Amos Miller & Food Freedom
Is Miller's Organic Farm dangerous because it's not following "food safety rules"?
In case you are not familiar with Miller’s Organic Farm (MOF), it is a large and prospering Amish farm in rural PA. The Millers provide real, clean, raw, unadulterated food to its members across the US.
It has been harassed for years because it is not following the rules set by federal and state regulatory agencies who, of course, only have our best interests at heart.
Can you tell I’m lying about that “best interests” thing? Regulatory agencies work for the corporations they are supposed to control. Turns out that the only thing they want to control is our freedom to choose the foods we know are best for us. Their job is to funnel us into conventional foods and medicines for the best interests of those corporations.
MOF is a PMA: a Private Membership Association which operates outside the jurisdiction of the federal government. How? By contract. Contract law is enshrined in the US Constitution.
Of course, that tiny detail has NOT stopped US government agencies (the USDA, in this case) or state agencies (the PDA, PA Dept of Ag, in this case) from bulldozing right over that right.
The Miller’s harassment has been going on for years and is based on the simple fact that MOF is not following the rules. The Highwire has been good about providing basic facts surrounding the harassment:
This segment from 8/24/23 episode includes a phone interview with Amos Miller: Amish farmer faces jail time (23 min)
This segment from the 2/29/24 episode: The fight for food freedom rages in PA (11 min)
Why Miller’s farm is so important: Man heals autoimmune disease with raw food — this is the story of Max Kane who after decades of debilitating gastrointestinal issues, he discovered the incredible health benefits from consuming raw dairy and made a complete recovery. THERE ARE MILLIONS OF STORIES OF HEALING WITH FOOD.
Max is a friend, we are both members of the Weston A. Price Foundation, the largest and oldest organization promoting and educating humans on clean, real food. Our local food buying club uses Max’ FarmMatch as our order site.
Why Miller’s Organic Farm? Because:
It’s the largest purveyor of real food in the US and ships across state lines. If MOF gets away with serving real food to the people, the end is near for commodity grains, CAFOs and conventional farming. Can’t have that.
The Millers are Amish. The Amish are notorious for not fighting back and for not hiring an English attorney. (There are no Amish attorneys.) If you are going to fight English rules in an English court, you better have an English attorney and a good one. Without an attorney, this would have been an easy win for the gov. Fortunately, the Millers realized what losing would mean to the real food community and hired an attorney.
Why this post today?
Because my friend and former food-freedom colleague, Liz Reitzig, has been condemning Miller’s Organic Farm for not following the rules. This is yesterday’s podcast (I watched at 2x speed). She and Mike Kovach, board member of the PA Farmer’s Union, discuss Miller’s refusal to follow the rules and agree that he should be forced to do so.
That’s it, that’s the gist of the problem and how it should be resolved: Miller should be forced to follow the rules set in place by gov agencies. I can hardly believe these two food freedom advocates believe this is the answer.
On her post, you’ll see links to Liz’ other articles about Miller. I’ve disagreed with those as well, but this is the first time I’ve spoken up.
My rebuttal:
Just listened to this podcast. While I agree with Liz on more issues than not, her beef with Amos Miller, the Amish farmer who ships his food all over the country and has been targeted by first the USDA (who lost) and now the PDA (PA Dept of Ag) is that he’s not following the food safety rules put in place by those 2 agencies.
Really?
No mention of the agency-approved poison available nationwide and crammed onto conventional grocery store shelves. No mention of the fact our fruits are irradiated for safety, juices and milk are pasteurized for our safety, glyphosate is not banned, Apeel and Agri-Fresh are allowed on our fruits and veggies with no label or notice (even organic)… no mention of the broccoli that kills or the other tragedies that happened on farms following the rules… Honestly, the list of agency-approved food-poisonings is too long for a post.
Liz and Mike mention that several of Miller’s customers have allegedly gotten sick from his food, but no mention of the fact that since we’ve had a USDA, an FDA and a CDC, not to mention all those state departments of agriculture run by politicians who get large campaign contributions from corporate Big Ag farmers… since we’ve had all these “keep us safe and healthy” agencies, Americans are fatter and sicker than they’ve ever been.
Besides, when you are hurt by a product and can prove it, you sue the maker. This is why we have a tort system: to protect consumers. Regulations and inspections are pre-crime actions. They don’t increase protection. They just increase costs.
People are literally dying from pharmaceuticals (particularly vaccines which are protected from liability) and conventional food all approved by those 3 agencies, but Miller needs to be taken to task and shut down, driven to bankruptcy, for not following their “food safety rules”?
I feel like I’m in upside down world here… What am I missing?
And, most importantly, no mention of the liberty aspect, the personal responsibility for our food choices. Millers represents TRUE food freedom: I get to eat what I want from whomever I want regardless of the “rules” put in place by gov agencies. I get to investigate how safe the food is, whether or not risks are involved, then make my informed choices.
Redding (head of PDA) may be a stand up guy but he works for an agency bent on controlling our food choices using the time-honored combo of fear + gov-sanctioned safety.
Liberty is messy and there are risks, as the Founders knew. I‘ll take liberty over safety any day.
I’ve known Liz since about 2010, we blogged together for a time, and have attended food freedom events together. She is a powerhouse, very active politically, lives close to DC and is there often working with legislators on food freedom issues. Right now, the Prime Act is her focus. Liz and I agree on LOTS. MOF is one of the rare instances when we don’t.
This is Liz and I in 2013 at Mark Baker’s farm in MI where a couple hundred farm food freedom advocates gathered to protest the Bakers persecution by state “authorities”.
About Mark & Jill Baker’s 4-year long brush with gov agencies:
Mark on a 2020 podcast telling the story
Farm to Consumer worked with Mark during the debacle
Bakers stopped commercial farming and went another direction
The Baker’s “Anyone Can Farm” website today
Fantastic and passionate article about a huge injustice!
From an economic standpoint — and my grandfather ran a raw dairy — real food farmers live and die by satisfying their customers. Regulation may have its place but the real food market truly is self regulating.