Raw Milk - Amos Miller's Amish Mafia?

Is Amos Miller Using Legal Donations to Attack His Customers?

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Background…

I got an email a few days ago.

This was an email from a source claiming to know a little more information about Amos Miller, and I followed up on the tip.

The information was clear.

Another private buying club coordinator claimed that “Amos is using the nearly $1 MILLION in donation money he has received to threaten, intimidate, and bully his co-op coordinators.”

By all accounts, it would appear that Amos Miller is using the money he has solicited based on his ridiculous claims that “he is a victim” to attack the very people who helped Amos’ business succeed to begin with.

How could this aggression possibly help to change the laws or help defend him?

How does it make sense for an Amish farmer to use solicited and donated funds in order to pay attorneys who threaten those who have spent years SUPPORTING him?

There are many flaws in Miller’s “business model.” Not the least of which is Miller himself.

Wait….

“What’s a ‘coordinator’?” you wonder… And what is a buying club? Or a co-op? 

Right, let me build this world a bit and invite you in so it all makes sense.

About 20 years ago–early 2000s–raw milk was gaining a new audience after it had slipped into the obscurity of history. Young mothers, like me, tried it for our children who had health problems.

Chronically ill young people switched from pasteurized milk to sourcing raw milk wherever they could find it–standards be damned. They were desperate to solve their health issues and saw promise in raw milk, a superfood from time immemorial.

And immigrants from all over the world turned to this food that “felt like home” to them, some wanting it raw, and others wanting to home-pasteurize as they had done in their country of origin.

The benefits were astounding–health-wise and taste! The “anecdotal” claims and experiences accumulated fast. Stories spread. People lost symptoms that debilitated them for years. Raw milk children grew up without asthma and allergies. There was something real and relatable about these true stories–told in whispers in “moms groups” and person-to-person–that drowned out the contorted shouts of the CDC and FDA that raw milk is inherently dangerous.

There was no social media then.

No chorus of corporate funded “fact checkers” egregiously disputing our lived experiences.

And, as these true stories spread, interest grew.

Of course, there were problems.

One challenge was that only a few states had legal sales of raw milk. And, a federal regulation from the 1980s banned the transportation of raw milk for human consumption across state lines.

But those whose lives were changed by raw milk were desperate. They would get raw milk no matter what it took. Spare no expense. Stretch any regulation.

Another challenge emerged: as with any “fringe” minority movement, this one had plenty of oddballs. Mostly lovable oddballs, but some took their positions to extremes. One such exaggeration, was certain groups or people who made wild and outlandish claims as to the supposed benefits of raw milk (untethered to any actual evidence–anecdotal or otherwise). They said things like “raw milk is magic,” and we became the laughing stock of the country.

Another extreme was, and still is, the hate-filled anti-government radicals who saw this fringe movement as a vehicle, a leverage to proselytize and gain disciples for their not-so-peaceful anarchist views. 

Along the east coast, a handful of Lancaster County Amish Farmers became needed sources for the raw milk.

I met and worked with many good farmers--both Amish and otherwise–in these years and since. For the most part, the farmers were down-to-earth, hard working and honest. 

Some of them heard stories of health and recovery and wanted to participate in food production for that reason.

But a few of the farmers saw the money to be made from a desperate, sometimes intense, audience. And still others saw this as an “in” for their own zealous political views.

The fringe extremists got louder and more prominent with the rise of social media algorithms. 

Cultural divisions weakened solidarity in principles and mission, eroding the connected, community-based foundation on which many of us were building what we thought was a local food movement based on transparency and ethical farming standards.

Many in the Amish culture were already used to bucking the government, taking their children out of school by 8th grade, using the religious exemption for social security and operating with an entirely parallel set of road laws–or lack thereof–for their “buggy-based” transportation.

They were used to not following the same laws that other Americans are expected to.

It wasn’t a stretch for a few greedy raw dairy farmers to eschew the basic raw milk permitting process including protocols for food production, safety standards, and animal testing.

