FDA Agents Launch Covert Ops Against Raw Milk Buyers Group
Submitted by Lois Rain on May 4, 2011 – 5:58 pmOne Comment
By now you may have heard of the lengthy FDA sting operation to catch Amish farmer Dan Allgyer for interstate sales of raw milk. But wait, there’s more!
To avoid entering commerce, “He [Mr. Allgyer] instead formed a club and had customers sign an agreement stating they supported his operation, weren’t trying to entrap the owners, and that they would be shareholders in the farm’s produce, paying only for the farmer’s labor.” The buyers felt that since the deliveries were to private homes, it would be acceptable non-commerce.
One agent had posed undercover as a member (for the entrapment) and the FDA went to court last week to stop the raw milk “dealing.”
The imposters went to the club members’ homes to seize the “contraband.” It appears they entered private properties without permission and unbeknownst to some of the buyers. David Gumpert, author of The Raw Milk Revolution, brings more news about the betrayal and absurdity of the FDA’s aggressive, covert actions. They are seeking a permanent injunction against the Amish man.
The FDA sees this as an acceptable way to spend tax dollars; to crack down on those dealers of this “dangerous contraband.”
~Health Freedoms
FDA agents launch covert ops against D.C.-area raw-milk buying club
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has just filed a complaint in federal court, seeking a permanent injunction against Amish farmer Dan Allgyer in Pennsylvania. It accuses him of violating a federal prohibition on interstate sales of raw milk by shipping unpasteurized milk to a Maryland buying club’s members.
As part of its complaint, the agency says it carried out a lengthy undercover investigation to acquire raw milk, and as part of it, “FDA investigators picked up each unpasteurized milk order at various private residences in Maryland.” All of which has me wondering …
Were the agents looking over their shoulders as they wandered onto decks and into garages of the private homes as they picked up their milk? Were they whispering into cell phones to comrades waiting outside, eager to get their hands on the contraband? Did they stop to admire deck furniture, barbeque grills, and lawn tools on their way into and out of the homes? And maybe do a little dumpster diving, checking the trash for clues to the family’s prescription drugs, nutritional supplements … whether there might be some leftover weed.
Perhaps more to the point, did the imposters feel any sense of remorse or shame by virtue of entering private residences to seize food — eagerly ordered and paid for by the club members — as part of a major federal investigation?
On this last point, the answer appears to be negative. According to the complaint filed in U.S. District court a couple weeks back, the FDA undercover effort has been going on for more than a year. “In late 2009, an investigator in FDA’s Baltimore District Office used aliases to join the cooperative that Allgyer’s farm was supplying in Maryland and Washington, D.C.” The complaint noted that the group “warns group members to ‘not share information about our group and certainly not about our farmer’ with government agencies or doctors … ”
Over the 15 months between December 2009 and March 2011, additional FDA investigators used the cooperative’s “online ordering website and placed orders for unpasteurized cow milk on 23 occasions … Payment for each purchase was made in the form of a money order payable to Dan Allgyer. Payment was either mailed to Allgyer” or left inside a zip closure bag that was located at the pickup site in Maryland, the private homes where FDA investigators obtained their evidence.
These surreptitious pickups weren’t the end of the investigation, though. “An FDA laboratory analyzed twelve of the twenty-three samples of milk purchased by the FDA investigators and confirmed that all twelve were unpasteurized.”
Investigators also visited Allgyer’s farm on April 20, 2010, and “observed numerous portable coolers in the Defendant’s driveway and a walk-in cooler/freezer on the property that contained products that appeared to be milk and other assorted dairy products.” The coolers were labeled with the names of various locations within Maryland, including Takoma Park, Bethesda, Bowie, and Silver Springs.
Not surprisingly, members of the buying group in Maryland are upset by the FDA’s undercover tactics. The club has hundreds of members, “including bureaucrats, lobbyists, staffers on the Hill,” says Liz Reitzig, one of the club organizers. “It feels like betrayal,” she says. “The fact that they have been in some of our homes is mean. We trusted them, and they are totally betraying us.”
Reitzig argues that the milk being delivered to members wasn’t being purchased, and thus wasn’t part of interstate commerce. It was already owned by the members as part of their club membership agreements, and was merely being delivered to them. Indeed, the fact that it could only be obtained by entering private residences is testimony to the private nature of the transactions, she says.
