BusinessWeek.com followed up on an excellent article posted last month about the targeting of rural raw milk sources by state and federal officials with details of a "raid" conducted earlier this year during a drop-off of raw milk in a Cincinnati parking lot.
Approximately eight FDA agents and four Cincinnati police officers stopped the truck of a Kentucky farmer and began confiscating bottles of raw milk over the loud protests of shareholders. Lawmen tried to force the farmer into a "confession," but the farmer merely stated what he offered to his shareholders and that the milk wasn't pasteurized.
The situation was so traumatic for the farmer that he was hospitalized several times for stress issues. Fortunately, several of the farmer's loyal shareholders took charge temporarily in his place to milk the cows, bottle the milk and drive his product to market, as he recuperated.
As the story goes, Kentucky officials decided against filing charges after a meeting of its Milk Safety Board, not so in Ohio. To avoid a draining legal battle, the farmer opted to plead guilty to labeling and licensing laws and paid a fine. And, the FDA sent him a letter warning about interstate deliveries too.
Amazing that, with all the problems in the world that require somebody's attention, federal officials and local lawmen chose to waste the government's time and our tax dollars ganging up on a rural dairy farmer delivering raw milk, one of the finest sources of calcium available.
BusinessWeek.com November 27, 2006