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In the predawn fog of an April morning last year, armed federal agents fanned out across darkened Lancaster County pastures in search of contraband.
Months of investigation had led to this point. Strong evidence suggested that Rainbow Acres - a small Amish farm just outside Kinzers - served as the hub of a large-scale smuggling operation responsible for shipping hundreds of gallons of illicit product across state lines.
After sweeping past dozing cattle and roosters waiting to crow, the agents finally found what they had come for: dozens of coolers filled with unpasteurized milk.
Your tax dollars at work: armed agents, fanning out across the Amish/Mennonite countryside as though dairy farmers were fearsome drug kingpins. Perhaps they feared that the cows would try to take them out. It's one thing to cite farmers - if indeed they feel they must - but quite another to go in under cover of darkness, and fully weaponized. It seems like a serious misuse of resources.
Rep. Ron Paul, introducing a bill to block such operations, observed:
"If we are not even free anymore to decide something as basic as what we wish to eat or drink," he said, "how much freedom do we really have left?"
