Fwd: FDA Raids Amish Farmers Dan Allgyer

April 23, 2010

In case of interest…

Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association <liz.reitzig (AT) verizon (DOT) net>

April 22, 2010 5:26:01 PM

EDT

wysteria.jackson

FDA Raids Amish Farmers Dan Allgyer

liz.reitzig (AT) verizon (DOT) net

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Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers

Association

---PLEASE BROADCAST FAR AND WIDE---

FDA Raids Amish Farmer Dan Allgyer

Please take action

(see ACTION at end of notice)

Kinzers, PA-At

4:30 a.m. on Tuesday April 20, Amish farmer Dan Allgyer went outside to

begin milking his small herd of dairy cows. On the normally quiet

Kinzer Road

in front of his farm, just a few miles from the Nickel Mines Amish

massacre of 2006, several unfamiliar vehicles drove slowly past.

Two months prior, on February 4, FDA agents had trespassed on Allgyer's

farm, claiming to be conducting an " investigation. "

Allgyer had suspected they would be back at some point, because many

other small dairy farms around the country have been similarly treated

by the FDA. Following is Dan's account of Tuesday morning's events:

I became aware of the cars as soon as I walked out on the sidewalk as

part of my morning routine around 4:30 a.m. and immediately said to

myself something is going on, there is too much traffic on Kinzer Road. I

was watching and noticed three cars were cruising down Kinzer Road

right behind each other, and immediately thought, hey, that looks like

trouble. I watched and pretty soon one car came back and parked on

my neighbor's farm, on private property, just as the FDA agents had

when they came on my property in February; it was exactly the same

place.

A couple minutes later, the other two cars pulled up and joined the

first on my neighbor's property, where the occupants appeared to be in

conference with one another. Shortly after that, they turned their

headlights on and drove in my lane - this would have been at about

5:00.

I stood back in the dark barn to see what they were going to

do. They drove past my two Private Property signs, up to where my

coolers were, with their headlights shining right on them. They

all got out of their vehicles - five men all together - with big

bright flashlights they were shining all around. My wife and

family were still asleep. When they couldn't find anybody, they

prepared to knock on the door of my darkened house. Just before

they got to the house I stepped out of the barn and hollered at them,

then they came up to me and introduced themselves. Two were from the

FDA, agent Joshua C. Schafer who had been there in February and

another. They showed me identification, but I was too flustered to

ask for their cards. I remember being told that two were deputy U.S.

Marshals and one a state trooper. They started asking me questions

right away. They handed me a paper and I didn't realize what

it was. Agent Joshua C. Schafer told me they were there to do a

" routine inspection. " At 5:00 in the morning, I wondered

to myself? " Do you have a warrant? " I asked, and one of

them, a marshal or the state policeman, said, " You've got in your

hand buddy. " I asked, " What is the warrant

about? " Schafer responded, " We have credible evidence

that you are involved in interstate commerce. "

They wanted me to answer some questions, my name, middle initial, last

name, wanted to know how many cows we have on the farm. I answered

those questions and some more. Finally, I got over my initial

shock and said I would not be answering any more questions. They

said O.K., we'll get on with the " inspection. "

I went to go talk to my wife. As I walked away, they held a quick

excited conversation and I heard one of them say, " I'll take care

of him. " At that point, apparently, they had designated one

of the marshals to stick close to me and dog my footsteps. He

followed me as I walked toward the house. I went in the house

quickly and told my wife a few words to let her know the situation,

then immediately came back out of the house before the marshal had time

to follow me in. When I came back out, they were inspecting all

the coolers sitting out. They spent about a half hour digging

through the packed coolers filled with milk and other food - all

private property - taking pictures.

