Regulators usually like to lie low in the midst of a major investigation, foregoing extensive comment to the media. Not Katherine Fedder, the Michigan Department of Agriculture official who is overseeing the investigation of the Family Farms Cooperative and its farmer-manager, Richard Hebron.
She’s all over the place, and each time she describes the investigation, it becomes larger than the time before, and more significant in its implications.
In an interview yesterday with a Michigan public radio station, she said that the MDA is "cooperating with several other states as well as a couple of federal agencies." Last I heard, this investigation had extended to one other state–Indiana–because the farmer who produces the co-op’s milk is based there. And also last I heard, the investigation involved one federal agency, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which sent agents to inspect the Indiana dairy.
In another interview, published by the Michigan Land Use Institute, Fedder was quoted at some length about the implications of the investigation. It seems now as if the cow share plan the co-op members used to lease cows and thereby obtain regular raw milk distribution is not at issue. Rather, Fedder is concerned about bigger issues, like Mom and apple pie, er, raw milk. "My biggest concern has always been a mother who goes into the store and grabs something she didn’t intend to grab versus a person with a high degree of knowledge of what they’re consuming and the choice theyre making," she said. So she seems to be saying it’s okay for people to drink raw milk, if they know what they’re doing, and she’s out to protect the ignorant. But it’s the retail connection that appears to bother her most–the distribution of raw milk from the storage area of an Ann Arbor food and wine establishment.
It’s hard to say where this is all headed. She’s supposed to submit a report about the investigation to prosecutors today. In the meantime, I can only wonder about the other federal agencies she’s involved in addition to the FDA. Maybe the FBI? CIA? Army? Navy? Marines?
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