Dive Summary:
- Loganville, Wis. dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger is on trial for operating without three licenses and selling raw milk to members of his private Grazin' Acres food club after he was ordered to stop, facing over a year in jail and at least $10,000 in fines.
- Hershberger's supporters say the trial is about food freedom and the rights of farmers and consumers to enter private contracts without government intervention, but prosecutors say the trial isn't a debate of raw milk's safety, and the judge has even banned all mentions of it from the courtroom.
- Private food clubs are a popular way around laws limiting or barring raw milk sales, since club members argue that owning a stake in a farm means no raw milk is technically being bought or sold, but prosecutors nationwide are cracking down on them.
From the article:
... Some food activists see these cases as an assault on all private contracts between farmers and consumers — which is why Hershberger's case has become a rallying point for the dozens of activists from around the country who've shown up in Baraboo, Wis., for the trial. They've set up camp across the street from the courthouse — in the Al Ringling Theatre, no less — where they're hosting a week of "Grow Your Own Food Freedom" events.
"I'm concerned that producers of other commodities — not just raw milk, but eggs, meat and produce — will start to put burdensome regulations on farmers markets," says Wisconsin Raw Milk Association board member Margo Redmond, who has been at the trial. ...