At one point during the cooler inspection the state trooper said to me,

" You have a nice farm. " I responded, " We're trying

to be sustainable, but they don't want to let us. "

While they inspected the coolers, I read the warrant. Among other

things it said that any search was to be conducted " at reasonable

times during ordinary business hours. " When I exclaimed,

" Ordinary business hours! " and pointed this out to the

marshal who was dogging me, he said, " Ordinary business hours for

agriculture start at 5:00 a.m. " I challenged him that the

warrant does not say agriculture hours, it said ordinary hours. He

replied, " That's what the government told us. "

Then they started looking around, as though in search of something in

particular. They went up to one door that had a clear No

Trespassing sign on it, specifically including government agents, and

they did not go in the room, though they shone their flashlights around

in it. Then they asked me, " What is on the other side of the

door in that [same] room? " Agent Joshua Schafer asked this. I

looked him in the eye and did not answer. When they saw I was not

going to answer, the other FDA agent said, " Okay, come on, "

to agent Schafer, and they went into the room and through the closed

door on the opposite side. I had another one of those signs on my

walk-in cooler adjacent to my freezer, so they went through that door

also. They spent probably another half hour rooting around, like a

couple of pigs, in the freezer and cooler area and took many pictures.

When they came out, they asked me where I keep my containers and jugs

for milk, and I refused to tell them. I figured they could look

for themselves. Then they were walking all over the farm, checking

everything out, everything except the house. Agent Joshua Schafer

even opened my dumpster and inspected inside it, as though he thought I

was hiding something in it. At that point I went and started

milking my cows - it was way past milking time.

When I was just about done milking, Schafer and the other agent came in

the barn and wanted me to answer some more questions. I told them

I would not. The second agent said, " Are you gong to deliver

those coolers to Bethesda and Bowie Maryland? " I

just looked at him. Then Schafer made a gesture and said,

" The stickers with those towns names are on the coolers, " as

through to say, you might as well tell me.

I replied, " I told you I won't answer any

questions. " After that they said, " We are done for

today. You'll be hearing back from headquarters. "

Then they got in their car and left. The state trooper and the

marshals had left already.

They came in the dark, shining bright flashlights while my family was

asleep, keeping me from milking my cows, from my family, from breakfast

with my family and from our morning devotions, and alarming my children

enough so that they first question they asked my wife was, " Is

Daddy going to jail? "

THE NEXT MORNING Allgyer received an overnight, extremely urgent Letter

of Warning from the FDA stating that " Failure to make prompt

corrections could result in regulatory action without further

notice. Possible actions include seizure and/or injunction. "

ACTION: Please

call and write the number and address below. Express

yourself. Tell them that you support Dan Allgyer. If you

drink fresh, unpastuerized milk tell them that. Tell them that

more people every day are drinking fresh milk and this is going to

increase. It's not going to stop no matter how many farmers they

persecute. Tell them the government has no placebetween

individuals and the farmers from whom they get their food.

Philadelphia District Office

Serves Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Food and Drug Administration

U.S.

Customhouse

Second and Chestnut Streets, Room 900

Philadelphia, PA 19106

(215)

597-4390 8:00a.m. - 4:30 p.m. (Eastern time)

Yours for real food freedom,

Deborah Stockton, Executive Director

National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association (NICFA)

nicfa (AT) earthlink (DOT) net

http://www.nicfa.com

Our purpose is to promote and preserve unregulated direct

farmer-to-consumer trade

that fosters availability of locally grown or home-produced food

products.

NICFA opposes any government funded or managed National Animal

Identification System.

Forward email

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April 23, 2010

OMG...someone stole my mom's identity, and though I could google this person and find out where she lives and everything about her, the police don't have the 'resouces' and manpower to pursue it. (This happens ALL the time...) Yet they can send boatloads of people to harass a small time farmer who might be selling his milk over the state line? What's wrong with this picture???

--C----- On Fri, 4/23/10, Lara Brown <larabrown wrote:

Lara Brown <larabrown[RFSL] Fwd: FDA Raids Amish Farmers Dan Allgyer Date: Friday, April 23, 2010, 7:21 AM

In case of interestâ€¦

Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association <liz.reitzig@ verizon.net>April 22, 2010 5:26:01 PM EDTwysteria.jackson@ gmail.comFDA Raids Amish Farmers

Dan Allgyerliz.reitzig@ verizon.net

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association

---PLEASE BROADCAST FAR AND WIDE---FDA Raids Amish Farmer Dan Allgyer

Please take action (see ACTION at end of notice)

