Farmer Wins Stressful 3-Year State Legal Battle -- Raw Dairy Sales UpheldHeather Callaghan During the sting operations, Armand heard from a health department worker: The video below shows the authorities dizzying interpretations and stretched definitions of property, sales, and more. The summons attempted a permanent injunction against the Bechards and their posterity. The harassment and amount of action over legal semantics was incredible. According to Missouri statute, unlicensed farmers can sell and deliver raw dairy, but it was the Missouri State Milk Board that filed a lawsuit to force the Bechards to deliver each sale to the customers house and prohibit the central distributing location. [Milk Board Staff directory] On top of the Milk Board action, Greene County D.A. filed suit against Mr. Bechard, accusing him of selling raw dairy outside of his farmland. An appeal acquitted him of the charge early last year. The Missouri State Milk Board is somewhat of a quality assurance branch of Missouris Department of Agriculture, and was created in 1972 to encourage sanitary milk production. It appears they disliked the possibility of random customers being able to walk up and buy fresh milk. They were risking their legal action based on an Attorney General Opinion (or interpretation of the law) from 1973. Attorney General Opinions are not the law.They must have sent the health departmentagents out undercover because they enlist the health department through contract services. Farm-To-Consumer Legal Defense Fund provided General Counsel Gary Cox to assist in the final settlement. The judge signed a consent judgement where the Bechards cannot sell to strangers, like anyone who walks up to them in the parking lot without some prior sales arrangement. But, the settlement guarantees that they can sell to whomever they wish and deliver it anywhere: customers home, a central distribution point like a parking lot, and on their farm. By entering into this settlement, the Bechards are not adding legitimacy to the Boards allegations. This settlement actually further anchors the Bechards right to keep providing dairy to their members. It reiterates their right to keep selling from the central delivery location. Although they cannot sell to any stranger who walks up to them, they have more incentive now to bring in members, free fromharassment. The Milk Board, which supposedly oversees sanitation and production went through an awful lot of trouble to ensure that the Bechards were following every jot and tittle of Missouri State law. It was a senseless action because it was not motivated by a sense of public safety, but rather an attempt to shut down a very small production and prohibit raw milk freedom. It was a rough, emotional three years for the Bechards, but with hope this victory will propel them forward and show others that they have the freedom to do the same. Here is Armand sharing his story, inspiring and with more legal battles, at a May FundRAISER Dinner at a St. Louis Regional Weston A. Price Conference: The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund defends the rights and broadens the freedoms offamily farms and protects consumer access to raw milk and nutrient-dense foods. Those concernedcan support the FTCLDF, a U.S. based 501(c)(4) nonprofit, by joining or donating online at http://www.farmtoconsumer.org or by calling 703-208-FARM (3276). 