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.
A couple of things to note, this story has cropped up word for word in a slew of odd publications. Not sure exactly what that means, but it is worth dogging. I do know there is a concerted effort to shut down raw milk producers around the country. Raw honey seems odd. What’s wrong with that? It’s called HONEY. Why steal it?
Found by Patrick Murphy.
yep there is that hope and change you all voted for
It takes too much effort and expense for a government to micro-manage thousands of small businesses, so putting them out of business and leaving just the few big ones that make campaign contributions only makes fiscal sense.
# 1 Pmitchell said, on July 18th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
yep there is that hope and change you all voted for
Yea we better get the Republicans back in charge because everyone knows they’re the champion of the working man. Money is behind the rules and laws nowadays not a political party,they’re all corrupt. Figure out who profits from these kind of things and you find who’s behind it.
@#3 People who push this kind of actions and regulations are Progressive Leftist. They want BigGovt. in charge of everything and overseeing everything. Food for them can’t even theoretically be safe if several BigGovt. “inspectors” haven’t controlled its production and people producing it from day 0.
With Rep’s in charge you’d have other type of problem, one with which ordinary people can deal easily: BigCorporations will be given open hand to manipulate and abuse. But in that case, there is both free market (so good Corporation can fight on the basis of its performance) and option to go to small farmers who will do 100 times better without overbearing and for them meaningless regulations.
@JCD “Raw honey seems odd. ” Raw honey is usually unpasteurized . Same as with unpasteurized milk products, it is quite illegal. To get real raw honey you need to go overseas (or Canada) or find few daring farmers like the one in the story.
Let’s all play…
GUESS YOUR CRIME!
Our returning champion, Sharon Palmer of Ventura County is back with her daughter Jasmine and still has not Guessed Her Crime.
Okay, Sharon, as you know, the rules of the game clearly state that unless you can accurately Guess Your Crime, warrants will force you to keep returning to play.
Ready to play? Here’s what we know so far;
1) It’s an “Ongoing Investigation.”
2) It’s not pot-related.
3) It’s not goat cheese related.
4) It’s not homework related.
And 5) It has nothing to do with oil having been discovered on your property–or IS IT?
Now, you have the same choices as before: You can admit to Your Crime, or guess again in our Lightning Round.
Whadda ya wanna do?
aNYONE WANT TO CONTACT aRNOLD AND SEE IF HE KNOWS??
# 1 Pmitchell said, on July 18th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
yep there is that hope and change you all voted for
That’s right, this whole episode is Mr. Obama’s fault. In fact, everything is Obama’s fault. We need to get away from “hope and change” and go back to the “no hope and no change” of the Bush era.
What’s important to remember is this:
It’s Obama’s fault
It’s Obama’s fault
It’s Obama’s fault
It’s Obama’s fault
It’s Obama’s fault
It’s Obama’s fault
#1 –
Only kings and dictators can change everything all by themselves. Although you would seem to prefer it, we don’t have a monarchy or a dictatorship.
—————————-
Everyone hates the government – until they are personally screwed by big (or small) business or have a major problem. These fools live in a world of “yeah but”. Get the government out of our lives “yeah but” keep your hands off our Medicare. (Can you believe that!)
Then the government haters blame the government for not having protected them in the first place. They have either not read history, or not understood it. If you find out why our laws and regulations were enacted, you wouldn’t sound so . . . . (I can’t think of a kind way to say this) . . . . (I give up) stupid.
Thanks to fools like Reagan, his big money backers and his present day followers, most people think that our government has been imposed on us by aliens from outer space.
President Lincoln described YOUR government as a government “of the people, by the people and for the people”.
(Of course, he freed you-know-who, so . . . . . )
In a democracy, the majority of voters get their way, within the guidelines of the Constitution. If you don’t like the way YOUR government is being run – vote. But do your country a favor first: read some real history books and turn off the TV.
And if your “side” loses, STFU until next election day.