Kinzers , PA -At 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday April 20, Amish farmer Dan Allgyer went outside to begin milking his small herd of dairy cows. On the normally quiet Kinzer Road in front of his farm, just a few miles from the Nickel Mines Amish massacre of 2006, several unfamiliar vehicles drove slowly past. Two months prior, on February 4, FDA agents had trespassed on Allgyer's farm, claiming to be conducting an "investigation. " Allgyer had suspected they would be back at some point, because many other small dairy farms around the country have been similarly treated by the FDA. Following is Dan's account of Tuesday morning's events: I became aware of the cars as soon as I walked out on the sidewalk as part of my morning routine around 4:30 a.m. and immediately said to myself something is going on, there is too much traffic on Kinzer

Road . I was watching and noticed three cars were cruising down Kinzer Road right behind each other, and immediately thought, hey, that looks like trouble. I watched and pretty soon one car came back and parked on my neighbor's farm, on private property, just as the FDA agents had when they came on my property in February; it was exactly the same place. A couple minutes later, the other two cars pulled up and joined the first on my neighbor's property, where the occupants appeared to be in conference with one another. Shortly after that, they turned their headlights on and drove in my lane - this would have been at about 5:00. I stood back in the dark barn to see what they were going to do. They drove past my two Private Property signs, up to where my coolers were, with their headlights shining right on them. They all got out of their vehicles - five men all together - with big bright

flashlights they were shining all around. My wife and family were still asleep. When they couldn't find anybody, they prepared to knock on the door of my darkened house. Just before they got to the house I stepped out of the barn and hollered at them, then they came up to me and introduced themselves. Two were from the FDA, agent Joshua C. Schafer who had been there in February and another. They showed me identification, but I was too flustered to ask for their cards. I remember being told that two were deputy U.S. Marshals and one a state trooper. They started asking me questions right away. They handed me a paper and I didn't realize what it was. Agent Joshua C. Schafer told me they were there to do a "routine inspection." At 5:00 in the morning, I wondered to myself? "Do you have a warrant?" I asked, and one of them, a marshal or the state policeman, said, "You've got in your hand buddy." I

asked, "What is the warrant about?" Schafer responded, "We have credible evidence that you are involved in interstate commerce." They wanted me to answer some questions, my name, middle initial, last name, wanted to know how many cows we have on the farm. I answered those questions and some more. Finally, I got over my initial shock and said I would not be answering any more questions. They said O.K., we'll get on with the "inspection. " I went to go talk to my wife. As I walked away, they held a quick excited conversation and I heard one of them say, "I'll take care of him." At that point, apparently, they had designated one of the marshals to stick close to me and dog my footsteps. He followed me as I walked toward the house. I went in the house quickly and told my wife a few words to let her know the situation, then immediately came back out of the house before the marshal had time to follow me

in. When I came back out, they were inspecting all the coolers sitting out. They spent about a half hour digging through the packed coolers filled with milk and other food - all private property - taking pictures. At one point during the cooler inspection the state trooper said to me, "You have a nice farm." I responded, "We're trying to be sustainable, but they don't want to let us." While they inspected the coolers, I read the warrant. Among other things it said that any search was to be conducted "at reasonable times during ordinary business hours." When I exclaimed, "Ordinary business hours!" and pointed this out to the marshal who was dogging me, he said, "Ordinary business hours for agriculture start at 5:00 a.m." I challenged him that the warrant does not say agriculture hours, it said ordinary hours. He replied, "That's what the government told us." Then they started

looking around, as though in search of something in particular. They went up to one door that had a clear No Trespassing sign on it, specifically including government agents, and they did not go in the room, though they shone their flashlights around in it. Then they asked me, "What is on the other side of the door in that [same] room?" Agent Joshua Schafer asked this. I looked him in the eye and did not answer. When they saw I was not going to answer, the other FDA agent said, "Okay, come on," to agent Schafer, and they went into the room and through the closed door on the opposite side. I had another one of those signs on my walk-in cooler adjacent to my freezer, so they went through that door also. They spent probably another half hour rooting around, like a couple of pigs, in the freezer and cooler area and took many pictures. When they came out, they asked me where I keep my containers and jugs for milk,

and I refused to tell them. I figured they could look for themselves. Then they were walking all over the farm, checking everything out, everything except the house. Agent Joshua Schafer even opened my dumpster and inspected inside it, as though he thought I was hiding something in it. At that point I went and started milking my cows - it was way past milking time. When I was just about done milking, Schafer and the other agent came in the barn and wanted me to answer some more questions. I told them I would not. The second agent said, "Are you gong to deliver those coolers to Bethesda and Bowie Maryland ?" I just looked at him. Then Schafer made a gesture and said, "The stickers with those towns names are on the coolers," as through to say, you might as well tell me. I replied, "I told you I won't answer any questions." After that they said, "We are done for today. You'll be