A few powerful factions seized the opportunity to foment serious and broad anti-American sentiments.

The “English” as they call us, flocked to the Amish as sources for raw milk and “value added” products like cream, yogurt, kefir, and much more. These value added products were risky because the raw milk permit through the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) only allowed for farmers to sell fluid raw milk. No value added products (raw milk cheeses are separate and not addressed here.) Several farmers, including English, Mennonite, and Amish, refused to get the raw milk permit or even adhere to the basic safety standards outlined in the permit and testing protocol.

In order for many of the Amish to do business using computers and the internet back in the early 2000’s, they needed the help of the English. Some sects of the Amish community at that time still opposed using computers and having access to the internet. 

So English–mostly women–stepped up.

This is ironic, as many Amish that I have worked with already had their “secret” computer rooms and 24/7 immediate access to modern conveniences such as cars, cell phones and the internet by around 2010. Conveniences that most used every single day.

Relationships formed. Some agreements were made, but, for the most part, the English trusted these “humble Amish farmers.”

I know. I was one of those English.

And thankfully, in my experience there are still many humble, honest representatives of the Amish farming culture who see what’s going on and are working to correct it.

But as business grew, certain Amish farmers in positions of power aggressively took control.

Most of us were blindsided when the hard work we did to build and grow something we thought was wholesome and real got ripped away from us so certain unscrupulous farmers could have a few dollars more in profit.

It was gross and ugly. The stories I am aware of and have personally experienced abound. There is no shortage of these devastating tales and the wake of destruction these greedy farmers left behind them. The hardest pain to endure coming from the cruelty at the hands of “humble Amish farmers.”

But many of us held on. After all, we English coordinators had founded our own businesses and created a community around our own buying clubs. And these communities were much bigger than just the “Amish” food. It was about building food security–gathering, learning, changing the laws, cooking together, sharing stories, and truly being in community.

I tell all of this because the background matters. You need to know these things to understand who Amos Miller is and to understand the cultural conflict happening now–right under your noses–between certain Amish farmers and the English desperately seeking their products.

We are at a breaking point sparked from years of gaslighting, abuse, and promises reneged–stemming from the likes of Amos’ greed, ego and control. Unbecoming traits that most assuredly are tarnishing the greater Amish image.

One more dollar.

Over the past couple of years, Amos Miller has become a flash point for the apparent “fight” for food freedom. But is it about “food freedom?” And is this the model we want as our default?

What is Amos Miller Doing?

This past January 2024, the PDA began an investigation into Amos Miller’s national business selling food from his farm (and products he sources from many other places) all around the country.

After years of not enforcing against Miller, the investigation began when two other states–Michigan and New York–reportedly had two e.coli illnesses in children that traced back to products from Miller’s Organic Farm (MOF).

This is not the first time Miller’s products have reportedly been linked to human illness.

There was no way a state health department could NOT investigate these two reports.

As the investigation unfolded, Miller, his team, and other misguided or bad actors used this standard investigative process to attempt to turn Miller into a folk hero of sorts as a “poor, innocent victim” of “big bad government.”

They quickly raised over $250K adding to Miller’s previous fundraisers.

What is the basis of those fundraisers? And, what happened next?

Back to the communications I received:

Miller is apparently using donated funds, not for his legal defense, or to help change laws or set better precedent, but to attack his “coordinators.”

According to documents I received (and I have permission to quote), “Amos is using the nearly $1 MILLION in donation money he has received to threaten, intimidate, and bully his co-op coordinators.”

Is Miller using a portion of the almost $800,000 he’s raised–probably from many of you–so that he can attack the very people who have spent the past 10+ years growing his business and helping people find the food they believe they need, the food they thought they were buying from “his” farm?

More from the letter:

“He and his legal team have now made it abundantly clear that our groups either order exclusively through [Miller’s] farm, or they’re threatening to sue me.”

