Due to Your Calls and Requests for Justice….

Doreen Hannes, Truth Farmer, has posted new info.

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The Missouri Milk Board prepared and gave their version of the timeline on Morningland Dairy’s destruction to the representatives and senators in the Missouri Legislature.

There were a great number of obfuscations and a few outright lies in their timeline. To correct those, and to make sure that Reps and Senators had clear information, Denise Dixon went through and provided clarification and correction where needed on the timeline offered by the Milk Board. Denise emailed this and the original Rebuttal and Request for Humane Treatment (my words) given by Morningland to the Milk Board in October of 2010. The Milk Board, Attorney General’s Office and the Governor were also emailed both of these documents.

In the interest of full transparency, I have copied these documents for everyone to see. Please feel free to share them and spread the info all across the county. The fact is that there is a war on real food at the agency level. Since there is supposed to be a balance of power in our system of government, the legislature DOES have the ability to affect the conduct of the Milk Board if they choose to do so….More on that another time. For right now, here are the communications from the Dixons in response to the Milk Board Timeline given to our elected officials here in Missouri:

Read the rest here.

The Dixons are still very grateful for any donations you might feel moved to make.

Videos From the Morningland Destruction

Hop on over to Truth Farmer to view the destruction for yourselves.

Opens in a new window so that you can come back here to donate some money for the Dixons.

Thanks to all who have pitched in some money. It really helps their situation.

Morningland Dairy—The Final Solution

Morningland Dairy—The Final Solution

©Doreen Hannes 2013

The Door to Morningland Dairy Cheese House

On August 26^th, 2010 the destruction of Morningland Dairy began. Having lost a two and half year battle with cancer of the State, the interment will take place on January 25^th, 2013.

People involved in all aspects of food production, be it growing, processing or distributing, should read through all the documentation [found on this blog – Hen] and understand that Morningland’s saga is the model for all independent food production under the FDA’s new Food Safety Modernization Act. Critical to this destruction are “science-based standards” as opposed to scientifically accurate controls and concerns. The Global Food Safety Initiative combined with “Good Agricultural Practices” and the “Guide to Good Farming” will ensure that an inability to feed the population will occur.  Morningland Dairy is an early casualty of these “science based standards”.

Visions and Hopes-The Birth

Joseph and Denise Dixon took over Morningland Dairy after Denise completed a two year internship with the founders of Morningland, Jim and Margie Reiner. The Dixons finalized the purchase and began improvements on the Missouri Milk Board inspected and approved raw milk cheese plant in October of 2008. The entire family was tremendously pleased because this would allow Joseph to be home with the family instead of on the road working as an electrician in the eastern half of the United States.  The Dixons wanted to expand the varieties of cheese made by the company and ventured into a broader array of production.

Their desire was to help other families in the historically poverty stricken Missouri Ozarks to make an actual living on the farm and allow families to stay together. They consulted with the Missouri Milk Board and arranged for two families to begin providing goat milk to Morningland and launched a popular goat milk cheese line shortly after taking over the company.

Goat Cheese Ready for Labeling

Morningland had six employees and other farming families dependent upon the continuance of the cheese plant. On August 26^th, 2010, it came to a screeching halt.

While Joseph and Denise were at a cheese making conference in Washington State, the plant manager received a call from the Missouri Milk Board stating that there was an issue of potential contamination found by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in Morningland cheese.

The cooler of $250,000 worth of cheese was immediately put under embargo, more accurately understood as house arrest, by the Missouri Milk Board. Don Falls, an inspector for the Milk Board, told the plant manager, “You should be back up and running by early next week.” Obviously, that wasn’t true. As a matter of fact, the very next morning, presumably after he spoke with the FDA, Falls’ entire attitude changed.

Over the weekend, the FDA leaked a nation wide recall on all of Morningland’s cheese produced in 2010. Not just the two batches that California indicated might be “suspect” for contamination, but their entire year’s production. Most of the cheese implicated as “suspect” by California had already been consumed. No complaints or ill effects were reported by any of the consumers of any of Morningland’s cheese. Nonetheless, the FDA required all of their products to be recalled.

Cheese in Morningland’s Cooler In Happier Days

Death by Bureaucracy

 Very few people realize the FDA has an armed and very military aspect. They showed up at Morningland in camouflage and made a lovely impression on those able to be at the unveiling of the future of food safety “FDA style”.

