Sometimes it seems as if Pennsylvania Amish farmer Amos Miller is doomed to spend much of his adult life in food regulator hell. After fighting the U.S. Department of Agriculture for half a dozen years, and finally coming to a settlement this past fall of a dispute over meat slaughtering and inspection, Miller was hit […] The post PA Ag Regulators Create New Food Distribution Trouble for Amish Farmer Amos Miller appeared first on David Gumpert ..read more

Could it possibly be that dairy farmer Michael Schmidt’s near-30-year journey through Canada’s legal system over alleged violations of the country’s strict raw dairy laws is finally at an end?   After all he’s dealt with in terms of police stakeouts, surveillance,  imprisonment, hunger strikes, and multiple raids of his farm, to go along with […] The post Canadian Court Finally Calls Halt to Near-30-Year Pursuit of Raw Dairy Farmer Michael Schmidt–Possible Investigator Misconduct? appeared first on David Gumpert ..read more

I launched this blog 16 years ago to report on raids by state and federal regulators on small farms in Ohio and Michigan for illegal sale of raw milk. As a business journalist, I was puzzled as to why regulators were intent on forcing small farms out of business for producing a food product many […] The post What’s Happening with This Blog? appeared first on David Gumpert ..read more

Back in 2017, an idealistic young farmer and his wife took over a Wisconsin dairy farm that had been run for years by a raw dairy farming couple, Wayne and Kay Craig. If you’ve read this blog long enough, you might recall that the Craigs and their Grassway Organics farm spent more than a decade […] The post Happy Ending? How a Netflix Anti-Raw-Milk Documentary May Have Provided the Impetus for “Dairy State” Legalization appeared first on David Gumpert ..read more

The International Milk Genomics Consortium doesn’t mention raw milk on its web site or its conference promotional materials. But for Mark McAfee, owner of Organic Pastures Dairy and chairman of the Raw Milk Institute, a regular at its annual conferences, its research reflects importantly on the nutritional value of unpasteurized milk. In this article, he […] The post A Farmer’s Report on Milk Genomics: 30 Lessons on the Power of Raw Dairy appeared first on David Gumpert ..read more

One of the few things Amish farmer Amos Miller has had going for him in the legal sphere over the last seven years of his regulatory skirmishes is that he’s been politically nondenominational – not associated with either political party. In fact, it could be argued that he’s been equally targeted by both Republican and […] The post Advisory to Amos Miller: Beware Political Extremists As Your New Soulmates appeared first on David Gumpert ..read more

I’ve long been gunshy about inviting discussion on the health impact of vaccines. It’s become such a polarizing issue—you’re either all in on vaccines as the be-all and end-all of public health, including for getting past Covid, or you are anti-vax, riding on every pronouncement by Robert Kennedy Jr. and scouring the Internet for videos […] The post Is It Possible There’s More to the Vaccine Debate Than Right or Wrong? appeared first on David Gumpert ..read more

Most MAGA supporters reinforce their bitter views of the world vicariously, via the thrill of Alex Jones conspiracy theories or the grievance of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson or the anger of Donald Trump. For a few, though, the ongoing alienation is the result of lived experiences. One of those few is Sam Girod, an Amish […] The post What’s Wrong with Amish Salve Maker Sam Girod’s Sad Tale of Grievance? appeared first on David Gumpert ..read more

Trump and his followers are apoplectic about the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago on Monday. Trump has called the search  a “raid” (“They even broke into my safe”) and various Republican politicians have demanded the attorney general resign and called on the U.S. Justice Department to release the documents associated with the search. They all ignore […] The post When You Read a Real Search Warrant, You Understand Why Trump Likely Won’t Let Us See the Mar-a-Lago Warrant appeared first on David Gumpert ..read more

Shortly after my book, “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Food Rights” came out in 2014, the publicity agent I had engaged for book promotion alerted me she had a connection to Alex Jones of InfoWars, and that I had “an open invitation” to be interviewed by the conspiracy theory master. As a book author, […] The post Remembering Alex Jones, and What Might Have Been appeared first on David Gumpert ..read more