You don’t have the right to eat the foods you choose. People who produce and distribute illegal food will be prosecuted.
Slowly but surely, all of your God-given freedoms will be mowed over by legislation.
Now, let’s all go fill out an application to work at Wal-Mart.
#10 “You don’t have the right to eat the foods you choose.”
Unless it’s from China.
I agree. This is a failure of “hope and change.” The only thing worse would be is to go back to the last administration and those seditious bastards.
#4 dusanmal,
Pasteurized honey??? What the f*ck is wrong with Americans? You guys truly are pussies.
Pagan said:
And if your “side” loses, STFU until next election day.
Brilliant! That’s the best advice I’ve heard in a long time.
The problem is that voter turn out for Presidential Elections in the US hover around 50%. In the last 60 years the highest turnout was in 1960 at 63.1%. The remaining 40-50% of the lazy non voting Americans whine and bitch more than anyone.
14,
umm I think its closer to 30-40%.
But isnt that a concern of the Voters, NOT wanting another idiot? and not having a real choice.
Its the Reps and dem, that SELECT who they want to run..WE DONT GET A SELECTION.
Those others that TRY to run, CANT get their faces on TV. They cant AFFORD IT.
I would rather it be like the DRAFT…WE voted you in, NOW DO THE JOB.
Take all the money from BOTH GROUPS, and put it in a pot and divide it EVENLY for all persons that can get 500,000 signatures.
The new America, where hard working Americans are targeted and illegals and non white militant groups are hands off.
I contend it is a “natural right” to eat what you want.
Just label the food, “The Food and Drug Administration has determined that this food item may be unsafe for human consumption, and recomemds that you only consume items FDA or Department of Agriculture recommends.”
NOTE: We can still buy tobacco in the USA.
It has already been said. The progressives are enlightened. They see it as their duty as the elite of society to control the lives of the underclass.
Some people aren’t cooperating. They will be dealt with. And no the elite don’t have to explain why they take your stuff and keep it. Laws like that only apply to the inferior sort, not to the elite.
Given that most of the honey sold in the USA isn’t really ‘honey’, some kind of oversight is necessary. Most of the honey sold in the USA comes from Asia, and until recently, dod not have to contains any real honey, since there were no standards. ‘Change’ took place last year when new regulations regarding the use of the word “Honey” were put in place.
But even if you are buying bee honey, if it comes from Asia (and most does) it probably comes from industrial hives, where bees are fed almost exclusively on High Fructose Corn Syrup (nowhere near natural, and treated with medication that is illegal in the USA.
REAL honey has no expiration date, is filtered but otherwise unprocessed, is naturally ‘clean’ of infection, and is expensive. It is like buying ‘real’ eggs from an organic farmer… you can not find them on the shelves of your local market, and there is a HUGE difference between the real thing and the factory farm thing.
Raw milk has been illegal for many years. You can not sell raw milk, and for good reasons. It is just plain dangerous, because ‘this’ producer might have good hygiene, but the other doesn’t, and unless the source is extraordinarily trustworthy, it is not worth the risk. Grown humans shouldn’t be drinking milk anyway.
“Nutritionally Dense Foods” I love when folks use idiotic terms.
This is pretty straight forward, the farmer is packaging and/or selling unregulated foodstuffs to consumers. By unregulated, I mean nobody has validated that they actually do what they say, that they have clean equipment, and that they do generally accepted cleaning and packaging.
If you idiots want to buy “local food” from some farmer who doesn’t want to pasteurize or clean the items they are selling under standard government oversight, feel free. I don’t want to hear one word when your infant daughter dies from raw milk, or that you have intestinal worms because you bought “raw” honey.
There’s extensive, one hundred-year-plus reasons WHY we have health rules and regulations. It’s because of the hundreds of thousands of folks who got sick or died because farmers, suppliers, restaurants and consumers didn’t handle food correctly.
But go ahead, believe in your magical claptrap about how farmers can do no wrong and that the government is just out to get everyone.
