Pa. AG’s office sues farmer Amos Miller to halt raw milk sales, alleges violations of state law

• By Dan Nephin/LNP | LancasterOnline

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday it is suing Amos Miller to get him to stop selling raw milk and other unregulated products, claiming he is endangering public health.

The suit also accuses the Upper Leacock Township farmer and the businesses he operates of violating several state laws aimed at food safety.

“For years, this business has brushed off efforts to bring its commercial farm operation into compliance with the law — as all commercial farms are required to do,” Attorney General Michelle Henry said in a news release. “We cannot ignore the illnesses and further potential harm posed by distribution of these unregulated products. We have long had food safety laws in this Commonwealth to protect the public from harm.”

The action follows a search conducted on Miller’s farm on Jan. 4 after the state Department of Agriculture said it was notified of tests linking his products to E. coli infections in New York and another in Michigan. A copy of the suit linked in the attorney general’s statement indicates it was filed in Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas, but it did not appear to be docketed late Tuesday.

In an emailed statement, Miller’s attorney, Robert Barnes, said: “The lawsuit by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is a disgrace to the rule of law, a flagrant violation of Constitutional liberty, and filled with false, fraudulent and perjurious statements by corrupt, out of control high ranking officials too often covered for by complicit media. Amos Miller’s food is much healthier, much safer and much better for members, as they make informed consent decisions to choose, than the monopolized, industrialized food of big corporations the PDA is subservient to, and those members have a Constitutional right to get direct farm-to-consumer food they trust as members of a private association. We will respond to the food thieves, farm libelers, and Amish defamers of the PDA in court, and we will bring the truth, unlike the PDA, which feasts on a diet of libelous lies.” 

According to the suit, “Initial testing of some of the samples identified the presence of … (listeria) including in bulk tanks of raw milk, packaged raw milk and eggnog.”

Listeria is among a number of bacteria that can be found in raw milk and which are responsible for causing numerous foodborne illnesses, including diarrhea, cramps, kidney failure and, in rare cases, death.

Miller’s history

Miller came to the attention of federal authorities in 2016 after the Food and Drug Administration said it identified listeria in samples of Miller’s raw milk and found it to be genetically similar to the bacteria in two people who developed listeriosis — one of whom died — after consuming raw milk.

Since that time, state and federal authorities tried to get Miller to comply with food safety laws, but he largely refused. Federal authorities took the lead role in trying to rein him in, including seeking several consent decrees pertaining to federal meat inspection rules.

In that case, it looked as though Miller had finally changed his ways.

The parties resolved the dispute by early 2023, with Miller paying fines and costs of about $85,000 related to the case. The federal court docket for Miller’s case shows it was closed in August, though a consent decree remains in effect.

But, according to Tuesday’s lawsuit, Miller continued to violate state regulations by not registering his business with the state, violating the state’s milk sanitation law by not allowing inspections and failing to get a permit to sell raw milk, among other things.

Miller has long maintained that he does not sell to the public, but rather, to members of his farm’s “private membership association.” Therefore, he has said previously, he doesn’t have to comply with government regulations.

The federal government filed a civil suit against him in 2019 in part over that erroneous contention.

Small farmer, or ‘expansive operation’?

The lawsuit filed Tuesday paints Miller as anything but a small farmer, which he has held himself out as.

The suit said Miller oversees “an expansive operation that manufactures and sells a vast array of illegal food and dairy products throughout the United States …”

He and his wife, Rebecca Miller, the suit contends, do so through more than a half-dozen businesses, including Mill Creek Buffalo and Bird-in-Hand Meats and Miller Camel Farm LLC.

“To avoid court orders and a consent decree (the defendants) s moved operations to adjacent property and created a fictitious entity using an unsuspecting employee as a cover for their operations, thereby passing off goods or services of defendants as those of another entity, specifically “Bird-in-Hand Meats,” the suit said.

Supporters raised well over $500,000 for Miller’s federal case and a new fundraising campaign was launched earlier this month.

As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 2,100 people had given more than $158,354 towards a $350,000 goal. The goal had been set at $150,000 after the Jan. 4 raid, but it was increased Jan. 20, according to the post, after Miller said the state ordered him to stop providing raw milk products.

“We disagree with their right to demand this, and our legal team is working aggressively to resolve this situation…This is going to take a significant toll on our farm financially,” the updated fundraising post gave as an explanation for the increased goal.