MO Homestead & Raw Milk battle

[MullersLaneFarm]

Don't know how many of you might know the Bechard family, Armand & Teddi and their family raise chicken, beef, lamb, pork, turkey as well as eggs and Raw Milk.

They have been targeted for selling raw milk. Yes, raw milk sales are legal in MO. The laws are written that they can even deliver raw milk to their customers off the farm.

They will be going to court Friday June 4, 2010 for the lesser known of the 2 court cases against him and his family. This one is the City of Springfield, MO vs. Armand Bechard. This case carries with it a large $$ fine and the possibility of 180 days in jail. All for selling 2 jugs of milk without a permit (that they won't issue to him).

This is NOT the case that has been all over the news about MO Attorney General vs. Armand & Teddi Bechard.

It would make a statement to Springfield/Greene County as well as be a huge moral support to the Bechards if supporters packed the courtroom.

Springfield Municipal Court
625 North Benton Ave.
Springfield, MO

TIME: 9:00 AM
Friday, June 4, 2010

[willow_girl]

Out of curiosity, I Googled this and found ( http://www.predatormastersforums.com...Number=1428632 ) :

In Missouri, it is legal to sell raw milk from the farms or deliver it directly to the customer. But it's illegal for a farmer to distribute unprocessed milk or offer it for sale at a market or in a parking lot, according to Koster and two opinions issued from then-Attorney General Jack Danforth in the mid-1970s.

On April 8 and April 15, the Bechards' daughters -- ages 17 and 21 -- set up in a parking lot in front of Mama Jean's Natural Market on South Campbell Avenue to distribute raw milk to customers who had pre-ordered it from the Bechard Family Farm.

Armand Bechard said his girls were using the parking lot as a drop-off point, not as a place to market their product. But the state of Missouri doesn't see it that way.
Two undercover inspectors from the Springfield-Greene County Health Department approached them separately on each occasion and asked whether they had an extra gallon of milk to sell, according to court documents.
"They said, 'yeah, we've got extra milk,' " Armand Bechard said.

The girls, who were labeled "representatives" of the farm in the lawsuit, agreed to the sale because a customer did not show up, which Armand Bechard said is "very rare."

The law, found in Chapter 196.935 of Missouri Revised Statues, says "an individual may purchase and have delivered to him for his own use raw milk or cream from a farm."
"The law says a person can purchase raw milk or cream from 'a farm,' " Armand Bechard said. "It doesn't say from 'the farm,' which I think is a distinction."

Sounds like he's planning to argue that the parking lot is 'a farm'? Ummm, good luck with that, buddy!

[Belfrybat]

Originally Posted by willow_girl

Out of curiosity, I Googled this and found ( http://www.predatormastersforums.com...Number=1428632 ) :



Sounds like he's planning to argue that the parking lot is 'a farm'? Ummm, good luck with that, buddy!

I doubt it. I would think he's going to argue that purchasing from "a farm" doesn't mean having to journey to "the farm". It's all in the prepositions. Wish I lived closer as I'd certainly be there to show my support. Some of the rules and regs imposed on small farmers is ridiculous.

[paintboy]

It is a shame to waste so much time, money and resourses on 2 girls selling a couple of extra gallons of milk. But I'm not surprised as our govt. has shown from its beginning that it will spare no expense to assert its authority.

[texican]

I wish I knew how much money these folks were getting per gallon of milk! If they live any distance away, the delivery costs would nullify any profits, unless they had a huge amount to sell. The profit margins on milk are so microscopic, if you consider all the costs, and the competing 'free milk' in the grocery stores. I'd think it'd have to go over 10$/gallon to break even.

As a micro milk producer myself, I was offered mini contracts to sell raw milk. Went back home and ran the numbers... 8$/gallon would cover the cost of feed, medications, infrastructure and other expenses (but not my labor... I'm a costly son of a gun). However, the fuel costs there and back said 'no sale'... I'd have to sell 4 gallons of milk just to cover fuel alone.

