Cops Raid Rawesome Foods; Owner James Stewart Arrested

Concerned2

Thank you thank you for your infor on the "goats milk" crisis. Wow! That is crazy.

On the main news they are talking as if our health is part of "National Security" - we must stay healthy to keep the cost down for our country. The cost is skyrocketing! Well...of course! People who are growing organic food, raising the animals without chemicals...especially "Neotame",.....they are the ones who should be thought of as The Heros...They are the TRUE AMERICANS. They are going "Outside of the box", being creative and energized to help other people STAY HEALTHY! The TRC and the CFR are the ones who pushed the Food Modernization Act. It is totally unconstitutional, and being so...should not be followed. We must make a stand - the stand is worth it. A very peaceful stand....exactly the way you are doing it.Thank you for your care and all of your efforts

PresidentDon

Do you want total government control, Government medical care, Government burial, or are you ready to rise up and elect Don Cordell for President in Nov. 2012. It is time for us as American citizens to reclaim our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Right now, all Rights have been cancelled. On Dec 31, 2011 Obama passed a law giving our Military the right to confine us for the duration of the emergency, What emergency? People interfering with the government. When You have had enough, ReVote, to ReStore America. The Republicans and Democrats will only continue to subdue us. We now have Monsanto taking over all the individual farms, California farms are going to defalt when they have no water for crops. Then the government will own all the farm land. Total control from birth to our deaths. Is that the future you want for America?

Theodora Crawford

Does it ever end...is nothing safe. I hadn't realized there was an extreme war on natural food...I'm beginning to hate what we stand for in the US. Thanks Nation of Change for keeping us informed!

norahedward

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Topauction

I wonder how someone can be so dumb to be a police officer wanting to be engaged in such stupidity, in stead of choosing the side of wise people who want a healthy life?

Kvg

It's because the Government has interests in the major diary farms of America, I hate to give half-assed info but maybe someone can fill in the blanks for me here… I remember watching a food documentary about how when the Diary industry was falling they sought help from some branch of the government (i wanna say FDA?) and thats how the "Got Milk" ads started popping up and then they started connecting them with major food companies like Domino's where they gave them a marketing concept to benefit the diary farmers (like Cheese-filled crusts and Extra Cheese pizzas)… If the Government has ties or interests with the mass-produced dairy farms of the country of course they're gonna try to knock out any other "unlicensed" diary producers and sellers and come up with a bunch of BS reasons why it's lawful. This disgusts me.

Magic Jiva

"All Not Well in the Home Town of Venice"

They are doing everything they can to shut down small business. We have reached the point where the one with Large multiple stocks. Are Literally using politics and enforcement to put small business out of business. This is economic warfare, not Competition. It’s the small businesses that provide jobs! Perfect example of The Government's Extreme multiple personality disorder.

Karl Gunn

More government control 1984 has come and gone and her to stay if we do not change things in 2012 both sides These actions are slowly controlling our food supply Remember Big Brother knows best .

clt

I thought the California d.a. didn't have the money to go after the financial institutions yet multiple agencies can go after a raw foods salesman? This looked like a drug raid, not like a guy was sharing milk in a co-op!

Gene_hunter99

Clearly there is some lawbreaking on the part of Rawesome, but to involve 3 Federal agencies plus local law enforcement says one thing: This is payback for the market rejection of rBGH hormone-laced dairy products.

Numerous dairies in the US are no longer selling pus-infected milk from cows sickened by growth hormone treatments. Monsanto and the other bio-tech companies that sell the hormone are seeing profits drop. They are going to get revenge on organic milk drinkers as well raw milk drinkers and the dairy industry in general. And remember, Monsanto executives are running both the FDA and USDA, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a former Monsanto attorney. The think they can get away with anything.

This case illustrates the level of corruption and depravity in our government and the corporations that fund politicians. Notice there is NOT ONE instance mentioned in the warrant of anyone getting sick. This case is strictly about biotech profits under the guise of permit violations. If it were about permits, it could be handled by local authorities.

For a good perspective on how market share impacts profits, see this blog entry from Catherine Austin Fitts

http://solari.com/blog/?p=1336...

Remember, the biotech industry makes its money by killing living things. And this industry is now in charge of our food supply. If you think they are on the up and up, I invite you spend an hour watching the free documentary "The World According to Monsanto"

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com...

