Raw Milk, On Trial Again

For followers of right-to-raw milk issues, the name Alvin Schlangen will no doubt be familiar. Schlangen, a Minnesota egg farmer, underwent a high-profile trial last fall on charges of selling unpasteurized milk, operating without a food license and handling adulterated or misbranded food. After a three day trial and a four-hour jury deliberation, he was found not guilty; raw milk advocates popped champagne corks.

This week, Schlangen is back in court, facing up to 15 months in prison and $5000 in fines. He faces five criminal charges, stemming from the initial raw milk investigation.

Both sides of the case are making now-familiar arguments. The state claims they are looking out for public safety, that regulation prevents outbreaks of sickness. Schlangen’s supporters claim this is unnecessary government intrusion, a violation of our personal liberties.

“These people know so little about safety and the quality of food,” says Schlangen. “Raw milk is 10 times less risky than pasteurized milk … this is just about control.”

“Raw milk is 10 times less risky than pasteurized milk,” Schlangen says. “This is just about control.”

In this week’s trial, the criminal complaint spends many paragraphs detailing Schlangen’s raw milk violations. Yet the actual charges are only indirectly linked to raw milk (holding unbranded or misbranded food for sale) or not connected at all (failure to maintain temperature requirements for raw eggs).

There was initially a sixth charge (see: the original complaint) of selling unpasteurized milk. Schlangen’s attorney, Nathan Hansen, says the state removed this charge in June, fearing another controversial trial. In Schlangen’s trial last year, hundreds of protestors descended on the courtroom, gaining national media attention for the raw milk cause.

The Schlangen case draws easy parallels to the recent trial of Vernon Hershberger in Wisconsin. Both involve Midwestern farmers, providing raw milk and other farm products to a small, members-only group. And both farmers assert that this arrangement places them outside the realm of commercial regulation; indeed Hershberger was acquitted in May.

Schlangen’s group, Freedom Farm Co-Op, has about 210 members, who pay a modest $25 annual buy-in. Schlangen doesn’t own cows — he’s an organic egg farmer himself — but he provides members with raw milk obtained from a nearby Amish farm.

Following his acquittal this fall, the Minnesota Dept. of Agriculture issued a statement saying it “strongly disagreed” with the ruling. The state noted that Schlangen’s products had been found on sale at Traditional Foods, a south Minneapolis natural foods store.

Pete Kennedy heads Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, the group that hired Schlangen’s attorney. Many states are loosening restrictions on raw milk, like Arkansas and North Dakota; Kennedy says Minnesota is an outlier.

“Right now I think Minnesota is by far the most draconian state in terms of raw milk enforcement,” he says. “Things are changing just about everywhere else.”

In 2010, eight Minnesotans were sickened by a rare strain of e. coli that was traced back to Mike Hartmann, another raw milk provider. The Minnesota Dept. of Agriculture declined an interview for this story, though spokesperson Margaret Hart emailed this statement: “While a very small portion of the population consumes unpasteurized milk, there are a disproportionate number of illnesses associated with it. This has prompted a long list of respected public health organizations to warn consumers against consuming unpasteurized milk.”

Coincidentally, Hartmann was also in court this week for an evidentiary hearing connected to the 2010 incident (his trial will begin later this year.) Hartmann’s attorney, Zenas Baer, maintains that raw milk is safer than pasteurized, but says there’s a bigger issue at play here. “The Minnesota Constitution says there will be no restrictions on ’tillers of the soil’ selling their own products,” Baer says. “My client is a farmer. His constitutional rights are being ignored.”

Raw milk advocates will certainly be watching the outcome of this week’s trial. Schlangen says that, unless he’s in jail, the outcome of this trial will not affect his behavior. “I’m not doing anything wrong, so I’m not going to stop,” he says.

Modern Farmer will provide an update on the trial’s outcome later this week.

Photo at top: Schlangen with Mary Puff, a member of Freedom Farm Co-Op, and Tommy Simeone, a member’s son