“These rich men north of Richmond, Lord knows they all just wanna have total control.”
So sang Oliver Anthony two weeks ago in a song that has been heralded as a “blue-collar anthem” — and for good reason. Oliver’s tune is a twangy distillation of the plight facing the everyday American as the cost of living rises, taxes keep climbing, and the D.C. uniparty fiddles while the republic burns. (RELATED: Oliver Anthony’s Army Is Here to Stay)
But this week, it became clear that it’s not just the rich men north of Richmond who are causing problems; Richmond itself is implicated.
Fisher Fights To Feed His Family
A mini-documentary released by Townhall on Friday shares the travails of Samuel B. Fisher, who lives in Cumberland County, VA — just over an hour west of Richmond. Fisher is an Amish cattle farmer who operates Golden Valley Farms, a 100-acre family farm that supplies meat to about 500 consumers who are enrolled in the cattle herd.
“They own part of the business,” Fisher told Townhall, “They own some of the herd … My thinking was […] We can butcher their cows, process it, and sell it to them.”
In recent months, Fisher has been pursued by the Virginia Department of Agriculture, which was concerned that Fisher sold meat that he had butchered at home, rather than at a government-approved site.
On June 14, an inspector from the Virginia Department of Agriculture (VDAC) arrived at Fisher’s farm unnanounced. VDAC’s bone to pick? Fisher was selling meat processed in a facility that hadn’t been inspected by the USDA. The inspector returned to the farm the next day, warrant in hand and a sheriff’s deputy at his side. Together, the men conducted a raid on the farm that lasted 3-4 hours.
In the course of the raid, VDAC put Fisher’s meat under “administrative detainment,” forbidding him from moving any of the meat. When Fisher asked VDAC to clarify whether he was allowed to use any of the meat to feed his family, the VDAC inspector said, “[You] cannot feed your family with it, cannot do anything with it.”
For Fisher, this was a bridge too far. “Anybody can go and raise animals for their own family to eat,” he told Townhall. Fisher, who has five children, used the meat he had raised to feed his family. He also honored the outstanding orders of his customers, many of whom depend on Golden Valley Farms for chemical-free, organic meat that is compatible with dietary restrictions and doesn’t aggravate allergies or preexisting medical conditions.
“[The VDAC inspector] crossed the line by telling me I cannot feed my own family with this meat. So, I decided I’m going to cross the line, I’m going to sell it,” Fisher said.
In response, the state sued Fisher, claiming that his meat was “mislabeled, uninspected, and possibly unadulterated.” No unsanitary conditions were found at the farm, but as a result of the case, the state was authorized to seize the meat at Golden Valley Farms. That day, the state sent a U-Haul to the farm and took all the meat to the dump.
“They All Just Wanna Have Total Control”
In years past, Fisher had sold meat inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), but the government’s COVID restrictions made processing at a USDA-inspected plant nearly impossible. The plant was expensive to use, and it was far from Fisher’s farm. On top of that, COVID protocols made the plant’s clients schedule animals 8–12 months before they actually went to be butchered. “That’s when the trigger pushed us to do it ourselves,” Fisher said.
“[The VDAC inspector] crossed the line by telling me I cannot feed my own family with this meat. So, I decided I’m going to cross the line, I’m going to sell it,” Fisher said.
Fisher’s business blossomed, and his customers loved the meat they received. When he surveyed them, Fisher found that 92 percent of his customers wanted him to process the meat on the farm rather than in the USDA-inspected site.
Unfortunately, as seems to be the case more and more often, an agency authorized by the rich men north of Richmond knew better and set about correcting Fisher, forbidding him from feeding his family with meat from cattle he had raised himself.
But sadly, this is nothing new. Fisher’s plight is a modern day Wickard v. Filburn, the 1942 Supreme Court case filed by the Secretary of Agriculture, Claude Wickard, against Roscoe Filburn.
Filburn, who owned a small farm, harvested more wheat than the government permitted through the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, used the surplus wheat to feed the animals on his farm. Though Filburn argued that his private use of the wheat was exempt from government control, the Supreme Court felt differently.
The justices — seven of whom had been appointed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt — ruled that Filburn’s private usage of his extra wheat was fully under the jurisdiction of the government through the commerce clause. Even though a single straw hadn’t left Filburn’s small farm, the extra wheat had impacted interstate commerce indirectly, the court argued, because it had reduced Filburn’s need to purchase wheat from other producers. Farewell, it seems, to the self-sufficient farmer.
In 1942, Filburn couldn’t feed his cows; in 2023, Fisher can’t feed his family. Unfortunately, Oliver Anthony has a lot to sing about because those rich men north of Richmond haven’t changed their tune for decades.
Mary Frances Myler is a writer from Traverse City, Michigan. Follow her on Twitter at @mfmyler.
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