It is absolutely mind blowing to think that Amish churches are now condoning Amos using the legal system to sue honest, hard working English folks out of greed and ego. The letter goes on,

“…I received a very threatening letter from one of Amos’ lawyers

It was in a long email… In this letter, Amos and his legal team are basically stating that Amos/Miller’s Organic Farm owns the rights to all of your contact information, including but not limited to “names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and any other contact information”, along with the trucking company’s contact information, and our deliveries.

For Amos/his legal team to state that he “owns the rights” to any of this information is absurd to say the least.

During our conversation [May 30, 2024], Amos also said that he owns the rights to food club deliveries at the [redacted] location… I can’t do deliveries/order pick-ups in [redacted], because that’s his territory.

As [Amos] was saying all of this, I couldn’t help but think he’s acting like some kind of mob boss or gang leader.

The idea that he owns the rights to food club deliveries to a [redacted] parking lot over two thousand miles away in another state is ridiculous.

As of the date of this email [6/10/24], Amos has received at least $785,067.00 in donations to fund his lawyers….

These funds are supposed to be used to fight the USDA and State Department of Agriculture, but Amos is now using this money to intimidate and bully his co-op coordinators into agreeing to unfair and egregious terms, and if they don’t, he/his lawyers are threatening to take legal action against them.”

But wait, it gets worse…

The person writing this document goes on to say,

“I don’t have any type of non-compete agreement with him/MOF or anything, and he doesn’t own the exclusive rights to your contact information or having food shipped by our trucking company.

All of this came about because Amos was trying to circumvent the court orders of the PDA (Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture). Amos reached out to me from an offsite phone line because he said they believed the PDA was tapping his phones.

Amos said that, because the court order was that he could not be involved with distributing raw dairy in any capacity, I had to pay the trucking company from my money and coordinate everything with [redacted].”

Regarding “Amos was trying to circumvent the court orders of the PDA,” the author of said document more than likely refers to the March 1, 2024 court injunction against Miller’s Organic Farm. The court ruled that Miller could not continue with the sales of his entirely unregulated, unpermitted raw milk that had, allegedly, caused two children serious illnesses.

Rather than patiently comply with this court directive, it appears, from this coordinator and possibly other sources, that Amos Miller made every attempt to circumvent the court order.

From an April 19, 2024 document from the same coordinator:

“When Amos wasn’t able to sell his raw dairy at the beginning of the year, he asked me and some of his other food club coordinators to take on the extra workload and risk with the courts, USDA, FDA, and our local state Department of Agriculture, basically acting as a reseller. I also have to pay the trucking company upfront, so that goes on a credit card every two weeks and is paid once I receive your payments.

With Amos now being able to sell his dairy out of state and his meat again…  …Amos told me that he and his legal team/[redacted] are determining which, if any, coordinators will continue to receive any discounts at all going forward, or even which food clubs they will just shut down all together. I spoke with Amos again this morning and, after our pick-up in [redacted] on Monday, he wants us to order 100% through him for the next month or two while he and his lawyer are deciding what they want to do with us.”

What does this sound like to you? I know what it sounds like to me…

How can we build an honest, transparent food system on a foundation seemingly this corrupt? Just as importantly, why is this man becoming the face of mothers in a movement that mostly moms risked jail time and separation of family to create?

But wait, there’s more from the document…

“My discount is different than the other food clubs or resellers. Amos gives a 20% wholesale discount plus free FedEx/food club shipping to many small companies to either markup and resell his products, or to use in their own products. But most food club coordinators only get 5-6% of the total sales as a food credit, plus maybe free shipping.” 

“To give you some perspective, the discount the previous [redacted] food club coordinator had was 6% of the total sales, which gave her 100% off her food, plus she received free shipping. And the coordinator, [redacted], who runs the [redacted] in [redacted] and runs the farm’s amosmillerorganicfarm.com website (and who seems like they may be some kind of business partner) makes a pretty good living because she gets 5% of all online sales and, from what I can tell, gets around 10% of the total sales for her 4 bi-weekly deliveries and annual membership fees for her food club.”

All these numbers aside, why does it appear that Miller is asking the people working on his behalf to assume the risk of violating his court injunction?

