Press Release
February 24, 2012
Contact: Liz Reitzig, Co-founder, Farm Food Freedom Coalition
301-807-5063, lizreitzig@gmail.com www.RawMilkFreedomRiders.com
Farmer Faces Possible 3-year Prison Term for Feeding Community
Customers and Other Supporters Stand with Farmer
Baraboo, WI—Food sovereignty activists from around North America will meet at this tiny town on March 2 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 11:00 at 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.
Info about farm raids FarmFoodFreedom.org For additional information on raw milk westonaprice.org
###
Raw Milk Freedom Riders 
Have any of you ever heard of Hitlers rule? Take over and control! This country is becoming more and more communist.
Robert : you are exactly right. In addition, I have learned enough history to know about Joseph Stalin’s artificial famine and the starving of the kulak, pesant farmers. This despite Walter Duranty’s lies in the New York Times during that era.
What in God’s name is happening to the people of this country! I fathom the thought and realize how our Father in heaven and Jesus himself must be very disappointed in all of us and our actions to help others and keep businesses strong and surviving!!!
The US has become a monopolizer….its all about the almighty buck! We will soon answer to all of this one day soon I believe!!!
It leads me to believe that the goverment would love to see the hard working farmers loose their land so that THEY may benefit for their own self interest!!!!
Beware….it will come back full force! What goes around will come back! Mr. Hershberger…you stand strong no matter the consequences; for at least your heart is in the right place, and you have a right to do what you can to make a living for your family and friends alike! May God bless you and your family amny times over and I pray for a positive hearing on your behalf!
Food for thought…so I have a friend that makes and sells regular and spicy sausage privately….will they go after him next, because he’s steeling someone else’s business rights????
Judy from Texas
Pingback: Food Rights Network » Activists Rally Around Wisconsin Dairy Farmer Facing Criminal Charges
When is the last time you read the U.S. Constitution? According to the Article, the farmer entered into a contracual agreement to furnish milk to those who wants the milk under a contract relationship. If you read Article I, Section 10, Clause 1 of the U.S. Constitution you will discover that the State may not enact any law (Regulations) that impairs the obligation of congtracts. Is this not what the DATCP is doing by demanding the issuance of permits and license before a farmer may enter into contracts?
Gordon Epperly : Excellent point ! Your logic is impeccable. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.
Well, like they say, no good deed will go unpunished. All he has to do is pay lots and lots of money, make his milk toxic and the FDA will approve it. Hey, face it, if people are healthy and can think clearly we can’t very well pull the wool over their eyes. Good golly we certainly can’t have healthy people running amok, the big Pharma would have their profits cut. How could he do this. Bull-oney!!!!!!!!!!!
You hang in there Vern, Don’t let the food Nazi’s bully you. My heart will be there and I’ll be praying for you sir. May God bless you and your family for doing the right thing.
Meanwhile, the FDA will not even require that monsato label its genetically modified organisms so that consumers can make informed decisions when shopping. I guess that the dairy farmers real crime is not paying big bribes nor hiring enough lobbyists.
Is is not about food safety – it is about power – simple raw power. The Feds are moving in and closing down pig roasts, matanzas in New Mexico, organic private prepared invitation feasts in Nevada – the list goes on. The American people need to rise up on yet another issue – dang but it is going to be worse here than in Syria or Egypt. I rather think the Feds are moving like this for two reasons: raw power, to intimidate and bully those who do not want industrially produced food, for their paymasters, the industrial food producers. It rather reminds me of Budweiser buying up and closing down every little independent brewery they could find, so that people had no choice but to drink their product. Same mindset, but they want us to eat commercially grown and prepared foods, full of additives, preservatives, colorants, pesticides etc, etc. Better get busy folks!!
I fully agree that this is about power. When the FSMA passed, I thot game over! You control the nation’s food supply and you control the people. The FDA has the power to close a manufacturing facility on a suspicion alone. One of the codicils of the FSMA about to come into effect is warrantless access to a manufacturer’s internal records. Big Brother…you bet.
what is next is the NDAA being called into full power. obama signed it new year’s eve and it destroys posse commitatas if you are declared a terrorist. No courtt, no phone calls, no sentence…. you are disappeared by the US Army, not the local cops. It is the law. It is something obama gave us and chuck grassley signed into existence and it is traitor to the bone. and they are legalizing having the drones overfly us?? Christ bless our familes, we are going to need it.
The FDA can’t see past their nose……. they are trading our long term health and wellbeing for short term food safety.
this has zero to do with safety and more to do with corporatism – protection of those in bed with the government in one form or another. The FDA is nothing more than insurance for big pharma and GMO. Don’t be fooled – there is big money in keeping the little guy dependent on the Feds. The FDA is as corrupt as the Federal Reserve, the EPA, the CIA, the FBI etc. As soon as an FDA drug is found to be *gasp* unsafe, the FDA will drop their backing of the drug like a hot potato.
This is absolutely a control mechanism and these criminals who think they’re running the show had better wake up to the fact that they have two options – 1. Back off or 2. face the guillotine because the revolution is coming and it’s coming fast.
What bullshit this is.. You cant even do a good deed anymore without the bastard feds ruining it. This government needs to go asap. Its a horrible government.
as a United States Marine Corps Vet and a Deputy Sheriff, if the fed comes to one of my farms in Arizona, they will be taken to jail and charged with kidnapping. a warning to the feds, stay out of the American people’s lives.
Need more Sheriffs like you Sgt. Fellow Veteran would love to shake you hand and thank you.
Wake up America! Stand with a firm hand, uphold your Constitutional rights or be slaves to obama and the labor unions. It’s now or never!
Time to water the tree of Liberty ? Could be !
Question sir. Under what law can you charge an agent for kidnapping? can you explain for us lamen people. People need to know what kind of legal language they have legal access to, too give them more power. And do you think that if a war was to breakout, would any portion or percentage of the millitary protect us from the govt. Or do you think it will be us against all of them?
This is to Sgt 1775
Any time that any agent / authority exceeds their lawful authority; then that agent is no longer acting within the law. Thus, when taking a person against their will; the act is no longer a lawful arrest, but kidnapping. When government agents no longer remain within the bounds set by the constitution; then we no longer have law, but tyranny.
(NOTE : The original War For Independence was based on the fact that King George III was violating the rights of the colonials under the Magna Carta {signed 15 June 1215 A.D.})
Thanks for keeping your oath to uphold and defend the constitution. I only wish that we had many more in law enforcement like you.
what’s next? your worst nightmare! speak loudly now in unison our opposition, or it only gets worse. truth is treason in an empire lies.
Conventional milk is full of pus, bacteria, antibiotics, hormones, and other chemicals, yet that is considered safe. BUt raw milk that does not contain these toxins is not FDA approved as safe. The FDA is just an enforcer for corporations and has nothing to do with protecting public health.
There are drug dealers,rapists,murderers,kidnappers,burglars and only Lord knows what else running the streets and you guys are after a dairy farmer!!!!! LOL!!!!
Gee, I was just reading about a 14 year old boy who was handcuffed because he said something about 1st Amendment rights to his teacher. The police were called. And now I’m reading that the farmer will be arrested for allowing people to buy raw milk. What next, America?
Pingback: Farmer Faces Possible 3-year Prison Term for Feeding Community « Victors Post