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Store LLC hired Wayne and Kay Craig of Grassway Farm to run the dairy operation and the farm store. The Craigs were
also plaintiffs in the suit.
Mark and Petra Zinniker had an agreement with Nourished by Nature LLC to board, care for and milk cows wholly
owned by the LLC. In addition to the LLC’s herd, the Zinnikers also boarded a cow co-owned by Gayle Loiselle and
Robert Karp. The farm does not hold a Grade A milk producers license. The Zinnikers, the LLC, LLC member Phillip Burns,
Loiselle and Karp were all plaintiffs in the case. The Grassway and Zinniker lawsuits had originally been filed separately
but were consolidated by Judge Fiedler last fall.
In his opinion, the judge went out of his way to rule against the plaintiffs. Under the 2002 and 2004 administrative
law decisions, those purchasing stock in an entity holding a Grade A milk producer license could obtain raw milk in the
regular course of business from that entity so long as the license was used for “its proper purpose of producing milk
. . . which will be sold or distributed into the public, human food chain” (that is, sold to a processor unpasteurized for
eventual distribution to the public human food chain).
The judge held that the Grassway plaintiffs were not entitled to a judgment since they were not in compliance with
the law because they used their license “solely for the purpose of allowing the Association members to purchase non-
pasteurized milk.” In making this finding, the judge ignored the fact that, under state law, an entity holding a Grade A
milk producer license will have its license revoked if it goes more than sixty days without shipping milk to a processor.
Grassway Organic Farm Store LLC has held the same Grade A milk producer license it was issued in 2005.
As for the Zinniker plaintiffs, the judge ruled that they were not entitled to a ruling because they did not own a milk
producer license. What the judge held, in effect, was that it is the state’s business on where any owner of a dairy animal
boarded that animal; dairy livestock owners obtaining milk produced by that livestock if the animals were boarded on
an unlicensed farm would be violating the law. The judge dismissed all the Zinniker plaintiffs’ arguments on their prop-
erty rights, right to contract, and right to privacy. The judge did not indicate how a private livestock boarding contract
had anything to do with DATCP’s responsibility to protect the health of the general public. Plaintiffs have ninety days to
appeal the judge’s decision.

For the latest developments on raw milk issues, go to www.thecompletepatient.com. Those who have not joined the
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund are encouraged to do so. Membership applications are available online at www.
farmtoconsumer.org or by calling (703) 208-FARM (3276); the mailing address is 8116 Arlington Blvd, Suite 263, Falls
Church, VA 22042.

GEOFFREY MORELL ATTENDS IAPF CONFERENCE

Intrepid WAPF secretary Geoffrey Morell attended the 100th year meeting of the International
Association for Food Protection (IAPF), held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 31 through August 4.
Twenty-five hundred people from across the world—from the U.S., China, Europe and Australia—at-
tended the five-day event. IAPF was founded one hundred years ago with a focus on "making milk
safe," and later morphed into an organization dedicated to making all foods safe. The conference
theme of "Good Safe Food" possibly reflected criticsm voiced by Geoffrey at last year's conference
that complete "safety" results in food that is actually dangerous for our health.
Geoffrey attended a workshop on milk safety held on the first day. Only one speaker made any
mention of the farmer's role in producing clean, high quality milk from well tended cows. Virtually the
entire focus was on treatment at the processing plant, but several admitted that these pasteurization
plants are often filthy. One report showed that there were more bugs in the milk after pasteurization
than before, due to contamination from the pasteurization machinery. Yet attendees appeared to
speak in one voice in support of some kind of treatment of milk—if not pasteurization, then treatment with new technologies
like ultra violet light—rather than providing good clean milk raw.
Likewise, for other foods, the emphasis was on some kind of treatment to make foods safe, with no one discussing how
to build healthy immune systems. Instead the focus is on pasteurization, irradiation, sterilization, chemicalization and other
treatments that so deaden the food as to render it an assault on the immune system.
There was a huge collection of exhibitors, some with very elaborate displays, and poster presentations, including one by
food safety attorney Bill Marler to advertise his website realrawmilkfact.com. It was clear from the displays that there is an
enormous investment in food safety treatments, which translates into strong lobbying in government circles. An exhibit booth
advertising sanitary wipes for the handles of super market carts epitomized the prevailing attitude—not children drinking raw
milk and playing in the sand pit to build up their immunity, but belief in a hostile world full of dangerous germs that must be
sterilized and sanitized.
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