The FDA and Milk Board worked hand in hand to ensure that this little cheese plant in the midst of the Missouri Ozarks, that hadn’t made anyone sick in 30 years, would never make another batch of cheese for their loyal customers. Yet the FDA, who admit to killing 100,000 people a year, are allowed to gain ever more control over everything we take into our bodies. So the tally on deaths over the 30 year history of Morningland Dairy versus the FDA is:  Morningland “Zero”, FDA “3 Million”…or somewhere near that.

Despite significant effort, the FDA found no contamination in any cracks or drains in the cheese plant or even on the legs of the milk talk in the dairy barn. This evidence was not allowed to be introduced as part of Morningland’s defense because the Missouri Attorney General’s office contended that the FDA “was a separate issue.”

When pointedly asked what the specific process for getting the cheese plant back into production was, the Milk Board representative said it would involve a panel and consultation with the FDA to determine if that were a possibility. The members of the panel, other than the Milk Board and the FDA, and the specific requirements and processes were never delineated and no effort to achieve anything other than the destruction of the plant was ever evidenced by any official arm of the State of Missouri.

Neither the State of Missouri or the FDA ever conducted any tests on Morningland’s cheese. As a matter of fact, when Morningland tried to contract with a State approved lab to do proper tests on batches of their cheese, they were told that the lab simply did not want to get involved in the controversy. Morningland was denied the ability to legitimately test their product and defend their livelihood.

Adding insult to injury, Milk Board employee Don Falls testified in court and under oath that improperly collected cheese samples, taken with no supervision and no instruction by an employee of Morningland for the plant’s manager, were in fact the State’s own tests.  This remains a very sore point for Joseph Dixon. He says, “When one commits perjury and no one in authority will hold them accountable for it, that individual and the system they support are nothing more than liars and thieves. In this case, the theft is of our ability to provide for our family and is based on bearing false witness to harm people who have harmed no one.”

Real Life Costs

 While bureaucrats masquerading as “protectors of public health” continue to be paid every month for the tortures they put people through, those being raped and pillaged by the very system that is supposed to “protect” them have to somehow come to terms with the fact that their very own tax dollars are being used to continue the offense.

When it became clear to the Dixons that the Missouri Milk Board was unwilling to work with them toward any resolution that would allow the cheese plant to resume operation or allow for the least bit of recompense for the $250,000 of cheese in the cooler, not even deeming the cheese safe for ultra high pasteurization to be put into dog food, Joseph contacted his previous employer and went back to work as an electrician….away from his home and family.

The Dixons, parents to 12 children, steeled themselves to do what they admonished their children to do. To stand for what was right no matter what the odds against them were. After their appeal for trial by jury was denied, they knew that they would need to face a State Agency, represented by the State Attorney, in front of judges appointed by the State. While they hoped that truth would prevail and that reality would actually be addressed, they didn’t go into this battle wearing rose colored glasses.

Initially, after over five weeks of dumping milk, some of their adult children milked the cows and Morningland sold into the commercial pasteurized chain, trying to make the farm pay for itself. When milk prices plummeted and the cost of feed soared, the decision to close the milk barn down was made. But the Dixons still needed to make the payment on the property they couldn’t use to make a living with any longer. They also had to pay to keep the cheese cooler running as the cheese was still under house arrest and effectively a ward of the State.

With Joseph again away from home during the week, and all the expense of keeping things in tact on the farm, things were difficult. Then Denise’s father became bed-ridden and her mother broke her ankle, so Denise and the younger children went to Ohio to care for her parents.

While the State employees continued to collect their wages, Denise Dixon nursed her mother back to wellness and cared for her father until he passed away. During this time, she had to make a couple of trips back to Missouri to face charges of contempt and allegations of attempting to sell illegal product.

None of the human issues in the disruption of lives and the stress of such assaults by the State seem to be taken into account when figuring the costs of these kinds of actions.

Should one believe the deductions set forth by Missouri’s Courts in this case, and take as fact the aspersions and allegations cast against Morningland in the court transcripts, the conclusion could be drawn that the State was the “Knight in Shining Armor” protecting the unwitting public against immoral people trying to poison their customers with products they created to be harmful.

But the truth is, the truth of the matter doesn’t matter. At least not to agents of the State of Missouri, but the People of Missouri generally hold a different opinion.

