The legal battle of The Milk Direct Farms of Wi

[Guest guest]

Dear Lori and others

Thanks for the interest, I will try to give you a breif explanation of what's

going on.

1. As for the cow share program it is on hold at Clearview (but operating at the

other farms) because of the special order against us brought on by what now

seems to be a manufactured positive test result for a campylobacter outbreak

that implicated our farm.

2. the Administrative hearing process is still grinding forward Datcp was

ordered to turn over documents to us but has yet to do so in full.

We have been able to turn the debate from we are going to take away your permit

and us saying you can't, to an interpretation of the statutes that exist for the

" incidental sales " of raw milk.

3. This will eventually lead us to the question did the cow share program fall

under the incidental sales clause or not.

4. If all goes well we will get a broader interpretation of incidental we hope

to mean 49% of milk produced.

5. If datcp holds to its narrow interpretation of incidental(once) and considers

the cow share program the delivery of raw milk to mean the same as a sale, then

we can appeal that decision in civil court and win given they are stepping on

our 1st amendment rights, and trying to have it both ways that private ownership

and sales of raw milk are related.

6. Given all this mentioned, we will only be able to remove the special order

related to the campy outbreak if we get a broader interpretation of incidental

and the cow share program does not fall into that interpretation. But datcp has

yet to prove a definitive origin of the outbreak to this farm nor has datcp

proven the chain of command of the samples from when they left the farm to the

state lab.

This and the information forwarded from datcp of the undercover operation

starting 2 weeks after they gave us our state sponsored agreement, they were out

to prove that our milk was unsafe, couldn't, so they made it up to shut the

program down.

7. Wi is the only state in the union that has a centralized lab facility for all

county health services, which makes it very convenient to have total control of

those samples and their outcome.

We have also learned that datcp has been in error on many occasions as to the

source of an outbreak, it seems they enjoy a shoot first and ask questions later

tactic, and given control of the lab can attempt to prove most anything it

wishes.

8. If you look at the name Wi department of agriculture trade and consumer

protection, you have food safety within the arm of the enforcement branch of the

department of ag that inspects everything under the sun in Wi which leads to the

possibility and often occurrence of creating the ends to serve the means.

9. Datcp is in turmoil given our massive budget deficit in our state, and

several forces are trying to separate the agency.

This is good in two ways, one it will break up the monopoly of power they have,

and two our media campaign is hurting them given their actions and use of funds

against 4 small farms in our state and paints the picture of a reaccuring

problem that alot of people have with the current set up.

This is bad given they are very preoccupied with saving their power base and we

are on the back burner per say. If the food safety division continues to muddy

the water with delay tactics I think it is a very good chance that the Secretary

of Ag will pull rank and let us win in order to fight another day. Not so much

fight us, to fight any one at this point

10. Soon articles will begin to appear in Madison newspapers about this case

which will only intensify the debate in our capitol and broaden our scope of

those involved to include a segment of the population that has yet to be

involved that has the most to lose from this type of state sponsored

intimidation, the consumer.

Thats it in a nutshell, and yes it is very expensive, if you wish ot donate to

the cause you can send it to the address found on milkdirect.com.

Thanks Tim