WhyHunger partner Food For Maine’s Future Needs You To Join Their Call For Maine Governor LePage To Drop The Lawsuit Against Farmer Dan Brown Very Soon

WhyHunger’s partner Food for Maine’s Future sent us the following action alert seeking signatures for a petition to the Governor of Maine. Dan Brown, a family farmer in Blue Hill, Maine, is being sued for doing what family farmers have been doing for generations: selling food to friends and neighbors. The cow’s milk that Farmer Brown and his family drink, and which he sells to others in his town when he has extra, wasn’t labeled “Not Pasteurized.” This is illegal according to the state, even though it is legal in his town and Farmer Brown’s customers know all about his cow and where the milk comes from. His town, Blue Hill, also has a local ordinance which allows Farmer Brown to sell products in town without such labels. The safety or quality of Farmer Dan Brown’s food is not being questioned. What is being questioned, or rather challenged, is the right of the citizens of Blue Hill to sell food to their friends and neighbors. Read more about Farmer Dan Brown at the Connect Blog.

From Food for Maine’s Future:

SIGN THE PETITION TO CALL ON MAINE GOVERNOR LEPAGE TO DROP THE LAWSUIT AGAINST FARMER BROWN:
www.change.org/petitions/governor-paul-lepage-drop-the-lawsuit-against-famer-dan-brown?share_id=pleQyHj…Vzn&

Dear Gov. Paul LePage,

We, the undersigned, call on you and your administration to withdraw the lawsuit against Blue Hill farmer Dan Brown of Gravelwood Farm.

Recent rule changes by the Maine Department of Agriculture – including poultry processing and raw milk sales – are making criminals out of hard-working Mainers who are growing and processing food to share in their communities. Now the Department of Agriculture and State of Maine are suing a man milking one cow and selling jams, pickles, and other prepared foods from his farmhouse kitchen. If successfully pursued, this lawsuit will have a chilling effect on Maine’s growing local food movement and the promise of real economic development in our rural communities. Shouldn’t Maine’s small-scale, diversified farms and cottage businesses have the same opportunities generations before us had, without the threat of lawsuits or armed raids as we are witnessing around the U.S.?

READ THE FULL LETTER at www.savingseeds.wordpress.com.

AND CHECK OUT THE COVERAGE OF THIS GROWING MOVEMENT IN THE LATEST ISSUE OF SAVING SEEDS at https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1221/images/Saving%20Seeds%20Winter%202012%20Web.pdf.

Also, please help support the effort by making a CONTRIBUTION in whatever amount you can afford.

Sincerely,
Family Farm Defense Committee of Hancock County

These kinds of lawsuits are not just happening in Maine. Wisconsin farmer Vernon Hershberger is also being sued for selling raw milk. Read more…