If you’ve ever had cockroaches in your kitchen, you know that when you arrive home in the evening and turn on the lights, they all scurry for the cupboards and baseboards. Maybe later they emerge into the bathroom or bedroom. (That seemed to be the routine in my New York City apartment some years ago).
That’s certainly how the FDA and its state agriculture regulator lackeys seem to operate.
The glare of publicity and a torrent of email protests in Michigan and Ohio seemed to turn them into more reasonable people, at least for a while. Suddenly, Michigan’s Department of Agriculture was willing to try to work out a solution to the Richard Hebron bust. And in Ohio, a state judge scolded the Ohio Department of Agriculture for harassing a raw milk farmer, and eventually the state’s new governor called a halt to the ODA’s effort to fight the court case, in effect allowing cowshare arrangements.
Well, now the regulators have emerged in other places, like New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Utah. Maybe it’s time to turn the heat up on these people. Let them know we are unhappy about their ongoing efforts to deny us the freedom to consume the foods we want to consume—basics like milk, butter, and kefir.
But farmers also need to be willing to stand up and fight. Some farmers are understandably intimidated by the regulators, and figure that by being quiet, the regulators will go away. I’m afraid it doesn’t work like that.
One place to start is by supporting Chuck Phippen, the New York farmer I quoted in my Sunday post, who has decided it’s time to go public and express his outrage about harassment by agriculture officials. You can send a message by going to the contact section of the department’s web site, or write directly to the commissioner, Patrick Hooker, at this address (I believe): patrick.hooker@agmkt.state.ny.us.
To the extent that regulators hear from unhappy buyers and sellers, the regulatory harassment may ease. I realize that’s not a long-term solution, but it at least begins to let these people know their actions are being monitored.
One description of a ‘tax revolt’ stated, "Without money, the government could do nothing but talk." Of course any rational person knows there is no such thing as "the government"; ultimately, there are only individuals who think and act. It is individuals, not some nebulous concept of "government", who harass, threaten, fine and imprison these farmers. But without the gun of the law on their side, they would be powerless tn enforce their edicts upon others.
Herdshares in Ohio are still a bit precarious as we only have a single favorable court decision and it’s my understanding that a change in the PMO banning herdshares could be directly adopted into the state’s administrative rules. We would then need to file suit against the ODA, which would be expense and time-consuming. We’re hopefull that the bills in the Ohio House & Senate allowing on-site raw milk sales and herdshares will pass, which will put us on a much sounding footing. Many of our state farmers are still reluctant to come out into the open for fear of exposing themselves to continuing harassment, so we urban & sub-urban raw milk consumers have been doing much of the heavy lifting with the farmers remaining in the shadows.
YES! That’s a tremendous insight. Also, if the final product was the indicator, ingenuity in finding better, more efficient means of production would actually be encouraged. But then, of course, regulators would lose a measure of power and control.
I’m very sensitive to this because in medical care, regulators like Departments of Health and agencies like the Joint Commission routinely apply controls that step well over the boundaries of clinical decision-making. That sort of thing tends to homogenize service (not good!) and does so by bringing the bottom end up slightly, and the top end down dramatically.
Thanks for the thought.
As for what Dave said about regulators: I work at a hospital that was designated as a "top 100 Solucient facility". This seemed pretty meaningless to me as an employee, but management had posters plastered all over the grounds and building and seemed euphoric over it. When the Joint Commission came this spring, they didn’t seem to like this at all and gave us very low scores. Couldn’t help but think part of that was because they didn’t like another "evaluator" horning in on their turf.