Government tells grower not to sell agriculture products

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http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/12854934.htm

 

 

 

 

Posted on Sun, Oct. 09, 2005

 

Red tape has farmer fuming

 

Government tells grower not to sell agriculture products

 

By Nancy Cook Lauer

 

 

 

 

DEMOCRAT CAPITOL BUREAU CHIEF

 

LIVE OAK - Most folks, when they suddenly discover they need a pound

of hamburger for the evening meal, can simply pop over to their

freezer and grab a package.

 

Not Dennis Stoltzfoos. If he wants something from his own freezer, the

organic farmer must fill out a form, detailing what he needs and why.

Then, an inspector from the state Department of Agriculture must make

the 60-mile round trip from Lake City, snip the official tape holding

the freezer shut and document everything Stoltzfoos removes for his

personal use. The freezer is then retaped shut.

 

The tape's actually white, but it's government-red as far as

Stoltzfoos is concerned.

 

" They're harassing us, " Stoltzfoos said. " This is not an isolated

case. It's happening all over the country. "

 

Stoltzfoos' predicament illustrates what happens when what some call a

New Age return to a simpler life bumps up against government

regulations drawn in an era of agribusiness.

 

Stoltzfoos, raised Amish on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania, is trying to

maintain a simple lifestyle for himself, his wife and their two young

daughters on a self-sufficient family farm.

 

But his 60-acre Full Circle Farm, where he raises 12 cows, two bulls,

two pigs, 25 beef cattle and assorted chickens and turkeys, has been,

for all intents and purposes, shut down by the state since July.

 

The white tape and bright orange signs depict a Stop Sale Order,

forbidding Stoltzfoos from selling milk, cream, butter, eggs, meat or

any of his other agricultural products to the neighbors who want them.

The organic farm was shut down after the state discovered Stoltzfoos

was selling unpasteurized milk and dairy products as well as beef and

processed vegetables.

 

John Fruin, chief of the Bureau of Food and Meat Inspection at the

Agriculture Department, said the process allows the farmer's family to

continue consuming the products it cannot sell, but the state monitors

it. Thus, the inspector has to be there for the farmer to retrieve his

own hamburger.

 

The state contends it's well within its regulatory authority.

 

" Raw dairy products contain pathogens that are extremely dangerous to

people, " Fruin said. " He is putting his own family and the public at

risk. "

 

Stoltzfoos has applied for and received a " pet food " permit that would

let him continue selling some of the products his small customer base

has come to rely upon.

 

Florida is one of 36 states that allow the sale of unpasteurized milk,

at least through cow-share programs or what is known as the " pet food "

loophole, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Weston A. Price

Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting raw dairy products.

 

Stoltzfoos also advertises his product as " Cleopatra's bath milk, "

which he sells for $12 a gallon to customers who he acknowledges are

more likely drinking it than bathing in it.

 

There's a growing national underground of raw-milk aficionados who

quietly trade names of suppliers like so many junkies passing along

names of dope dealers. Stoltzfoos said he tried to arrange a meeting

between the state and the roughly dozen Florida farmers who sell raw

milk to try to work out an agreement, but the farmers were afraid to come.

 

Julie Campbell, cancer-registry manager at Tallahassee Memorial Cancer

Program, contacted the Tallahassee Democrat about Stoltzfoos'

situation. Another dozen or so raw-milk aficionados also contacted the

newspaper after they learned about the story, and all characterized

the situation as government intrusion. Several spoke of the need for

" food freedom. "

 

Campbell said she initially was " horrified " to find out her sister was

drinking raw milk, but further research convinced her of the health

value of drinking milk that has not had its beneficial ingredients

neutralized through pasteurization.

 

" I am not one to run after the latest fad and snake oil, as I am a

health-care professional, " Campbell said in an e-mail. " I don't mind

drinking and eating healthy food labeled as 'pet food' at all! ... I

can't tell you how different the cream and butter taste! "

 

Other callers, who included university professors, lawyers and other

professionals, said, as thinking adults in a free country, they

shouldn't be forbidden by the government from eating what they want.

They said as long as they know the source of the product, they're

wiling to take the risk, and the government has no right to stop them.

 

But Stoltzfoos' freezers will remain taped shut until he shows the

state that he has labels to clearly mark that his product is pet food

and not intended for human consumption. And even then, he may not be

able to sell his complete product line.

 

" Let's be serious here, " Fruin said. " I do not think sauerkraut and

pickled beets are something that's a pet food. "

 

Fruin said it's the state's responsibility to ensure the public has a

safe food supply. He said Stoltzfoos' dairy operation, conducted out

of a concrete-floor open shed where milking machine hoses rest on the

ground and cows' udders aren't washed prior to milking, doesn't meet

state standards for cleanliness.

 

But Stoltzfoos points to the way he beds his cattle on clean pasture

grass every night before milking the next morning, the way his poultry

is rotated on the field after the cows are moved to keep fly larvae

down and the uncrowded conditions that enable his brown jersey cows to

produce safer and better-tasting high-fat milk than is produced in the

large commercial dairies.

 

Hosing down filthy cattle that sleep in their own feces in tightly

jammed barns is much less sanitary, Stoltzfoos said, because the dirty

water drips onto the udders and into the milk. He said the crowded

conditions also lead to the spread of disease. Besides, he said,

grass-fed cows produce superior milk to those raised on pesticide-,

hormone- and chemical-laden commercial food.

 

" For thousands of years, people have been drinking raw milk. This is

not a new phenomenon, " Stoltzfoos said. " On the one hand, we have

people wanting it and on the other, the state doesn't want us to do this. "

 

Stoltzfoos has asked for a hearing to work out the state's case

against him. That could take another three months.

 

In the meantime, Stoltzfoos' brown Jersey cows will continue to

produce 15 to 18 gallons of rich, cream-laden milk a day, which he is

not allowed to sell.

 

And every time Stoltzfoos needs his food, state inspectors will be

making that 60-mile round trip.

Contact Capitol Bureau Chief Nancy Cook Lauer at (850) 671-6547 or

nlauer.