Private Co-op Raided for Raw Milk

Another family dairy farm and their private store has been raided in Wisconsin by state/county health and agriculture agencies.

The State and its agents may have bitten the wrong farmer, Vernon Hershberger at Grazin’ Acres Farm in Loganville WI. He is defying the orders to cease his dairy operations; he understands he does not need permission from the government to farm and share his produce with friends and family. He understands what the right to private property is and he has the right to contract with an individual without needing a permit to do so.

The DATCP brought in the armed deputies for 6 hours to lock it up and take evidence. That does not stop Vernon.

“This is how I make a living,” Vernon Hershberger, a Loganville dairy farmer, said Thursday morning. “We are going to go right ahead and do business.”

Hershberger said roughly 100 families, including some Madison customers, purchase raw milk, yogurt, cheese, butter and ice cream from a store on his farm that is open for business Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

According to Rosanne Lindsay, of Wisconsin ARMi:

“Two of us went to the farm today, early, and collected our orders. From what I’ve been told, its business as usual, so go and continue to support the Hershbergers and other local farmers before rogue state agencies usurp our rights to contract under the Bill of Rights.”

The woman responsible for the raid on Vernon Hershberger’s farm can be reached at

this work number (608) 224-4734 ,

this email address: jacqueline.owens@datcp.state.wi.us. ,

or this address: 2811 Agriculture Drive. Madison, WI 53718

Her full name and title is Jacqueline Owens, R.S. Field Services Director Bureau of Food Safety & Inspection.

All readers are urged to join the ARMi (Alliance for Raw Milk Internationale) with units in every state. There are close to 1000 members of the Wisconsin ARMi– their Facebook page is buzzing over the news.

from The Journal of Natural Food and Healing