“Admittedly,” says Denise, “some of the tactics employed and the characterization of us running a “filthy” facility with “diseased animals” stunned us, but our Father is still in charge, and our hope is not in justice being served in man’s system.”

The End is Near

After exhausting all appeals, the cheese, still being kept cool in the refrigerator at Morningland Dairy, is set to be fully destroyed by the agents of the State, the Missouri Milk Board, on January 25^th, 2013.

Two and a half years later, one could reasonably argue that the untended cheese has already been destroyed, and to some extent, that would be accurate. Just imagine that you close your refrigerator door and don’t get permission to look into it for 2 ½ years. How would that look to you? While pickles or olives might still be alright, it is highly likely that your dairy products would be a little bit off after such neglect, right?

Denise Dixon said, “After 6 months, the Colby was already gone, and that was about one fourth of the total cheese inventory. After not tending to it, no turning, no repackaging, no monitoring, at least half the cheddar has been ruined. The destruction has already taken place. Our family business, our livelihood, and our ability to provide people with living, positive food has been destroyed.”

Morningland’s Cooler Now

The Missouri Milk Board has ordered two dumpsters to be delivered to Morningland Dairy. So the cheese, which is “not fit for dog food”, will be put into dumpsters and delivered to a landfill to be consumed by wildlife which evidently are immune to the pathogens feared to be present.

Morningland Dairy will never be in business again.

No offer has been made by the Milk Board to prescribe the conditions that would need to be met by the operators to allow them to resume business. The Judge presiding over the case originally did write a regulatory prescription from the bench that was completely implausible for anyone to meet. It included a requirement to insure that no milking animal had bacteria indicative of potential mastitis at all prior to milking the animal.

To put that one judicial regulation into perspective, allow me to draw a parallel for those unfamiliar with milking animals. You milk twice a day, every day. The milk is “commingled” into one tank. So, imagine this….before sending your child to school, you must take a nasal swab and have it cultured to ensure that your child is not harboring a potential bacterial infection before boarding the bus. You would have to pay for this lab technician to be present every morning and for the tests. When your child came home in the afternoon, the same process would be repeated. You would have the immense pleasure of paying for this and keeping the records to validate the bacterial level present at each measuring.

While the scenario imagined above may not be literally impossible, it is certainly improbable, and it would be impossible to have any profit above the cost of production in such a scenario. But that wasn’t all that this judge set forth as regulation for Morningland from behind the bench, with no comprehension of dairy production or cheese-making  The other prescriptions the judge made would have cost more than $100,000 in hard costs, with additional continuing costs for excessive testing during the cheese-making process. He also still required the destruction of all cheese in the cooler, not allowing any batches to be cleared through testing. Additionally, the Missouri Milk Board never indicated that they would accept Morningland returning to production even if they did comply with the Judge Dunlap’s outlandish prescriptions.

The Missouri Milk Board nor the FDA have offered any process by which Morningland might be allowed to resume business and the courts have seemingly upheld Judge Dunlap’s regulating from the bench.

The Battle Is Over

Joseph and Denise Dixon of Morningland Dairy have given everything to this fight. Battling the State wasn’t really about them at all, but about our nation, our freedom, and our ability to choose food for ourselves and for our families that is truly nourishing and real. They held nothing back, but finally, the repeated systemic attacks have run their full course, and the dreams, hopes and labors of love poured into Morningland have succumbed.

As Joseph Dixon has summarized, “The state of Missouri has 6 million people from whom they draw tribute (taxes), from which they could fight us. To fight them, we had 65 cows.  And the truth never seemed even to be a consideration, let alone a goal.”

The Dixons no longer have those cows. They no longer have the cheese. They no longer have the family business and have lost all Joseph’s retirement savings, which the cheese represented. They are left with a skeleton. A milk barn with no cows, and a cheese plant with no milk, nor permission to ever make cheese again.

On January 25^th, friends and family will witness the pulling of the plug on the cooler and the removal of the $250,000 worth of food created to nourish but prevented from fulfilling it’s purpose by bureaucracy and science based standards that have no basis in true science.

Rest In Peace, Morningland. Righteous judgment will come.

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For more information about the fight for Food Freedom visit TruthFarmer.com .

 You can also donate to help the family begin the next segment of their lives.

