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USDA Seizes 1,000 Personal Lemon Trees, Threatens Fed Raid
Bridget Donovan never imagined that buying a simple lemon tree three years ago would come back to haunt her.
The lemon tree was under a quarantine at the time of purchase but three years later, the USDA demanded seizure with tedious instructions for removal although there were no signs of disease.
The original article made it sound as though Donovan was glad to comply but actually she protested the USDA’s intrusion. She was threatened with a search warrant and visit from the feds, if she did not comply! The USDA made 1,000 similar seizures.
The USDA, of course, will not offer reimbursement, but the company that sold the tree offered it along with an apology for the trouble.
~Health Freedoms
USDA Seizes Woman’s Lemon Tree
UPDATE:
Bridget, the “lemon lady,” has responded and left a comment below. It appears that the Feds were going to get this lemon tree, one way or another and threatened her with a potential SWAT raid ifshe did not comply. Food Police thuggery at its finest.
A Wisconsin woman says she’s more than a little sour now that the U.S. government has forced her to turn over her lemon tree on the grounds that it could spread disease.
Bridget Donovan bought the tree online for $70 nearly three years ago and planted it in the yard of her Waukesha home, where she and her niece nurtured it, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
It grew and yielded lemons and seemed to be healthy.
Then she got a letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Unfortunately, Meyer Lemon Tree (the seller) shipped your tree in violation of multiple quarantine laws enacted to prevent the spread of harmful plant diseases and pests,” the letter stated.
The Journal Sentinel said the tree had come from Florida, under quarantine at the time of the purchase because of diseases, and the government tracked where nursery stock had been shipped.
Hayden’s Note:
And you think your gold purchases aren’t tracked, noted and analysed? You think your Amazon and eBay purchases aren’t carefully monitored for suspicious patterns and items?
Last week, the Journal Sentinel said, she uprooted the tree, with five unripened lemons, and put it in a trash bag, as instructed.
A USDA officer met her at the school where she works to pick up the tree.
Alyn Kiel, a spokeswoman for USDA, said about 1,000 citrus plant owners have been affected by the seizures.
Meanwhile, Meyer Lemon Tree, which lists a Georgia address, apologized and offered Donovan a free replacement tree.
“I just hope the USDA is correct in that these (replacement trees) are now compliant, and I don’t have them show up again in three years,” Donovan said. “I’ll be on a citrus watch list.”
Hayden’s Note II:
While I understand the need to contain potential diseases and safeguard our plant life, after 3 years, I believe any chance of harm would have been well passed. They could have fined the shipper or supplier or something along those lines after such a long period, but had I been in her place, I would have informed the USDA that they needed to come out to my house and uproot it themselves, at their own expense. This lady was a pushover.
And no bitter lemon jokes. I’m not anti-government for the sake of being anti-government. I simply hate the USDA and their FDA buddies and believe that they are some of the biggest jokes in all of Alphabet Agency-land.
I am the lemon tree lady. Thanks for discussing the article. While it was very lighthearted, the full situation was a bit uglier. Believe me, I pushed as hard as I could, as i don’t consider myself a pushover. The supervisor told me they were going to get this tree one way or the other, and if I refused, they would quarantine it (and she told me three times if the tree disappeared in the meantime I would be in violation), obtain a warrant, and bring federal law enforcement officers to seize it. I seriously thought about that, but I wondered what other issues I may have faced tangling with the federal government. It certainly opened my eyes as to how things work.
I really appreciate you commenting and allowing us to hear your side of the story!Well, Bridget…
While I know how most mainstream media cover (or lack thereof) the finer details of a situation, they made it sound as though you simply said, “Hey, no problem. Here’s the tree. I’ll even bring it to you!” – type of situation.
It’s a shame to hear they gave you THAT much flak over a tree. As I stated in my short editorial (…rant?), after 3 years, I believe that any risk would be minimal, if at all.
And it’s interesting how adamant they were regarding their receipt of the tree!
I suppose when the majority of Senate Bill 510 was passed, those agencies and divisions who received a boost in funding are taking it to heart – protect the food supply! At all cost! Including threatening a federal SWAT raid over a lemon tree. :-/
Sad.
