You have to wonder if the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) has perhaps stumbled onto an international connection in its investigation of the Family Farms Cooperative.
When the case first blew open four weeks ago tomorrow with confiscation of the co-op’s products and searches of farmer Richard Hebron’s home and the Ann Arbor retailer Morgan & York storage area, the word from MDA was the investigation would take "a few weeks." Then last week the word from the Cass County prosecutor, whose territory includes Ann Arbor, was that the investigation would be concluded last week, and a decision about whether to prosecute announced this week. Subsequently, though, Katherine Fedder of the MDA was being quoted as saying the investigation had expanded to include several states and government agencies.
Well, I just spoke with an assistant prosecutor in the Cass County office, and he says the MDA still hasn’t completed its investigation, and the prosecutor has been told to expect that it will take, yes, "a few weeks" before the agency wraps up. It seems there was some miscommunication between the two offices as to how far along the investigation really was when the prosecutor offered his optimistic time line.
In the meantime, Hebron’s computer and business records remain with the MDA. Unfortunately, government agencies are something like universities–"a few weeks" carries a different meaning to them than it does to people who really need to work for a living.
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