Dear Friend of Nutrient-Dense Food,

"All truth passes through three stages.
First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer
German philosopher (1788 - 1860)

No one is laughing at raw milk or ridiculing the timeless principles of the Weston A. Price Foundation anymore. In fact, we have learned about a government-sponsored survey which found that at least nine million Americans drank raw milk in 2008; with raw milk consumption growing exponentially, this number is certainly much higher today.

No, now we've moved well beyond that to the second stage of truth — violent opposition. We've seen this shift in the increasing numbers of farm raids and court actions against farmers, cheese makers and even consumer food co-ops.

Fortunately we saw this coming, and had the good sense to provide startup funds for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. The formation of this organization signaled to authorities everywhere, that we weren't backing down. We were leveling the playing field. We would stand by our farmers, collectively providing the funds necessary for skilled attorneys to support them, in and out of court.

That's the purpose of this letter to you — to ask all of you who consume raw milk or purchase healthy foods directly from farmers to donate and become a consumer member (or renew your membership) in the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, so that we can survive the stage of violent opposition until our right to raw milk and other farm foods becomes self-evident.

Thankfully, our efforts are succeeding: our farmers are still standing! Government actions no longer lead to the demise of family farms.

NO FARMER LEFT BEHIND

In the four years since the founding of the Fund, we've seen the role of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund mature into an active support system to relieve farmers of the heavy responsibility of legal defense. We're happy to report the following:

• Not one of the farmers we've assisted has seen a four-hundred-dollar per-hour attorney bill. That's your doing!
• Not one of our farms has gone under after an enforcement action when represented by the Fund. That's your doing!

Some farmers have indeed found themselves on the receiving end of official angst, but the Fund has become adept at ameliorating the trauma, fear and cost. Just a few years ago, these politicized and agenda-driven attacks left farmers traumatized and deeply in debt. Farmers paid attorneys hundreds of dollars an hour to defend them and found themselves distracted from their purpose, that of providing life-giving food.

Today, after paying a yearly $125 membership fee, the farmer members represented by the Fund will never see a bill for an attorney or court costs. The Fund enables farmers to survive these difficult times without the fear of losing the farm and their livelihood.

How is this accomplished? With membership fees and donations, farmers and consumers from all States have pitched in to share the load. In the same spirit as the barn-raisings of the past, your membership fees and donations provide needed funds to help the farmers feeling the heat of enforcement actions.

IT'S NO LONGER JUST ABOUT THE FARMERS

Never in our wildest dreams did we think the Fund would actually have to provide consumers with legal counsel and representation. Consumers, especially those organized into private food buying clubs and co-ops, now find themselves targets for dramatic enforcement actions, and are seeking the shelter of the Fund.

Children, neighbors and students watch dumbfounded as nutrient-dense foods they have purchased through legal means, are removed from the driveways and refrigerators of their family homes and college campuses.

Recently the police along with officials from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) executed a criminal search warrant at the home of Greg and Rae Lynn Sandvig. The Sandvig's crime: using their residence as a distribution point for healthy food. The MDA later notified Rae Lynn that the agency was considering criminal charges against her. The Fund is representing Rae Lynn against this government attempt to create a chilling effect on the food freedom movement.

The Fund is representing consumers on the national level as well. In February 2010, on behalf of six raw milk consumers, one agent for a buyers club, and one raw milk producer, the Fund filed a lawsuit challenging the federal ban on raw milk for human consumption in interstate commerce. The case drew national attention when FDA declared in court documents that "there is no absolute right to consume or feed children any particular food" and no fundamental right to your "own bodily and physical health."

Recently in the lawsuit, FDA made another statement about the degree of control those at the agency believe they have over your lives. According to FDA, even individual consumers crossing state lines to purchase raw milk and bringing the milk back to their home states to consume it are violating federal law. In FDA's view, consumers who have no source of raw milk in their home state are out of luck, even though there are no laws against consuming raw milk anywhere. This spring FDA struck out against consumers in Maryland and the District of Columbia whose only possible source of raw milk is from out of state; FDA filed a petition against Rainbow Acres Dairy of Pennsylvania asking the court to issue an order that would prohibit the dairy from distributing raw milk across state lines.

As its lawsuit continues, the Fund will work to convince the judge of what FDA refuses to acknowledge — it is indefensible to ban a health-giving food in interstate commerce, especially when the agency has allowed so many healthdestroying products on the market.

Thank goodness the Fund was able to expand and provide help to consumers and private food buying clubs. For a special group fee, consumer groups have access to legal support they can't find anywhere else. Can you imagine trying to find an attorney in the yellow pages who would advocate on behalf of food rights, direct-to-consumer sales and raw milk? The Fund's attorneys are uniquely qualified to represent our community . . . because they are raw milk drinkers and Weston A. Price Foundation members too!

ARTISAN PRODUCERS

In addition to helping farmers and consumer groups, the Fund has been there to defend the artisan producer, whose business can be ended by a single product recall or embargo. During the past year the Fund has represented Morningland Dairy, a Missouri farmstead cheese operation, after the Missouri State Milk Board shut down the plant and embargoed fifty thousand pounds of cheese — even though not a single case of illness was attributed to any of Morningland's cheese. Morningland was shut down for positive tests for Listeria monocytogenes bacteria in the absence of proof that the type and amount of L. mono. found is capable of making anyone sick.

The Milk Board has been trying for over the past seven months to destroy the embargoed cheese, an action the Fund has been contesting in court on behalf of the owners, Joe and Denise Dixon.

FOOD SAFETY LEGISLATION

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act which passed last year gives FDA broad powers that it can use against local food producers — the Fund will continue to work to protect our food rights in the face of new regulations. These new food safety laws make the work of the Fund — and your financial support — more important than ever.

HOW THE FUND HELPS

You may know, but it bears repeating, the Fund provides routine, emergency and ongoing legal counsel to farmers, consumers and consumer groups; provides representation in and out of court; prepares cowshare, herdshare and co-op agreements; energizes local grassroots efforts to change legislation; creates easy tools for busy activists with action alerts and petitions; and educates a growing community about food rights issues online and on the air.

The Fund uses our membership fees and donations wisely, even working out of home offices to keep expenses low.

The Fund is there to provide the means to pay the legal bills and court fees. When government enforcement actions hurt the farmer's business, the Fund is there to ensure that the farmer's funds do not go towards litigation.

TOWARDS THE THIRD STAGE OF TRUTH

The Weston A. Price Foundation appreciates your staunch support of the Fund as we struggle to attain that third stage of truth, as we work toward the day when our right to raw milk and other healthy foods will be self-evident.

Please help by becoming a member of — or renewing your membership in — the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Donations in addition to membership fees are greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your attention to this letter and your financial help!

Yours in good health and farm freedom!

Sally Fallon Morell, President      
The Weston A. Price Foundation

P.S. I hope to thank you personally for your support if you can join me at a special event for those who donate $250 or more to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund and RSVP by September 1, 2011 for the Benefactor Appreciation Event at Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia on Saturday, September 10, 2011. For each RSVP you may also choose one of the gifts below.

P.P.S. This year we are happy to offer a choice of gifts to those who donate $100 or more to the Fund by September 1, 2011: Joel Salatin's newest book, Folks, This Ain't Normal, or the long-awaited Farmageddon DVD by Kristin Canty, a WAPF chapter leader.