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Farmer contends milk law goes against Amish beliefs

Akron Beacon Journal, USA
June 26, 2006
Joe Milicia
www.ohio.com

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Tuesday June 27, 2006

MOUNT HOPE, Ohio – The state nabbed Arlie Stutzman in a rare sting, sending an undercover agent to his farm to buy – not drugs – but milk.

Now, he’s taking the unusual step, for an Amish man at least, of fighting a law that he says violates his religious beliefs because it prohibits him from sharing milk he produces with others.

“While I can and I have food, I’ll share it,” Stutzman said. “Do unto others what you would have others do unto you.”

Stutzman is more comfortable in a pair of overalls on his hilly 100-acre farm than in a courtroom full of lawyers. But the dairy farmer is headed to Holmes County Common Pleas Court on Friday to testify about his view.

“I’m not much of a talker. For sure, not in public,” he said.

Last September, a man came to Stutzman’s weathered, two-story farmhouse, located in a pastoral region in northeast Ohio that has the world’s largest Amish settlement. The man asked for milk.

Stutzman was leery, but agreed to fill up the man’s plastic container from a 250-gallon stainless steel tank in the milkhouse.

After the cool, creamy white, unpasteurized milk flowed into the container, the man, an undercover agent from the Ohio Department of Agriculture, gave Stutzman two dollars and left.

The department revoked Stutzman’s license in February for selling milk in an unlabeled container. In April, he got back his license, which allows him to sell to cheese houses and dairies, with a warning not to sell raw milk to consumers again.

The state could have cited him for distributing raw milk, but rather than have the milk tested, it chose to cite him with the more obvious charge. The state prohibits the distribution of raw milk, whether it’s sold or shared.

“You can’t just give milk away to someone other then yourself. It’s a violation of the law,” said LeeAnne Mizer, spokeswoman for the department.

Organizations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to the American Dairy Association say raw milk contains health risks because it has not been heated to kill bacteria, such as E. coli.

Even though the state returned his license, regulators have asked Judge Thomas D. White to formally order Stutzman, the defendant, to comply with dairy laws. Stutzman says he is fighting the request on principle because he should be able to share his milk.

Stutzman’s Amish faith places an emphasis on the community. To preserve their lifestyle, the Amish avoid the use of electricity and automobile ownership, which would allow the outside world to enter unabated into their culture.

The Amish typically don’t get involved in politics, unless laws impede their ability to make a living or follow their religious beliefs. Stutzman says he’s getting some community support.

“It shows he’s not going to be intimidated and he’s going to do what he thinks is the right thing,” said his attorney, Gary Cox.

Days start early at Stutzman’s farm where he’s out at 5 a.m. to move the chickens to a fresh grazing spot and by 6 a.m. he’s milking his herd 27 cows.

Stutzman, 37, the father of eight, is rail thin and wears the traditional beard with no mustache of a married Amish man.

His farm is an organic operation where the cows graze on the grass and clover in one area, then are moved to another.

The state says they sent the agent to his farm because they received a tip from an anonymous neighbor about raw milk sales.

Stutzman though believes he was targeted because his cows are partly “owned” by a group of 150 families in what’s called a herd share agreement. They pay him a fee for the cows and are entitled to a portion of the milk.

The group is led by Christina Trecaso of Copley Township, who along with other group members take turns making the hour-long drive to Stutzman’s farm to retrieve milk. They meet at a drop off point to distribute each family’s share.

Sales of raw milk are illegal in Ohio and 24 other states. But herd share agreements take advantage of a loophole because the group is buying the cows, not the milk. The state is not challenging Stutzman’s herd share agreement.

Groups such as the Weston A. Price Foundation, dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to people’s diets, advocate the consumption of raw milk, saying pasteurization diminishes vitamin content and kills beneficial bacteria. Trecaso says it’s what has helped keep her two daughters from visiting the doctor in three years.

“It’s really rich and creamy and good,” she said.

For Stutzman, the herd share agreement gives him an outlet for his extra milk. He also enjoys sharing his product with others who would otherwise not have access to it.

“We know people are deprived of this real food,” he said.