Feds Target Amish Raw Milk Farmer in Sting Operation

The Feds have it out for Amish Farmer Dan Allgyer in Pennsylvania. In fact, according to Grist they conducted "covert operations" on him for some serious law breaking in the form of raw milk distribution, claiming he's violated a federal law by crossing state lines delivering his raw milk.

According to Grist:

As part of its complaint, the agency says it carried out a lengthy undercover investigation to acquire raw milk, and as part of it, "FDA investigators picked up each unpasteurized milk order at various private residences in Maryland."

Does that mean that the Feds are using your tax dollars to go into private residences and seize foods that citizens ordered on their own volition knowing that the milk was raw and for that matter, because it was raw?

According to the Washington Times:

“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.

One D.C. resident and customer of Rainbow Acres has a different perspective:

“I look at this as the FDA is in cahoots with the large milk producers,” said Karin Edgett, a D.C. resident who buys directly from Rainbow Acres. “I don’t want the FDA and my tax dollars to go to shut down a farm that hasn’t had any complaints against it. They’re producing good food, and the consumers are extremely happy with it.”

Raw Milk Safety

I've written on raw milk before. Raw milk is legal in my home state of South Carolina and here it's safe. The SC Health Department runs monthly tests on their raw milk for e. coli, bacteria, and SCC. Johness, TB, and Brucellosis (Bangs disease) is tested yearly.

But you should ask questions to your local dealers to find out for sure because it is not regulated the same way that organic milk is regulated. It is regulated on a state by state basis. Raw milk lovers think that the pasteurization process kills off a good majority of the critical nutrients in milk especially the good bacteria or probiotics. And with the good bacteria in the milk, the bad bacteria has trouble growing. And the dairies that produce raw milk tend to be family farms where the cows are a part of the family, milked daily and producing happy healthy milk like the happy healthy cows they are.

But you can do you own research and you don't need the Feds to step in.