I salute the people who are standing with Rawesome on this issue. I only wish I could be there to stand with you.

Carl

Why don't these so called protection agencies find another job! Gawd let's just raid people because we don't agree with what they are doing or who they are. Get a life and go patrol the border. hell how many illegals are coming in and using up anything extra we do have? Get a life. As for the AMA and the FDA go get other things to do.

Agliopiccante

Good f those crooks/hippies

ERLSOBINMX

GO HOME !@#$%^

Crosshairball

Red Tape...

Sam Fisher

Stephen Colbert covered this same story about Rawesome when they got raided last year.

http://www.colbertnation.com/t...

He points out that both sides seem like wackos. However, if I were Rawesome, having been through this before, I would have taken any and all legal precautions to prevent this from happening again. Meantime, the whole SWAT attack response was ludicrous and is designed with the obvious larger purpose of trying to shut down this business.

As always, there never seems to be a common-sense approach in play. Sign the waiver or whatever and get your yummy milk.

Ryan

So with violent crime such as shootings, armed robberies and assaults on the rise, the threat of terrorism and the trillions of dollars of debt, THIS is what the authorities believe is an effective use of taxpayer money and officers' time? Wasting perfectly good milk because someone didn't get the right permit? Whatever legislation causes this to happen is clearly a result of large agribusiness lobbying to artificially increase the costs of business for small producers, whilst simultaneously preventing law-abiding, free-thinking US citizens the right to consume nutrient-dense, whole foods if they so wish. It seems citizens have the freedom to choose to purchase cigarettes, for which the negative health consequences are well-established, yet we need a modern-day gestapo to forcibly punish those who sell a certain kind of milk for which no negative health effects have been shown. Why?

Gingkobreeze

So, just out of curiosity, what were the authorities supposed to do. I am in the natural health industry, and initially, I was backing them up. Someone else in my company was diligent enough to do some research and found out more information. I, actually, would have liked it if the authorities pointed out that the eggs they were portraying as pastured, were not. The meat that they were re-wrapping and selling as grass-fed was not. The statements made by ex-employees and Sharon Palmer's own Son (who is also a convicted felon) were all about her defrauding the public. No one has pointed out that Sharon Palmer, a convicted felon, purchased that farm along with the owner of Rawsome. Please don't tell me that he didn't know what she was doing. Why, she didn't even have enough chickens on the property to keep up with all the eggs she was selling to the public and to Farmers Markets all over Southern California. I would have preferred that the authorities brought that to the surface instead of making it about raw milk. I drink raw milk and I believe that it is my right to do so, but I think that it should be sold by people who are reputable.

Carbon Dioxide

I am just glad that the LAPD is saving the good people of California from possible bad milk and letting the illegal aliens run wild. What a country we live in.

Karl Baba

Friggin banksters ruin the world economy through fraud, causing countless forclosures and whole countries to melt down and nobody goes to jail, but dare sell raw milk? Go jail!! What a raw deal!

Mark Stockman

I understand raiding the place and seizing the raw milk products. But unhooking the surveillance cameras before looting the place bare? Since when is it illegal to sell raw vegetables? The folks in the Dairy industry are responding to competition by using "pull" to bring the law down on their competitors. That's not capitalism, that's base thuggery. One day soon, these shaved-headed thugs are going to try an illegal raid, the people will fight back, and it will be like dropping a match in a pool of gasoline. I pray that day never comes, but it looks more and more likely.

Designboss

THAT'S how LA is spending it's money during a budget crisis? That is entirely wrong. Why does the cynical segment of my perspective suspect that the corporate grocer world is behind this?

doubter

wow, and this doesn't even address all of those eggs that she was selling as HFF eggs that were stamped Hohberg Farms right on the box, until she blacked them all out!

Rhemydog

I have had personal dealings with Sharon Palmer. She is a person with absolutely NO integrity. She is dishonest in the products she sells and has ripped off so many of her Ventura County suppliers (myself included) it is ridiculous. Raw food is a great thing. But you really need to get it from an honest person with INTEGRITY - something this woman does not posses. Karma - it's a bitch!