The FDA Forgot….You have No Right to Privacy in Contracts

©Doreen Hannes

When the FDA answered FTCLDF (Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund) in the interstate shipment of raw milk suit, they stated four fully repugnant things. That you have no right to, nor does your child have a right to any particular food, you have no right to bodily or physical health, that you have no right to contract, and that they are “rationally” fulfilling their public health mission. It appears that they forgot to include that you have no right to privacy or free association along with the right of contract.With the recent actions against Rawesome, sting operations against Amish farmers, and the absolute destruction of Morningland Dairy, one can only surmise that the FDA, who pulls the strings on state level equivalent agencies, forgot to specifically deny the right to freedom of association guaranteed us under the First Amendment along with many others.

As many people have been covering these continual affronts to our very right to consume food that we want to consume, I don’t feel as compelled to conduct a full review every time I find myself in the position of covering a new travesty of decency. Maybe that’s laziness in the eyes of some, but the truth is we are against the wall in this country with the most basic of human rights, and it’s too late to be nice about it any longer. If people are still unaware that food is a controlled substance, they are not likely to read this article anyway. Unfortunately, we have another assault that needs to be brought to the attention of those paying attention.

Morningland’s cheese plant has now been shut down for just over one year. They’ve been to court and have filed an appeal on the judge’s order to destroy their wealth, and were taken to court again on June 13^th and found guilty on one of three Contempt of Court charges brought against them for not rolling over and dying when the Milk Board suggested they should. They had to post bond again to keep their cheese from the hands of the destroyers until the legal wrangling is complete. Now the Attorney General says they must give up the names, addresses and phone numbers of individuals who are members in their private association. Denise Dixon says she will go to jail before that happens.

At the first trial, on January 13^th 2011, the principals of Morningland of the Ozarks LLC, Joseph and Denise Dixon, notified the Attorney General’s office, the Missouri Milk Board, and Judge David Dunlap (although he rec’d his notification via mail) that they had closed Morningland of the Ozarks LLC, and had formed a private membership association that they hoped to be able provide with their own cheese once this issue was resolved. In the interim, they purchased cheese from two licensed, inspected facilities and cut it and shipped it to their membership. The Dixons drove to these cheese plants (one in Wisconsin and one in Kansas) and picked the cheese up. This takes the private group completely out of the accepted realm of commerce.

In his original ruling against Morningland of the Ozarks LLC, Judge Dunlap stipulated that the LLC was the only entity involved in this action. The Attorney General’s office made no move to personally enjoin either one of the Dixons from either making or selling or cutting or wrapping or eating cheese themselves. The Dixons even applied for a tax id number as Morningland Dairy, not Morningland of the Ozarks LLC.

But that doesn’t matter. Trying to make an independent living is now illegal.

The state is the Judge. The Judge says there can be no jury. The state is the Executioner. After all, this is the land of the free the home of the brave, where agencies steal and destroy property with impunity and if we don’t like it, we can leave. That is, if we aren’t already involved in some legal imbroglio.

I digress. But only a little bit.

Judge David Dunlap ruled that Morningland of the Ozarks LLC is to turn over to the Attorney General’s office all sales records (none), all production records (none), all sanitation records (none), all bacteriological test records (none), and all sales records (again?).

Denise and Joseph Dixon produced the invoices from the companies they purchased cheese from, and also invoices with the names redacted of the people they had sent cheese to from Feb 23^rd through present. This wasn’t good enough. The Missouri Attorney General’s office claims that they must have the names, addresses and phone numbers of the private membership association or there will be a $100 per day fine ascribed to a defunct entity, and a defunct private membership association for failure to produce documents. That fine assessment began on August 22^nd as per a letter from the Attorney General’s office.

Joseph and Denise are ready to go to jail before they will turn the names and addresses of the association members over in this action. They mean it. They are asking the court to reconsider their ruling to divulge the members names…but there are things that have to be clarified before they go to jail.

These things make no sense to me in the legal realm of this case. We are dealing with four entities. One is the subject of legal action, that being Morningland of the Ozarks LLC (d/b/a Morningland Dairy). One is Morningland Dairy, the private membership association. The other two are scripturally one, being Joseph and Denise Dixon. The Court, and the Attorney General’s office have stated repeatedly that Morningland of the Ozarks LLC is the only entity involved in this legal action. However, they are comfortable finding a defunct entity, with no income or production, to be in contempt. They are also comfortable with forcing a private association to disclose their membership list in conjunction with a legal proceeding against a separate entity and with requiring the procurement of production records from other entities over which they have no jurisdiction.

