Miller Farms fined

[Judas Maccabeus]

https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/ ... bc61b.html

If he's still got raw milk that's been in storage since that raid it's well past time to destroy it.

And shipping it interstate. Ewwww…….

[R7ehr]

Pretty long USA Today article https://www.yahoo.com/news/amish-farmer ... 10126.html

As a follower of the carnivore diet, holistic skincare specialist Danny Neifert largely avoids grains and veggies and subsists almost entirely on meat, which she says makes her feel sated and healthy.

To round out her meals, though, she supplements with dairy — or, more specifically, with unpasteurized milk, cheese and ice cream that she's carefully sourced from an Amish farm more than 1,500 miles away. A styrofoam box loaded with these raw milk products arrives on her Colorado doorstep most months, each package costing her more than $100 in shipping fees.

It’s worth the price, she says.Like many customers of Pennsylvania farmer Amos Miller, she believes his dairy is so wholesome that it's a kind of medicine, bearing little resemblance to the nutrient-poor, lifeless foods that dominate American grocery stores.

And it's delicious, she says. She talks about the “notes” she tastes in Miller's raw milk, as if describing a fine wine.

“You just feel like there’s this symphony going on,” said Neifert, who said she learned of the Amish farm through her acupuncturist.

I thought this history was interesting.

The state filed a lawsuit to halt Miller's unregulated raw milk operation and fine him for violating food-safety requirements. As the case winds its way through the courts, a judge ruled Miller can continue to ship his products out-of-state to members of his buyers club, though he can't sell them in Pennsylvania.

Miller has something of a family legacy of defying authorities and landing in legal trouble, according to his lawyer. Decades ago, before the Supreme Court allowed Plain people to stop schooling kids at the eighth grade, Miller’s grandfather was jailed “over the Amish right to educate their children in their own way,” a court brief explained.

The grandson is refusing to secure a state-required raw milk permit, in part because the Amish generally avoid state licensing systems, argues Miller’s legal counsel. (Some Amish farmers do hold raw milk permits in Pennsylvania.)

Raw tub of butter helps nerves!

Chronically ill customers said Miller's milk, kefir and cheeses were a major source of sustenance to them — that they’d finally found products they could keep down and digest after years of struggling to put on weight. For some who'd long experienced food as a source of stress or discomfort, the farmer's spicy pepper jack cheeses and rich creams had restored the pleasure of eating.

Customers swore Miller’s dairy cured their allergies, bloating, morning sickness, brain fog, insomnia, rashes, depression and restless leg syndrome. One man said it healed his chipped tooth.

A North Carolina woman wrote that, after a drunken driver smashed into her vehicle on the highway, she was able to calm her rattled nerves by retrieving Miller’s raw butter from her wrecked car and eating it straight from the tub.

These claims are not supported by scientific evidence, which has not found raw milk is significantly more nutritious or easier to digest than pasteurized dairy.

However, raw dairy aficionados are devoted, sometimes traveling hours to pick up Miller’s products.

His products account for half or even three-quarters of some people's diets. Customers described drinking a gallon of unpasteurized milk each day instead of water or downing a concoction of six eggs blended with nearly a pound of raw butter.

But these romantic visions contrast with the stark realities of the barnyard, experts say.

“You just got people with rose-colored glasses on,” Marler said. “That bacteria can’t exist if it’s a local farmer who feeds their cow grass.”

Reitzig also says some people have idyllic views about the Amish and can jump to assumptions about their product quality and the values and ethics embedded in their farming practices.

With all the publicity he's attracted by flouting the government, Miller — like many prominent figures in the MAGA movement — has faced accusations that he's a bit of an opportunist. Far from being a simple farmer, he's actually a shrewd businessman with sprawling assets, his detractors say.

Court documents show that he bought a $1.45 million farm at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, that he co-owns a Virginia farm purchased for $2.5 million and that he has a $200,000 line of credit.

Reitzig also points out that Miller has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations for his legal costs over the years and argues there’s little transparency about how these dollars have been used.

So, Miller's critics contend, his battle against food inspections and regulation isn’t about making some principled stand against government overreach.

They say it's more about money.

[Ken]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/amish-farmer ... 10126.html

The state filed a lawsuit to halt Miller's unregulated raw milk operation and fine him for violating food-safety requirements. As the case winds its way through the courts, a judge ruled Miller can continue to ship his products out-of-state to members of his buyers club, though he can't sell them in Pennsylvania.

Miller has something of a family legacy of defying authorities and landing in legal trouble, according to his lawyer. Decades ago, before the Supreme Court allowed Plain people to stop schooling kids at the eighth grade, Miller’s grandfather was jailed “over the Amish right to educate their children in their own way,” a court brief explained.

The grandson is refusing to secure a state-required raw milk permit, in part because the Amish generally avoid state licensing systems, argues Miller’s legal counsel. (Some Amish farmers do hold raw milk permits in Pennsylvania.)

