Gravelwood Farm

This article is part of the Food Rights Network, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy. Find out more here.

Gravelwood Farm is a small, diversified family homestead farm in Blue Hill, Maine, operated by Dan Brown and family. On November 9th, 2011, Brown "was served notice that he is being sued by the State of Maine and Walter Whitcomb, Maine Agricultural Commissioner, for selling food and milk without state licenses.

"Blue Hill is one of five Maine towns to have passed the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance, a local law that permits the types of sales Brown was engaged in. By filing the lawsuit, the State of Maine and Whitcomb are disregarding the Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance passed nearly unanimously by the citizens of Blue Hill at their town meeting on April 4."

Local Food and Community Self-Governance Ordinance

These Local Food and Self-Governance Ordinances, first drafted in Hancock County, Maine, are town ordinances establishing local food governance in response to increased federal regulation via the "Food Safety Modernization Act." Residents who drafted the ordinances in 2010 and 2011 feared that the new law, which President Obama signed on January 4th, 2011, could shut down cottage producers of jam and pickles made from backyard garden produce and church pot lucks without these local ordinances to protect them.

Accusations Against Dan Brown

The lawsuit against Brown, filed in Maine Superior Court on November 3rd, 2011, "accuses Brown of selling milk without a distributor’s license, selling unpasteurized milk without a label declaring it as such, and selling food without a license."

Brown milks one cow and sells the milk that is left after his and his family's needs are filled. There are no reported illnesses among his customers. According to Brown, the state claims in the suit that they took a sample of his milk and that it tested positive for coliform, but the only time he ever saw an inspector on his farm was when one stopped by to drop off a packet of information. He claims he was not informed of the test at the time the sample was taken, nor of its results until he received the notice of the lawsuit.

The State's lawsuit claims that, "on July 26, 2011, an inspector from the Department [of Agriculture] . . . took samples of milk, cottage cheese and butter from the farm stand for laboratory testing" and that the samples "were tested by the Maine Milk Quality Laboratory and were found to be in violation of the standard for milk and milk products under the Department's rules. "

Rally in Support of Dan Brown

A rally and press conference took place on the steps of Town Hall in Blue Hill, Maine, on November 18th, 2011. Speakers included Farmer Dan Brown of Gravelwood Farm in Blue Hill, Farmer Heather Redburg of Quill's End Farm in Penobscot and Jeff Beyea, who was Walter Whitcomb's herdsman for over a year. Beyea said that Whitcomb had sold raw milk from his herd from his farm before becoming Agriculture Commissioner.

Jeff Beyea Speaks at Rally in Support of Dan Brown

Videos of Dan Brown's speech and Heather Redburg's speech are also available from the "Local Food Local Rules" website.

Contact

Gravelwood Farm
40 Gravelwood Farm Lane
Blue Hill, Maine 04614
Phone: (207) 374-2702
Web: http://gravelwoodfarm.com/

Resources

Other SourceWatch Articles

• Dan Brown
• Local Food and Self-Governance Ordinance
• Food Sovereignty
• Food Sovereignty Portal
• People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty
• Via Campesina
• Raw Milk
• Raw Milk Portal

PRWatch Articles

• Rebekah Wilce, Local Ordinances and Land Grabs: Democracy Convention Panels Discuss Food Sovereignty, PRWatch.org, September 8, 2011
• Rebekah Wilce, Local Food Ordinances from Maine to California, PRWatch.org, October 10, 2011

External Resources

• Local Food Local Rules