Amos Miller is an Amish dairy and meat producer in Lancaster County, Pa. He’s been hassled by the state in past, and on Thursday state food authorities “illegally” raided his quiet farm and took away 37 boxes filled with his products. Amos reportedly hadn’t filed the proper signed documents in abeyance to the state health and safety regulators.
What’s the real story here?
BREAKING: State Troopers conducting search on Amos Miller’s farm in Lancaster County, PA. pic.twitter.com/4ibZPxfI0U
— The Lancaster Patriot (@TheLanPatriot) January 4, 2024
Amos Miller offers his organically grown and chemical-free cheeses, meats, raw milk, and eggs through a private club. His products are not sold in stores. His private club is thriving, thanks in part to the cheerleading of his attorney Robert Barnes who often urges people to sign up to Amos’s club to get clean, organic, and fresh products.
Miller has been on the state regulators’ radar for the past few years. Seven years ago, a smattering of his products had been cited for contamination. Miller’s supporters say this is a steady pressure campaign by state and federal regulators to put him out of business.
The Acting Director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Food Safety swore out an affidavit which was used to get a search warrant. Barnes says that “the state unlawfully obtained a search warrant, based on materially false statements in an affidavit.” He said the acting director has a “known grievance against independent farmers like Amos, and, after the raid and finding no evidence of wrongdoing, then illegally ordered detained every item of food in one of Amos Miller’s coolers, including buffalo meat not even subject to federal regulation.”
Barnes said that the state “without notice, raided Amos’ farm, and detained everything Amos had in the farm’s freezer. They did so in a lawless manner, without appropriate authority, in violation of their own rules and regulations, despite never objecting to the prior resolutions reached with the federal government, and despite a complete failure by the state to even reach out to Amos’ known counsel.”
Barnes said the raiders broke the law because they ignored “the state’s own rules require advance notice, reasonable time frames for inspections, and a showing of credentials, none of which occurred here.” Indeed, he says taking Miller’s products was “patently illegal under Pennsylvania law.”
The Lancaster Patriot local newspaper says the affidavit was done at the behest of “the [acting director] NY state Department of Health [which…] confirmed positive case of a foodborne pathogen (STEC – Shiga toxin producing E. Coli) in an underage individual.”
The affidavit claims that Miller has not completed the application process through the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture for “registration, licensing, or permitting under the pertinent Retail Food Facility Safety Act, Food Safety Act, or Milk Sanitation Laws.”
That sent even Donald Trump, Jr. into fits.
Imagine what law enforcement could accomplish if they went after oh I don’t know, say, members of elite pedophile rings rather than farmers selling to their neighbors???
Can I be the only person sick of this shit? https://t.co/uDLFZlRVWO
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 5, 2024
There is an indisputable rush in this country – especially during and after COVID-19 – to eat cleaner, grass-fed, food products without drugs. Getting this food is often done with subscriptions to farms. This is what Amos and many other farmers do for a nation of people who want cleaner food. In fact, I’m currently looking for a meat supplier to go with my home-grown organic vegetables and legumes.
People can’t help but wonder if there’s a pressure campaign against these farmers to control the food supply.
In the video below a reporter asks, “If we don’t have the freedom to decide what to put into our own mouths to nourish ourselves and our children, what freedom do we have left that means anything?” He adds, “How much confidence do you have in the U.S. track record for responsibility, for precision, for competence, and then ask yourself ‘is this the body you want making the decisions for what you eat and what your children eat?”
These are excellent questions. I would add, however, that basic regulations can be good and necessary things, but as a liberty lover, this attack on the organic farmer in Amish country is getting heavy-handed, to say the least, and, if Barnes is right, illegal.
I say this as a person who knew and grieved with a family who lost a child due to the cavalier defiance of food safety laws at a fast food restaurant. And I say this as the mother of two daughters who actively seek out cleaner food for their families.
Big Food isn’t always the answer, you know.
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