Amish farmer scores major victory in battle against federal agriculture apparatus

Amish farmer Amos Miller will be able to continue selling his organic meat after winning a major court victory on appeal last week against the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). 

The USDA began pursuing Miller last year for selling “adulterated meat,” which refers to food that has not been treated with the USDA’s chemical cocktails. All USDA-licensed processing plants are required to lace their food products with synthetic preservatives. 

“Often they use citric acid, which you’d think comes from oranges or lemons, but it’s a modified substance made from corn . . . and they don’t even have to label it on the meat,” Miller said, according to Return to Now. “Our members don’t want any of that,” Miller added, referring to his 4,000 private food club members who pay top dollar for his “adulterated” products. “They want fresh, raw meat, with no additives. Our members want it straight from the farm with no preservatives on it.” 

The USDA also forbids its licensed processing plants to sell certain organs which Miller says are “nutrient-dense" and beneficial for consumption. 

Furthermore, the process and cost of becoming licensed by the USDA are too prohibitive to small farmers. 

“The rules and regulations are such that you have to get into debt $100,000 before you ever sell your first pound of meat, and the market’s not guaranteed,” Miller said. “There’s no option for farmers to start small and add on and buy equipment as they can.” 

The federal government brought a lawsuit against Miller, who was ordered to submit his facilities, meat and poultry inventory, records, employees, and other staff for inspection. When he refused to “fully cooperate,” according to the court’s appointed inspector, Miller was raided by US Marshals who were authorized to use “reasonable force” including “the authority to break open locks, to remove barriers to entry, and physically to remove persons from the Premises.” 

The court also imposed a $300,000 fine on Miller, which would be used to reimburse the US Marshals for the raid they carried out and to cover the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) investigative costs. The court demanded a “good faith” payment of $50,000 in one week. 

But Miller, with the help of attorney Robert Barnes, managed to score a victory in the US Court of Appeals, which placed the case in stay and abeyance and allows the farmer to continue selling his stored meat until a resolution is reached. The court also cut Miller’s fine to $55,000, payable over the next six months. 

"I think this is an important story,” commented human rights leader and America’s Frontline Doctors Founder Dr. Simone Gold. “One: the attack on our freedoms is EVERYWHERE. Schools, doctors, food. Two: saving our freedom requires every ‘little’ person to say no! Three: our government agencies take regulations and distort and expand them beyond all recognition to control and curtail every aspect of our freedom. Prosecutors used USDA regs to shut down a small farmer! The government can always destroy any single individual if it chooses. We must refuse.”