GAYLORD, MINN. - The rebel Minnesota dairy farmer at the heart of an E. coli outbreak linked to raw milk -- a controversial beverage that has sparked a nationwide food safety debate -- got his day in court Tuesday and defended the sanitation of his farm.
Mike Hartmann took the stand in Sibley County court in a fight with state regulators over several hundred tubs of milk, ice cream and other foods essentially impounded in June after the E. coli outbreak sickened eight people and sent several to the hospital.
Hartmann wants the food back, while the state alleges that his dairy operation was unsanitary and that therefore the food is adulterated and should be destroyed. Hartmann has also filed a counterclaim against the state, saying it has violated his constitutional right to sell his wares and asking for compensatory damages.
Hartmann said in court Tuesday he knew something was amiss on a day in late May when seven or eight squad cars pulled up at his farm and a sheriff served him with a search warrant.
He said he asked what potential crime had been committed at the Gibbon dairy operation, but the sheriff didn't know. Neither did two state inspectors accompanying the sheriff, he said.
Eventually, Hartmann said, one of the inspectors went to a car and came back five minutes later and said "you're operating without a license." The state still maintains that, but Hartmann claims he doesn't need one as a farmer who sells direct to consumers.
The descent on the Hartmann farm occurred after state health and food regulators had linked the E. coli outbreak to raw milk, which isn't pasteurized to kill pathogens like E. coli O157:H7. For that reason, state law limits the sale to "occasional" times at the farms where it's produced, although Hartmann appears to have distributed raw milk regularly to customers in the Twin Cities.
Public health officials recommend avoiding raw milk, but raw-milk advocates are passionate in its defense, saying it has health attributes that pasteurized milk doesn't. Many of Hartmann's customers have stood by him.
A second state inspection of Hartmann's operation in mid-June concluded that milk was drawn in unsanitary conditions that included walls, floors and equipment visibly covered with manure. But Hartmann has maintained that his farm is no more manure-befouled than any other dairy farm.
Tuesday, Hartmann's attorney Zenas Baer painted a picture of a veteran dairy farmer with a spick-and-span operation. Hartmann has been farming since the mid-1970s in Gibbon.
Baer asked Hartmann specifically about some of the things state inspectors cited him for after the E. coli outbreak. For instance, a can of WD-40 that the state said was stored too close to food products was several shelves removed from expired animal vitamins that would never have been used, he said.
How about the bag of dead chickens inspectors found in the milking barn? Hartmann said that just before a June state inspection, dogs had gotten into his chickens, killing about 140 of them. He kept a few in the bag as evidence on the advice of law enforcement, he said.
And the dead owl in the milking barn that also irked state inspectors? After the dogs killed the chickens, he said he slept in the barn to make sure the dogs didn't strike again. He heard a thrashing noise. Armed with loaded gun and thinking a raccoon was about, he took a shot. "I shot way too fast," he said, adding had he known it was an owl, he wouldn't have fired. He kept the owl in the barn to show his grandkids.
Hartmann's lawyer has argued that conditions at the dairy operation are no less safe and sanitary than in the 1990s, when state inspectors regularly inspected Hartmann's barns. Selling organic milk in grocery stores at that time, he needed a Class A milk production license and underwent regular inspections. Back then, he said, he clashed with state regulators over "knicky picky" rules. "I questioned them and I guess they didn't like that."
In 2001, Hartmann's license to sell Grade A milk was revoked after state inspectors found unsanitary conditions. Hartmann then began selling his pasteurized organic milk directly to consumers at drop-off points in the Twin Cities. But to his surprise, he said, his customers clamored more for raw organic milk than the pasteurized stuff. His business grew by "word of mouth."
Hartmann is expected to continue to testify Wednesday and will be cross-examined by the state.
Mike Hughlett • 612-673-7003
