Search Warrant Struggle: The Cat-and-Mouse Game Between Smiths and NY Ag Gets Dicier By the Day
Thursday, December 20, 2007 at 10:13PM 
The struggle of Barbara and Steve Smith of Meadowsweet Farm against the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets is beginning to resemble the battle of the Alamo. Every few days, it seems, the ag lackeys mount another assault against the revolutionaries, stronger than the one preceding, and each time they are driven off.
But as with the battle of the Alamo, you know that eventually the side with the overwhelming force will win…unless the cavalry can arrive in time with reinforcements.
Here’s the situation: On Dec. 11, Meadowsweet and its limited liability company's 121 owners filed suit against New York Department of Agriculture and Markets officials, seeking an end to department interference with and harassment of the LLC. On December 13, NY Ag and Markets fired back, filing a second complaint against Meadowsweet to “show cause” why it shouldn’t be shut down for selling raw dairy products without a permit. The complaint ignores the fact that Meadowsweet is organized as a limited liability company, with its shareholders/raw-milk consumers owning the cows.
As if to further subvert the LLC arrangement, the Dec. 13 complaint includes a “Report of Sampling and Analysis” showing inspectors made a “purchase” of Meadowsweet milk last July at a neighboring farm (and shareholder) Meadowsweet uses as a dropoff point for shareholders to pick up milk and other products. The document shows the milk was tested for pathogens and bacteria count. The document is curious, says Barbara, since the LLC doesn’t “sell” milk; she suggests that an ag inspector must have taken the milk, without authorization, or else be a member of the LLC.
Then, last week, ag inspectors arrived during the middle of a snowstorm with a warrant to oversee destruction of products seized from the first complaint filed in October…and by the way, wanted to get their little paws on more recent dairy products the Smiths had produced. But this time, the Smiths were prepared, and called the local sheriff, who encouraged the fellas to leave, since they didn’t have a warrant for the new trouble they wanted to create.
So yesterday, the inspectors showed up again. As Barbara describes it, “Today, December 19, the inspectors returned with an inspection warrant (since we had them removed by the police last week when they came without a warrant!). The new warrant says they have the right to ‘enter the premises on a continuing basis ... to quarantine food that is adulterated or misbranded ... and to seize, destroy, or denature food or food products which are unfit or unsafe for use as food.’”
But the Smiths had taken some precautions in advance of this latest inspection. “We were one step ahead of them and had installed locks on the doors of our processing facility,” says Barbara.
That was fortunate, because there was something missing from the warrant: the authority to “use whatever force necessary” to gain access to the products, according to Gary Cox, the lawyer who is representing the Smiths as part of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.
When the Smiths called Gary and read the warrant language, he advised the Smiths “to walk away” from the inspectors. If they broke the locks and confiscated product, they couldn’t use it as evidence.
There was a big hullabaloo over this yesterday at Meadowsweet Farm, says Barbara. “They apparently called for reinforcements, as a state trooper appeared on the scene while we were talking to Gary. The trooper said they did have the right to use force, but Gary insisted that the law is very clear on this and they do not…After the inspectors and the trooper spent about an hour consulting with each other and after many calls to Albany for marching orders, the inspectors gave it up for the second time in a week and headed home without their coveted inspection!! AWWWW!” It sure helps to have good legal advice.
I tried twice today to reach officials at the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets to get their side to this bizarre story. A spokesperson called me back early this afternoon, after my second call, and asked if she could telephone me in a couple hours, when she was back in her office and had her notes. But I never heard further from her.
It’s clear that NY Ag and Markets could go back to a judge for a new warrant, authorizing force. Whether they will is another question.
Gary Cox says he has had some discussions with officials at the department over the last few weeks, and hopes he can get a productive dialogue going. But it seems clear that the Smiths have the bureaucrats in a dither with their limited liability company approach for distributing raw milk.
Are the ag people perhaps a little worried that the Smiths will set a precedent for other dairy farmers seeking to serve the huge New York raw-milk market—out of the reach of ag restrictions on raw-milk yogurt, butter, and other such products? Maybe then we wouldn’t need so many ag bureaucrats harassing raw milk dairies.
Barbara remains upbeat for the present, but very worried about the future “This whole experience is making me SOOOO grateful for our civil liberties and SOOO nervous that we, and especially our children, may not have them in the future!” Yes, I'd say the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) is moving toward formalizing the end of many of those liberties.
One other thing worth noting: the battle for the Alamo was fought against soldiers of another country. This battle is being fought against soldiers of our own country.
