Amish Raw Milk Farmer Files Legal Docs in Pennsylvania District Court

by David Gumpert
The Complete Patient

Amish farmer Dan Allgyer has filed several documents in federal district court in Pennsylvania contesting the FDA-Justice Department effort to obtain a permanent injunction against him serving buying club members in Maryland. He makes three objections:

1. That the issuance of a, FDA warning letter prior to the court case was illegal. “Nowhere in FDA statutes or regulations does it permit or authorize the FDA to issue ‘Warning Letters’ as part of their administrative procedures concerning investigations or procedures. Therefore, the Warning Letter concerning our farm was bogus, illegal and should not have been issued. FDA Warning Letters were never intended to be final demands, but intermediate requests for voluntary compliance….this is misrepresentation and fraudulent error of omission causing inferences and allegations that are damaging to the integrity, well-being and future success of our farm.”

2. The buying club members are outside the FDA’s purview. “The raw milk that is produced at Rainbow Acres Farm is only consumed by private persons that own or lease the cow. These private persons are not the public which the FDA agency has a mandate to protect. The FDA’s jurisdiction and authority is limited to situations which present an imminent hazard to the public health.”

3. The FDA had no right at the time it obtained a search warrant early last year to inspect farms. “There is no statutory right to inspect ‘farms,’ thus there is not a legal basis for the application or granting of an Administrative Warrant by the Honorable Court to Rainbow Acres Farm.” (The Food Safety Modernization Act passed early this year did give the FDA new authority to regulate farms.)

Allgyer does suggest in one of his filings that he might have inadvertently sold milk to the public. “This Answer is intended to inform the Court and the FDA agency that any and all manufacturing and sale of our products to the public is hereby terminated. We now understand that the FDA agency has a mandate from Congress to protect the public…Be it known that we will fully comply with FDA statutes, regulations and orders in the future. We are also aware that the FDA’s jurisdiction and authority is limited to the public domain…”

In addition, Aajonus Vonderplanitz, the head of Right to Choose Health Food, filed a cross-complaint in federal court on behalf of Allgyer and the Maryland food club. It was Right to Choose Healthy Food that oversaw the farm leasing arrangements under which food was made available to the food club members.

In his cross complaint, Vonderplanitz argues that pasteurized milk is more dangerous than raw milk, based on a number of sizable outbreaks, including one affecting 197,000 people during the 1980s. He also argues that the Maryland buying club members “contracted with Amish farmer Dan Allgyer to caretake members’ animals, and
produce, package and deliver products from members’ animals to members. Contract signed May 2010. RTCHF members oversee that the products from members’ animals were grown, processed, packaged and delivered to its members with specific natural standards far removed from the typical chemical standards adopted by health departments.” He seeks a permanent injunction against the FDA to stop “further actions” against Dan Allgyer and Right to Choose Healthy Food, along with $498,000 in damages.

Read the Full Article Here: http://www.thecompletepatient.com/journal/2011/5/29/defiance-in-ky-as-food-club-members-grab-quarantined-raw-mil.html

The Raw Milk Revolution
Behind America’s Emerging Battle Over Food Rights
by David E. Gumpert