When I spoke with Alvin Schlangen a few days ago, I asked him how he felt about having been in the shadows of the food rights movement the last couple of years, prior to his trial.
Yes, there had been a demonstration on his behalf last May, but the lion’s share of the attention from the media and from people like me who follow the expanding food rights movement had gone to people like Daniel Allgyer, the Pennsylvania Amish farmer who served a Maryland food club, James Stewart and Sharon Palmer in California of Rawesome Food Club fame, and Michael Schmidt, the Canadian raw dairy farmer under on-again-off-again legal pressure from the Ontario government.
During the last two-and-a-half years, Schlangen had endured multiple searches of his farm, van and warehouse from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the theft of thousands of dollars of members’ food, and misdemeanor charges in two counties that could have landed him in jail for two years or more.
No, he told me, by no means did he feel neglected. “I always thought attention should go to the immediate problem.” And that has shifted. “My longtime objective was not to focus on the fact that we were held up, but to maintain what we had and to stay positive.”
Of course, Schlangen became the immediate problem a couple weeks back, and the inspiring solution when a jury acquitted him of all charges. What has occurred since he was acquitted has astounded him–it’s much more than he ever could have imagined.
He’s been granted free admission to the Weston A. Price Foundation’s Wise Traditions Annual Conference in Santa Clara in early November. He plans to attend in what will be his first trip ever to California.
He has people clamoring to join his food club, the one the Minnesota Department of Agriculture worked so hard to destroy. He figures he’ll be up from 140 to 200 members by the end of October, and possibly 400 members by the end of this year.
And he has taken the offensive on his remaining legal problems. Though he was acquitted in Hennepin County in Minneapolis, he still faces similar misdemeanor charges in his home of Stearns County. His lawyer, Nathan Hansen, is planning to seek dismissal of the Stearns County charges based on something known as “serialized prosecution,” which he terms “a cousin of double jeopardy.” In other words, a new trial on the same charges could be akin to trying Schlangen twice for the same crimes, which is prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Nov. 2 to hear the case.
Once he put these immediate legal issue behind him, Schlangen wants to pursue recovering thousands of dollars of financial damages from the MDA, and getting those officials responsible for his nightmare of the last two-and-a-half years fired.
And he wants to devote as much energy as he can to spreading the word about food rights, and helping other farmers and food clubs under assault.
“I just turned 55 this week and have never felt more ALIVE!” he says. “Thank you all for that,” he says to those who supported him through his dark times. To be able to feel so alive again is, after all, quite the gift.
China……..surprise surprise
I hope and pray that Mr. Schlangen sues the pants off the state and all who have been involved in his harassment and money loss.
“FDA has found problems at Sunland before. Agency records show two inspections at the plant in 2009 and 2010 found “objectionable conditions” but classified the findings as not meeting the agency’s threshold for action. ”
Excuse me? What a worthless waste of tax payers money. Definitely not looking out for the people.
Of course I have to cut you some slack in all this, Mister Anderson … you’re too young to know that Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s accusations about the upper echelons of the US govt. being infested with card-carrying commies, were borne out : Exhibit One being Alger Hiss, who went to prison. The tragic condition in Ham-merica today, is the inevitable outworking of those poisonous polices, playing out to the bitter end
glad to see you’re coming around to what I’ve been saying for nigh-on a decade : that the Campaign for REAL MILK is indeed a racial phenomenon = white people remembering our heritage, starting with the food laws in the Law of our God
I don’t know. I’m like you about the money part though – the gubment should have to reimburse and the judge should have specified exactly what that involves.
Last evening I spent 2 hours with Dr. Don Huber PhD emeritus from Purdue University. He is the worlds leading researcher and expert on GMO GE foods and round-up ready issues. Boy…did I learn alot.
He spoke only side Jeff Smith and I on a panel that was part of a public viewing of the must see “Genetic Roulette” documentary by Jeff Smith. It is brilliantly done. Filled with experts arround the world. The details and science is amazing.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/12/10/dr-don-huber-interview-part-1.aspx
The one thing that hit me hardest was the extreme antibiotic effect of Round-Up. It is orders of magnitude stronger than pharma based human antibiotics. When Round-Up spray treated foods are eaten….OMG. The effects on GUT flora are massively devasting and worst.
High levels of Round-Up are being found in cord blood of babies birth inside of cities where the mothers have never been on a farm. Levels of Round-Up are being found in urine in the general population that far exceed the levels that have been shown to cause cancer. It is pervasive!!! Everywhere. This is where eating “Organic” really has purpose and serious value.
It was fascinating to see that a retired soils science, ex military bio-terrorism expert PhD from Purdue, a GMO watch dog activist ( Jeff Smith ) and a Organic Raw Milk Dairyman and retired EMS paramedic: all sat on a panel and have everything in common. It is all about the GUT flora and immunity. All of us were connected by the concern for the health of the next generation and how it is being truly destroyed by the greed of Monsanto. Think Autism and GUT conditions???
