Red tape has farmer fuming

Most folks, when they suddenly discover they need a pound of hamburger for the evening meal, can simply pop over to their freezer and grab a package. Not Dennis Stoltzfoos. If he wants something from his own freezer, the organic farmer must fill out a form, detailing what he needs and why. Then, an inspector from the state Department of Agriculture must make the 60-mile round trip from Lake City, snip the official tape holding the freezer shut and document everything Stoltzfoos removes for his personal use. The freezer is then retaped shut. The tape's actually white, but it's government-red as far as Stoltzfoos is concerned. "They're harassing us," Stoltzfoos said. "This is not an isolated case. It's happening all over the country." Stoltzfoos' predicament illustrates what happens when what some call a New Age return to a simpler life bumps up against government regulations drawn in an era of agribusiness. Stoltzfoos, raised Amish on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania, is trying to maintain a simple lifestyle for himself, his wife and their two young daughters on a self-sufficient family farm. But his 60-acre Full Circle Farm, where he raises 12 cows, two bulls, two pigs, 25 beef cattle and assorted chickens and turkeys, has been, for all intents and purposes, shut down by the state since July. The white tape and bright orange signs depict a Stop Sale Order, forbidding Stoltzfoos from selling milk, cream, butter, eggs, meat or any of his other agricultural products to the neighbors who want them. The organic farm was shut down after the state discovered Stoltzfoos was selling unpasteurized milk and dairy products as well as beef and processed vegetables. John Fruin, chief of the Bureau of Food and Meat Inspection at the Agriculture Department, said the process allows the farmer's family to continue consuming the products it cannot sell, but the state monitors it. Thus, the inspector has to be there for the farmer to retrieve his own hamburger....

===