Minnesota Judge Declines to Punish Dairy Farmer
Disturbing Statistics Show Dairy Products Are Fake in Many Parts of the World
July 11, 2014Maine Farmer Loses State Supreme Court Battle
July 18, 2014Sometimes the biggest indicator that cultural change is on the way is when law enforcers start to look the other way. Coming on the heels of high-profile articles that praise full-fat, natural dairy products (including Mark Bittman’s proclamation that “Butter is Back” in The New York Times) and the proposal of 2 federal laws to end federal crackdown on the distribution of raw milk, a Minnesota judge has declined to punish a farmer for selling raw milk and violating his parole.
In 2012, dairy farmer Michael Hartmann pled guilty to selling unpasteurized milk and was given probation, which he violated by continuing to sell. In June 2014, the judge in Hartmann’s hearing stated that “the defendant had made a ‘good faith effort’ and ‘no further action’ would be necessary.”
Hartmann’s case is still ongoing with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture but he and his family see this as a court victory.
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3 Comments
This is great news. Does he have an organic dairy farm? Also, I thought it was not against the law to sell raw milk at the farm, provided you bring your own sterilized containers. I thought it was only against the law to have someone from a group pick up milk at the farm for redistribution.
“I thought it was only against the law to have someone from a group pick up milk at the farm for redistribution.”
doesn’t that sound crazy to begin with?
I think the rationale is that if there is a food poisoning outbreak, they want to keep it within a limited geographical area – apart from anything else, that gives them a better chance of tracing the source. So they design the rules to avoid raw milk being shipped all around the country, or at least less often. It makes a kind of sense.
Whether they really need such precautions, and whether that’s really the only reason they do it, is another question, of course!