If I was president for a day….Seal Team Six would be sent to Monsanto Corp offices and every top manager, scientist and CEO etc….would be arrested and sent to GIT MO for special interogations and incarceration. The safety of our nation depends on this!! This would be done to protect America from “Bioterrorism Inflicted” by Monsanto. Seal Team Six next stop would be the FDA and anyone that did not support nutritional prevention through whole food agriculture would be classified as a BIo Terrorist.
All GIT MO bound….
That would send a message to the USDA that is it human need before corporate greed and to stop screwing with nature and life on earth. The facts are all here, the science has been corrupted. The science of corrupting science has been perfected.
When it comes to the destruction of our next generation….this is war and Monsanto and those that stand with them are the truest of American enemies.
I am not sure why the UN has not already declared Monsanto a danger to life on earth. Maybe Monsanto has the UN under a spell as well.
Perhaps my dream of being president for a day is more like dictator for a day…but when it comes to our children, I do not care what anyone said…..This must stop. The congress can then hold hearings and testimonies can begin.
Hearings to include:
Experts from NIH, Human Biogenomics project, GMO experts, Pasteurization experts, raw milk experts, disease analysis regarding the American GUT.
Alass….America would be shaken to its core and American Agriculture could retake its rightful place as a center piece of health. Medical care would shift, soils would matter…and the first steps to sustainablity would begin.
Sounds like radical talk….not so much.
When guys like Bill Gates are funding R&D for vaccination programs that he can’t possibly truly understand, as well as siding with and funding monsanto and the like, well, who is going to stop them? Doctors don’t vaccinate their own kids, and politicians wouldn’t eat food from Safeway – – – not in this lifetime. But the rest of us are supposed to do all of this without a second thought to the consequences. No, we don’t have to be afraid of anyone but our own corrupt system.
If he files harassment charges (for various reasons) will that send a message that harassment will not be tolerated? By filing charges for harassment et al, he is also moving closer to getting laws changed, it will open more eyes to the happenings to the farmers and products. A slow process for sure, but a step forward.
We all know that Phosphatase enzymes are completely denatured ( by PMO and law ) when milk is effectively pasteurized. We also know that this enzyme is very much essential to the absorption of calcium. There are also other essential elements that are critical to this process and it is not simple…it is very complex and mediated by diseases like osteoporosis.
I cna say with 100% clarity as a matter of official testimonial archive, that consumers of raw milk experience rapid calcium uptake in teeth and bone of their bodies. The evidence of this was submitted during SB 201 hearings in CA in 2008. ( Dean Florez ). Weston A Price has studies from the 1920’s shopwing that pasteurized milk is associated with bone loss.
We also know that kids that drink raw milk experience few dental carries when juice drinking and pasteurized milk drinking kids have dental challenges and huge amounts of cavities ( in general ).
Do we really need million dollar studies to validate the truth!!!! Are we that stupid????
Mark
calcium requires other co-factors for absorption, otherwise, it is just excreted or deposited in unwanted tissues. If you don’t have adequate Vit D,K,C,E,Bs, and other nutrients, along with some sort of weight bearing activities, you will have receding gums, poor bone regeneration, and a slew of other health issues.
My kids grew up on boiled milk, neither have ever had any cavities and they are in their 30s now.
We are bombarded daily with opportunities to consume refined sugar, but overconsumption alters your body’s natural pH, which should be about 7.35 or 7.45. If the pH is altered, the body has difficulty healing itself and the immune system is repressed. http://www.onlyhealthy.com/probiotics
Consuming probiotic foods such as raw milk, including yogurt and other fermented foods will help to neutralize the body thus offsetting to a degree the overall effect of our bad eating habits.
Consuming mineral supplements including calcium and probiotic rich foods are merely a stopgap measure which also serve to offset the acidifying affect of drugs and highly processed sugar laden foods.
Maintaining a neutral soil pH is important to healthy crops and nutrient dense foods and so it is with our bodies as well in order to be healthy.
Ken
Meanwhile, we know for a fact that collaborating in keeping things quiet never helps one and only makes it easier for the enemy, and that those who fight back do better than those who don’t.
The very idea that food SAFETY and biodiversity can co-exist is a conflict. Chickens, eggs, calves, cows and raw milk creameries are all elements that are very much in conflict when considering conventional FOOD Safety Standards. OPDC is closing in on becoming RAWMI Listed and I had Cat do a very critique of our RAMP program. It was a great experience and once again…I learned something. Our team will make some additional changes and our RAMP plan get even better.
Dr. Cat lives in Belgium and was in CA for the Furnace Creek 503 ultra cycling race. Her team set another world record last weekend.
Learning never stops…improvements never end.
