Originally published July 24 2014
Michigan government forces farmers to destroy vast amounts of healthy food while homeless U.S. children and veterans starve
by J. D. Heyes
(NaturalNews) Very often, there is nothing so destructive and harmful as government bureaucracy, in which nameless, faceless automatons make decisions based on inflexible, arcane and inane rules.
And it isn't just the federal bureaucracy; states can be just as guilty of blindly implementing policies that are clearly idiotic. Take Michigan, for example, and the subject of food.
As reported by Daisy Luther, the "Organic Prepper," at LewRockwell.com, "While Americans in the nearby city of Detroit face life in third world conditions, unable to even afford running water, the state of Michigan decided to direct its resources towards cracking down on a small food co-op in Standish for having the utter audacity to provide milk, butter, cream and eggs to people who bought shares in the organic dairy."
Luther said the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA) is the culprit here; they "must be so proud of their deeds" after forcing Joe and Brenda Golimbieski, owners of High Hill Dairy, as well as Jenny Samuelson, owner of the My Family Co-Op, to "dump out 248 gallons of milk, to break 100 dozen eggs, and to destroy an undisclosed amount of fresh cream, butter and cheese" because, ostensibly, the state didn't get its pound of silver.
'This is such a shame'
Pictures of the destruction were posted to the Hill Hill Dairy Facebook page here: Facebook.com.
According to the dairy's owners, the MDA threatened to arrest co-op owner Samuelson for "selling food without a license." But the farm is a co-op, where people must by shares to belong, and the food is exchanged and consumed internally, not sold to the general public.
But the MDA's bureaucrats declared that the co-op contracts were not valid, wrote Luther, "and therefore, instead of being shared, the food was being sold."
"Because co-op members had paid for their shares, technically the MDA stole food that belonged not just to the Golimbieski family, but to every single member of that co-op," she continued.
Co-op members responded angrily, as was understandable. One wrote:
This is such a shame! I paid for these products and this is what happened!!!! They are all criminals!!! Government stealing all our food! I paid just so that Jenny and the farmers didn't have to carry the burden all on their own!!!! A crying shame. Shame on Michigan's Department of Agriculture! Criminals everyone on u!!!!
A browse of the website and Facebook pages reveal happy, healthy-looking, well-treated animals that are free-ranging and roaming around in fields. "How is it that Michigan approves of the horrific conditions in its state's factory farms," Luther posited, "where animals are tortured, drugged, and crammed into cages for the entirety of their miserable lives, but raising animals humanely and naturally is considered 'dangerous?'"
'We control your food supply'
"What is wrong with the world when REAL farming is treated like a crime and fresh food is treated like the crystal meth?" she continued. "I'll tell you what's wrong - big corporations do not want us to have options.
"They want a monopoly and they are working hard to destroy our other choices," Luther wrote. "Big Agri clearly has many good friends in the Michigan Department of Agriculture. Clearly the 'Department of Agriculture' really means the 'Department of Big Agri.' They aren't there to support small farmers or people who wish to be self-sufficient. They are there to lock down the market for corporate farms."
Writing at The Complete Patient, David Gumpert, a raw milk advocate, called what the MDA forced the organic co-op owners to do a "government-sponsored" destruction of nearly $5,000 worth of products and produce, an act which "carried a very clear and powerful political message to all Americans: We control your food and we don't like you buying your food outside the corporate food system."
It wasn't clear what recourse the co-op owners and shareholders would take against the MDA and the state, if anything.
Sources:
http://www.lewrockwell.com
http://www.facebook.com
http://www.myfamilycoop.com
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