This is just going to get worse before it gets better. And I’d like to find some investigative report on this.
A multi-agency SWAT-style armed raid was conducted this morning by helmet-wearing, gun-carrying enforcement agents from the LA County Sheriff’s Office, the FDA, the Dept. of Agriculture and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control). Rawesome Foods, a private buying club offering wholesome, natural raw milk and raw cheese products (among other wholesome foods) is founded by James Stewart, a pioneer in bringing wholesome raw foods directly to consumers through a buying club. James was followed from his private residence by law enforcement, and when he entered his store, the raid was launched.
Law enforcement demanded that all customers (members) of the store vacate the premises, then they demanded to know how much cash James had at the store. When James explained the amount of cash he had at the store — which is used to purchase product for selling there — agents demanded to know why he had such an amount of cash and where it came from.
James was handcuffed, was NEVER read his rights and was stuffed into an UNMARKED car.
Related link on other crackdowns.
Of course, after the FDA SWAT team confiscates the raw, unpasteurized milk, it will dispose of it in the only way they know how – pouring it into the sewer, washing it out to sea…contaminating the fish…
I prefer my milk pastuerized with copious amounts of growth hormone, pus, and fecal matter.
I you replace milk with weed, I could see the need for swat, but are milk men armed and that dangerous?
I guess it should come as no surprise that there is a movement of militant “natural food/health food” activists (some of whom advocate armed resistance). This level of enforcement doesn’t develop all on its own — it’s in response to actions on the other side.
I doubt the dairy industry is the moving force behind such raids — they fought pasteurization laws as hard as they could for decades at the local, state and federal levels. Finally, when statistics definitively showed that such laws immediately cut child mortality rates in cities by more than 3/4, legislatures at all levels “manned up” and passed them.
My uncle Karl worked in a TB sanitarium in the 1930s before deciding to go back to school and become a doctor. (We called him “Uncle Doc.”) Anyone who let him hear them advocate drinking raw milk was in for a long, impassioned and scary lecture.
If you live on a dairy farm or even have just the one cow which you or a family member milk personally, sure, go ahead, drink it raw and best of luck to you. But milk that has gone from cow to milker to processor to packager to wholesaler to retailer should be pasteurized as early in the process as possible.
What’s next? Militant opposition to vaccination, which has saved literally billions of lives? Oh, wait….
There is a documentary on this called Farmageddon
Just out:
http://farmageddonmovie.com/
Actually, raw milk is for sale in most supermarkets in California. But you need permits to produce it for sale, and the permitting process includes regular inspection and testing of the cows and equipment used. There is one commercial dairy (that I’m aware of) which sells raw milk in supermarkets. They also sell pasteurized milk and other products dairy products.
These people didn’t go through the process, claiming to only be selling to “members” of their “private club”. Much like the way bars run in some areas.
While I’m all for letting people poison themselves and thus reduce the surplus population, these folks were pretty clearly breaking the law as it exists. There’s nobody stopping folks from buying raw milk in Los Angeles. See above. They just have to do it legally.
This might be a legitimate story but the ridiculous bias slant is a clue that it probably isn’t.
I’m OK with this. The government has passed regulations to protect the quality of food. This action was in enforcing those regulations. Why are people arguing for freedom to eat food the government has deemed unsafe?
#12 Ah_Yea said, “While the nutball liberals can’t? (BigBoyBC Dvorak and Curry only do half-assed research”
Are you calling me a “nutball liberal”? Boy are you wrong!
Your prejudice Ah_Yea is showing, be careful, next you’ll star sounding like a bigot and then it’s a short trip to Racist.
Ready access to raw milk is way down my list of things to worry about.
#28 – the point here is that the government should not be sending armed SWAT teams to arrest people who sell food that may or may not be of a certain “quality” to people who can make perfectly reasonable choices on the matter for themselves. I am fairly certain that there are dangerous criminals posing actual legitimate threats to others’ lives that could probably use a good SWAT raid a lot more than some raw-milk distributors. Besides, why are we to assume that what the government says is “safe” is the only food we should be allowed to eat? Are we that stupid that we should not be able to make choices about our own health and well-being for fear of being SHOT at?
One of the linked articles compares this guy to Rosa Parks but that is so lame. A free speech/equality issue based on someones skin color is a completely different thing than a farmer providing raw milk to the public without a permit when everyone providing raw milk has obtained permits. The issue of possible contamination with bacteria and death, which could be a result of sickness, is light years away from Rosa Parks refusing to go to the back of the bus. Where do these bozos who make these comparisons come from?
#32, farmer providing raw milk to the public
He was not.
He was supplying it to private members of his club, who paid to become members of the club, and who understood the risks.
[Soapbox]
Again, Nanny State.
If people want to consume it, that is their business. If they poison someone, send them to jail.
How do restaurants get away with serving steak that is rare? I think this falls under the same category.
[/Soapbox]
But this has nothing to do with that. It has everything to do with taxes. I suspect he wasn’t paying them . . .
agents demanded to know why he had such an amount of cash and where it came from.
Law enforcement has demanded that if he comes up with the money to cover bail, he must disclose to them all the sources of that money.
Get off your horse and drink your milk!
This will have more to do with tax than health which doesn’t make it any better in my eyes, government crackdown coming to a town like yours?
I agree with the need to get rid of SWAT teams and I don’t see why cops can’t just be cops, like the old days, and walk up to someone with a warrant. The militarization of the police (wanna be combat soljuhs) on us civilians, is just a big joke by the cops on all the rest of us.
That saying, you should also check out this link:
http://unhealthyfamilyfarm.com/images/Wd0000006.pdf
at
http://unhealthyfamilyfarm.com
I’m not sure what site is about and who originated it but the PDF gives a far different perspective. It would appear that this raw-food farm is a scam. Have a good read. Very interesting.
But I still don’t agree with the military tactics.