When the 20 agents arrived bearing a search warrant at her Ventura County farmhouse door at 7 a.m. on a Wednesday a couple weeks back, Sharon Palmer didn’t know what to say. This was the third time she was being raided in 18 months, and she had thought she was on her way to resolving the problem over labeling of her goat cheese that prompted the other two raids. (In addition to producing goat’s milk, she raises cattle, pigs, and chickens, and makes the meat available via a CSA.)
But her 12-year-old daughter, Jasmine, wasn’t the least bit tongue-tied. “She started back-talking to them,” recalls Palmer. “She said, ‘If you take my computer again, I can’t do my homework.’ This would be the third computer we will have lost. I still haven’t gotten the computers back that they took in the previous two raids.”
As part of a five-hour-plus search of her barn and home, the agents — from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, Los Angeles County Sheriff, Ventura County Sheriff, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture — took the replacement computer, along with milk she feeds her chickens and pigs.
While no one will say officially what the purpose of this latest raid was, aside from being part of an investigation in progress, what is very clear is that government raids of producers, distributors, and even consumers of nutritionally dense foods appear to be happening ever more frequently. Sometimes they are meant to counter raw dairy production, other times to challenge private food organizations over whether they should be licensed as food retailers.
The same day Sharon Palmer’s farm was raided, there was a raid on Rawesome Foods, a Venice, Calif., private food club run by nutritionist and raw-food advocate Aajonus Vonderplanitz. For a membership fee of $25, consumers can purchase unpasteurized dairy products, eggs that are not only organic but unwashed, and a wide assortment of fermented vegetables and other products.
The main difference in the two raids seems to be that Palmer’s raiding party was actually much smaller, about half the size of the Venice contingent: Vonderplanitz was also visited by the FBI and the FDA.
In the Rawesome raid, agents made off with several thousand dollars worth of raw honey and raw dairy products. They also shut Rawesome for failure to have a public health permit, though the size and scope of the raid suggests the government officials might have more in mind. Regardless, within hours the outlet reopened in defiance of the shutdown order.
Earlier in June, agents of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, escorted by police and also bearing search warrants, raided and shut down Traditional Foods Warehouse, a popular food club in Minneapolis specializing in locally-produced foods. They also raided two farms suspected of illegally selling raw milk. And in a national first among such raids, agents searched a private home and made off with computers; the family’s offense appears to have been that it allowed one of the raw dairy farmers to park in its driveway to distribute raw milk to area residents who had ordered it.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has declined comment on such raids, saying they are part of an ongoing investigation into raw milk distribution in the state in lieu of eight illnesses in May linked to raw milk.
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection has launched three raids over the last three months on the dairy farm and farm store of Vernon Hershberger, near Madison. The day after DATCP agents placed seals on his fridges storing raw dairy products in July, Hershberger cut the seals, and announced he was going to challenge the agency’s contention he needs a dairy and retail license to sell his products. Obtaining such licenses would be problematic, though, since Wisconsin prohibits sale of raw milk, except “incidental” sales, and defining “incidental” has been a bone of contention for many years. In any event, Hershberger contends he sells only to consumers who contract privately for his food.
What’s behind all these raids? They seem to stem from increasing concern at both the state and federal level about the spread of private food groups that have sprung up around the country in recent years — food clubs and buying groups to provide specialized local products that are generally unavailable in groceries, like grass-fed meats, pastured eggs, fermented foods, and, in some cases, raw dairy products. Because they are private and limited to consumers who sign up for membership, these groups generally avoid obtaining retail and public health licenses required of retailers that sell to the general public.
In late 2008 and early 2009, the representatives of state agriculture agencies in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois met via phone conferences with representatives of the FDA to map a plan for targeting raw-milk buying clubs in the Midwest. The meetings came to light after Max Kane, the owner of a Wisconsin buying club who was subpoenaed by Wisconsin authorities for the names of his customers and suppliers, obtained email accounts of the sessions via a Freedom of Information request to Wisconsin’s Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection department. (Kane has since been prosecuted by Wisconsin authorities for contempt of court for failing to give up the names; his case is under appeal after he was found guilty last December.)
Now, the Midwest program seems to have gone national, and the recent spate of raids suggests a quickening pace and broadened scope. While most raids before the Midwest government meetings had been related to raw-milk distribution, some, like a December 2008 armed raid of Manna Storehouse, an Ohio food club near Cleveland, have been about licensing issues. In that raid, armed law enforcement officers held a mother and eight young children being home-schooled at gunpoint for several hours while they searched the home and food storage areas. A legal challenge to the raid by the family is still tied up in court.
The current uptick has Pete Kennedy of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund concerned, not only about the spreading of the raids, but about the seemingly easy willingness of judges to hand out search warrants. While the U.S. Constitution’s fourth amendment suggests judges should exercise tight controls over search warrants (“no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause…”), Kennedy observes, “I haven’t seen an agency turned down yet” over the last four years in requests for search warrants connected with raw milk and other food production and distribution.