My latest discovery is this….in the final assessment, all food safety standards are in the end reduced to human behaviors. I really detest the finite details of refining RAMP…..these are refinements that require that our team no longer associate with one another. The egg people no longer have lunch with the milkers or the creamery staff….the final safety step is the disconnection of people.
Dr. Cat and I spoke of this. The true innovation at RAWMI will be modern food safety without the disassociation of humanity. As raw milk is taken into the inner city and consumed by those that long for the immunity of those that live close to the biodiversity on the farm…this is dreamy altruism …it is also Marler land. A place that is nirvana until some one gets sick. Then all dreams become nightmares.
How do we organic dairymen support the dreams of all consumers that seek biodiversity in their raw milks….yet are put at risk by that same biodiversity.
This is one of the greatest questions of our times.
Freedom, information and choice lay at the base of this question.
Just some thoughts on the days learning….
Mark, I’m not understanding this statement. Why can’t these people associate with each other? Doesn’t Joel Salatin intermingle his workers and animals?
Better yet, let me ask ya’ll if YOU think we’re better off now than people were in the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s? After that period of time, we seem to have taken a nosedive in almost every area of life I can think of, from farming to medicine to common sense. I’d love a good discussion about why other people here (if they agree with me) think that’s so.
The above quote is from FOURFOLD PATH TO HEALING: THOMAS S. COWAN M.D. Chapter 3 pages 137 & 138. No,s 1 and 2 one can read in depth in Chapter 15 and Chapter 3. But No. 2 is my response to are we better off than our parents were in the 40s/50s/60s. Today that is what life seems to be all about $$$$Money$$$$. It is why Joel Salatin wrote about not being able to farm because everything he wanted to do was illegal. The home is no longer a productive environment only a consumer commodity.
99% work for the man. Few can find themselves in a position to be creative or express their creative skills. (If they are lucky enough to have the time to develop any.) Bill A. has is correct with regard to A. Einsteins quote. It does seem that they want us smart enough to see our way around paperwork, but not so smart as to be able to actually THINK for ourselves. The propaganda machines are overwhelming in our society and it gives the 1% the power of consensus reality. It is sad, but maybe something or someone will be able to wake us up. But it will never happen if we continue to eat the SAD!
JMHO Marietta Pellicano
When employees from different parts of OPDC join for lunch in the main break area….bingo, shared bacteria. Campylobacter and salmonella from the Chickens, ecoli from the calves etc….all shared with the creamery staff that are trying to stay far away from pathogens. That is what I meant. The State of CA Department of Public Health made these same recommendations. Hand washing helps but the BOOTS track the bacteria all over. We are immune….but our immune depressed consumers are not.
CDFA inspectors have said and I quote, “at the big pasteurizer plants, some people never even see all the employees that work at that plant. Each has their own break area. Each is separated by the kinds of risks they pose to food safety”.
That is what I mean. It is very anti-family…very anti-humanity….anti-community.
That is why innovation at RAWMI and OPDC is so ground breaking. We will accomplish the same or higher levels of risk reduction but with out the disassociation of humanity. This what we need to do if we intend on bringing raw milk to people in the cities.
Our last two recalls were associated with Campylobacter. The most common food borne bacteria in the USA. We have chickens now…we did not have chickens 18 months ago. Chickens === Campy. Do the quick math. It is very obvious. Our chickens connect to our employees and our employees communicate the campy to the facilities and products. It is an invisible flow of life. It is what the people in the city dearly pay for and demand….all natural bacteria from a wonderful organic bacterial playground….a play ground that includes all the cute creatures on the farm.
All very altruistic…until someone gets sick. Then it is Marler play land….when the farm bacteria connect to the city immune systems…gifts are delivered and also….illness can occur.
So we must innovate and figuer out how to embrace biodiversity but not let it cause us issues at so many levels.
That is what I mean.
This is the absurd place you go to when you start out with false assumptions.If the employees can’t lunch together,how can you let the cows be outside where they might eat some grass that a bird pooped on? In a world where every organism is seen as an organ in the body of the earth,everything has it’s function to make the whole healthy.Remember,everything IS everywhere.It is the conditions that select for the type of organisms that dominate.What are the conditions that lead to stability(health)?Look at healthy soil. Abundance and diversity of life in the soil is how the soil turns toxic waste into nutrients. Do you get campylobacter problems because chicken workers lunch with dairy workers,or is it because the cows share the pasture with wild birds? Or might it be that the cows are managed for high production and the stress they are under results in milk that is favorable to the survival and growth of campylobacter? Stressors are grain feeding,feeding hay from low mineral fields,removing horns,keeping too many cows in one herd,milking with machines,not having enough different types of plants in the pastures,not allowing access to to a large variety of plant varieties at all times( at least 80 different types of forage including herbs shrubs and trees).
miguel