Amish farm under threat from U.S. federal govt for refusal to abandon traditional farming practices

[nett]

Citric acid is used to slow the growth of bacteria in meat. Synthetic citric acid is produced by fermenting the fungi Aspergillus niger and has been used in food preservation since the 1920’s. It’s widely used as a preservative because it is safe. Since it’s derived from fermentation, calling synthetic citric acid an “industrialized chemical” is misleading. It’s not poison.

All of this legal tussling began with tainted milk and a listeria outbreak that killed a Florida woman in 2014, so it’s not like the USDA is coming down on Miller without reason.

There was no outbreak in Florida. a woman with aggressive stomach cancer died in the hospital, and the CDC decided it was a listeriosis.

According to who?

The woman's family.

[Josh]

Even the best run dairies can still have high bacteria counts and have to fix it or dump milk. Inspectors come around and check the milk, milk is tested when picked up by milk trucks etc. Mastitis in counts adds to it, just the fact that you have cows and manure even in milking parlors and even tho cows are cleaned before milking and equipment is sanitized after each milking session. It happens. So maybe it is a good thing that there are inspectors checking on the milk and conditions. It happens and easy to go unnoticed. And this is not only HUGE operations- small ones too.

Except we aren't talking about a dairy; we're talking about someone raising animals and slaughtering them.

[Ken]

Even the best run dairies can still have high bacteria counts and have to fix it or dump milk. Inspectors come around and check the milk, milk is tested when picked up by milk trucks etc. Mastitis in counts adds to it, just the fact that you have cows and manure even in milking parlors and even tho cows are cleaned before milking and equipment is sanitized after each milking session. It happens. So maybe it is a good thing that there are inspectors checking on the milk and conditions. It happens and easy to go unnoticed. And this is not only HUGE operations- small ones too.

Except we aren't talking about a dairy; we're talking about someone raising animals and slaughtering them.

According to his web site he produces and sells a whole variety of dairy products.

[Josh]

Even the best run dairies can still have high bacteria counts and have to fix it or dump milk. Inspectors come around and check the milk, milk is tested when picked up by milk trucks etc. Mastitis in counts adds to it, just the fact that you have cows and manure even in milking parlors and even tho cows are cleaned before milking and equipment is sanitized after each milking session. It happens. So maybe it is a good thing that there are inspectors checking on the milk and conditions. It happens and easy to go unnoticed. And this is not only HUGE operations- small ones too.

Except we aren't talking about a dairy; we're talking about someone raising animals and slaughtering them.

According to his web site he produces and sells a whole variety of dairy products.

Yet that's not the question here. (PA has a regulated, legal raw milk scheme, and the FDA and USDA don't have jurisdiction on intra-state raw milk sales.) The question at hand is about slaughtering meat, and for some reason the FDA/USDA think they have jurisdiction over intra-state activity.

[Ernie]

Anybody in the US, (citizen or not) is allowed to buy an animal, and have it butchered wherever he/she chooses in whatever manner he/she chooses, correct?

No (unless you butcher to yourself). Some states and counties have local food laws like in Maine and Ohio, though, but this conflicts with federal law.

Here in PA, people are allowed to take any animal, pork, beef, venison to a butcher shop and have it butchered and processed. However if the meat is packaged by the butcher shop, which many do, it has to be labeled, "not for sale". Hubby is a hunter and we always get a butcher shop to process the deer and have it vacuum packed and frozen. Packages are clearly labeled "not for sale". That way if people do sell any of it, it clears the butcher shop from any violations. I would assume this is the general rule in most states.

Yes, having lived most of my life in PA, this is what I understood to be the case. Do the other 49 states allow this as well?

[Josh]

Ohio has a state-run program that regulates slaughterhouses and does inspections for meat for sale only within the state. They also allow "custom" butchering, which means you can take your animal there and get it slaughtered, but the package is labelled "not for sale".

[Szdfan]

Bovine TB is a thing in the third world, and it is somewhat different than TB from a human source. IF milk is not the vector, what is? If you undo regulation, will you continue to have well kept farms and healthy animals? Most of us city folk can’t visit the farms that produce our food.

Perhaps you should. I visit the farm I get my milk from, for example, in order to make sure I'm happy with how they're treating their animals and so forth.

And perhaps those of us who do should be exempt from having to put up with laws set up to ensure giant, filthy commercial operations can continue to sell their half-poisoned food to urbanites who "can't" visit the farms that produce their food.

It doesn’t count unless you milk the animal yourself. Yuppie.

[Szdfan]

No (unless you butcher to yourself). Some states and counties have local food laws like in Maine and Ohio, though, but this conflicts with federal law.

Here in PA, people are allowed to take any animal, pork, beef, venison to a butcher shop and have it butchered and processed. However if the meat is packaged by the butcher shop, which many do, it has to be labeled, "not for sale". Hubby is a hunter and we always get a butcher shop to process the deer and have it vacuum packed and frozen. Packages are clearly labeled "not for sale". That way if people do sell any of it, it clears the butcher shop from any violations. I would assume this is the general rule in most states.

Yes, having lived most of my life in PA, this is what I understood to be the case. Do the other 49 states allow this as well?

Colorado has similar laws. We purchased half a cow a couple of years ago and received the meat after it was butchered. That’s legal. Selling the meat individually is not.

[ohio jones]

I visit the farm I get my milk from, for example, in order to make sure I'm happy with how they're treating their animals and so forth.

It doesn’t count unless you milk the animal yourself. Yuppie.

The local almond milk farm has a self-serve option.

[JohnHurt]

Ernie,

We sign a waiver for the government (and to protect the sellers) when we buy raw milk that the milk will only be used for animal consumption.

So you lie? Great idea for a christian.

J.M.

Exodus 1: (15) And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah:

(16) And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

(17) But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.

(18) And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?

(19) And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.

(20) Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.

(21) And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.

I fear God. God blesses me because I fear Him and keep His Commandments.

Who do you fear?