Farmer Faces 3 Years in Jail/Violating FDA Rules

[wkmac]

February 24, 2012–Baraboo, WI. Food sovereignty activists from around North America will meet at this tiny town on March 2, 2012 to support Wisconsin dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger and food sovereignty. Hershberger, who has a court hearing that day, is charged with four criminal misdemeanors that could land him in prison for three years with fines of over $10,000. The Wisconsin Department of Agricultural Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) targeted Hershberger for supplying a private buying club with fresh milk and other farm products.

DATCP has charged Hershberger with, among other things, operating a retail food establishment without a license. Hershberger repeatedly denies this, citing that he provides foods only to paid members in a private buying club and is not subject to state food regulations. “There is more at stake here than just a farmer and his few customers,” says Hershberger, “this is about the fundamental right of farmers and consumers to engage in peaceful, private, mutually consenting agreements for food, without additional oversight.”
At a pre-court rally scheduled for 11:00am, in front of the Sauk County Courthouse in Baraboo, food rights activists will read and distribute a “Declaration of Food Independence” that asserts inherent rights in food choice. A signing ceremony will be part of the rally. The signers expect the declaration will inspire a growing food sovereignty movement. Speakers at the rally will include members of Hershberger’s club.
Hershberger and other farmers around the country have been and are facing state or federal charges against them for providing fresh foods to wanting customers. In recent months the FDA has conducted several long undercover sting operations and raids against peaceful farmers and buying clubs that have resulted in farms shutting down and consumers without access to their food.

Farmer Faces Possible 3-year Prison Term for Feeding Community

 

[Babagounj]

how did mankind ever survive on home grown foods before the DATCP was established ?

 

[wkmac]

how did mankind ever survive on home grown foods before the DATCP was established ?

Here's a question for you. How come since DATCP or for that matter the USDA or the FDA that obesity has exploded along with diabetes, heart disease, cancer and the like? More and more research is looking at the relationship of disease with chronic inflammation and the question would thus arise, does industrialized foods cause or support the causes of chronic inflammation? (Not the sole cause but a contributing cause) Then the question arises, does governmental food policy promote chronic inflammation?

But then for the sake of argument let's say the above is true and we vastly changed from an industrial food diet back to a more wholesome food diet of years ago, if then inflammation rates fell and with it so did the rates of disease, what would the economic impact be to the healthcare industry and the huge investment made in healthcare infrastructure and workforce manpower? What would the cost also be to the larger economy and to the national as well as local/state tax base?

Just questions to ponder.