Doesn't the Department of Agriculture complain about not having enough people to do meaningful inspections?
So why are they spending time entrapping Amish farmers?
An Amishman has a dairy. The herd is owned cooperatively by him and his neighbors. The resulting milk is divided among the herd owners, and the rest sold. The milk that goes to the herd owners, they being Amish, is unpasteurized. It's an Amish thing. If you've never had milk straight from the cow, you're missing something amazing. It's very sweet, creamy, delicious. It makes grocery store milk taste like they've collected the wrong liquid from the cow.
Of course, selling such milk is ilegal. Which is not what the farmer was doing. The participants in the herd-owning cooperative bought the cows, not the milk.
Along comes a G-Man from the DOA. Without identifying himself as an agent for the US Government, he asks the farmer for some milk, and , smiling, holds up his handy gallon container. The farmer is wary. He doesn't know this joker from Adam's house cat. He doesn't want to give the guy any milk. The man insists. He wants some of that good, fresh, country milk!
So Amish Farmer caves, draws off a gallon. The agent presses $2 into the farmer's hands and leaves.
Next thing our bearded friend knows, he's had his license revoked and is in deep dairy dung. He's accused of selling unpasteurized milk! Holy Buggy Whips!
There isn't enough for these jokers at the Dept. of Agriculture to do that they have to play undercover milk SWAT team? What's next, stinging some 8-year-old's lemonade stand?
"Ex-Police! Open up kid! I know you've used unstamped lemons!"
The whole thing goes before a judge on 7/30/06. More then...
[UPDATE} - Guilty. License revoked. What a relief to know that the government is guarding we poor consumers against the Amish Tyranny.