Happycow_m00

As someone who has shopped at Rawesome for years and NEVER EVER GOTTEN ILL from them this is a travesty. I don't care for permits either you signed a waiver when you agree to purchase their products and they are very good at informing you of the potential dangers. However their cheeses and milk is a thousand times better tasting then the best organic milk at Whole Foods. This is BS!!! period and I should have the right to choose what I AM GOING TO EAT!

Happycow_m00

This is the NEW WORLD ORDER~! Americans if your not worried about what is happening in this Country..Cuba will seem like FREEDOM in Comparison...

Satanspawn

diary products?why not just get the permits and avoid all of this hullaballoo?

Dawson

Liberalism at work. Big Government is there to "protect us" because we're too stupid to do it for ourselves.

OhReally

Your post seems to prove that.

Debbie

Only criminals disconnect surveillance cameras. I bet those who ordered the raid on Rawesome aren't ingesting enough raw fat themselves. Pour crappy, harmful, pasteurized milk down the drain, or how about going and fighting real crime. Get out of our business.

Bill T.

I've read the article and it says that there was a year long sting. They sold raw foods to non-members. A year's worth of taxpayer money on this? They were not selling the stuff under the guise of pastuerized product. They did do wrong to sell to non-members, but to remove/destroy all of the stock (produce etc. per the article) in the process? How many McDonald's get decimated when they break health laws?

Rmbodine

Yay. Sell it raw if you like, but do it legally. This is why the raw milk industry is considered circumspect by the majority.

Nelson Joanie

I do believe the main reason people are circumspect about drinking raw milk is because the sellers of lower quality milk that has to be pasteurized, homogenized, or ultrapasteurized or rirradiaated are so anxious to unload their profit-making milk that they make sure their products will not be threatened by the quality of raw milk, which by the way does not cause allergies which processed milks do cause.

Mometo

there is another option left: buy lead, melamine or nitrite tainted milk from china, and add to the usa deficit by killing your children. god forbid americans produce the milk and god forbid americans get to chose whose milk they want to drink. this is exactly the reason for the raid, opress any initiative on the part of the american people to better their lives. and i bet monsanto paid the raider to spill hundreds of gallons of milk while children are going hungry in this country. whose the con now?

PlainOldTruth

Its a conspiracy! AFT ships guns diresctly to Mexican gangs because they don't want the US public to be armed (its an anti-2nd amendment ploy), and they go after yogurt conspiracies in their spare time. Hippies and rednecks unite -- the left-right paradigm is dead.

Xxeatmiloxx

This was incredibly sad for our family as well since our son cannot tolerate other types of milk, other than raw goat milk. He was thriving on milk that we buy from Rawesome. Now we dont know what to do.

Johnny Dollar

"Now we dont know what to do." Stop whining and put a few minutes into Web research? Just a thought.

Josh Ling

Troll much?

akw

Try using a supplier that follows the law. One that exceeds all requirements is Organic Pastures. I used to buy from them when I lived in CA; they sell their raw milk all over CA, and they ship it anywhere.

http://organicpastures.com/sho...

Beauty Model

Ron Paul is your best hope people. http://healthimpactnews.com/20...

Lemmy Bruce

enormous tragedy? #firstworldproblems

Duane Ward

I just paid $22.87 for an iPad 2 '64 GB' and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $674 which only cost me $62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, CentHub.com

Spaminator

Duane.. Take your spam ads elsewhere

Latonya "Keed" Bunn

Ramazing! I'm talking about the fact that these scofflaws -- actually, "ex-cons" is more appropriate for the real-estate fraud convictions -- have manipulated the gullible into thinking that they, unlike every Mom and Pop grocery store owner, shouldn't have to spend time and money on obtaining permits and licenses, because, unlike Mom and Pop, they are "advocates fighting to bring raw milk to consumers." What a joke! They are small-business owners trying to bring money to themselves who aren't willing to pay the cost of doing business. Type "raw milk" "los angeles" into Google, and some of the 751,000 hits -- from Whole Paycheck to the farmers markets -- will undoubtedly be both nearby and legal. With that kind of availability, anyone who feeds this unlicensed product to a child should be ashamed.

Guest

Whole Foods Market ceased selling raw milk last year after the first raid on Rawesome. This has nothing to do with permits. They don't want to be continually hassled by the government, as Rawesome has been This is about much more than permits. I have been buying raw milk from Rawesome for 7 years. There is nothing unsafe about their milk. Stay out of my food supply!

