USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) investigators have filed 42 pages to Amos Miller, the Amish agribusinessman from Bird-in-Hand PA.
Miller is exercising his religious freedom by growing and preparing food in accordance with his religious beliefs. Miller’s Organic Farm is associated with a private membership group of as many as 2,000 food buyers. The farm fulfills orders for meat and dairy products.
On behalf of the USDA and FDA, the Department of Justice has filed numerous actions over the years against Amos Miller and his farm. Most recently, the DOJ won an injunction forcing Miller to cease violating food safety laws. Miller signed a consent degree in 2020 acknowledging he was violating the injunction.
In contempt of court in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Miller ordered to make ‘good faith’ payments to court and FSIS.
Miller’s first came to the attention of federal authorities in 2016, when the Food and Drug Administration said it identified Listeria in samples of Miller’s raw milk they claimed allegedly that the agency found the Listeria to be genetically similar to the bacteria found in two people who developed listeriosis.
The federal government then appears to permit Lapsley to make unannounced visits to Miller’s farm. However, the Amish farmer said he wasn’t aware of any medical issues. “I don’t know that it was proved it’s on the farm here,” he said. “It’s not clear why it took the CDC two years to conclude that it was.”
Lapsley reported that Mr. Miller did not fully cooperate and requested assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service, on March 11. Miller had previously agreed to have his meat processed at a federally inspected slaughterhouse, but he backed out after learning that it used antimicrobial citric acid. According to Miller, regulations and inspections make food less safe rather than safer.
“If you put too many preservatives on the food, the body can’t break it down where you get the health benefits of it,” Miller has said. “That’s why all these illnesses are coming out.”
Miller’s Organic Farm advertises itself as organic, non-GMO, and free of chemicals, hormones, and antibiotics. He says many of his customers view the farm’s food as medicine.
Still, Miller has responded with a blizzard of court filings and agreed to comply with a court’s order to make “good faith” payments totaling $105,065. Miller was also fined $250,000 and ordered to pay the salaries of the USDA investigators assigned to his case in the summer of 2021 for “contempt of court,” within 30 days or risk jail.
Sources: Westernjournal, Lancasteronline, Foodsafetynews