20,
you aint old enough to remember Cleaning your food when you got home??
then you NEVER had FRESH RIPE food. Im sorry.
I find it interesting that honey producers and goat farmers and raw milk producers are raided and arrested when the government is fine to overlook meat packers and producers for their shitty QA/QC. That is until someone eats an e. coli infested burrito or McD’s hamburger and dies from from the contamination. Then they’re all over the meat industry.
Don’t even get me started on tobacco… This product has been proven over and over to kill approx. 443,000 people per year and is often labeled the leading killer in the US, but THE GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS THE TOBACCO FARMER AND TOBACCO INDUSTRY. I also like the fact that government sponsored health care, be it medicare/medicaid, employee health care for US Military and other federal employees covers the cost of ailments that are tobacco caused or related. Marijuana bad…tobacco good.
That’s what happens when you have really good lobbyists and buy the presidency.
# 21 ReadyKilowatt said, on July 18th, 2010 at 9:28 pm #19 – Awake
I get honey from a few miles away. But I buy it at City Market. It is not pasteurized, only filtered, costs close to $10/lb, and is delicious./
$10 a pound? I assume you mean $10 for a bottle.
#21 ReadyKilowat,
$10 / pound is about the right price for locally produced honey. But just because it is locally produced, it doesn’t mean that it hasn’t been mass produced. It is very common for commercial beekeepers (anyone that sells honey) to have several dozen hives. Since most areas can not support that density of bees, the bees are fed a supplement. In most caes it is HFCS by the barrel. Larger beekeepers buy it by the tankerload.
I have two beehives that I keep at the back of my yard. Because of the recent heatwaves wiping out most regular flowering plants, I have to feed them sugar water, but I make sure it is pure cane sugar. They are drinking about 1 quart per day per hive. Sugar can be easily split into glucose and fructose by adding a little lemon to the mix, and is very close to real flower nectar. HFCS is just glucose.
Anyway, you can find real honey locally, but just because it is local it doesn’t mean that it is mass produced.
Some of the “honey” comes from China and it isn’t even honey at all, or it is but contains traces of pesticides / herbicides that are not considered safe for human consumption.
The U.S. has a boycott on Chinese honey, but the Chinese don’t take this sitting down. They move their “honey” to other countries (i.e. Australia, Thailand, etc.) where they get rebadged as having an origin of the intermediate country.
Ultimately, it’s making it’s way in our country.
As for raw milk, I recall one of the reasons why most of the states in the country ban it is because of the risks of consuming it with children.
In my #25 above I meant to say that HFCS is all “Fructose”, with no glucose.
Must have first coffee before typing.
#20,
This is where the free market works!
Once a companies raw milk starts killing children consumers will stop buying their milk and they will go out of business.
Mercola’s comments on Raw Milk: http://tinyurl.com/266rjjj
#20 Jim said, “I don’t want to hear one word when your infant daughter dies from raw milk.”
Most infants drink raw milk without any issues. Most breastfeeding mothers don’t pasteurize their own breast milk before feeding it to their infants.
Oh you were referring to cow’s milk. You don’t feed babies cow’s milk at all. So the theoretical problem you came up with really doesn’t exist.
#23. FYI meat packers have onsite government inspectors around the clock. One way the government has to shut down a plant is to threaten to remove the inspectors until corrective action is taken.
For all the POST processing of milk,
you might as well Eat a pill with Chalk in it.
Raw milk has LOTS of things in it.
Milk is an EXTRA NOT NEEDED PRODUCT.
They get more money from Butter, ice cream, Cottage cheese, and ALL the other products..
MILK does not BOIL. you have to add water to it, so it wont BURN.
After they have taken all the Curds and whey and other WANTED products..WHOLE milk is 1/2 water.
Then you get 2%, and you have 1/4 milk..
ALL the stores/corps WANT, is a product that can Be created and have a LIFE of 2-6 weeks.
There is VERY LITTLE that is FRESH foods.