Given that the targets of search warrants don’t get a say in court as to whether they should be issued, legal experts and those who have been raided say the most that food producers can do is take steps to prepare themselves to weather the raids as best they can.
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In Austria, raw goat/sheep/cow milk is available in many healthfood stores. Raw milk cheeses are available in most supermarkets.
However, we will shortly lose most of our naturally occurring, healthgiving herbs, with their centuries of safe use. This is under the the draconian EU Codex Alimentarius. The non-elected EU fears these natural herbs may harm us, BUT the truth is that these herbs harm Big Pharmas effort to keep us all sickly, so dent their obscene profits.
This, and the war on raw the protection to Big Farms and Big Pharma.
If the EU, or the US FDA, were serious about health they would ban microwave ovens; canola, rapeseed, and soy oils; all unfermented soy; Teflon, aluminium and copper cookware; msg and Aspartame; mobile phones, alcohol and cigis, etc.
Monsanto manufactured DDT and Agent Orange, and orchestrated the coverups for years before they were finally banned. You call this company self serving? You called it right.
I own large garden,and drank raw milk for many years,I will never be controlled by monsatan er monsanto,I repeat I WILL NEVER BE TOLD WHAT I CAN GROW OR WHAT I CAN EAT,ANY AGENTS STEP ON MY PROPERTY ,SOMEBODY WILL PAY.
41°48’45.02″N 85°39’56.70″W <<< This is your basic garden variety Monsanto Facility, I suspect they harvest GMO Corn here as all you see surrounding this place is Corn.
Read all this in the comments section and tell me, IS IT TIME??? THEY ARE ONLY 6,000 and we are 308 million. SO I ASK AGAIN “IS IT TIME”????
Now I finally get what ELF was doing back in the 90’s when they continually set fire and blew up all those Monsanto labs including the ones at Universities who sold out their souls for grants.
What’s next…breastfeeding mothers? That raw milk too!
It all comes down to GMO’s and MONSANTO, MONSANTO LOBBYISTS, and MONSANTO paying off the FDA and Crooked Politicians. The same holds true with Big Pharma, they payoff the FDA to let them pump us with Untested Drugs that Kill. Monsanto and Big Pharma regularly hire former FDA Officials and former Politicians and the FDA regularly hires Monsanto and Big Pharma employees. It’s a Money Ginmill and it goes on in every branch of Government. Many people in our government could care less about the welfare of the citizens in this Country, all they care about is Filling their Pockets. It makes you wonder how a person can hire into government poor and retire with a net worth of Millions, it happens all the time.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread594316/pg1
GOOGLE: Alex Jones –
Endgame etc… that should awaken you!
These MONSANTO WHORES will NOT win!
Get a 45 and stop these F@@@@&&&Kers on the spot….
Then this SH#$%%^T will stop!!!
Sonya, be sure you got “organic” because that which is at the store are irradiated and lack the health benefits they can provide.
Also stock up on natural organic cinnamon and non processed raw honey as both are natures most potent antibiotic. Remember, only “drugs” that kill will be available once they get through with us or TRY TO GET THROUGH WITH US.
Also remember, if things get really bad and you have a cut or infection on your hand or fingers etc. and the sore has gotten infected. Take a piece of pine, put it on the fire, get the sap running and then take a stick, pick up the sap and put it on the cut, it will kill the infection and seal the wound and won’t come off in plain water, rather you have to wash it off.
that will continue to protect the wound from additional infection. Yes, its hot and yes it hurts, but so what if it saves your fingers or whatever is infected. also pine leaves in a tea are very healthy for healing internal infections.
I forgot, grow parsley as it has numerous healing properties, but one that is important is killing bladder infections within 24 hours if you can imagine.
Pines don’t have leaves, einstein. They have needles. Pine straw has an acidic content, which may alter the PH environment and be beneficial for internal infections. I might try to make that tea. Might take a while however, with green pine needles.
Interesting tip.
Sorry – forgot to finish the sentence about cayenne, turmeric and ginger. It is in Thailand that these substances are allegedly going to be declared toxic substances.
I don’t know if Thailand is one of the main exporters of these foods, but it doesn’t take a huge stretch of the imagination to guess that for a generous donation the Thai authorities could be persuaded to do something like this to reduce their availability.
This tells me that these substances are excellent for our health – so I have already stocked up on them in quantity.
I read somewhere recently that some government advisory board on psychology reversed the decision that disassociation is a mental health problem, but also added a new category: That of the anxiety disorder of wanting healthy food. I promise you this is no joke. There is even an official name for it ‘orthorexia’
http://www.naturalnews.com/029098_orthorexia_mental_disorder.html
So, there’s got to be a link between the two. The stage managed official recognition of being anxious to eat healthy food as a mental health disorder, in the sick minds of these evil doers, will probably come into play somewhere in this process. They are raiding the suppliers and producers of healthy foods as we speak. Next they will be bringing legal charges against them for providing substances which are detrimental to mental health, or some such nonsense. Could these measures be steps on the way to declaring healthy foods toxic substances?
