MADISON, Wisconsin (PNN) - October 7, 2011 - A Wisconsin judge - overstepping his lawful constitutional authority and thereby acting as an outlaw and criminal - has unlawfully ruled that Amerikans do not have a fundamental right to drink milk from their own cow, nor do they have a fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of their choice.
Circuit Court Judge Patrick Fiedler took that position in a case involving a group of families who boarded their cows on a single farm. He said that, in effect, the farm had become a dairy farm and was therefore subject to state rules governing dairy farms.
“It is clear from their motion to clarify that the plaintiffs still fail to recognize that they are not merely attempting to enforce their ‘right’ to own a cow and board it at a farm,” Judge Fiedler wrote in his decision. “Instead, plaintiffs operate a dairy farm.”
The families had filed a lawsuit against the Wisconsin Dept. of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, alleging their constitutional rights had been violated.
However, the judge ruled that the plaintiffs do not have any constitutional rights to own a dairy cow, consume milk from their own cow, board a cow at the farm of another farmer, or produce and consume the foods of their choice.
“This court is unwilling to declare that there is a fundamental right to consume the food of one’s choice without first being presented with significantly more developed arguments on both sides of the issue,” the judge wrote.
Steve Ingam, the administrator of Dept. of Agriculture’s division of food safety, said the case is about public safety - because the milk in question is unpasteurized.
“We have a law that prohibits the sale and distribution of unpasteurized milk,” he said. “These farmers have tried to set up a way to get around the law and create a way that they think they own the cow and are consuming the cow’s milk legally.”
But the farmers disagree - and maintain their rights have been violated.
“It’s a case of fundamental rights,” said Elizabeth Gamsky Rich, an attorney representing the group of farmers. “The plaintiffs are maintaining they have a right to own a cow; they have a right to consume the milk from that cow and that these are fundamental constitutional(ly protected) rights.”
