Police Raid on Michigan Farm Sparks Concerns Over Government Infringing Private Dairy Rights

And some experts are concerned it has the capacity to spread and ignite the second pandemic in less than a decade. In response to this reality, the US government has been implementing new regulations for dairy farms. Now, some Americans argue the tactics violate their Constitutional rights.

While five cases is certainly not a pandemic, the CDC is concerned that the situation could develop into a nationwide and even global pandemic if they do not do everything they can to curtail it.

Humans can contract the avian flu from cows either by working alongside an infected animal or eating raw meat and drinking raw milk from a sick cow. While a very small population of the nation actually works on dairy farms, the major concern is that more and more Americans are drinking raw milk.

While raw or unpasteurized milk sales are still technically legal in the US, the FDA and the CDC strongly advise people against it. They have even implemented certain rules to ensure the potentially dangerous product is not widely available. However, that hasn’t stopped Americans from finding ways to buy raw milk. Recently, many have argued it’s more natural and, therefore, better for you than pasteurized milk.

However, health organizations like the CDC and FDA advise against consuming raw milk due to the risks of bacterial infection.

However, raw milk poses considerable risks, especially if you don’t know where it comes from.

However, one of these cow-share co-ops, Hidden Creek Farm in Michigan, was recently raided by the US government. Many Americans are arguing that the government’s actions violate their constitutional rights.

Rankin detailed how, on Friday, May 24, 2024, the Hidden Creek Farm posted on Facebook explaining that they “had an unexpected visit from MDARD (Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development)…[where] three individuals proceeded to step out of the vehicles and pull a pump sprayer out of the car and started spraying the tires and sides of the vehicle down with a “mystery solution.”

Hidden Creek Farm then said they had some “questions” about this solution: “Firstly, what was it? Second, was the person who mixed and sprayed it trained [or] qualified? Third, is MDARD going to pay for the contamination of [our] soil cleanup?”

Rankin also noted that this clear violation of the law is concerning for American farmers and citizens alike. He said that it could mean the government plans to expand its control and jurisdiction on privately-owned farms.

Rankin argues that this action, as well as many more that are likely on the way, is a clear violation of Americans’ private dairy rights. He is even concerned the MDARD or FDA could ban raw milk altogether.

If state programs like MDARD haphazardly spray chemicals on all-natural farms or if, in the worst-case scenario, the FDA bans raw dairy products, they will be unjustly removing an American freedom.

He notes that many farmers and Americans alike are afraid the government’s control over farmland can and will further restrict what people grow and consume, drastically restricting personal freedoms in the so-called land of the free.

We cannot allow the government to reduce the autonomy of consumption, shut down small businesses like cow-sharing farms, and restrict our rights to drink the dairy of our choice. To do so, Americans must speak out against these kinds of situations, vote for local representation that supports these freedoms, and continue to purchase products from farmers we believe in.

This system, which falls in the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024, gives the government the ability to use electronic identification (EID) tags to track diseases among cattle.

This isn’t the first time that the government has stepped in and attempted to track livestock as a disease prevention measure.

The email points out that other forms of animal ID work can help with disease traceback.

“It is unclear how APHIS has been able to calculate a wildly lower cost of implementation and compliance even though the Agency is proposing to replace legacy livestock identification systems (long identified as effective) with new, costly, and evolving technology, the use of which has never been tested on the currently proposed scale,” Hageman writes.

The proposal seems to have overlooked the costs of readers/scanners, software, hardware, and livestock handling.

While many farmers may be unable to afford the tags for their livestock, there is an underlying fear of buying hardware from China as tensions between the US and the country grow.

The rule required that specific livestock of species covered by the regulations must receive official identification and a necessary veterinary inspection certification before moving across states.

These goals included advancing the electronic sharing of data among federal and state animal health officials, using electronic identification tags for animals to make data collection more efficient, enhancing the ability to track animals throughout their lifecycle, and creating discussions about creating a system that ensures the health of the country’s livestock.

You can use these RFID tags in replacement heifers vaccinated for brucellosis.

“The AVMA recommends that a high priority be placed on the development of alternatives to hot-iron branding such as the use of electronic individual animal identification and the development of an electronic system to facilitate rapid traceback of livestock in the event of a highly contagious disease outbreak.”