{"id":1244,"date":"2024-01-05T17:38:39","date_gmt":"2024-01-05T17:38:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/?p=1244"},"modified":"2024-01-05T17:38:41","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T17:38:41","slug":"state-employees-search-amos-miller-farm-seize-property","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/2024\/01\/05\/state-employees-search-amos-miller-farm-seize-property\/","title":{"rendered":"State Employees Search Amos Miller Farm, Seize Property"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Three Pennsylvania State Troopers and seven other individuals spent several hours inside a building on Amos Miller\u2019s Lancaster County farm while conducting a search on Jan. 4, 2024, eventually leaving with multiple coolers containing Miller\u2019s property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attempts were made by The Lancaster Patriot to enter the facility during the search, but a Pennsylvania State Trooper said, \u201cwe\u2019re conducting a search warrant inside this building right now,\u201d and told the reporter to leave the building until the search was completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The search was conducted by employees of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, with Pennsylvania State Police offering assistance as needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A search warrant was issued on Jan. 3, 2024, by Magisterial District Judge B. Denise Commins and included an affidavit of probable cause completed by Sheri Morris, Acting Bureau Director of Food Safety with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The affidavit referenced incidents involving Miller\u2019s products dating back to 2016, with the latest including the claim that on Dec. 19, 2023, Morris was informed \u201cby the NY state Department of Health of a confirmed positive case of a foodborne pathogen (STEC \u2013 Shiga toxin producing E. Coli) in an underage individual\u201d who had allegedly consumed products from Miller\u2019s private buying club. On Dec. 28, 2023, Morris was allegedly notified about a similar incident in Michigan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the affidavit, Morris contends that Miller has not filed for applications from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture \u201cfor registration, licensing, or permitting under the pertinent Retail Food Facility Safety Act, Food Safety Act, or Milk Sanitation Laws.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report of seized property provided to Miller after the search was conducted listed 37 items, including sour cream, chocolate milk, ice cream, and eggnog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A notice affixed to a walk-in cooler door stated that the food in the cooler \u201chas been detained by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture pursuant to Section 5726(a) of the Food Safety Act.\u201d The notice states that the food \u201cmay be adulterated or misbranded and shall be detained.\u201d The notice states that it is \u201cunlawful to remove the food from the premises or to dispose of it without approval of the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Removal or disposal of \u201ca detained or embargoed food article\u201d is a criminal and civil offense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cooler contains hundreds of items and represents a large portion of Miller\u2019s products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Products in Amos Miller\u2019s walk-in cooler put \u201cunder detention\u201d by Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Miller\u2019s private buying club provides customers with sustainable alternatives to commercially produced food. In addition to serving customers who travel to his location, Miller also ships his products across the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey [his customers] don\u2019t trust the large corporations,\u201d Miller told The Lancaster Patriot in 2022<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s not sustainable. For some reason the government keeps endorsing the large corporations, and it can cause big trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller\u2019s products include cheese, meat, eggs, and raw milk. His company website<\/a> states that all food products \u201care only available to members who belong to our Private Association and are NOT available to the PUBLIC.\u201d Miller\u2019s products are not sold in grocery stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) shared a post<\/a> from The Lancaster Patriot on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) and commented in support of Miller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLooks like Amos Miller\u2019s farm is being raided,\u201d Massie said. \u201cWith all of the problems in society today, this is what the government wants to focus on? A man growing food for informed customers, without participating in the industrial meat\/milk complex? It\u2019s shameful that it\u2019s come to this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post on X has garnered over 745,000 views in less than six hours, with many comments in support of Miller and food freedom, noting that Miller\u2019s buyers knowingly purchase his raw products and accept any associated risks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The mailbox for Miller\u2019s Organic Farm sits along Mill Creek School Road in Upper Leacock Township.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Miller\u2019s attorney, Robert Barnes<\/a>, released the following statement just hours after the search was conducted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, the Department of Agriculture of the State of Pennsylvania suddenly came, without notice, raided Amos\u2019 farm, and detained everything Amos had in the farm\u2019s freezer. They did so in a lawless manner, without appropriate authority, in violation of their own rules and regulations, despite never objecting to the prior resolutions reached with the federal government, and despite a complete failure by the state to even reach out to Amos\u2019 known counsel, Robert Barnes. The state\u2019s own rules require advance notice, reasonable time frames for inspections, and a showing of credentials, none of which occurred here. Instead, the state unlawfully obtained a search warrant, based on materially false statements in an affidavit by a high-ranking state official in an agency with a known grievance against independent farmers like Amos, and, after the raid and finding no evidence of wrongdoing, then illegally ordered detained every item of food in one of Amos Miller\u2019s coolers, including buffalo meat not even subject to federal regulation. The detention order is patently illegal under Pennsylvania law. Despite the constant harassment, Amos will continue to do all he legally can to provide the food his members deeply need. Amos thanks you for your continued support at this critical time for food freedom in America.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three Pennsylvania State Troopers and seven other individuals spent several hours inside a building on Amos Miller\u2019s Lancaster County farm while conducting a search on Jan. 4, 2024, eventually leaving with multiple coolers containing Miller\u2019s property. Attempts were made by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1246,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions\/1246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfawbn.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}