[steff bugielski]

Here in NY we are allowed with permit to sell raw milk on the farm. I see no need to deliver if all you need to do is be home.
Why rock the boat all they needed to do was follow the law.
They should be happy they can sell it at all. There are plenty of state where you can't even drink your own raw milk.

[haypoint]

Likely someone reported it to the Health Department, so it was a known practice. Then they sold the milk at least a couple times to the Health Department employees.

If the law limited raw milk sales to 1000 gal a year, someone would be selling 1200 gal and crying that the Health Department is picking on them.

If the law says sold from the farm, who doesn't really understand that? Is this one of those word tricks where we question the meaning of each word, like Clinton's attempt to redefine what the word sex means?

If the law says that the milk can only be sold from the farm, can they deliver it off the farm? Was that the intent of the regulation or was the law written so that people could hawk their milk in parking lots or anyplace?

Call your elected officials. Tell them you want the law changed.

But as soon as street vendors are allowed to sell raw milk along the curb, someone will want to sell raw hamburger there, too. I guess it is called human nature to push the envelope or is it called tilting windmills?

If you were selling your raw milk at the farm and some jerk started cutting into your marketshare by delivering his raw milk, what would you do?

[ozark_jewels]

As stupid as the law is, it is the law in MO that you can deliver milk to a customer, or they can pick it up at your house, BUT there can be no meeting in between, as that comes under the heading of distribution. So like it or not, they did break the law.

They can complain that it is a silly law, but they cannot complain that they didn't break it.

We make and sell raw milk cheese. We can legally do this if the cheese has been aged 60 days. But I cannot sell cheese curd because it is fresh. If I was to do this, I would be knowingly breaking the law and really couldn't complain if I was shut down for it. Same principle. I may not have harmed anyone, but I broke the law. Doesn't make the law sensible, but it is a law that is in place.

I wish them the best, I really do, and if it wasn't for the fact that I'm too busy milking my goats and cows, I'd like to attend just to hear how it goes.

I'm pretty sure anyone can drink their own raw milk from their own cows in any state. Its selling it that is regulated beyond reason.

Just to show you how much these laws are NOT about public safety:

We have always had Jerseys. We are legally allowed to sell the milk from our cows off the farm. No one inspects to make sure we are clean in our milking procedure, no one knows if we have healthy cows or even strain the milk. All of which we always have of course, but there is no inspection to make sure of it. Its up to us as responsible farmers to do the right thing.

Now, we bought a dairy farm a few years back. The farm, barn and milking facilities are state and federally inspected on a regular basis. They just walk in whenever they feel like it to make sure we are holding up the standards of cleanliness. Our milk is sent in to labs to make sure we are keeping good levels of cleanliness there as well.

BUT. Because we are an inspected and licensed farm, we cannot sell milk to any individual. Even though we are state and federally inspected and officially clean and sanitary. If we sell a gallon of our milk that comes through that clean inspected dairy barn, they can shut us down and fine us the big bucks.

Does it make sense? NO. But that is the law.

I am not against all milk laws. There will always be people who try to get by with doing less than a good, clean job.

I am very against milk laws that MAKE NO SENSE.

[watcher]

Sounds like the guy was looking to push the issue now that he started the dance he's going to have to pay the piper.

[MullersLaneFarm]

In Missouri, it is legal to sell raw milk from the farms or deliver it directly to the customer.

But it's illegal for a farmer to distribute unprocessed milk or offer it for sale at a market or in a parking lot, according to Koster and two opinions issued from then-Attorney General Jack Danforth in the mid-1970s.

The bolded is how the law is written. The italized is two opinions and not the law, just their opinion.

The law does not state the milk has to be delivered to the customer at their place of residence. The law does not state that the milk can not be delivered in a parking lot. The law says raw milk can be delivered directly to the customer or sold at the farm.