I know that we aren’t all in a position to tease and get tangled up with the Feds and it sounds like you did what you could, so bravo.
Thanks again for commenting and letting us hear your side!
Cheers, Kevin Hayden Founder, TruthisTreason.net
Sources:
http://www.truthistreason.net/usda-seizes-womans-lemon-tree
http://www.personalliberty.com/news/feds-take-womans-lemon-tree-41574/?eiid&rmid=2011_09_02_PLA_[P11300898]&rrid=394924021
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How much longer do these thugs think they can get away with this stuff until someone puts their foot down and says enough is enough?
compliant tree? compliant to what, being GMO? could it be possible that the seller was growing heirloom trees and the USDA wanted to stop it?
just wondering.
I can’t believe that in spite of the warnings the lemon tree lady didn’t hijack their efforts a bit more. Still, I guess she did what she thought was best. But wouldn’t it have been great if she could have called the local tv station and told them to send a videographer because there was a good story they might be interested in. Then she could have told the USDA that they’d have to come and dig the tree up themselves…..maybe just in time for the tv news to catch them in the act. At least it would have drawn a crowd perhaps and lots of publicity.
We need to show these clowns up at the USDA and FDA and keep putting them in the public eye a bit more.
I wonder if this is just one more of the companies that helped fund the Republican ticket vs. Obama. Have you all heard about what they’ve done to companies like Gibson Guitars? Maybe the Meyers are conservative too. It is sick what Obama’s thugs are getting away with because they are intent on harassing ALL businesses that aren’t on their ticket and because one of the BIGGEST businesses on the Obama ticket is the US media, all this hyper (one-sided) regulatory harassment is quietly being pushed under the proverbial rug. It’s disgusting and we need to spread the word. It has to stop!!!
You know when people were saying “If you have nothing to hide then why worry about the Patriot Act spying on you and tracking you.” This is a perfect example of why the Patriot Act is wrong and has nothing to do with protecting you. All the Alphabet Agencies get to use the provisions in the act aginst you.
ML—Your rant against Obama indicates your blindness to the truth that it doesn’t matter who is in the big chair, the gov’t departments are all corrupt and that corruption is shared by both parties. Please remove your partisan blinders long enough to see that both sides of the aisle are working for the big corporations. While you cat fight over which side is best, they are both lifting your wallet and your constitutional rights.
It’s time to reclaim our right to rule ourselves. Today is Constitution Day, the day we celebrate the adoption of a document that limits government. I wonder what part of it they didn’t read.
Bob is correct. One of the authors of this last food safety bill was John McCain. You might want to remind everyone that you know in Arizona to write a letter of outrage to McCain. Instead of watching imports and factory farm food they pick on individuals and private buying clubs.
Wonder how it will get when we decide we need to grow our own food and they come for all the banned palnts and dietary suppliments we might be growing on our own.
Here is one, lemons prevent scurvy. That is a health claim. This is an unregulated substance. We should set them up with a confrontation and when it goes to court pull out all the historical evidence that the lemon was used to prevent scurvy and show how the FDA is overreaching in its interpretation. This could be one hell of a due process and fundamental rights violation.
Oh I forgot you folks don’t know your fundamental rights because you won’t study. Well you get what you deserve.
Heyoka – keep in mind that John McCain is in no way a conservative. He’s what is referred to as a RINO – Republican In Name Only.
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Wha-huh???? What type of lemon tree grows in Wisconsin………..????
This is the face of Communism, except that when it really happens, both the grower and the buyer would be interrogated for months, their property seized and family imprisoned, and eventually head-shot, or shipped off to dig coal with bare hands in North Dakota. The only solution is to dramatically cut, chop and boil down the Fed budget, back to what it was in the 1950s, without inflation adjustment. The Constitution gives the Fed very little power in fact. Most of what they do is way beyond the Constitution, which reserves all other rights to the people or the states.
I was just being nice pointing out (quietly) that lemon trees dont grow in Wisconsin folks. I thought someone might look that up for themselves. But guess not.
So the facts – the basic ones, arent even correct in this story. Lemon trees dont grow in Wisconsin. Period. At all. Ever. Not ever. Nope, They dont. They dont.