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Reader Comments (18)
The attitude of the powers that be in our nation from top to bottom is so unAmerican that one wonders if some foreign enemy has slithered in and taken over.
Do those attacking our freedoms have any heart, is it just lust for power, lust for money, where did they receive their education?
Have they ever heard of the Constitution or Bill of Rights?
Is Ron Paul the nations last and only hope. MSM ignored Ron Paul until the money showed up the message of freedom was and is secondary, what a shame. I am not sure even he can stop this coming train wreck.
When citizens of a nation are not allowed to sell raw milk, raw butter, raw cream, the very basics of life, something is terribly wrong.
the farming community(NY) needs to unite around the Smith's and stand firm...maybe another WACO like standoff is needed(without the tragic result) so that this issue can become a media circus waking up the American people that this gov't has become a fascist oligarchy
http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/c2007/cbarchive_20071218.html
Kidnapped by the
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Kiss
Oppression and the
Oligarchy
Kaputt
Keep the fires to
Opposition and
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Kindled
Koncerned
Opposers to
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Kongress
VOTE RON PAUL '08!
Ron Paul is scheduled to be on Meet The Press this Sunday with Tim Russert.
After posting an update yesterday, I received the following response from one reader:
"As an educator, I have mixed feelings when reading the saga that Barb and Steve Smith are facing. We are only getting their point of view on this; from all I have read and know about dairy law in NY, the Smiths engaged in
an illegal activity, and appear to be seeking peer support to solve the mess. We consumers can lose our access to raw milk from organic, grass-fed dairy cattle if this is pushed too far, and I am concerned it will backfire."
"The laws of NY allow a farmer to sell raw milk to we consumers with a permit, and the Smiths' actions may, in the end, cause Ag and Markets to eliminate the permit for all farmers."
"The laws of NY do not allow a company to sell raw milk. The minute the Smiths chose to distribute raw milk under a corporate liability shield (their LLC), they violated the law. The law allows a person (not a
corporation) to sell raw milk."
"We all know the benefits of raw milk. But since it is so easily contaminated even on the best-run dairy farms,all consumers need to be
protected. Thus, corporate structures, especially those that limit liability and consumer recourse, have no place in raw milk sales. I hope the position the Smiths have taken do not have unintended consequences."
I should add that I have heard this before. The Smiths are actually the second farm to try a cow-share operation around here. The first also ran into trouble with the state. They went out of business, for other reasons, before it ever came to a head. While they were running their cow-share, I fielded many complaints from people concerned that they were "ruining it for the rest of us". The "rest of us" being the majority of raw-milk drinkers in this area who are buying our milk under the table, so to speak, and the few others who are patronizing the one raw dairy in this area that carries the state permit.
Anyway, I would love to hear your collective responses to this person's complaint about the situation at the Smith farm.
Folk, we are in a war, and it concerns far more than raw dairy...it concerns our very freedams and liberty, and there is NO middle ground...you are on one side or the other, so make up your minds. Either be willing to fight, or be sheep. for there is no other stance you can take.
The Smiths have found a - LEGAL - way to distribute raw milk without the state's permission, and it is obvious that the intention of Ag & Markets is to stop other farms from following in their footsteps.
I'm in the process of setting up my own farmshare, and was in communication with Steve Smith about his farmshare structure a few months ago - this is how it works.
The LLC owns the cows and the Smiths sell membership interests in the LLC. Then, members make quarterly investments in the LLC and receive dividends on their investments in the form of dairy products. Put money into the business, take money (in the form of property) out of the business. Read the statutes in your state regarding LLC law, THIS IS PERFECTLY LEGAL, and other LLCs do it, whether the pencil factory or a restaurant or whatever. Then the question becomes - is raw dairy a legal product to distribute as a dividend on your investment? If raw milk is not legal to distribute, then how can 'sell' my milk to the local processor?
The comment above by Elizabeth's consumer shows a common thread of the raw milk community, and it is - as long as I get my milk, fine, but don't you others go rocking the boat and jeopardize my supply. How naive and cowardly. Doesn't this person realize that his/her supply is just as precarious as everyones, and if he/she doesn't stand up and be counted, the state will just 'change the law' and his/her milk supply will go away.
Our founding fathers created a system of checks and balances so that 1. everyone who had authority over the people was directly accountable (via election) to the people, and 2. no one body would have the power to make, enforce and interpret the law. Guess what? ALL state bureacracies embody all of the above. It's time for NY to start screaming bloody murder to the governor, any and all sympathetic state legislators, the JUDGE who keeps signing these warrants, etc. Get a video of Barbara Smith, wife, mother, law-abiding citizen just trying to make a living, getting hauled away in handcuffs by 5 big, burly state troopers and plaster it all over the TV and internet...