Amish vs English: Are Miller and other Amish farmers the problem right now?

You might wonder what is going on here. Why would a “humble Amish farmer” be bullying the very people who helped make his business what it is today?

How do these actions serve to improve food security in America? How do these attitudes help people who want and need clean, healthy food?

What message are we, collectively, sending to our fellow Americans when we enable this kind of behavior? 

I’ve written extensively about these questions in the past. I don’t need to rehash them all here.

(For more background, look here.)

But I’ll add this.

I’ve seen this hundreds, if not thousands of times–someone realizes that clean, safe raw milk is healthy for them. They begin sourcing from a local farm. Some have a chip on their shoulder against “the government.” And something snaps. Their eyes glaze over and they are unable to have a rational conversation or answer basic questions or entertain ideas that conflict with their narrative.

It appears that this is happening in the thousands right now.

Decent Americans have bought into a “fringe” lifestyle. And some of those have taken this to extremes.

It’s like a cult. And when certain people start questioning the cult, ooooooh, the cult comes after you. They will literally physically assault you with child in arms for attempting to peacefully share the truth such as one of Amos’ employees (and/or contractor) has done in broad daylight on the steps of the Lancaster Courthouse representing Amos at one of his hearings.

I’ve questioned a few ideas held tightly by certain subgroups:

• the assumed purity of the Amish.

• the idea that access to raw milk must be unfettered.

• the role of government in the process over the past 20 years.

I’ve told stories of how the government's role has shifted and changed.

And I’ve always returned to the point that you and I are the ones responsible for changing our food laws and changing our food system through direct participation.

No, Amos Miller and his attorneys are not “playing 5D chess.” Do they even KNOW what they’re doing?

This whole court case, based on the alleged 2 illnesses and Miller’s apparent disregard for safety and/or regulatory standards while producing, processing and shipping raw milk across the country, is bringing unwanted and unfavorable attention to the many upstanding raw milk farmers who are truly working hard every day to feed their communities.

Sowing doubt and division.

In a very honest and transparent April 2024 email to his buying club, said coordinator stated the following,

“When several of Amos’ coordinators were subpoenaed not long ago and were asking for guidance from him and help with legal advice on what to do, Amos set up a meeting for all of us under the guise that we would get some legal advice.

What we were met with was a sales pitch from a guy who was trying to sell his services on becoming sovereign citizens, for around $1,500 each, a guy who [redacted] introduced to Amos. When I called the guy out that this was just a sales pitch, [she] got very upset and when the other coordinators asked Amos and [redacted] if we were getting any actual legal advice, Amos told us we would have to find our own lawyers and that he would not help with any legal fees.”

In his June 10 letter, the coordinator revealed another act of aggression by Amos in a communication from one of Amos’ attorneys stating:

“I am not threatening suit at this time, and if you know Amos and his team… Do not test my client’s goodwill.”

What could possibly be the goal in getting his coordinators entangled with sovereign citizen groups and threatening to sue anyone who doesn’t cooperate with Miller? 

The heated anti-government rhetoric and the showcasing of radical extremists casts doubt on and marginalizes those working hard to reasonably change raw milk laws so that we can all enjoy greater access.

In addition, media outlets and influencers who portray Miller as some sort of folk hero defending Americans against a bloated government are causing enormous division amongst proponents of raw milk–including many in the Amish and Mennonite communities who believe that raw milk should have production standards and farmers selling raw milk widely need to follow basic safety protocols.

Among the estimated 10-11 million Americans who drink raw milk, there are Americans from every walk of life. There is no liberal/conservative line drawn. For many years, we were all working together towards a common goal: changing unworkable laws so we could ALL choose whether to enjoy raw milk or not. Yet, the antics of this tiny minority of players are shifting the focus. The escalating rhetoric alienates and silences many who believe in the right to choose healthy foods, but can not support the extremism and destruction of a few bad apples.