The Bechards bring enough milk to fulfill customer orders. On two occasions the (minor) girls had no-show customers and were asked by an undercover to sell them 1/2 gallon of milk. Sounds to me like they were set up.

There is no issue to push. They way the law is written is in plain and simple language, 'it is legal to sell raw milk from the farms or deliver it directly to the customer'.

The article that Willow Girl quoted made it seem like the opinions were the law. That is not the case.

Selling raw or aged cheese has different laws in MO than selling Raw milk.

I've known these folks for years and they are not trying to do anything illegal.

Texican, they sell it for $3.50 a half gallon. You can learn more about them on their website: [url=http://www.bechardfarm.com/]Bechard Family Farm[/url0

[doughboy]

We also know these folks and are in the unique position of also knowing someone that worked in the Greene County Health Department at the time these charges were brought against them. You're not getting the whole story. We don't want so see them pay a hefty fine or go to jail, but there's a real possiblity that they will suffer some kind of consequences as a result of this trial.

[Alice In TX/MO]

OK. Tell us the rest of the story.

[doughboy]

The trial will be the rest of the story. We're not going to tell the specifics that were told to us in confidence. But just reading the quotes being posted here should raise a red flag. You may not like a law. We all have seen laws we think are unfair, ridiculous, don't make sense, etc. But, if you choose to butt heads with the law and get cute with the meaning of the law, you better have a law degree, lots of money to fight it, obey it or ignore it and take your chances.

[MullersLaneFarm]

Under state law, “an individual may purchase and have delivered to him for his own use raw milk or cream from a farm.”

The law doesn not say ]“an individual may purchase and have delivered to him TO HIS HOME for his own use raw milk or cream from a farm."

It only says "have delivered to him for his own use"

County health departments have their own agendas ... we know that from personal experience. We knew that raw milk sales in IL were legal on the farm, but when we posted a sign at our farmer's market that we had a Jersey milk that gave wonderful creamy milk and that we used it in our milk soaps, our county health dept came to our home, interrogated our 14 yo son (without our presence) and wrote us a cease and desist notice from not only selling our milk, but all our products (even non-food) at the farm. Heck, they even wrote at the top of the Cease and Desist "Notified the FBI for suspicious terrorist activities". They took us to court.

Did the Bechard's Co Health Dept set them up but having folks outside the health dept order milk and then not show for pick-up allowing the Health Dept to come in and order milk?

No one wants to bring product home from a farmer's market. Was this a set up??

The trial will bring out other information. We weren't butting heads with the law, we weren't getting cute with the meaning of the law. We read the law for what it said.

The law in MO clearly states, “an individual may purchase and have delivered to him for his own use raw milk or cream from a farm.”

[rambler]

There was just an outbreak of 3-4 people getting e.coli from a raw milk dairy in my state - well just a few dozen miles from me.

http://wcco.com/food/raw.milk.warning.2.1719661.html

Such things will put a damper on raw milk laws in the future. Many states were loosening up on the laws of late.

--->Paul

[rambler]

Originally Posted by MullersLaneFarm

The law in MO clearly states, “an individual may purchase and have delivered to him for his own use raw milk or cream from a farm.”

It would take a long & spendy set of legal forces to make your limited interpitation stand up in court. The flavor of the law is to limit raw milk sales to those that happen on the farm, with a limited delivery to some that buy on the farm. Looking at the whole wording of the law, you are trying to make it say something it does not by only looking at a short piece of the law.

Certainly you have that right, and good lawyers & selective judges have done much more to cchop up law than what you are trying to do, so it's not impossible to have your outcome.

But - not very likely. You are going against the intent of the law, and that is very difficult to do.

--->Paul

[MullersLaneFarm]

Originally Posted by rambler

The flavor of the law is to limit raw milk sales to those that happen on the farm, with a limited delivery to some that buy on the farm. Looking at the whole wording of the law, you are trying to make it say something it does not by only looking at a short piece of the law.

