For the last six months, since he formally opted out of Michigan’s cattle testing program for bovine tuberculosis and its mandatory enforcement of the National Animal Identification System (NAIS), Greg Niewendorp has been waiting.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture responded nearly immediately last March by quarantining Niewendorp’s farm in East Jordan, but aside from that it’s been deep silence. “I’ve been sitting her wondering what they’re going to do next.”
Yesterday morning, he received his first answer. Two cars pulled up his driveway, drove past his barn, and stopped at his front door. The first was an SUV containing Kevin Lauterwasser, a regulatory agent of the Michigan Department of Agriculture, while the second was a Michigan State Police cruiser, containing two uniformed officers.
To Greg, the scene was meant to intimidate. “It’s fearful to see the state police come onto your property.”
Greg has repeatedly warned that state agriculture officials wouldn’t be allowed onto his property without a search warrant, and yesterday he says he was true to his word.
“They drove right past the ‘no trespassing’ signs, right up to my house,” he says. “The agent, Lautererwasser, said, ‘We’re here to do a TB test. We have a veterinarian waiting down the road. Let’s get the cattle together and get this done.’
“I said, ‘You boys are going to get into those vehicles and get to the other side of the no-trespassing signs.’ They got into their cars and backed up, and I walked alongside their cars. One of them asked me why I was walking along their cars, and I said, ‘I’m just watching to see if you are calling backup.’” They weren’t.
“Once I got them off my property, we had a little talk.” The gist of the talkwas that he agreed to meet with MDA officials next Wednesday in nearby East Jordan. Greg says his main focus will be on convincing the MDA to end its TB eradication program and the premises ID program.
MDA officials couldn’t be reached for comment.
Greg argues as well that any enforcement actions by the MDA should be carried out by the sheriff for his county, Charlevoix County. “This is an attempt by the state to go around and not pay any attention to the county sheriff…” A Michigan lawyer I contacted quotes from a court case confirming that “the state’s duty of law enforcement for the protection of its citizens has been constitutionally delegated to the county in the person of the sheriff."
I was unable to reach George Lasater, the sheriff of Charlevoix County.
What’s the next step in this slow-motion drama? Greg doubts the tentative meeting will come off, and likely there will be more silence.
For now, he says the MDA “made a terrible mistake. They came onto my property without a search warrant. The fact that they left so quickly tells me they knew they were wrong.”
He feels he won a victory. “I’m trying to set an example of how to deal with this kind of barbaric behavior.”
We really live in a divided world. People who have figured out that our mass produced food system is fraught with problems and therefore have switched to buying food that is organic and locally produced. The small, local farmer is their bread and butter so to speak. This system builds connections and creates a sense of community that we still all long for. In this system, people are committed to each other. Food is grown with love and pride. Its not about making lots of money. Its a commitment, an integrity, on a higher level than can be put into words. A small farmers food sustains human life. What a noble and honorable profession!
Then you have the other group that eats from the mass produced system and for the most part is unaware of all the problems. Until.you personally experience health problems or, as David in the original post experienced, his nephew suffered from a foodborne illness (E-coli 0157:H7). All of a sudden you enter a world of awareness and you want to do something to prevent it from happening to someone else. In the mass produced food system, prevention is about control because the problem is so out of control. The answer isnt about changing the system because the system is too big and it has too much power. So restrictions, inspections, bacterial testing, pasteurization, warning labels, NIAS, etcall start taking place to prevent people from becoming ill. Unfortunately, there is not a solution, only band aids in this system.
I want to live in a perfect world that puts controls on the mass produced system, but leaves the small farmers, who only sell to local consumers, alone. Its never going to happen, but its nice to dream about. Greg Niewendorp inspires hope.
Mary, Yes to you as well!
In an earlier post you said this: E-coli 0157:H7 is symbolic of what we are doing to our world. We have tampered with nature and there is a price to be paid.
Very true! We are often less than cautious about manipulating nature, and just as often short-sighted about our successesshort term gain blinds us to long term loss, even when the latter overwhelms the former. But we must also remember that there is no such thing as perfect protection. There are many natural pathogens that can and will find their way into our food, even with good, careful, and clean practices. It is presumptuous (and to a degree, neurotic) to press for 100 percent protection, especially by employing what I think of as negative means, e.g. kill the bugs. (I prefer to focus on the positive approach of feeding and nurturing our immune systemsthat is my primary goal, even as Im scrubbing milk pails and bleaching the sink). Anyway, sickness happens. Your faith (and mine!) presents those episodes as opportunitesto express love in the form of caring for the sick. Lemonade from lemons.
David,
Id like to re-open up the conversation a bit on the artisan food angle. I was frankly bewildered by the idea that fresh, natural food might be considered an artisan product. Food? Thats for ALL of us, not just those who live on the high end! God help us if something so basic as good food even nods its head in the direction of elitism.
One of the basic tenets of sustainable agriculture is that its healthful on all fronts: It promotes consumer and farmer health, environmental health, and farmer and consumer economomic health. I really dont see that food must be significantly more expensive to preserve farm economies. If food travels less distance, is less processed, requires fewer land inputs, is subject to fewer taxes, fees, and regulations, and is handled by fewer middlemen, the farmer will profit, and the consumer will have quality at a reasonable price.
As you know, I produce much of my own food, and consider that a very cheap alternative (though I could be convinced otherwise while carrying water in freezing weather at 5:30 in the morning). But we do purchase a good bit of food too, from local farmers, from an organic cooperative, and even now and again from the grocery store. I eat well (VERY well) but my food bill is not high. I do not consider what I grow and purchase to be anything but mundane. No artists live here. Just plain people growing and consuming simple, natural food.
I think my grandparents would be surprised to discover that cows eating grass, chickens eating bugs, and mom making sourdough bread were exceptional in any way.
talk with several persons trying to outdo the next guy in their
lofty analysis of raw issues.
So what about Greg Niewendorp’s problem?
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
(Have you noticed that David occasionally uses a subject brought up in the public comments as the topic for a subsequent blog entry? How would you like to work under his kind of pressure – deadline looming, must find blog topic, clock ticking, readers anxiously waiting, sweat dripping off brow… 🙂 )