I first met
Vernon Hershberger in 2010 when this mess of milk began.
I was moved to find a farmer who raised
organic food for his family and for his co-op of local growers and consumers.
Vernon has a small shop on his land in the heart of Wisconsin and I do mean
small, but full of the best the human body can obtain to sustain life. Vernon
pays his taxes, commits no crimes, has a firm belief in God and just wants his
family to grow up as peace-loving citizens who do good deeds for others.
Vernon and
his family are Mennonites in Loganville, Wisconsin, just west of the quaint
town of Baraboo. For those who haven't had the privilege of ever visiting
Baraboo, the town hasn't changed much since it was a hippie colony in the 1960s
and '70s. The area is known for hiking, fishing, camping and everything else
the great outdoors has to offer. Mennonites in the area are good farmers. The
main difference between Mennonites and the Amish is electricity and engines.
Vernon
raises his milk cows and cattle in an organic way but uses modern tools to
accomplish his tasks. His boys and girls work in the fields, barefoot. Vernon
raises organic cows from organic birth lines. He doesn't even inoculate his
cows for disease. Because he has so few, he says they never get sick.
Vernon's
dairy cows produce healthy raw milk. Some people join his co-op just for the
milk that gets delivered across the state. Many clamor for its health benefits
and its part in keeping disease and illness at bay. Vernon even puts milk that
may be spoiled back into his land to create more grass for his cows to eat.
Yes, good farmers feed their cows grass, as was intended, not given corn to get
fat. Vernon uses no growth hormones or antibiotics and his land is pristine.
And yet at
the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, Vernon is
a wanted, evil man who is circumventing state law by operating a dairy without
proper licensing. You see the Dairy State only believes in pasteurized milk,
milk altered by temperature to ensure no e-coli is present. About half the
states in the U.S. ban raw milk sales.
Wisconsin took issue with
that and raided Vernon's farm in the summer of 2010. They taped his
refrigerators shut and acted as if his organic grocery was a crime scene. The
incident, in which Vernon was held at gunpoint in his living room in front of
his young family, was captured on video and has been used in two different
YouTube presentations for all the world to see.
This is how Vernon's camp
describes the incident.
"On
June 2, 2010, representatives of the DATCP conducted a raid at the Vernon
Hershberger farm. DATCP agents intentionally destroyed nearly 300 gallons of
fresh milk by pouring blue dye into the bulk tank, claiming the milk was
'adulterated and misbranded' — even though there was no logical, factual, or
scientific basis for this conclusion. The milk was unpasteurized, as is all
milk on all farms that is stored
in bulk tanks. The agents then placed a holding order on all
the fresh, wholesome food in coolers on the property, most of which belonged to
members of the Hershberger’s private buying club, and some of which belonged to
the Hershberger family. Mr. Hershberger then faced a serious dilemma: allow the
wholesome, perishable food to go to waste while he engaged in lengthy
administrative wrangling with DATCP or allow the rightful owners of the
property to take it from the coolers.
"Mr.
Hershberger followed his conscience and allowed the owners to retrieve their
food. Vernon Hershberger’s religious principles prevented him from standing by,
while nutritious food rotted."
After the raid, Vernon
went back to selling raw milk and everything else good for you. The state took
a lot of heat from the public.
Vernons's wife miscarried that fall, about the same time the state submitted
a report for possible prosecution. No agency, state or county, immediately
followed up with four state charges for operating a dairy withou proper
licensing.
The state came after him
with the full force of the law. He was booked, jailed and told not to sell. Despite
a mandate from state court that inspections of his farm be allowed by the Wisconsin
Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), Hershberger
turned away three state officlas at his farm on Feb. 9. The refusal of access
is in direct violation of the court order issued the week prior at a county
hearing stating the Hershberger must abide by the following, "No impeding,
obstruction or interference with any Department of Agriculture, Trade, and
Consumer Protection (DATCP) inspection."
The bold move was captured
on video and aired on YouTube.
That only made his group
of supporters stronger. Now they plan to use a First Amendment defense to say
his religious freedoms were violated by his abiding by God's law to not waste
good food, or in this case, milk.
The state
said Hershberger can not sell any food products without a proper license. He
claims he is not a business but rather a group-owned co-op. He says he is just
the caretaker of the animals and the land. The state also said he may not
manufacture or process any dairy products, nor sell any without a proper
license. The state said he also may not have anyone else operate his farm or
work in any room or building on his property. To that order, he has remained
defiant. His workers are the owners of the cows, he says.
He fights
on with a defense team sponsored by donors and thousands of people across the
country pledging their support. There is much more at stake here than just Raw Milk Rights.