Paul,
The law does not saying ON the farm, it says Delivery FROM the farm. That takes on a whole new meaning ....

[ozark_jewels]

I wish them the best. I'm sure it will make a very interesting day in court. I guess it will depend a lot on how the law is interperated<spelling?>, by the court that day.
Too bad its so far away from here, I'd like to see first-hand how it goes.

[rambler]

The intent of the law is that private sales happen on the farm. They allow the farmer to deliver to the buyer. Any more, the judges look at the intent of the law, they don't pick apart every word of grammar to determine what 'is' means and so forth.

The gals appear to have taken milk from the farm, set up a booth, and sold some milk to some non-farm customers from the booth.

That's pretty clear cut.

There may be other facts that change this I don't know any more than you; but at this time with what we know, it's very clear cut.

I 'get' your argument, and I'd give it less than a 1% chance of flying in a smaller court of law. Doesn't mean I know it all, nor what is really right or wrong. Just - seems pretty clear how this will go? Setting up a meeting point to deliver the milk was probably borderline acceptable - if they made the sale on the farm to start with & this was only delivery, money already changed hands. If the gals were collecting money while delivering the milk, then even that by itself goes beyond 'delivering' milk.... But the extra sales pretty much sunk the ship in a very clear way.

How it is. Whether the law is silly or not, what is presented here, pretty obvious they were outside that law.

--->Paul

[doughboy]

They were not set up and by Bechards own admittance, they sold milk that was pre-ordered and were there for drop off. Because of milk that was not picked up and they were asked by non-customers if they had milk, they then sold milk which made them doing something other than what the law allows. Nothing made them sell that milk. They could easily have given those potential customers instructions on how to buy the milk and stayed within the law.

Reread the quote from earlier:
On April 8 and April 15, the Bechards' daughters -- ages 17 and 21 -- set up in a parking lot in front of Mama Jean's Natural Market on South Campbell Avenue to distribute raw milk to customers who had pre-ordered it from the Bechard Family Farm.

Armand Bechard said his girls were using the parking lot as a drop-off point, not as a place to market their product. But the state of Missouri doesn't see it that way.
Two undercover inspectors from the Springfield-Greene County Health Department approached them separately on each occasion and asked whether they had an extra gallon of milk to sell, according to court documents.
"They said, 'yeah, we've got extra milk,' " Armand Bechard said.

The girls, who were labeled "representatives" of the farm in the lawsuit, agreed to the sale because a customer did not show up, which Armand Bechard said is "very rare."

The law, found in Chapter 196.935 of Missouri Revised Statues, says "an individual may purchase and have delivered to him for his own use raw milk or cream from a farm."
"The law says a person can purchase raw milk or cream from 'a farm,' " Armand Bechard said. "It doesn't say from 'the farm,' which I think is a distinction."

That last statement proves they are getting cute with the words. They got caught. It's that simple.

“an individual may purchase and have delivered to him for his own use raw milk or cream from a farm.” That's not what happened in this case. This was not a farmer's market, it was suppose to be a drop off point, only. Those individuals that bought that milk did not buy it from a farm, they bought it from two young ladies. It was marketed in the parking lot of a small strip mall.


Do we think the law is ridiculous? Yes. Do we think they were selling outside the law? Yes. Were they "set up"? No. Nobody forced them to sell that milk. They got caught.

People do get sick from raw milk. That's why the laws have been implemented. People even used to die from illnesses contracted from raw milk. Pasteurization saved lives. Do we think you should be forced to buy only pasteurized milk? No. We've used our own raw milk since we were children and have had no problems. But we NEVER will sell or give milk for human consumption from our farm. One illness (real or otherwise) could wipe us out. We would NEVER buy milk from two young ladies in a parking lot and certainly not from some strangers who we have no idea how the milk was handled from start to finish. But we think you should have the freedom to do so, if you choose. But, until the law is changed, we would stay within the law. Breaking the law is no way to convince lawmakers to change it.