If the logic employed by the Missouri Attorney General’s office and Judge Dunlap of Howell County Circuit Court is to apply to all of us (as it will if all of this is upheld), should you purchase some male performance enhancement herbs from anyone, and one of their suppliers is involved in a dispute with say the FDA, then the FDA will have the right to know that you bought such a product, and maybe they will even call you to find out how it worked for you.

Pleasant thought, isn’t it?

The AG’s office makes no bones about their assertion that the Dixons formed their private membership association solely to engage in unlawful activity. They think the Dixons are such hard nosed criminals that they are flaunting the law by letting the Milk Board, the Court and the AG’s office know that they are running a private association under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution. Obviously, the Dixons are criminal because they believe they have the right to provide people with food that the people want and to try to make some money to pay for the electricity to continue to hold their arrested cheese for the inevitable destruction. In the Missouri Attorney General’s eyes, there can be no chance that the Dixons simply want to do what they have been dedicated to doing all along…..Provide living food to living people who share their continued interest in, ummm, living.

I guess we need permission for that now.

 

You’d think it was drugs the Feds were after

Rawesome has been raided for a second time. This time by 9 agencies. Several links for you to read. [all links open in new tab]

Breaking news: Multi-agency armed raid hits Rawesome Foods, Healthy Family Farms for selling raw milk and cheese. Read it here at Natural News.

Thecompletepatient.com – Major New Escalation in War on Food Rights As Federal and Local Agencies Team to Arrest 3 in CA on Criminal Charges Associated with Rawesome Food Club

Estrella Family Creamery blog post, with a video

 

It is totally outrageous.

 

 

 

 

Related articles

• FEDS Treat Raw Milk as Crack – Raid Amish Farm (friendseat.com)
• Breaking news: Multi-agency armed raid hits Rawesome Foods, Healthy Family Farms for Selling Raw Milk and Cheese (newsworldwide.wordpress.com)
• When The Thugs Come Marchin’ In (h3roich3alth.wordpress.com)
• Government Raid of Rawesome (Take 2) (liberationwellnessblog.com)

Prose About the Cons…

Prose About the Cons…
Or, How to Gang Rape a Family Business Government Style

When the California Department of Food Drugs and Agriculture, the FBI, the FDA, the Los Angeles Police Department and their co-conspirators, raided Rawesome Food Club in Venice, California at gunpoint last June, they were intent on one thing: controlling people’s access to food of their choice.

When the CDFA tested cheese seized in the raid 55 days later and “detected” pathogens in the cheese, a freight train of destruction began to run down Morningland Dairy. This family business had been in business for thirty years with no complaints or illnesses associated with consumption of their cheese.

The owners of the company, Joseph and Denise Dixon originally thought the agencies in charge of the investigation were actually interested in helping them address a problem if the investigation showed there actually was a problem. They thought that the Missouri Milk Board was interested in helping them get back into producing their highly desired cheese.

Unfortunately, nearly a year later, those naïve original thoughts are as absent as cheese making activity at their virtually abandoned cheese plant.

Apparently, the government paid enforcers of truth, justice and a controlled food supply will not rest until the object of their fear, $250,000 of cheese, is destroyed. With the destruction of that cheese will come the destruction of another family farm.
If actions are any indication of intent, the intent of the Missouri Milk Board with Morningland Dairy has been annihilation from the beginning of the investigation.

As one might imagine, when you are faced with the destruction of your livelihood, potential loss of your farm and home, complete loss of your business, accusations of wrong doing and ill will, along with separation of your family due to the inevitable continuing saga of bills that must be paid despite the circumstances, you might have some feelings about it. Especially when no one has been harmed by your product.

The following prose asks the ineffable question of “How Many Goons (Bureaucrats) Does it Take to Destroy A Business?”

FDA, Team 1: 3 Goons…..Impress Them

Arrive at the business dressed in full camouflage fatigues and serve inspection paper. Make ignorant statements like, “I don’t know how many times a week you milk your cows, but….” and despite the statements that show your ignorance, make them believe you have the authority to decide if their operation runs properly.

Impress them.

When they question your demands for information unrelated to to your inspection, make obvious note of their “failure to cooperate”.

Impress them.

When you fail to find any contamination, even though you dug deep to insure that you would, be sure to downplay that failure and continue to impress them with more investigation.

