Posted on Tue, May. 6, 2008
MOUNT HOLLY SPRINGS, Pa. - The Department of Agriculture threw its weight at dairy farmer Mark Nolt.
They seized his inventory. Twice.
They dispatched undercover investigators - including a microbiologist - to a farmers' market on multiple occasions.
They assigned their chief counsel to prosecute him.
Nolt's crime? Selling raw milk without a permit.
Yesterday the defendant, a Mennonite farmer from Newville, north of Harrisburg, was found guilty by a district judge in a tiny courtroom and ordered to pay a fine.
Outside, his supporters - about 100 of them, including Amish and Mennonite farmers and devoted raw-milk consumers from around the region - staged a protest against what they say is government intrusion into the rights of small businesses and consumers.
The sale of raw-milk products is big business in Pennsylvania, which is second only to California in the volume of raw milk produced and the number of dairies with raw-milk sales permits.
Among the permitted dairies are farms in Chester, Montgomery and Bucks Counties.
But Nolt's customers and supporters from neighboring states including New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia, where the retail sale of raw milk is illegal, cheerfully call themselves "milk smugglers."
Advocates believe raw milk, which is not pasteurized or homogenized, contains beneficial bacteria and proteins that can treat, even cure, chronic diseases.
But state health officials say the milk, which has been linked to outbreaks of salmonella, listeria and E. coli, is an inherently unsafe product. Besides, they say, Nolt is breaking the law. "If you're going to sell raw milk in Pennsylvania, you need a permit," said William Chirdon, director of the state Bureau of Food Safety, who said Nolt was selling 300 gallons of milk a day to customers in 12 states.
For advocates, access to raw milk is vital for their health. "It's a lifeline to people who don't have medical options," said Kimberly Hartke, a homemaker and public relations consultant from Reston, Va.
Hartke, who has severe deterioration of the knee cartilage, said she felt she was too young for a knee replacement so she turned to raw milk from Pennsylvania.
Now Hartke, who attributes her pain-free walking to 18 months of raw-milk consumption, is helping to promote the cause.
The state Department of Agriculture is caught in the middle, trying to regulate a controversial product and trying to promote agriculture - the state's largest industry - at the same time.
For the consumers waving signs outside the hearing room, the issue was bigger than the milk on their table. It was about government intrusion into private lives, they said, the rise of agribusiness and the decline of the family farm.
The signs read:
"No government seizure of private property."
"Raw Milk Heals"
Nolt, 49, a softspoken father of 10, has emerged as a kind of civil-rights leader for the consumer-choice crowd.
"Mark is our Rosa Parks," said Jonas Stoltzfus, an organic-beef farmer from Loysville and spokesman for Nolt. "The law is wrong and we need to change it."
State officials say they are not singling out Nolt or trying to halt raw-milk sales. Far from it, they say; they have tried to convince him to get a permit as other sellers have done.
Nolt's permit expired in August 2006. The following year, the Department of Agriculture raided his property, seized his equipment and inventory and issued citations - all of which Nolt ignored.
After receiving complaints, the agency launched another investigation and conducted undercover milk buys that led to his arrest on April 25 and the second seizure of his equipment and inventory.
"He won't let us test cows or test milk or obtain a permit, which is free," said Chirdon, the director of the state Bureau of Food Safety.
Stoltzfus said Nolt sells products other than raw milk and aged cheese that are illegal - such as buttermilk and a yogurt-like product called kefir - and he could not in good conscience get a permit, which would limit his production.
During the hearing, Nolt, with his wife in a prayer cap at his side, held the crumpled yellow citations and struggled to defend himself.
Nolt, who declined offers of legal help, asked Anthony Russo, a state microbiologist who purchased milk from Nolt's stand at the Carlisle farmers' market, whether he had harmed him or anyone else.
Holbrook Duer, chief counsel for the Department of Agriculture, objected, saying the question was irrelevant.
Chirdon, in an interview later, said he received calls from 41 people last year who had become ill from raw milk, but because of privacy laws he could not say where they had gotten their milk.
District Judge Susan Day said that, given the evidence, and the fact the permit could be obtained at no charge, she found Nolt guilty on four counts of selling raw milk without a permit and fined him $4,300.
"This isn't over," said Stoltzfus. "We will appeal to the highest court in the land."
See a list of permitted raw milk sellers in Pennsylvania via
http://go.philly.com/milk
Contact staff writer Amy Worden at 717-783-2584 or aworden@phillynews.com.