If the person who wrote this cant get that part straight, and its all about the “lemon tree growing in someone’s backyard in Wisconsin” why are you taking any of this seriously? Get the facts before you start throwing stones.
Science, its our friend. Horticulturally speaking, this story is absurd.
The woman purchased the lemon tree online – many people have them and try to grow them indoors or outback. The story is showing the USDA overstepping its bounds.
They should come down to Florida we have plently they could
dig up and replace for us. (No GMO please)
They tag them all the time and never do anything more with them?
Some are half dead and covered with fungus – Why? FDA must go.
I am from Wisconsin and I maintain a home there. Many of my friends grow lemon trees there. Of course these trees are not grown outside, but grown within lemon-tree-friendly eco-zones within one’s house or green house or four season rooms.
The article is about food safety and ensuring that the lemon shipments from California make top dollar. By confiscating Wisconsin grown lemon trees, that assures that commercial lemon growers will not get $1.49/lemon in the state of Wisconsin. Lemons have about a 2,000 % mark-up in a state that far north and east of Southern California.
OK…I made a sarcastic remark that is totally unrelated to the reality of the situation.
damn fed fools and they can all be bought an extra corrupt organization with no heart and very little brains
Attention any critical thinkers:
The “article” says that she and her daughter PLANTED it in their back YARD in Wisconsin and got fruit from it as well. That is a lie, with another lie lathered on top of it.
Now, we all know that a fruiting lemon IN THE GROUND, IN THE BACKYARD, IN WISCONSIN isnt possible. Stop telling me about your indoor lemons- I have one too. INDOORS.
If the main story is incorrect, WHY are you even commenting about it as tho any of it is then accurate and true and why arent you demanding the truth now that you know these main issues are incorrect?
Is this a story of lemons or lemmings?
Im a farmer. The USDA is no friend to family farmers. Im not defending anything but getting the truth. Just how many here are farmers besides me and actually have to deal with the USDA anyhow?
How many of you actualy read the details of this story AND the supposed lemon growers responses? Even she is not correcting this nonsense. You are being made fools of.
Please, dont read LIES and inaccurate information and then defend the utter silliness of it just because “USDA Bad Guys/everyone else Good Guys” sounds good.
If the FDA food Nazi’s were on the ball tracking potential food “dangers” in the first place, they would have caught the “lemon tree” at the distributor. This case is a good example of our shell government trying to convince the population that the official alphabet agencies are proactive and are doing their jobs in a timely fashion(ya right, by no-bid contractors with their own agendas).
Thanks Kevin for allowing me to elaborate on the situation. Since it seems to be of much discussion, it is not correct that I planted the tree in the ground. It was in a pot, which I kept outside spring until early fall, and inside during the winter. It flowered and produced lemons beautifully.
I am certainly not anti-government, but as I mentioned in my earlier post, it opened my eyes as to what our government agencies are willing to do over something like a lemon tree. When I got the letter from the USDA, it arrived on a Saturday. When I talked to them the beginning of the week, they told me they wanted this wrapped up by that Thursday. To be quite honest, before talking to them, I did consider trying to hide the tree at a friend’s house, as I could not believe how crazy this was. I did not, however, want to drag someone else into this, plus the tree required a fair amount of care, and I didn’t know how long I would have to attempt to hide it.
When I could see what lengths they were willing to go to, I asked the supervisor at the USDA what they did if the person said the tree had died. She told me if they had doubts, they made visits back to the house a few months later. She also told me they “surveyed” yards, as many people had them outside during the summer. Finally, she told me how often they spotted them in peoples’ front hallways when they showed up unannounced. She quite proudly told me that while a few may have escaped, they did recover most of the trees. Since the tree had been sitting outside the entire summer, I would not have been surprised had they done a drive by before sending the letter to see if in fact they could catch me in a lie.
If I had it to do over again, I don’t know what I would do, as the tree seemed doomed no matter what. It happened so fast, and I thought in contacting the media people would at least know what our tax dollars were going toward, and that the freedom we think we have doesn’t always exist.