Who knows, maybe some FDA staffers who weren’t privy to the undercover operation had their homes visited. It’s a tough business, this official effort to deprive people of food.
David Gumpert is the author of The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America’s Emerging Battle Over Food Rights (Chelsea Green, 2009). He is also a journalist who specializes in covering the intersection of health and business. His popular blog has chronicled the increasingly unsettling battles over raw milk. He has authored or coauthored seven books on various aspects of entrepreneurship and business and previously been a reporter and editor with the Wall Street Journal, Inc. magazine, and the Harvard Business Review.
Sources:
http://www.grist.org/food/2011-04-29-picture-this-fda-agents-slinking-through...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/28/feds-sting-amish-farmer-selli...
From the April 29, 2011 
FORT WORTH, Texas – A former Miss USA's tearful claim that she was groped during a pat-down at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport could be a criminal matter under a bill gaining momentum in the Texas Legislature.
The proposed Texas law, aimed at people conducting security checkpoints at airports and public buildings, would make it a felony to intentionally touch someone's private areas — even on top of clothing — unless the officer or agent has probable cause to believe the person is carrying something illegal.
State Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, who sponsored the bill, said Friday that the invasive pat-down searches at airports nationwide are a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches. Last fall the Transportation Security Administration implemented a new pat-down procedure that includes a security worker running a hand up the inside of passengers' legs and along the cheek of the buttocks, as well as making direct contact with the groin area.
"We're taking away people's dignity and freedom," said Simpson, whose bill was approved in committee and is now awaiting debate by the full House. Simpson has 70 co-authors on the bill, which is more than 90 percent of the votes needed to pass it. The bill then would go to the Texas Senate for consideration.
Simpson insists that his law would pass muster, even though federal law requires all airline passengers to undergo a screening, which sometimes involves a pat-down. If the bill becomes Texas law, the only way a TSA agent can avoid fear of prosecution is if a traveler gives written consent to the pat-down search after being fully informed of the procedures, Simpson said.
The TSA does not comment on pending legislation, said Nicholas Kimball, an agency spokesman.
"We wish we lived in a world where security procedures weren't necessary, but that simply isn't the case," Kimball said. "We know that terrorists continue trying to manipulate societal norms to evade detection and the measures in place are the best tools currently available to mitigate risk. As we explore ways to improve our approach and become more risk-based and intelligence-driven, we welcome travelers' feedback and appreciate their understanding."
Susie Castillo, who was crowned Miss USA in 2003 representing Massachusetts, said she was "molested" during a security pat-down at DFW Airport on April 21. In a video she taped minutes afterward, a tearful Castillo said she had opted against walking through the body scanner, and then a female TSA agent touched her crotch four times during the pat-down.
Castillo said this pat-down was different than those at other airports during her frequent travels. Castillo, now an actress, did not say she felt that she was being singled out.
"I'm hoping that other people that feel violated as an American will make these complaints and ... maybe something will change in the future," Castillo said in the video. "Hopefully they will hear me loud and clear."
TSA spokesman Luis Casanova said the screener was questioned and did the pat-down correctly, but apologized for any discomfort to Castillo.
According to the TSA, 898 people who underwent or witnessed a pat-down complained to the agency from November through March, and 252 million travelers were screened during that period. The TSA says less than 3 percent of travelers undergo pat-downs, including those who opt out of a body scanner or when it detects a problem and those who require an additional screening when a metal detector goes off.
Since the new anti-terrorism screening measures took effect last year, the American Civil Liberties Union has reported receiving more than 1,000 complaints. Those travelers claim that TSA agents have patted their genitals, run fingers through their hair or along their bras or waistbands.
In Alaska, 59 of the 60 lawmakers have asked a U.S. Senate committee to hold hearings in that state on what they call the "often invasive procedures" used by the TSA, and they're researching what they can do on a state level.
"You shouldn't have to sacrifice your dignity when you travel, and air travel is such an important part of travel in Alaska," said Mark Gnadt, press secretary for House Democrats in the Alaska Legislature.
At least two federal lawsuits have been filed over the pat-downs.
____
Associated Press writer Chris Tomlinson in Austin contributed to this report.
