Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Police in Ohio Go Undercover to Bust Amish

Apparently Amish Christians are an insidious threat to the safety of the good citizens of Ohio. An Undercover Agent went to the Amish dairy farm to stop the crime spree that threatened the neighborhood. Were the Ohio authorities looking for an illegal drug operation (it is a farm after all)? Or possibly the Christian Amish dairy farmer was part of a fringe group of survivalists that perceived government conspiracy everywhere (after all the Amish refuse the use of modern technology)? Maybe the Undercover Agent was looking for a cache of guns that might support the Christian Amish revolution to lop off the heads of the infidel (after all the Amish are an insular group that shuns outsiders)?

The answer to all the above questions is NO. Ohio authorities went Undercover to bust the Amish for selling (GASP!) raw milk.

MOUNT HOPE, Ohio (AP) -- Arlie Stutzman was busted in a rare sting when an undercover agent bought raw milk from the Amish dairy farmer in an unlabeled container.
Now, Stutzman is fighting the law that forbids the sale of raw milk, saying he believes it violates his religious beliefs because it prohibits him from sharing the milk he produces with others.

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 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. In April, he got a new license, which allows him to sell to cheese houses and dairies, but received a warning not to sell raw milk to consumers again.


Can you believe taxpayer money was utilized to bust an Amish man for the insidious crime of producing raw milk for public sale? I think a warning sign or label would be more appropriate. That was NUTS!

Hat tip to Love America First.

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