So basically Pennsylvania is doing its job to regulate milk production and sale within the State of Pennsylvania. But Pennsylvania doesn't have jurisdiction over Miller's actions in California or Florida or any other state. So that is the loophole or regulatory gap that he uses to ship raw milk to other states.

Miller could do raw milk sales in Pennsylvania as well but simply refuses to do the paperwork and obtain the permits to make his operation legal in Pennsylvania. And this refusal is for some inexplicable and unarticulated reason. He clearly does interact with the state when it comes to other regulatory issues. For example, I guarantee he has obtained proper tile to his farm and other properties and properly filed the paperwork and deed with the county courthouse or local recording office. I'm sure he pays his property taxes as well or his farms would eventually seized and foreclosed on to satisfy the tax debt. And if someone else just decided to start farming on and occupying his property he would no doubt avail himself of the government and government-issued documents to assert his ownership claim to the land. So I personally don't find the refusal to interact with the state to obtain the proper milk permits to be very persuasive.

[JohnH]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/amish-farmer ... 10126.html

The state filed a lawsuit to halt Miller's unregulated raw milk operation and fine him for violating food-safety requirements. As the case winds its way through the courts, a judge ruled Miller can continue to ship his products out-of-state to members of his buyers club, though he can't sell them in Pennsylvania.

Miller has something of a family legacy of defying authorities and landing in legal trouble, according to his lawyer. Decades ago, before the Supreme Court allowed Plain people to stop schooling kids at the eighth grade, Miller’s grandfather was jailed “over the Amish right to educate their children in their own way,” a court brief explained.

The grandson is refusing to secure a state-required raw milk permit, in part because the Amish generally avoid state licensing systems, argues Miller’s legal counsel. (Some Amish farmers do hold raw milk permits in Pennsylvania.)

So basically Pennsylvania is doing its job to regulate milk production and sale within the State of Pennsylvania. But Pennsylvania doesn't have jurisdiction over Miller's actions in California or Florida or any other state. So that is the loophole or regulatory gap that he uses to ship raw milk to other states.

Miller could do raw milk sales in Pennsylvania as well but simply refuses to do the paperwork and obtain the permits to make his operation legal in Pennsylvania. And this refusal is for some inexplicable and unarticulated reason. He clearly does interact with the state when it comes to other regulatory issues. For example, I guarantee he has obtained proper tile to his farm and other properties and properly filed the paperwork and deed with the county courthouse or local recording office. I'm sure he pays his property taxes as well or his farms would eventually seized and foreclosed on to satisfy the tax debt. And if someone else just decided to start farming on and occupying his property he would no doubt avail himself of the government and government-issued documents to assert his ownership claim to the land. So I personally don't find the refusal to interact with the state to obtain the proper milk permits to be very persuasive.

And his customers are quite pleased, and nobody is harmed.

Not sure if he tiled his farm; I personally prefer just digging ditches and having more natural drainage.

[ohio jones]

I guarantee he has obtained proper tile to his farm and other properties and properly filed the paperwork and deed with the county courthouse or local recording office.

If he's a Trump supporter he has undoubtedly drained the swamp. But I wouldn't be so quick to assume it was done with the required paperwork. In deed, I almost guarantee it was done without a visit to the courthouse.

[JohnH]

I'm going to bet he doesn't recognize the watershed district's authority, either, even if he's been paying the $1.20 per year of property tax due.

[Ken]

I bet he recognizes property lines and the authority of the state to define and recognize them.

[JohnH]

I bet he recognizes property lines and the authority of the state to define and recognize them.

You may not know plain Mennonites and Amish as well as you think. We generally prefer not to involve the state and instead find other ways to deal with someone who decides to trespass, or keep moving the line over an inch everytime they mow their lawn, etc. Often we choose that it's better to be wronged than to take someone to court.

That does not mean that the Amish are easy pickings, though. Just because they won't take someone to court doesn't mean that the local law enforcement won't, or that a neighbor won't decide to intervene.

[ken_sylvania]

I bet he recognizes property lines and the authority of the state to define and recognize them.

You may not know plain Mennonites and Amish as well as you think. We generally prefer not to involve the state and instead find other ways to deal with someone who decides to trespass, or keep moving the line over an inch everytime they mow their lawn, etc. Often we choose that it's better to be wronged than to take someone to court.

That does not mean that the Amish are easy pickings, though. Just because they won't take someone to court doesn't mean that the local law enforcement won't, or that a neighbor won't decide to intervene.

That's what the Amish Mafia is for.

[Ken]

I bet he recognizes property lines and the authority of the state to define and recognize them.

You may not know plain Mennonites and Amish as well as you think. We generally prefer not to involve the state and instead find other ways to deal with someone who decides to trespass, or keep moving the line over an inch everytime they mow their lawn, etc. Often we choose that it's better to be wronged than to take someone to court.

That does not mean that the Amish are easy pickings, though. Just because they won't take someone to court doesn't mean that the local law enforcement won't, or that a neighbor won't decide to intervene.

Who said anything about court?

I'm willing to bet that Amos Miller has a deed to his properties and recognizes them as valid. And expects the government to do the same. Those are government-issued documents.