If you have any other questions on this, I would be glad to answer them!
I can understand that some people would consider this overstepping by the FDA but I stand by their decision. Unless you are an entomologist or plant pathologist you don’t know what problems a diseased tree/plant can cause to a region. If the spores from the fungus gets on other trees or crops, it could wipe out an entire species/crop. If you want to play with fire when it comes to introducing foreign plant diseases to an area, don’t complain that you pay too much for food when crops have been compromised due to introduced diseases. Maybe it was a diseased lemon tree that contributed to Wisconsin’s Christmas tree diseases. OTB if you’re looking at dead/fungus ridden trees, why don’t you dispose of them according to protocol instead of expecting the FDA to remove them.
I respect your right to your opinion, Donna, but the USDA had no idea if my tree was even sick. It exhibited none of the symptoms, so it seemed unlikely it was. Also, they told me this was only spread among citrus trees, so I don’t think it any way could have affected Christmas trees.
[...] Most Wanted. Or rather, her little beloved lemon tree was. Last week, we reported the story of the USDA demanding her tree three years after a quarantine, but the real USDA mode of operation is in the details below - we can’t make this stuff [...]
from wikipedia (a notoriously bad source for many but ALL things):
By the mid 1940s the Meyer lemon had become widely grown in California. However, at that time it was discovered that a majority of the Meyer lemon trees being cloned were symptomless carriers of the Citrus tristeza virus, a virus which had killed millions of citrus trees all over the world and rendered other millions useless for production.[5] After this finding, most of the Meyer lemon trees in the United States were destroyed to save other citrus trees.
A virus-free selection was found in the 1950s by Don Dillon of the California company Four Winds Growers,[6] and was later certified and released in 1975 by the University of California as the ‘Improved Meyer lemon’ — Citrus × meyeri ‘Improved’.[7][8]
I’m no fan of the FDA/USDA/FBI/CIA but sometimes there might actually be a legitimate reason for one of their actions…
I don’t know the specifics on Meyer lemons, but in general, we should all be glad the FDA is trying to control the spread of diseases and insects through shipments of plants. Think Dutch Elm disease, which wiped out millions of huge beautiful elms across the U.S in the 1960′s and 70′s. Japanese beetles and Emerald Ash borers, quickly moving west and wiping out more millions of trees. All three imported and first spread through shipments of nursery stock. You’ve probably heard of the giant snails now invading Florida or the carp (?) which have invaded the Great Lakes and destroying native fish populations. Plant diseases and insects spread from one locale to another and can do the same kind of damage. I own a small nursery and am glad to have state inspections because I don’t want to ship anything diseased and risk doing irreparable harm to our environment. If they are sometimes overly cautious, that’s still ok by me. Better safe than sorry.
@ 1776IsComingAgain – The “thugs” you speak of think the majority of the American people are sheep… and unfortunately, they are mostly correct in that thinking. The “thugs” will continue to get away with their terrorist-like tactics until the majority of Americans stand up and prove we are not “sheeple”, but instead are people with intelligence, knowledge and feelings.
@ Black Eagle – Yes, we do need to cut the budget for the FDA and USDA to the bare bones. And the CDC as well. But not just them. Our Federal government oversteps its authority in many areas far too often… And, IMO, where we should make the deepest cuts is in the salary department. Most Federal government employees make at least twice what they need to live decently. Those higher up are probably making even more.
@ Tal – Or maybe they just don’t want lemon trees growing in Wisconsin, whether indoors or out.
IMO, if there were nothing apparently wrong with the lemon tree in question, why wasn’t the USDA required to prove that tree was a “symptom-less carrier” of a specific disease? And why not compensate the owner if the tree was, indeed affected? Terrorist-like tactics such as those used were quite unwarranted.
Actually those who say lemons won’t and can’t grow outdoors in Wisconsin are wrong; they grow in Montana, which has colder winters than WI. Not well, not large, but they do survive. We had a lemon tree (grown from seed) in our outdoor garden in Great Falls MT, and a friend told me of one growing outdoors in Bozeman MT (which is colder yet) and producing lots of fruit. Own-root (grown from seed) citrus can be surprisingly hardy.