was ever offered."

"This is a Gestapo raid," Stoltzfus told the blog report, "complete with state troopers, raiding a hard-working farmer selling milk to friends and customers."

The Daily News reported the farmer's customers were enraged.

"My heart is pounding. I can't believe what a G-- d--- police state this is," one Brooklyn customer told the newspaper. "I gave him $100 last week for a huge delivery of stuff, including raw cream that I planned on using to make cream puffs."

Nolt told the newspaper he didn't feel bound by the government's limits on selling milk.

"The government doesn't have the right to dictate what I eat, and never will," he told the paper.

Stoltzfus compared Nolt to "that little black lady in Alabama who wouldn't go to the back of the bus."

"Mark believes it is his right to sell, according to the constitution, just like it was Rosa Park's right to sit wherever she wanted on the bus," he said.

A blogger who operates under the name The Complete Patient reported the government, in the form of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, had descended on Nolt's 100-acre farm already in 2007.

"Nolt contends that the regulations have not been approved by the legislature and shouldn't apply to him because he is selling directly to consumers, via private contracts that are outside the purview of the state, making a privilege out of a right he believes he has – the right to private contracts," the blogger wrote.

Taaron Meikle, president of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, said Nolt's case has the highest profile right now because of his arrest and pending court case.

"We have a lot of consumers who are drinking raw milk, because of the health benefits," she told WND. "What is happening is truly upsetting.

"Basically, what's happening is farmers are saying they don't want this raw milk permit because it only applies to milk and hard cheeses, not selling butter or yogurt," she said.

"[The government] says it is trying to protect the consumer, but the reality is that consumers are very well informed. They are not making a decision based on ignorance," she said.

She noted the campaign that has been launched called Real Milk by the Weston A. Price Foundation, providing information about milk, its benefits, and any dangers there are.

She said what consumers need to do is get organized and write letters, becoming activists on the issue if they want to avoid processed milk from cows that are genetically altered or fed genetically altered grains.

A case with some similarities also is going on in California, where federal agents have interrogated employees of Organic Pastures Dairy Co. about its sales of raw milk for pet food.

"FDA has gone on the record as 'hating raw milk' in any form," Mark McAfee, president of Organic Pastures, said. "If Organic Pastures is doing something illegal, all FDA needs to do is come and tell us and we will make the necessary changes to our labels and procedures."

Jody N. told WND that Nolt's customers "are in outrage, because they have private contracts with this farmer and their food was stolen."

from a farmer when I lived in
Montana years ago.We just kept the government out of it!Those
aholes don't need to know about
every transaction being made.
They sure as hell don't tell us about all their transactions!

This discussion and comments to it got me very interested in raw milk, so I spend a little time on Google and found some quite useful info.

Specifically in regards to this case, I found a webpage from The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund which gives an extremely detailed account of what happened: http://ftcldf.org/aa-03ma... That page has recommendations on what PA residents and non-residents can do to help. They also request donations to help support Mr. Nolt in this troubling time for their family.

Here's a quote from that web page which many of us here might like:

---quote---
Mark's position is that he has a constitutional right to enter into contractual agreements without a permit, that is to sell raw milk and raw milk products directly to customers.
---end quote---

Something else I found interesting, he preferred to walk home rather than accepting a ride home from the police (after being arrested).

Anyhow, lots of info about this at http://ftcldf.org/aa-03ma...

Here's a TV news report about Mark Nolt's case: http://www.whptv.com/news...

Two other general sites about raw milk:
http://www.realmilk.com/
http://www.raw-milk-facts...

All this stuff about raw milk has me really interested in trying it out to see if I would like it.

Sounds gross. I'm not knocking it cause I know nothing about it. But the word "Raw" just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.. ha, no pun intended :) or maybe it was...

Our acursed government doesn't seem to mind if we are riddled with cancer or riddled with bullets as long as we remain ill informed and don't ask to many questions.
Like, how did mankind survive and thrive, mostly cancer free for ten thousand years before Pasteurization?
How come the pharma free Mennonites are so much healthier than the rest of us?
What if a natural, pesticide free, prescription drug free, organic life style, actually kept you stronger and resistant to diseases of all kinds? (Which it does).
Big Brother is not just unfriendly, they are our enemy, they know it, we are catching on.

They have been doing this in Ohio for a few years now.

A farm in central Ohio was making raw milk and they weren't selling it, but rather people buy part of the herd... kinda like a co-op. They call it a herd share lease agreement.

Ohio put a quick stop to that as far as I remember.

http://www.businessweek.c...

http://www.westonaprice.o...

We must be vigilant, patriots. Al Kay Duh loves raw milk and hates our freedom.

Support the Global War On Terror--only buy pasteurized milk with rBGH and IGF-1. Ask for it by name.

"If we want to live in a free society, we need to break free from these artificial limitations on free debate and start asking serious questions once again." -Ron Paul

The whole story is outrageous, but how can they say "no videos permitted"? I just don't get it that people aren't rioting in the street for this violation of our rights.

It quickly became obvious that not only were they the healthiest children in school but their bones and teeth are much stronger and their skin was much clearer than the other children. Plus, their hair was and still is much thicker than normal.

Years ago I remember being given a book written in either 1918 or 1928 in which science examined both types of milk in a side by side study when Pasteurization first came in to use. In there it pointed out that for this scientific comparison they would raise I believe 80 cats, half on one type of milk and half on the other. Different families of cats where chosen and then split up so that half of each cat family would be raised on one type and half on the other. They examined all of these cats every couple of weeks for I believe three years. What they found was that whose raise on raw milk where hands down much healthier than those raise on milk that had been Pasteurized and Hemogenated. Interestingly, at the end of the scientific experiment they weighted the individual pelts and skeletal structure of each animal. Everyone of those cats raised on Raw milk were found to be much heavier structures and pelts than the other group. In addition, the pelts were far more thicker and attractive looking. When totalled up, the raw milk group weighed up to 35% more than the other group. The report went on to talk about the results of bone strengh testing and many other type tests, and in every one of those tests the raw milk group won by a large margine.

that people can drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes, which we all know cause health problems, but we can't drink raw milk. Why don't the feds raid the liquor stores? A lot more people get sick and die from liquor than from raw milk. Raiding this farmer is an outrage.

http://www.ftcldf.org/new...

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