Kristin’s son, Charlie, had asthma, unsuccessfully treated by conventional medicine. Her search for a solution led her to discover raw milk. She saw dramatic changes in Charlie’s health after drinking raw milk, and noticed remarkable changes in her entire family. Her search for even more fresh farm foods was interrupted when she discovered small farmers were in peril. Subjected to heavy regulation, lengthy and expensive legal actions and out-right persecution, the farms providing foods that Kristin’s family relied upon for health, were in danger of becoming extinct. …”

It was originally envisioned as a PBS type documentary but rumor has it that a sponsor has stepped forward with the vision of putting it into theaters. Stay alert!

I bring this all up here because Kristin and her crew filmed a portion of Farmageddon at Meadowsweet Dairy last July. And I filmed the filmers filming by putting a candid Canon, CHDK enabled, Powershot A530 in a corner of the barn that took a photo every 3 seconds. The resulting photos were merged into the following time lapse short.

Farmageddon Filming from Steve Smith on Vimeo.

The leading ladies from left to right are Lisa, Dorothy, Em, Marine (the long suffering) and Lizzy. In the background facing away from the camera are Sugar (you only see her tail end) and Maggie.
Director Kristin appears in this short about halfway thru. She’s the one with the long black hair standing directly in front of the camera. Barb is the one on the right.
From this session I’ve learned that cows are much more concerned with their bit of grain and rumination than any thought of their 15 minutes of fame. Indeed, later out in the pasture I overheard one of them asking “What are minutes?”

Oral arguments for our appeal will be presented on January 13, 2010 after about 2pm in Albany, NY (State of New York, Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department, Capital Station, Albany, hopefully the physical courtroom can be found through http://www.nycourts.gov/ad3). The written briefs have all been filed and the hearing in January, so I’m told, will allow the Justices to question the opposing attorneys with 10 minutes alloted to each side.

This post’s purpose is to provide access to the briefs. If you have comments on them you can try to send them in but I can’t guarantee they will see the light of day. We tried to turn commenting on once upon a time but we were so overloaded with spam that we opted for the simple solution of turning commenting off. Now I see that the comments have all been saved and someday I may sift through them and investigate reenabling commenting. But don’t hold your breath.

Gary Cox of the FTCLDF filed a 46 page Appeal Brief.
The Department of Agriculture and Markets subsequently filed their 18 page Respondent’s Brief.
Finally, the Petitioners (that’s Meadowsweet represented by FTCLDF) filed a 12 page Reply Brief.
They are a bit wordy and somewhat repetitious but there are gems in there. Happy reading!

*”Raw Milk Revolution” may be trademarked or copyrighted since David Gumpert has authored a book by that name and info on it can be had at amazon or thecompletepatient.com. Hope our title comes under the fair use clause.

Then, on Valentine’s Day we were served papers requesting us to appear in Albany court on Feb 28 at a hearing with “THE PURPOSE OF THE HEARING IS TO PUNISH STEVEN AND BARBARA SMITH…FOR CONTEMPT OF COURT” (caps are original). Our attorney, Gary Cox, constructed a solid case on short notice and was prepared to call both Barb and me as witnesses at the hearing and calmed us a bit by saying the above phrasing was legalese for ‘the hearing will be to figure out what to do with you guys’.

The hearing was scheduled for 3:30 pm and several area dairy farmers and a blogger (David Gumpert, www.thecompletepatient.com) showed up in support. Due to the preceding trial, our hearing did not begin until 4:40 pm. The presiding justice, Judge John Egan, decided to simply hear oral arguments by the opposing attorneys and dispensed with witnesses and their testimony. The Dept attorney presented the facts about how I had shown contempt for a court order by refusing to unlock the door to our processing room when the Dept’s inspectors had surprised us with an administrative inspection warrant on Dec 19, 2007. While the warrant was for the inspection of the “dairy farm and milk plant”, the inspectors had not bothered to inspect the unlocked dairy farm but rather had turned around at the front door of our house when I refused to help them. My refusal was based on the fact that the warrant did not require my cooperation, only that I allow the inspection to proceed, which I had done by not standing in their way. The Dept attorney went on to enhance the facts by stating that not unlocking the door was the same as locking the farm gate (we don’t have one) and thus denying the Dept access to facilities that the Law requires the Dept to inspect. Gary Cox then presented the summary of our case and the argument that the warrant was facially invalid because it was directed at the wrong parties (Meadowsweet Yogurt, which hasn’t been in business since Jan 2007), it was to permit the Dept to inspect on “a continuing basis”, whereas warrants are generally only valid for 10 days from the day they are signed, and it allowed the Dept to determine the probable cause for warrant execution, which determination is a power reserved for the court to make not an agency. During his presentation, Gary referred to the Seneca County declaratory judgment action being transferred to Albany and requested a stay of the contempt hearing until the complete case could be heard. This prompted the judge to question the Dept attorney, who stated that by law the Dept had 60 days or until March 21 to initiate the transfer. On being prompted by Gary and Judge Egan, he further stated that Judge Bender had ordered the Dept to do their job and get the Order to him by March 6 since it was a simple matter and there was no need for delay. Finally, after the Court House building closed at 5:30, Judge Egan told Gary we were running out of time and Gary hastily completed his arguments. The Judge then said he would issue a written decision and asked both attorneys to keep him informed of the progress of the case transfer, to direct the transfer to his jurisdiction and to include reference to this contempt hearing on the transfer paperwork.

