The ballistic missile took out the honeybee

To the editor:

A few days ago, I was sentenced for a two-count conviction, involving 2008 events at Matanuska Creamery. (I was found innocent of fraud at that trial.)

Sometime in the next two years, my appeal will be heard.

I told the Frontiersman when I was indicted in 2013 that perhaps the case would provide the vehicle for the story of what happened to Matanuska Creamery.

I have learned that an adversarial proceeding in the federal system of justice is no place to find the truth. There are only dueling stories, and 98 percent of the time cold plea-bargain calculus wins the day. The plainer the truth, the more fanciful are the theories advanced.

Consequently, the real Matanuska Creamery story has still not been told. While the appeal proceeds, I will be working on that.

For right now, though, I would like to draw attention to what this case, triggered anonymously by two vengeful former employees and an irresponsible blogger, has accomplished in a slightly larger picture.

Seven years ago, Matanuska Creamery struggled to arise out of chaos and milk-dumping amid the closure of the state-owned plant.

With the help of the community, two federal grants, $700,000 in private investment and eventually a large state lease/loan package, we did.

I still don’t know when the federal investigation secretly began, but sometime in 2011 it started to undercut our supporters and provide cover for our enemies.

It was as if the Department of Justice had an intercontinental ballistic missile in its arsenal and took aim at a honeybee.

In the end, an industry went down.

Hundreds of dairy cattle should still be alive. There should still be dairy farms at Point MacKenzie, instead of just one near Palmer, owned by the family that has been in charge at the Division of Agriculture for the last seven years.

The grant proceeds should still be paying community dividends. The private investment should still be viable. Matanuska Creamery should still be paying off its state loan. Eighteen employees should still have jobs. Vendors should be intact.

The ballistic missile took out the honeybee.

Standard investigative protocols developed during the war on drugs allowed this tragedy to run so long and cost so much.

Those techniques — secrecy, slander, suborning of perjury — might be defensible when an ongoing enterprise is making cocaine. Or making toxic financial products that bring down the world.

We were making milk.

And now we’re not.

Karen Olson

Wasilla