When they attempt to limit your ability to confiscate their product, threaten them with an invasion by your sister, the U.S. Marshall.

Impress them.

When you close your investigation, be sure to inform them that you will be back to open up another investigation.

They’ll be impressed.

FDA, Team 2-1 Goon: Strong Arm Them

Call the plant. When you find that the owners are not there, impress upon the Plant Manager the need to recall all of their product for the entire year.

Push! Push!

Email them with your outline of exactly how to do the recall. Never mind that the owners are not present. Never mind that there has never been an illness or complaint connected to their product. Never mind that the test from another state looks extremely suspicious and mishandled.

Push! Push!

Hound the Plant Manger. By phone, by fax, and email. Even on the weekend. Get that recall done before the owners arrive!

Push! Push!

When the owners arrive at the plant before the recall is complete and ask why such a recall is necessary before the ‘facts’ are substantiated, threaten them that you’ll have to issue the recall for them if they do not!

Push! Push!

After you’ve forced them to recall, when the owner informs people you forced them to do it, deny it! But don’t fret; your job is completed.

Missouri State Milk Board- 3 Goons: Deceive Them
 
Arrive at the plant and pretend to be concerned about the ‘situation’, and assure them that you’ll help them get back in business soon. Make them think you are concerned over the apparent obvious lack of proper procedure performed by the other state’s officials, though you will not make any effort to question the other state.

Deceive them.

When they try to conscientiously test some of their product, introduce them to the testing facility that you have used for years, and with whom you have such a relationship that you can call them up and change things to your specifications even if the test is not yours. Tell them that you don’t know this testing facility, that you just learned of them recently, that you will ‘loan’ them the business card you ‘happened’ to have in your wallet to make a copy but that you’ll need it back in case you might want to contact this facility yourself.

Deceive them.

Make them think that you regret that they must do a recall
When the owners insist that the other state’s procedures be investigated, tell them you will look into it, but first, they must do the recall. You really care.

Deceive them.

When they question the integrity of your testing facility, end especially when they find out that you and the facility are buddies, make them think you are saving them from poisoning sooooo many people! Make them believe that it’s not important to do a valid scientifically proper test of their product. Make them believe you are doing all that you can do. Make them believe that their healthful product is not even fit to feed to dogs. Make them believe that you do not want to destroy their business.

Deceive them.

When they dare to fight the planned destruction of their business, testify in court that you had been concerned by the inspections you had previously performed at their plant.

Deceive them.

Do not testify that you had repeatedly told them that you had noticed their efforts to improve the plant, or of the fact that you had recently approved the owner’s plans to expand the plant.

Deceive them.

When you have the opportunity to help the judge decide upon the improvements to require the owners  to implement  before resuming production of their product, be sure to list expensive changes that are not required in other facilities like theirs. Make the judge think that such changes are necessary.

Deceive them.

MISSOURI COURT/ATTORNEY GEN.’S OFFICE – 3 GOONS – AWE & BURY THEM

Twist the truth to achieve your goals and disregard any who insist upon proper procedure.

Play God.

Invent false, damning accusations and run with them so you can destroy the already injured business, even though you have absolutely no proof of such accusations. You don’t need it.

Play God.

Ignore the truth that you hear from testimonies that support the business; you needn’t bother heeding it because as “god” you make your own “truth”.

When you’ve destroyed the small business, don’t stop there. Grind them into the ground by inventing ways to find them in contempt of court. Pay no attention to the rules and regulations they might quote; you’re on a roll and you’re fully convinced of your deity not, right?

Okay, let’s see. Well, it looks like Ten. Ten Government Goons, with government funding, have killed a family farm business, and in less than a year. This family business supplied a delicious raw milk cheese that is easily digestible and provides live beneficial nutrients. They supported their families and employed six people, and they shipped their cheese all over the continental U.S. grossing approximately $600,000 a year.

Guess that made them a threat to the government.

Next?

Update! Morningland Dairy Goes to Court for Contempt of Court

Morningland Dairy Goes to Court for Contempt of Court

©Doreen Hannes

On June 13^th, Morningland Dairy will be in court again despite the fact that the final disposition of their $250,000 cheese inventory is, as yet, undecided. [Click to read  Verified Second Amended Application for Order to Show Cause 5-23-11. It is a pdf.]

Earlier this spring, Howell County Circuit Court Judge David Dunlap found for the State in the first trial and Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund is appealing his decision to a higher court.