Since the contempt hearing, the LLC marked the 1st anniversary of its incorporation on Mar 1, 2008 by the members continuing to drink the realmilk of the LLC herd and the herd has continued to produce milk and is eagerly anticipating the greening grass of Spring. Today, Mar 5, we saw the first redwing blackbird at the feeder.
And the Dept has apparently wasted as much time as possible before sending the required Order to Judge Bender. Eventually, our contention that Meadowsweet Dairy, LLC is engaged in private and legal activity that the Dept has no authority to meddle with will be aired in the New York Supreme Court in Albany before Judge Egan but probably not before this summer. Stay tuned.

BACKGROUND
Since March 2007, Meadowsweet Dairy LLC has been operating as a duly formed limited liability company in the State of New York. Meadowsweet Dairy LLC has only one asset, a herd of dairy cows. The LLC and its members have an agreement with us, Steve and Barbara Smith, to tend to, manage and take care of the herd for the benefit of the LLC’s members and the members have an equity interest in the LLC in the form of raw milk and raw dairy products produced by the LLC’s herd and processed by us. All of this is being done without permits or licenses and the State of New York does not like this. Not at all.

Since March 2007, the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets has been trying to pressure us and Meadowsweet Dairy LLC out of business. For example, they have conducted numerous inspections, seized products, ordered the destruction of 260 pounds of raw dairy products, attempted to search our house, issued letters threatening fines and penalties, and have now issued an order requiring us and Meadowsweet Dairy LLC to show cause why the Department of Agriculture and Markets should not shut down the operation and levy fines. That show-cause order is now set for a hearing and a show down looms over whether the State’s police power extends to a group of private citizens who produce and consume their own food of their own choice.

This important case has been taken by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. We are finally at the point of confronting the Department of Agriculture and Markets face to face in the next two weeks! The first date is at a hearing in the Ag and Markets offices in Albany on JANUARY 17 at 11AM.

We would be very grateful to have an ENORMOUS show of support at this hearing! This is an administrative hearing at which they are considering ordering us to CEASE AND DESIST from providing milk to the LLC members. The outcome is very likely to go against us because even though the state of New York hasn’t a shred of evidence to prove they are “selling” milk, the hearing officer seems to be very fearful of going out on a limb against Ag and Markets. She has already indicated this by her complete unwillingness to postpone the hearing at the request of our lawyer (he had a personal conflict with the date).

The second date is JANUARY 22 at 1:30 in Seneca County Court in Waterloo, NY. At this hearing the judge will consider issuing a preliminary injunction against Ag and Markets to keep them from further harassing us until the whole matter is resolved. Again, the more people who attend this hearing the better! We want to really pack the room!

ACTION TO TAKE
Be there! This is a case that will have repercussions for cow-share and herd-share agreements throughout the US. A large presence of raw milk supporters can make a big difference.

January 17, 11 AM
Department of Agriculture and Markets
10B Airline Drive
Albany, NY
(Right next to the airport)

January 22, 1:30 PM
Seneca County Court
48 West Williams Street
Waterloo, NY

So yesterday two inspectors from the Dept of Ag and Mkts appeared at our door in the middle of a snowstorm! They had come to “witness” the destruction of the dairy products they had seized back on October 11. Following that seizure Ag and Markets held an administrative hearing and determined through examination of their own evidence that our products were unfit for human consumption and had to be destroyed. Interestingly, our lawyer found out through a series of informal emails with the Ag and Markets lawyer that they had decided to destroy our stuff even before they held the hearing! Anyway, they came yesterday to carry out the destruction, which involved standing around while Steve and I dumped yogurt, buttermilk, and milk from organic, grass-fed cows into buckets and then they “denatured” it by dumping in a gallon of bleach, just in case we have the audacity to feed it to our pigs! (Since when is the Dept of Ag and Markets protecting pigs from the dangers of raw milk!) While they were standing around they noticed good, new yogurt in our cooler and asked if that had been made since the seizure date. We said yes. The inspector then said he would have to inventory that and take some photos. We said over our dead bodies (not our exact words). He then asked if we refused to let him take photos and we said yes. I also added that he only had the authority to do the destruction of the seized stuff and nothing else. He replied that he had every right to take photos. I said, no, that he was trespassing if he did anything other than carry out the destruction. At that point he left the room to call Albany and get his orders. He returned and said they told him to get the photos and that he had a perfect right to do that. I said if he tried to take photos I would call the sheriff. He again said he had the right to do that so I left to call the police. When I returned to the room Steve was still dumping yogurt and they inspectors were still standing there. when we were done, about 15 minutes later, the deputy arrived along with a reporter from the Fingerlakes Times whom I had also alerted.
The inspector introduced himself and told the deputy he had been sent from Albany to take photos and inventory any product made since the seizure. The deputy asked to see proof of his authorization to do this in the form of a warrant. The inspector suggested the deputy should talk to the Director of Ag and Markets in Albany, but the sheriff said “I could talk to the Pope and it won’t make any difference unless you have a warrant.” After a few more phone calls to Albany the inspectors were convinced that they were licked and departed back out into the snowstorm without the evidence they had hoped to obtain to use in their hearing in January.

We will keep you posted as things unfold in the following week. Meanwhile, keep publicizing this situation. Now that we are taking it all to court we will need lots of support and press. We will post a press release here soon.