I did read recently that cayenne pepper, turmeric and ginger are going to be declared toxic substances. Unfortunately I don’t have a link for that.
In Thailand
To say these guys are totally insane doesn’t even get close to describing the reality.
Someone recently described the Israeli politicians as psycopaths on steroids…that description approximates more closely to what, in my view, these sick US leaders really are.
There is something rotten in America and the world, and the stench gets stronger every day, to the point where I already feel as though I can hardly breathe.
Guys, make sure you have cameras and you film what’s going on. Get informed about what questions to ask, etc.
Get the details of the mobsters who are doing the raids – are they law enforcement officers or paid militia?
We all need to get organised, support each other and become very, very smart.
You make some very good points there, Yobaba, however, you only named Republican presidents as being the problem when in fact is been all of them since Kennedy was killed. The neocons have controlled the election candidates on both sides since then. Johnson was the first sell out and it went down hill from there. THIRD PARTY IS THE ONLY WAY TO GO AND BE SURE THEY ARE NOT OWNED BY THE NEOS. That was the case last time, where the only one owned by the neocons and bankers was Barr on third party tickets. Neither Mckinney or Baldwin were bought off. They were for real and this would have been much better if we had all gotten together and elected one or the other of them.
Remember that private corporations (like say, BP, for example) can hire “agents” (just like BP did in the Gulf to keep locals and others away from the beaches and the clean-up) to intimidate and “police” private citizens – and this is apparently “legal” so long as you are a Big Corporation. And you can thank President Bush for his so-called Patriot Act that supersedes American’s Constitutional Due Process rights in that we are now all pretty much treated like potential terrorists. Nixon started this; Reagan perpetuated it and BushCo perfected it. Before people start talking about their so-called 2nd Amendment rights – as in, “let’s git us some guns!” – they’d better look into the rest of the Constitution as well. Don’t Be Idiots. As much as you all might hate the idea, the only way to successfully change this is to go to legitimate legislators and hound them about this so it will change LEGALLY, not get progressively worse via a vigilante mentality. AND as far as blaming the gov’mint for everything you hate about your life, look into the influence and powers that Corporate Agriculture have these days – as a start, check out what Monsanto is doing. Just maybe your “enemy” is not the US Government – it could be big biotech and food corporations and the (usually GOP) politicians they sleep with. For god’s sake do some farking research. Just sayin’.
“look at the influence and powers that Corporate Agriculture have these days” And where did Monsanto and others get these “powers?” it’s not from consumer choice and free markets! It is from government regulation and subsidization.
Monsanto my friend is the gov’mint…they have no power without it. Think through your research. Just sayin’
Its not just militia, it should be every single breathing, living, walking human on this nations soil that should be doing that.
THINK ABOUT IT. FOOD FOR GODS SAKE. Its not like they had anything dangerous or criminal. THIS IS PURE UNADULTERATED NAZI CRAP AND WE ALL MUST FIGHT THIS TOGETHER OR GO DOWN TOGETHER. While I am finally understanding why our forefathers put that in the constitution, I am much more appreciative of their existance.
What militia can do is train, teach, and plan. That is what the average American needs help with and its the only reason why they have not risen up by now as I have been told. So start there and recuit people, not necessarily as militia BUT AS DEPUTY SHERIFFS. EVERYONE SWORN IN AS A POSSE AND DEPUTY SHERIFF AND EVERY HOME TO HAVE GUNS LIKE SWITZERLAND OR THEY GET FINED.
To Percy, I like what you are saying, but the bad guys have got you repeating their propaganda; the Jews got everyone to crush the National Socialists in the second world war so that the Jews could dominate America and Europe to do to you today what they are doing. The words you should be using are Jew crap, not Nazi crap (and National Socialists were nothing like the Jew invented Hollywood Nazis anyway) Barack Obama is Jewish, remember that.
Sharon Palmer, I think we need volunteers, 5 volunteers from 3 different Militias totaling 15 armed American Peace Loving Patriots!
We will guard, and help out around the farm for a while.
IF the Federal Empire shows up again, we will rush you and your family into the basement, and to our best to ensure Americans are protected in the American Nation.
I myself am willing.
We need to not just start protecting ourselves as American Militia, but our American Nabors as well
There is no way on Earth to do this people without shots being fired between the Enslaving occupiers, and the Free Peoples Militia
Im here! im x-army IM ready to start
We have the best government money can buy. Rather than shooting them let’s just buy them off like Monsanto does.
We are trapped into a statutory hell hole by acquiescing to their jurisdiction. There is a way to escape by establishing your status as one of “we the people” who are clothed with all our God given rights. Most of us walk around in the dark using our corporate personality as evidenced by our birth certificate. You can tell that corporate personality because, although it looks the same it is always written in all caps i.e. “JOHN SMITH” rather than John Smith. The all cap JOHN SMITH is responsible to obey all the statutes and ordinances while John Smith is free to tell them no thanks. You have to learn procedure in order to prevail in court. I would recommend stating here to free yourself. http://www.1215.org/