The drama continues Monday, March 18, with a First Amendment Rights hearing in
Baraboo at the courthouse. The previous hearings were supported by a large
gatherings of supporters from around the country.
Hershberger
will argue that his religious beliefs prevented him from challenging the DATCP.
This is what Hershberger says is his right on this Earth. "Scripture
contains the following admonition in Matthew 5:38-41: '… And if any man will
sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And
whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.' The Bible teaches
that we should not be aggressors in court actions by suing people or filing
counter claims (“cross bills”, below), even though it is possible by course of
law to force off the coat from a man's back. We are not to marvel at the
matter, but, in such a case, rather than go to the law by way of revenge,
rather than exhibit a cross bill, or stand out to the utmost, in defense of
that which is our undoubted right; rather we are to let him even take our cloak
also. If the matter be small, which we may lose without a considerable damage
to our families, it is good to submit to it for the sake of peace. It will not
cost us so much to buy another cloak, as it will cost us by course of law to
recover that; and therefore unless we canst get it again by fair means, it is
better to let him take it.
“Thus,
Scripture requires me to avoid initiating conflict. I cannot be the aggressor
in a lawsuit. I could not request the hearing provided by the administrative rules
and referenced on the State’s holding order even though the findings of fact in
the order were incorrect, because it would have been tantamount to suing the
State and would have violated this Scriptural prohibition on initiating
conflict."
With few exceptions,
Wisconsin prohibits the sale of raw milk to the public because it may contain
bacteria that cause food-borne illnesses. But raw-milk advocates have
repeatedly pressed for state legislation that would legalize the sales.
There was a bill to
legalize sales in Wisconsin in 2010, but then-Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed it when it
came to his desk, succumbing to a powerful dairy lobby that usually wins in
Dairy Land.
The FDA alleges that dairy
products are among the top contributors to food-borne illnesses and that raw
milk is the most dangerous. Dairy products ranked second to leafy vegetables,
resulting in 1.3 million illnesses and 10 percent of food-borne-illness deaths
from 1998 through 2008. Dairy products reportedly accounted for the most
hospitalizations, 16 percent, followed by leafy vegetables, 14 percent,
poultry, fruits and nuts. But a CDC study published a year ago claimed the rate
for disease outbreaks caused by raw dairy products was 150 times higher than
for pasteurized milk. That study said that milk consumption was responsible for
121 disease outbreaks, causing 4,413 illnesses, 239 hospitalizations and three
deaths from 1993 to 2006 - and that raw milk products were the cause of 60
percent of the outbreaks.
Laarge dairy farmers say
one of the biggest arguments against legalizing raw milk sales has been the
damage that could be inflicted on the state's $26 billion dairy industry should
there be an illness outbreak.
The Food
and Drug Administration has the power since 2011 to decide if food or drink is
harmful, with credible evidence or not.
Farmers
with children who drink raw milk report fewer illnesses. Others swear by its
benefits even to risk contamination.
Organic
milk, although processed, contains valuable CLAs that corn-fed cows lack and
provide better absorption of Vitamin D.. But drinking raw milk now is regarded
as an alternative lifestyle, something dangers, yet precedes pasteurized milk
by thousands of years.
What
constitutes a family farm also is under dispute in Wisconsin. Vernon
Hershberger, who owns and operates Grazin' Acres in Loganville, can't form a
co-op of people with like minds and tastes.
If you pay a yearly "lease" fee to be part of the co-op, your
money goes toward ownership of a cow. Therefore, you are part-owner of the farm
and entitled to raw milk. You can also work on the farm to keep costs down.
Who, exactly, are they hurting?
What should be a
simple task, selling raw milk to his neighbors, has made Vernon famous, fame he
did not seek.
Who loses?
Small farms and people who like and benefit from raw milk. What we all are losing is our right to
consume what we want.
If, indeed, we truly seek less
government intervention in our lives, then people should be able to consume a
product they feel is safe. Raw milk is not cocaine. It is not a drug that needs
to be regulated. People who purchase raw milk do depend on the local farmer to
give it to them without e-coli in it and have to live with their choice if they
get sick. People know the supposed dangers and choose to buy raw milk for
themselves and their children.
Our right to choose is being
desecrated by more government and powerful lobbies. The rural areas of
Wisconsin are dominated by old right-wing republicans who claim they want less
goverment interference, and yet, they attack a Mennonite and his family.
Are there no better ways to spend
taxpayer money than to go after a Small Farmer and his merry band of raw milk
drinkers? What's next, a wanted poster of Vernon milking a cow?
See www.vernonhershberger.com for
more info.
