A Family Dairy Farm Destroyed

[GIT-R-DONE!]

October 12, 2010, 7:31 pm By Janet Smiles
Article at Gulag Bound originally published on Kimberly Hartke’s blog

Family Farm Ordered to Destroy 50,000 Pounds of Cheese

by Doreen Hannes

Morningland Dairy is the latest attempt by the FDA to fulfill the Healthy People 2020 objective to kill raw dairy. Morningland is owned by Joseph and Denise Dixon, who operate the cheese plant and make raw cheese from cows kept right on the property and managed by one of their eldest daughters. They have 12 children, 4 who still live at home, and they have been actively engaged in real food for decades. They were caught up in the Rawesome Raid dragnet and many believe the questionable California Dept of Food and Agriculture tests on their cheese are the legal justification for the multi-agency guns drawn raid at Rawesome.

Farm’s Perfect Safety Record Matters Not to Authorities

In the thirty years of Morningland Dairy operations NO ONE has become ill from consuming their products. Yet they have been ordered by the Missouri Milk Board to destroy ALL of their cheese without actual tests being performed on the cheese stock. This is nearly 50,000 pounds of cheese, or approximately $250,000.

Since the Milk Board and the FDA showed up at Morningland on August 26th, they have been “embargoed” from shipping or making any product. They dumped their milk for nearly six weeks before being approved to send it into homogenized, pasteurized distribution. All the while, they have had to pay the bill to keep the dairy and cheese plant operable.

On September 24th, the Milk Board verbally ordered Morningland to destroy their product. Morningland asked that this order be put in writing. One week later the order was hand delivered to General Manager/owner, Joseph Dixon. The order states that in three business days the Milk Board would contact them with when and how the cheese was to be destroyed.

Morningland Rebuts the Destroy Order and Offers a Solution

Morningland dared to publish a written objection to committing suicide, a rebuttal and proposed remedy. They rebutted many of the stated “facts” in the 10-page order, Destroy Orders: Morningland Dairy. The Morningland Dairy then offered a reasonable, logical, scientifically sound remedy to destruction on the afternoon of October 6th.

Gov’t Pushes Forward to Destroy Cheese, and Farm

The next morning, they were served with a restraining order and preliminary injunction by the Attorney General’s office of Missouri. They were to be in court the very next day. In sum, they were ordered to destroy their wealth on Friday, asked for logic and justice on Wednesday, notified they were being sued on Thursday and ordered to be in court on Friday.

At 4:50pm on Thursday, the Attorney General’s office called and canceled court because one or two of their witnesses couldn’t attend. Never mind that a family run dairy and cheese plant with 9 families making a living through it should mount a legal defense against destruction in one day. It’s another raid using Gestapo legal tactics that fit the MO of the FDA and their minions….or sub agents, if you prefer.

As readers of this blog and those in the real food movement know, the FDA has a mission. They have blatantly stated that you have no right to consume foods of your choice, and the FDA Plant and Dairy head has a documented Howard Hughes like fear of raw dairy. They are happy to use their resources to “protect” you from consuming things that don’t make any one ill. They’ve reduced science to superstition. If they get more power through S.510, they will regulate the family farm and real food to death and give you Cheez Whiz and Twinkies as government approved food.

---

Is it really the duty of the federal government to decide what foods you and your family will eat? Is it necessary to ban a form of good, wholesome food that has never caused anyone an ill affect? I know that there is a presumed power of imminent domain, but this is the wanton destruction of the life’s work of an entire family and the source of income for nine families. These are not the actions of a government based upon either law or the common good, but rather one based on unwarranted takings and the unreasonable, arbitrary exertion of power.

The only parallel I can think of is Soylent Green. I know that was reprocessed humans, but if you can not visit a farm, if you have no idea where your food comes from, if the government’s stamp of approval is on every package are you sure that you are eating real, fresh food? The memory of 2 million contaminated eggs processed in supposedly government inspected plants is still fresh in my mind. Where in the Constitution does the government find the right to close a family farm… why it’s in “case law” defining the commerce clause, right next to healthcare.