Will Amos Miller and his use of attorneys sow division within Amish communities and churches by trying to negotiate with Elders to support his legal attack against English coordinators and customers? Will the Amish church begin to support what can hardly be seen as anything other than a greed and ego driven defense against the PDA, the very government entity that has supported him via “benefit of doubt” throughout his entire “farming” journey?

The question becomes “Now what?”

What do you do when you realize that your “heroes” are not heroic?

What do you do when you realize your hero might actually be the villain?

This is, perhaps, a question many Americans have had to explore to varying degrees in the past 10 years or so. It’s a hard question to grapple with.

If they are a villain, who will hold them accountable?

A few months ago, I wrote about the ongoing drama surrounding Amos Miller and I merely questioned where his massive fundraisers were going and how they were being used.

(The new documents I received bring some light to those questions and reinforce the importance of asking hard questions.)

People rallied against me. Good friends questioned why I was asking these questions. Some commenters weighed in attacking me, and implied that I was beholden to the state.

One person, who I’ve worked with in the past, wrote a whole post about how she disagreed with me. Her right to do so, however uninformed.

The facts must speak for themselves. However unpleasant.

Don’t allow a mob mentality to wrap you into ignoring the very basic facts or keep you from looking at the integrity of the person/cultural group you’ve put on a pedestal. Or asking hard questions.

It’s unbecoming. And it’s exactly that mentality on a larger scale that is ripping our country apart.

Look at the facts. Confront them, however unpleasant. Deal with them as they are.

How will you come to terms with the wholesomeness of mothers and chronically ill people wanting clean, healthy food and the heartbreaking, but apparent “Amish Mafia” coming after these very same people using the “legal system” and “yoking contracts” to silence the victims?

It’s hard to reconcile all this.

Especially when, for the past 100 years, the very government they appear to be “fighting” blatantly lied to us about the “inherent” dangers of raw milk.

I get it. It feels like walking on a razor-blade thin tightrope.

But what happens when the “alternative” food system, with undeniable momentum towards true Food Security, is hijacked by unscrupulous businessmen with questionable ethics at best?

What do you do when the “alternative system” is “led” by duplicitous players who have deliberately stolen from countless mothers and chronically ill people? And then these people are heralded as heroes?

How can you reconcile within yourself that here, right now, in this case, the kind of self-governance you hoped for in a community of “food freedom” people is missing. How do you justify allowing yourselves to be turned against the only ones holding the bad people accountable? How can you feel justified in attacking certain “government agents” and a few of us brave enough to tell the truth?

Where can that dictatorship lead us? What will we get from it?

And just as importantly, if not more so, how do you see this ending?

I can guarantee it’s not ending in a blaze of martyrdom glory a la Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

The “Amish hero” forced upon us throughout mainstream media seemingly uses mostly women coordinators as shields while bewailing to the masses about his own “victimhood.”

This does not need to end with your head buried in the sand or singing the praises of shady, cultish “leaders.”

Where do we go from here?

The more you work to untangle the threads of this whole mess, the more you’ll see what appears to be greed, ego, corruption, lies, betrayal and backstabbing against the good, honest, and hardworking Americans working hard for a community-centric food system that gives us food security now and for our future generations.

If there is a bottom line, it’s this: There are no heroes other than ourselves. Your food system is in your hands starting under your roof. Take accountability. Change the laws. Don’t let the greed, corruption and ego-centric posturing of a few ruin a new food system before it even has a chance.

We can build a new one. But it takes holding charlatans accountable, not funding their coffers.

It was circa 2011 when we organized the Raw Milk Freedom Riders event kicking off our food freedom and food security movement that is currently being hijacked. It is once again time to honestly grow access to raw milk and local farm foods in every state through new laws and exemptions.

If you’re not sure how to do this, please reach out.

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About Raw Milk Mama: I believe that we can reclaim our food systems through direct action. But it takes your participation whether you’re growing food, processing, or willing to support those who are. And sometimes, it takes taking direct action or calling on your state or federal elected officials.

I’m dedicated to helping people understand our food system and how we each fit into it..

Here’s how you can be part of it:

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