hearing back from headquarters. " Then they got in their car and left. The state trooper and the marshals had left already. They came in the dark, shining bright flashlights while my family was asleep, keeping me from milking my cows, from my family, from breakfast with my family and from our morning devotions, and alarming my children enough so that they first question they asked my wife was, "Is Daddy going to jail?"THE NEXT MORNING Allgyer received an overnight, extremely urgent Letter of Warning from the FDA stating that "Failure to make prompt corrections could result in regulatory action without further notice. Possible actions include seizure and/or injunction." ACTION: Please call and write the number and address below. Express yourself. Tell them that you support Dan Allgyer. If you drink fresh,

unpastuerized milk tell them that. Tell them that more people every day are drinking fresh milk and this is going to increase. It's not going to stop no matter how many farmers they persecute. Tell them the government has no placebetween individuals and the farmers from whom they get their food.Philadelphia District OfficeServes Delaware and Pennsylvania .Food and Drug AdministrationU.S. CustomhouseSecond and Chestnut Streets, Room 900Philadelphia , PA 19106(215) 597-4390 8:00a.m. - 4:30 p.m. (Eastern time)Yours for real food freedom,Deborah Stockton, Executive DirectorNational Independent Consumers and Farmers Association (NICFA)nicfa (AT) earthlink (DOT)

nethttp://www.nicfa. comOur purpose is to promote and preserve unregulated direct farmer-to-consumer trade that fosters availability of locally grown or home-produced food products.NICFA opposes any government funded or managed National Animal Identification System.

Forward email

This email was sent to wysteria.jackson@ gmail.com by liz.reitzig@ verizon.net.

Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnâ„¢ | Privacy Policy.

Email Marketing by

Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association | P.O. Box 239 | Bowie | MD | 20719

April 23, 2010

A LOT is wrong with this picture! Wondering when the day is going to come that I can't plant vegetables in my back yard, and that I'm raided by the government if I do. Slowly all farmer's rights are being taken away. Kelly--- On Fri, 4/23/10, Celia Browne <lady_celia wrote:Celia Browne <lady_celiaRe: [RFSL] Fwd: FDA Raids Amish Farmers Dan Allgyer Date: Friday, April 23, 2010, 7:44 AM

OMG...someone stole my mom's identity, and though I could google this person and find out where she lives and everything about her, the police don't have the 'resouces' and manpower to pursue it. (This happens ALL the time...) Yet they can send boatloads of people to harass a small time farmer who might be selling his milk over the state line? What's wrong with this picture???

--C----- On Fri, 4/23/10, Lara Brown <larabrown (AT) verizon (DOT) net> wrote:

Lara Brown <larabrown (AT) verizon (DOT) net>[RFSL] Fwd: FDA Raids Amish Farmers Dan AllgyerFriday, April 23, 2010, 7:21 AM

In case of interestÃ¢â‚¬Â¦

Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association <liz.reitzig@ verizon.net>April 22, 2010 5:26:01 PM EDTwysteria.jackson@ gmail.comFDA Raids Amish Farmers

Dan Allgyerliz.reitzig@ verizon.net

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association

---PLEASE BROADCAST FAR AND WIDE---FDA Raids Amish Farmer Dan Allgyer

Please take action (see ACTION at end of notice)

Kinzers , PA -At 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday April 20, Amish farmer Dan Allgyer went outside to begin milking his small herd of dairy cows. On the normally quiet Kinzer Road in front of his farm, just a few miles from the Nickel Mines Amish massacre of 2006, several unfamiliar vehicles drove slowly past. Two months prior, on February 4, FDA agents had trespassed on Allgyer's farm, claiming to be conducting an "investigation. " Allgyer had suspected they would be back at some point, because many other small dairy farms around the country have been similarly treated by the FDA. Following is Dan's account of Tuesday morning's events: I became aware of the cars as soon as I walked out on the sidewalk as part of my morning routine around 4:30 a.m. and immediately said to myself something is going on, there is too much traffic on

Kinzer