At the trial in Howell County in January, Morningland Dairy of the Ozarks LLC noticed the judge, the Missouri Milk Board and the Missouri Attorney General’s Office that they had closed the LLC and would no longer operate in the public venue. Instead Morningland Dairy would operate entirely in the private sector through a private association operating under the 1^st and 14^th Amendments to the US Constitution.

After the trial, Morningland began the process of buying cheese from similar licensed suppliers and repackaging and selling this cheese to their private association buyers.  They purchased a separate refrigeration cooler for the new cheese  to  ensure segregation from the cheese held under embargo by the Missouri Milk Board since August 26^th, 2010.

The Inspectors Get to Inspect –Just not Everything

On April 13^th, Don Falls and Roger Neill of the Missouri Milk Board showed up at the Morningland Dairy plant intending to conduct an inspection of the facility.  Plant Manager Jedadiah York and the eldest Dixon son were there and called Joseph Dixon to inform him of the Milk Board’s presence. Joseph Dixon states that he spoke with Don Falls, and said  “You can inspect the cooler which still holds the Milk Board embargo tag and the cheese in that cooler, but you are not to inspect or go anywhere else in the plant as it is not under your jurisdiction.”

Joseph also says that he did give Don Falls a little piece of his mind, which, from a human standpoint, is completely understandable.  Joe says, “Don Falls stated in court that the amount of cheese in the embargo cooler was his count. He didn’t count the cheese. He just took the FDA count and said it was his. He also stated that the cheese samples sent to Microbe Inotech were his samples, but they were not. So I called him a liar and also told him he couldn’t count, as the FDA count he claimed as his own is way off from our count.” Since Joseph has effectively lost his business, had to leave his family and go to work out of state, lost all of his savings, lost nearly a full year of production and a year and a half of sales, one can understand having some animosity to the regulator in charge of the action.

Charges Levied

Three charges are being levied against Morningland on Monday June 13^th. They are Failure to Allow Inspection, Failure to Implement Required Practices and Unlawful Sale of Embargoed Cheese Product.  One dangerous thing about these charges is that this seems to draw the Dixon’s private association into the State suit against Morningland Dairy of the Ozarks LLC.  The only thing left of the thirty year old company Morningland Dairy of the Ozarks LLC is the cheese under embargo in the cooler.

Joseph says, “Apparently even though he was allowed to inspect the cooler with the embargoed cheese in it, and said that it looked like it was all there to our son and Plant Manager, Don Falls yet again changed his mind and his story after talking to his superiors. Or maybe he just got mad because I called him a liar.”

Styrofoam is Evidence of a Crime

At question in the allegations now being charged against Morningland is whether or not there are any clear jurisdictional boundaries that the State or Federal government cannot cross. If cutting and repackaging cheese is now manufacturing cheese then several families could not go together on a forty pound block of cheese and divide it up amongst themselves without being licensed and inspected.

The “evidence” that Morningland is selling the embargoed cheese is that a member of the private association who runs Clover’s in Columbia Missouri, sold cheese with a Morningland label to Don Falls and Roger Neill.  (Batman and Robin of the Missouri Milk Board?) Also cited in the court filing is that there were bits of styrofoam on the packing room floor which leads to the cooler that is under arrest by the Milk Board.

While the packages of cheese might seem damning, one must remember that Morningland LLC closed down and agreed to not sell any of the embargoed cheese until the legal proceedings were complete. As stated earlier, they also informed the Court, Milk Board and Attorney General’s Office that they had formed a private association.  Considering these things, do styrofoam pieces plus packages of cheese really add up to selling embargoes cheese?  What about the inventory? Is anyone going to check that?

The really funny thing about the inventory is that in the court records there are three different inventory counts offered. Don Falls says 29,000 pounds, Denise Dixon says closer to 39,000 pounds and the judge cites 20,000 pounds. Does anyone really know?  If all the cheese is destroyed, will it matter how much there really is? If it were your livelihood, I would think it would matter to you.

Life Goes On….Kind of

Denise Dixon is going to be the only principal in court on Monday the 13^th. She will be flying back from Ohio where she and her younger children are currently staying taking care of her elderly parents. Joseph is working in Alabama and cannot take time off work to be present at the proceeding.

If the State ultimately fails to destroy the cheese that represents the wealth of this family, they have succeeded in destroying the family’s forward progress and robbing them of their peace. All over cheese that in thirty years never had a complaint of illness or upset associated with it. 

