A couple weeks ago I stopped an Amish farm run by Amos Miller, if you don't know how that is, google the name and select the news list. First, he's a super nice guy, I like his entire family. But anyway I stopped by to ask him if we could use his walk in reefer in July to hold some extra product for those two days. He agreed without even asking for payment.
Late last week, my wife and I stopped by again so I could introduce her to him, since she'd be the one running out to get extra product. If you read the news, the Amish that work and live there are very tense and suspicious of people right now. We walked into the shop, and it's dark, because it's lit by windows and skylights and it was a dark day. I see someone that looked like Amos sitting in the chair. The other 4 men standing there stopped talking and just stared at us, I asked "Amos?", I get a reply "Ain't no Amos here". I realize that things are more tense than I thought. I quickly explain who I am, and why we're there. They ask me how I know Amos, so now I need to drop some names so they know I'm not bullshitting them. One name I drop assures them I'm friendly. While all this was happening, he one very all guy moves to my left and sits down on a desk, another guy moves to my right, and my wife said a third was a few feet behind me, I never saw him. If I didn't get that straightened out quickly they were probably going to drag me out, but I doubt they would have touched my wife.
Once things settled down we talked for a bit, they said they would tell Amos we stopped by.
The entire controversy is his selling raw milk, which the government believes is a danger to "public" health. Except, he doesn't sell to the public, you cannot walk into his shop and buy raw milk. You must become a member of his co-op, read and sign a waiver stating that you understand the risks of drinking raw milk and you assume all the responsibility for doing so. This right is already enshrined in the food code and you've all have probably seen the disclaimers on menus across the country where they state that eating undercooked beef or eggs might make you ill. It's really no different, you are making that choice to do so, the same as people do in drinking raw milk. Now, that doesn't stop someone from giving that milk to a child or the elderly that have a higher chance of getting sick, nor agree to the waiver. But in that case, it's really no difference than a mother feeding a young child undercooked eggs from her plate, which I've seen countless times in restaurants.
There's a claim in the press that he has engaged in "sovereign citizen" tactics, which isn't true. He hasn't done anything like that, but merely asserted his rights to individual choice and freedom of association. His waiver is more solid than a line in 8pt font at the bottom of a menu in a dark restaurant. One thing that I picked up quickly in doing my ServSafe certification is that there's much about shifting liability from the restaurant to the customer and less on actual food safety.
