FDA TYRANNIZES AMISH FARMER

I found "The case of Dan Allgyer" on directactionstation.com. Dan Allgyer is a dairy farmer from Pennsylvania who is being convicted for selling raw milk harvested from his cattle to out of state residents. The sale of unpasteurized milk across state lines is a federal crime. The FDA set up a sting operation posing undercover as customers from Maryland and bought milk from Dan Allgyer on 23 separate occasions from 2009 to 2011. Each time it was tested in never contained any harmful pathogens only tested positive for a lack of pasteurization. With that evidence, on April 20, 2011, "the FDA then proceeded in a manner fit for the taking down of a drug lord". Dan Allgyer's farm was raided by the FDA and all the milk was confiscated and tested to confirm again that it was unpasteurized and again it contained no harmful pathogens. Then on April 19, 2011, one year after Dan Allgyer's farm was raided, the FDA filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania seeking an order banning this farmer from selling his milk and to cover the cost of the investigation and all legal fees.

I think the prosecution of this farmer is absurd. I am outraged at how the government is treating this hard working farmer as if he were a drug lord. The "illegal" milk he was selling was not harmful and tests done by the FDA itself prove that it contained nothing harmful.

The article states that FDA does not argue that Dan Allgyer’s milk will in fact cause you injury if you drink it, only that it could cause you injury. That is ridiculous. Anything you consume could cause you harm. Having a pet could cause you injury, does that mean the government should come and confiscate everyone's pets, then prosecute anyone that has a pet? Every year thousands of Americans become ill and hundreds die from ingesting pasteurized milk and cheese contaminated with listeria, salmonella, or other harmful pathogens. That being said, the government could demand that specific measures are taken to make sure that unpasteurized dairy milk is safe, but instead make a law that all dairy products need to be pasteurized to ensure that these small farmers can't compete with the mass manufacturers of pasteurized dairy, which is just as risky to consume. The people who were buying this "illegal" milk were specifically asking for it. These people weren't at the grocery store accidentally grabbing unpasteurized dairy products. That isn't even a possibility due to the government's regulations on the sales of unpasteurized milk.



It is crazy to me, that in the same store where pasteurized milk is sold, I can purchase alcohol and tobacco products that are much more harmful than any dairy products, but I can't buy unpasteurized dairy products. In a nutshell, the government ultimately decides what we can or can't consume, whether it's harmful or not.