  ===  You can still donate to help the Dixon’s keep their farm and cheese plant so they can hopefully begin making cheese themselves once this court battle is complete.

Stay of Execution on Cheese is Granted!

Stay of Execution on Cheese is Granted!

Morningland  Moves on to Appeal

March 9^th 2011

In a surprisingly fast decision, the Judge in the Morningland of the Ozarks LLC’s case has ruled in favor of a “stay of execution” on destruction of the cheese in the farmstead cheese company’s refrigerated cave.

Yesterday at 1pm, there was a teleconference regarding  Morningland counsel’s request for a stay on the State’s desire to destroy all of the cheese that has been held under embargo since August 26^th. The Judge had issued his Order for Judgment for destruction and had also issued a Permanent Injunction on Morningland LLC to stop them from making or selling cheese until a very untenable set of criteria were met by the company. Counsel Gary Cox requested a stay on destruction and asked the judge to dismiss the counter claims brought by Morningland LLC in their case with the Missouri Milk Board.

Today, March 9^th, 2011, the day the Milk Board wanted to begin destroying the cheese, Judge Dunlap issued a five point ruling in favor of the Stay and now the case to destroy the cheese moves on to Appeal.

Morningland of the Ozarks LLC , has been in business for 30 years with no incidence of illness ever surfacing. Despite the history of companies like Morningland, the FDA issued a notice to consumers the same day the decision to grant a stay was being heard saying that raw dairy may “Pose a Health Threat”.

While Morningland of the Ozarks LLC has been put out of business by the seizure and complete halt of selling or producing cheese at the cheese plant, Morningland intends to move forward as a private health food association and hopes to make cheese again soon. Joseph and Denise Dixon, the prior principals of Morningland LLC said, “If we can just hold on until spring fully hits, when the grass comes in and the cows don’t need to be fed, we think we can weather this, and hopefully produce living, healthful food for our members again.”

Update: A Decision Expected on Monday

Today was the teleconference where the judge heard more information regarding the stay. He will make this decision on Monday.

What seems apparent from the documents – and you can read them below – is that the Missouri Attorney General’s office is scared that the cheese will get away. They even asked that the Dixon’s post a bond of $250,000.00, which was later reduced to $2,000.00. [At this point in this post, let me remind you to donate some money, some more money, via Pledgie because they really, really are in need. ]

This is the Memo in Oppostion Defendent’s Petition [opens as a PDF]. Can you count how many times the Plaintiff [state of Missouri] claims their rights? How one sided is that?

Here’s what the Memo says in regard to their fear that the cheese will sprout feet and abscond:

If a stay is granted and the cheese continues to remain undestroyed, Defendant [the Dixons] will retain control over it and the risk to the public remains great. Should the Defendant remain in control of the cheese, the cheese might be shipped out of state, stolen and consumed, or donated as food to a food pantry.

This is Exhibit A – Rescission of Activities and Practices Involving Production, Sale and Marketing of Raw Milk Products. This is where the Dixons tell the court that they are going private and will only sell to private members. This is the main reason that they need more donations. In order to stay alive and keep the farm running until the final judgment is rendered.

Here is Exhibit B – Request for Judicial Notice, where Joseph Dixon makes his claim, and rightly so…”follow the teachings and precepts of scripture as the absolute and final authority in heaven and upon the earth.”

As I understand it, the AG’s office is very uncomfortable with all of the transparency. They’d much rather have everything kept out of the public eye. No kidding. If I were them, I’d want that too.

Where the Cheese Meets the Landfill

This is serious, folks. Some of you have kindly offered to free the cheese, but please, you have to understand the seriousness of that action.

The Dixons have been instructed to send any freedom of cheese suggestions to the proper authorities…obstruction of justice charges will likely result. That means someone would likely go to jail. Doreen, for a time, the Dixon’s for longer. Obstruction of justice is a felony…know what I mean?

If you want to help, really help, show up on D-Day (currently scheduled for the 9th) with your video cameras, your recorders, signs. Doreen put it best: “Personally, I think that a few hundred people there with signs megaphones, cameras and notice to tv stations would be good. Here we are in a world where there are food riots and tons of reports about food shortages coming soon, and they are going to throw away an awful lot of food.”

This isn’t kindergarten, folks. This is tyranny.