"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 the first question they asked my wife was, 'Is Daddy going to jail?'"
That's Amish farmer Dan Allgyer, describing an early morning visit from FDA agents, U.S. Marshals, and a Pennsylvania state trooper, looking to bust him for selling unpasteurized milk across state lines.
They rooted through his belongings and kept him from milking his cows after showing him a warrant that authorized entry using "reasonable force." Daily Caller staffer and former Reason intern Mike Riggs reports:
Several days later, Allgyer received a letter from the Food and Drug Administration that read, "An investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has determined that you are causing to be delivered into interstate commerce, selling, or otherwise distributing raw milk in final package form for human consumption."
The letter does not list the evidence against Allgyer, nor does it name specific violations. In fact, the letter from the FDA says exactly the opposite: "This letter is not intended to provide an all-inclusive list of violations." Two paragraphs later, the letter instructs Allgyer to report within 15 days "the specific steps you have taken to correct the noted violations."
If Allgyer doesn't "promptly" address the violations the FDA found, including the ones they haven't bothered to tell him about, it "could result in regulatory action without further notice" including "seizure and injunction."
More on the increasingly aggressive and occasionally violent raw milk crackdown here and here.
