The Rawesome Raw Food Buying Club in Venice Beach, California, was raided today for the second time.\u00a0 The club organizer, James Stewart, was arrested and is in jail with a $125,000 bond set.\u00a0 At least two others were also arrested, including a Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader and a farmer.\u00a0 The three were charged with\u00a0Conspiracy to Commit a Crime.\u00a0 The raid was conducted by local, state, and federal\u00a0public health officials.<\/p>\n
In California it is legal to sell\u00a0raw milk in\u00a0retail stores.\u00a0 According to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund<\/a>, the \u00a0“issue seems to be the club\u2019s use of a herdshare or boarding agreement for its dairy goats.”\u00a0 Recently, the California Department of Food and Agriculture has issued cease-and-desist orders to at least two farmers who have share arrangements.\u00a0 The state says that the farmers need to have dairy licenses to have herd share programs.\u00a0 Since acquiring a dairy license can be costly and time-consuming, farmers with only a few animals cannot justify the cost.\u00a0 It appears that requiring a license is just another\u00a0attempt to\u00a0put small farms out of business.<\/p>\n Pete Kennedy, Esq., president of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, says, “It is apparent that there is an orchestrated effort on the part of public health officials to curb raw dairy access in California, and around the nation.”<\/p>\n A protest rally is planned for tomorrow when those arrested will be arraigned in the Superior Court of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n Could this happen here?\u00a0 In Texas as well as California, applying too many expensive and labor-intensive requirements on small farms is a good method to close them down.\u00a0 The target is often raw milk dairies.<\/p>\n Press release on the raid<\/a> from The Weston A. Price Foundation.<\/p>\n Update 8\/7\/11: for the latest information about the Rawesome food raid, go to Cheeseslave.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Update 8\/10\/11: I found a good\u00a0informative article<\/a> about the raid and raw milk\u00a0on TheUnion.com<\/a>\u00a0and online news site from Nevada County, California.<\/em><\/p>\n Update 8\/11\/11: Links to other interesting articles & viewpoints\u00a0on the Rawesome raid:<\/em>
\nHuffington Post, The War on Food Freedom<\/a><\/em>
\nSouthern California Public Radio,<\/em> The Rawesome controversy and the raw food rabbit hole<\/a><\/em>
\nVentura County Star, Prosecution of Santa Paula farmer seen by some as raw milk test case<\/a><\/em>
\nBusiness & Health, Timeline of FDA raids on Raw Milk Farmers, Dietary Supplement Makers, Natural Medicine Practitioners<\/a><\/em>
\nOpEdNews.com, Food safety false flag? USDA waited for people to die before recalling ground turkey it knew was contaminated<\/a><\/em>
\nAtlanta Journal-Constitution, Police Raid Raw Milk Producers<\/a><\/em>
\nGrist, Moms rally to defend raw food club after federal raid<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n