Re: Raw Milk Defense Fund? (was: Re: A request for ideas)

[Guest guest]

Totally agree !!!

A cohesive movement is a great idea, and if we have lawyers,

letter-writers, researches, and mass support, we can certainly make

regulatory bodies think twice before harassing some individual farmer.

I will try my best to add to the literature from a legal side. I am aiming

for a substantive law-journal type article, but even shorter " fact sheets "

get a lot done.

Ramit

p.s. Great article, . I would just say that Reagan (*not* my

favorite president) cannot be blamed for the interstate raw milk ban- that

was mandated after the Public Citizen v. Heckler decision. So blame

www.citizen.org!

_________________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

et al-

>I'd be willing to do #2 - its all I'm qualified for!

Me too -- and I agree with your post 100%.

-

[Guest guest]

,

Your suggestions are wonderful, and very much in line with what needs to be

done. We have been struggling for the past few years just to keep our farm.

Now with these charges against us we have been forced to hire a lawyer, and they

do not come cheap! Harder yet was finding one that believed in the raw milk

issue enough to fully back us. We just got our first bill - very disheartening

to say the least! Looks like the next milk check is already gone before we even

get it. We have had a few people send donations to help with legal expenses,

but even with those we're finding it hard to come up with the money.

As for the research, we have been gathering as much as possible to prepare

for our day in court. We'll have to fight the big guys here, who seem to think

that raw milk will kill anyone that drinks it. It'll be up to us to provide any

and all information we can to prove otherwise. They've been brainwashed far too

long, and will need some pretty good information to sway their minds otherwise.

Having more information centrally located would be so helpful!

Some good news on the home front though, it does look like the letters,

emails and such has been helping our case. We heard through the grapevine that

DATCP is having second thoughts about our charges. Maybe they're finally

realizing that we're not just stupid farmers who will back off when they bark.

The backing we've received has been tremendous, and has helped so much. We need

to keep the fight active though, so they don't think we'll just disappear and go

away.

Hugs,

Janet

I was thinking more hands-on, something with:

1. Lawyers that would take cases like what's happening to the

Brunner's, or what just happened in LA, on for free. That way raw

milk dairy farmers won't get buried financially by the legal

machinery of the agricultural departments.

2. Regular non-lawyer folks who could donate money to keep the

dairies at a subsistance level while they are shut down.

3. People that know about accounting and running non-profit

organizations and whatnot to organize the whole thing.

4. (the easy part), have a central website - probably the

realmilk.com - act as a central repository of raw milk related

research, so that its easily available to everyone. Right now, the

raw milk related health info is pretty scattered and hard to dig up.

I'd like to see some really thorough literature reviews that go

through the issue point by point.

I'd be willing to do #2 - its all I'm qualified for!

Maybe I'm being over-idealistic, but these small dairies are the

heart of the movement. I don't think we can allow them to be shut

down one by one. We never know when the local agricultural inspectors

will get a bug up their ass and try to shut down *our* raw milk

source. But if it becomes common knowledge in state regulatory bodies

that a bunch of extremely passionate (zealous?) raw milk supporters

from across the entire nation will fight to the bitter end for every

last tiny dairy selling raw milk, then they won't act like bullies

anymore. Think about the environmental movement - they actually scare

big business now and the environmental impact of new buildings and

whatnot are taken very seriously. We have to make it abundantly clear

that we will win any and every war of financial and legal attrition

over raw milk.

just my $0.02

[Guest guest]

justinbond wrote:

>

> > et al-

> >

> > >I'd be willing to do #2 - its all I'm qualified for!

> >

> > Me too -- and I agree with your post 100%.

>

Me too.

We need to use experience and knowledge of lawyers who have dealt with these

issues. We can't afford to lose because one lost trial sets precedence, and

it gets much harder (almost impossible from what I've heard; Ramit, correct

me if I am wrong) to win other similar cases. Judges use rulings in other

trials on same issues as if they were laws.

Roman

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