Elizabeth, I would encourage your consumers to understand what and why the Smiths are doing, because what they are doing is LEGAL and that's why the state doesn't like it. We need to stand up for each other, or we all stand to lose.
One more thought...Michael Pollan wrote a great article in the New York Times magazine recently blasting industrial, factory farmed foods. The follow up article I'd like to see him do, now that he's got people thinking about the state of our food system, is to expose just how the state is cracking down on the farmers trying to produce quality, healthy products, like the Smiths. If that doesn't get people thinking that the food system is messed up, I don't know what will.
It is also the attitude of a slave and not a freeman. The slave is afraid of bucking the system and loosing their privileges. The freeman lives free and fights anyone who tells him otherwise. It also belies a modern attitude of avoiding pain and discomfort, we no longer have the guts for suffering and persecution that our forefathers did.
I think what would help here is to get people see the bigger scope of what is going on and what the movement is doing to the establishment. They need to know how important it is that we get government out of the food regulation business where they are not wanted (direct sales between farmers and customers as well as cooperative ownership of food). We can do that by educating them of the harm caused by our food system, the health that can come of a reformed system, and the very scary results that can come of government control of food (more below).
We need more people like the Smith's. They are really engaged in an offensive action against state control. It is only through such actions that we can reclaim our freedom. To sit back and try to not rock the boat is a loosing game.
Oh, and she's an educator, that alone speaks volumes.
About the harm caused. 118 million people were killed by government caused famine in the 20th century. Much of this was through direct confiscation of food, some as a direct result of government taking control of agriculture. Two of the worst intentional actions were Moa, who killed 38 mil in the late 50's and Stalin who killed 10 mil in Ukraine in the early 30's.
Now some will refuse to believe this could happen here. To them you need to show how our government is accumulating the power to do just this and then ask, what sane trustworthy person would even want such power?
We in general trust our governments too much. Many people decry war for all the deaths caused. But war deaths in the last century were dwarfed by the 262 million intentionally killed by their own government.
For more see: http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM
A poor guy in ND who had an idea about recycling tires into fences. Talk about being hassled by the state. He was just trying to recycle. Worth the read.
RonPaul2008.com
Now I am particularly senstive to this kind of misadventure right now. My barn burnt down Wednesday, total loss, and I am currently milking outside by hand, And fighting w/ the insurance company who wants to deny coverage and is making a big issue of what was FARM use versus FAMILY use. What kind of farmers do not have multiple utility property. INDUSTRIAL AG So the Farm Bureau wants to protect family farms? Don't talk to me about that right now.Just like the state of NY wants to ensure food safety and encourage local farmers to boot.
Supporting local businesses, farmers,and the local community in general, and reaching out to others throughout the land who are developing relationships with caring and grounded concepts is what will change the country. We can fight and heal this land with the support we give each other, and the knowldege that others do care and do support our endeavors and those endeavors that build community makes a bid difference. Thank you, David for this forum, and all those who join in the dialogue for truth and honesty.
I believe that educating the public on the reality of the factory farms and all they entail would make a strong case for better and natural foods. Thus it would cause a demand for change and the "powers that be" would be forced to change their direction.
Start with educating mother's on what's used in and on foods, what those foods eat, the chemicals added, etc. And what those chemicals/additives do to humans and the animals. Pictures say a 1000 words. Most mother's are selective to some degree of what the give their kids. Many are complacent because they believe the govt is looking out for them.
There doesn't seem to be anyone regulating the regulators. They have free rein to do as they please.
If I was to start a blog with photos of local dairy’s (excluding the names) what would the legal ramifications be? Or photos of the processing plants? Or the migrant workers, defecating in the fields because there are no latrines/washing facilities available?
I join others here in expressing support for you during these difficult times. One suggestion in dealing with your insurance problem is to alert your insurance company that you are in contact with Virginia's Bureau of Insurance and the state attorney general/consumer affairs office about the company's delay/failure to provide promised coverage. Sometimes that perks the insurance people up, since they, too, prefer to avoid the glare of inquiry. If it doesn't seem to do anything, follow up with protest letters to your insurance company, and copy in the state insurance, consumer affairs, and any other offices you can think of. If none of that helps, you may want to see if you can involve local media--maybe the local reporter who wrote about Richard Bean and Jean Rinaldi.
Sylvia, I can't see any problems with your blog idea in terms of libel/slander. Photos showing abuse or sloppiness are factual presentations, and the farms are businesses, and thus public entities. Just don't get caught trespassing...and remember, I'm not a lawyer.