A federal court has upheld the FDA's ban on the interstate transport of raw milk for human consumption.

The case began with a year-long sting operation of an Amish farmer, Dan Allgyer, that included undercover federal officials entering private consumers' residences. Despite testing the milk repeatedly, the FDA never found any contamination in the milk. Not one person claimed to have gotten sick from the milk. Yet the FDA decided to pursue the case and brought an enforcement action against Dan in federal court.

The FDA sought extremely punitive measures, asking the court to authorize the FDA to inspect Dan's farm whenever it wanted, without notice and charging Dan for the government agents' time. While the court rejected these intrusive measures because the food had not been contaminated, it did side with FDA in granting a permanent injunction forbidding Dan from distributing raw milk across state lines, cutting off a source of healthy food for hundreds of families.

Although the FDA's case was against the farmer selling the milk, the court noted that the FDA's regulation could "plausibly" be applied even to consumers who cross state lines to obtain raw milk, or who "traveled between states before consuming it or sharing it with friends or family members." (Footnote 14, page 8 of the Decision).

Dan has decided to close his farm and stop selling raw milk even in-state. The loss of a farmer who provided food for so many people is a shameful addition to FDA's record of abuse.

It's time for Congress to step forward to stop this, and HR 1830 is the first step in that process. This bill would legalize the interstate sale of raw milk. States would still be free to impose whatever regulations they think appropriate, but the FDA would no longer be able to harass raw milk farmers based solely on the fact that they have customers in other states.

Please help us get this important bill passed!

TAKE ACTION 

1. Send a message to your Congressman by using the online fax petition at www.farmtoconsumer.org/hr1830 

2. Forward this email to all of your friends and ask them to fax their Congressman.

MORE INFORMATION 

For more information on HR 1830 and FDA's campaign against consumer choice, go to  www.farmtoconsumer.org/112Cong-HR1830.htm 

BACKGROUND 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations require milk in final package form for human consumption to be pasteurized, and prohibit the delivery into interstate commerce of unpasteurized (or "raw") milk for human consumption. The consumption of raw milk is legal in all 50 states, while the sale of raw milk for human consumption is legal in 28 states.

Consumers are increasingly seeking out raw milk as a natural, unprocessed food. Consumers in states where raw milk cannot legally be sold (although it can legally be consumed) are seeking sources of raw milk from neighboring states. For example, consumers in Georgia buy raw milk from farmers in South Carolina, while consumers in New Jersey and Virginia seek out Pennsylvania raw milk farmers.

FDA has threatened enforcement and taken action against both farmers and buyer's co-ops across the country for allegedly violating 1240.61 and 131.110(a). Below are a few recent examples. There was no allegation that the raw milk had caused any illnesses in any of these cases.

• FDA spent a year in an undercover sting operation on an Amish farmer, Dan Allgyer of Rainbow Acres in Pennsylvania. Agency employees lied about their identity and joined local buying clubs. They picked up raw milk from private residences - again, concealing their identities - and sent the milk to be tested. Despite nearly a dozen tests, not one sample showed any contamination. Despite the fact that this clean milk had not made anyone sick, the agency ultimately raided Dan's farm in May 2011. In February 2012, the FDA obtained an injunction in federal court to prevent Dan from distributing raw milk across state lines in the future.

• FDA officials, together with officials from five other local, state, and federal agencies raided the Rawesome Food Club, a private buying club in Venice, California on June 30, 2010. Police accompanying the various agency officials entered the store with guns drawn. The officials confiscated 17 coolers of food including raw milk and raw milk products, even though the warrant stated that they could only take samples. This year, the government raided Rawesome a second time on August 3 with FDA officials again participating in the raid. Government agents seized almost the entire food inventory at the store, dumping out all the raw milk on the premises without any court order to do so. The store manager, a farmer supplying the store, and an administrator for the farmer who did nothing more than take orders and disseminate information for the farmer, were each charged with multiple felonies alleging violations of state food and dairy laws.

• An FDA agent participated in the dumping of over one hundred gallons of impounded raw milk belonging to members of a Georgia food buying club, which had been legally purchased from a licensed South Carolina dairy in October 2009. The primary agency in that action was the Georgia Department of Agriculture, but the FDA official present at that time told the buying club's agent that even an individual consumer cannot legally cross state lines to buy raw milk and bring it home under 1240.61 and 131.110.

In all of these cases, there was no allegation that the raw milk had caused any illnesses or was contaminated in any way.

It's time to tell FDA to focus on real threats to public safety - the consolidated, industrialized food system - and to stop interfering with direct farmer-to-consumer transactions.