Nelson Joanie

Whole Foods is afraid to take a stand for raw milk because they are playing ball with everyone so they don't get into complications with the likes of Monsanto. They are still good, but they have compromised.

Whole paycheck

You mean the Whole Foods that would rather have your "organic" food made in China and whose CEO doesn't think Health Care Reform is a necessary evil? Yeah, go figure your corporate "health food" store is trying to save a buck at your health's extent... I bet their stockholders aren't losing sleep over it.

Nelson Joanie

Stockholders of Whole Foods Market's products include corporations like Pepsi-Cola, and many more of that category of big business. They know how to make a buck.

anon

Exactly! Has nothing to do with "permits", that's merely the red herring here. I wish the owners could defend themselves. I will continue to fight to buy the quality I feel is best for me.

Joe Vaish

Wow, it went from one alleged incidence of selling goat's milk in a parking lot to multiple parking lots.. How did that happen? Who knows how that went down, too. Probably some agent asking the guy (dressed as a hippie); "Hey bro, love your stuff. Could I grab a bottle." "no, sorry" "Come on, I won't tell."

Indeed.

Whole paycheck

Again, please read the article. This arrest is the product of a year long sting where they were selling cheese to non-members in grocery store parking lots. Enjoy your curb cheese, though...

Joe Vaish

No, permits have to do with selling it to the public. Because Rawsome is a private club, and you have to sign a waiver, that doesn't apply.

Whole paycheck

The permits have to do with selling it, you clods.

Sue Rodgers

You've been buying from them for seven years? So you must have met these people not long after they got out of jail for real-estate fraud. Did they have that jailbird pallor?

Getting back to the point, what's your documentation on the cause-effect relationship between WF dropping raw milk and the raid on the ex-cons who run Rawesome? How do all those farmers markets sell raw milk if Rawesome's problems have "nothing to do with permits"? Why would anyone buy a food product that requires licensing from an unlicensed dealer, even if he's a documented saint?

Guest

Owner James Stewart is not an ex-con. Sharon Palmer, a farmer who supplies them, is the person you are referring to. The official word from the police today was that Stewart was arrested for selling raw milk, not for a lack of permits, either building or sellers or otherwise. Incidentally, Rawesome is still open today, selling non-dairy items to customers. And since Rawesome is a members-only establishment, once again the permits spoken of here are irrelevant. Please keep an open mind, do your research, and recognize the dissipation of rights going on around you. Or you may have to eat your words, raw or not, and still have to pay permits to do so.

Joe Vaish

Yes, in this case you may be right.

http://www.unhealthyfamilyfarm...

Looks like some people might have been duped. I don't drink milk myself but have many friends that shop at Rawsome and swear by it. Perhaps I trusted their opinion too much. Guess I just assumed they researched the issue. By the way, I am still more concerned with freedom of choice. I personally don't drink milk because I find it's unnecessary, but I do support free choice.

Sue Rodgers

Hey, Joe Vaish: Buying from Rawesome is the same as drinking milk from your own cow? The fact that food scientists don't believe it is part of the rational foundation for requiring licensing. Whether the inspectors do their jobs is a separate issue, about which, I'd guess, you and your compadres here know nothing.

Talking about my own cow, however, I know exactly where she is, what she eats, her living conditions, how she's milked, how the milk is stored and transported to my table, etc. What similar information do you have about Rawesome's milk that isn't based in faith? Having an independent agency monitoring the process is essential for translating that faith into real protection. Churchill was certainly right when he said, "There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies," but he clearly meant consistently safe milk. The anecdotes told by a few of you anonymous posters about how wonderful Rawesome is can't match scientifically grounded, well-conducted inspections. Improving the inspection process should be our goal -- not defending unlicensed purveyors with criminal backgrounds.

Joe Vaish

Using that logic, if someone drinks milk from their own cow, which is essentially the case with Rawsome customers, it's a questionable act. Just because it's licensed doesn't mean it's safe. Please spare us the specious reasoning. It's about freedom of choice.

Timothy Williams

And yet, the only shame I feel is in sharing a country with people who think that selling farm products without bribing bureaucrats justifies an armed raid.

akw

Get real - you can't be that dense. The government has regulations to keep consumers safe; Rawsome and HFF refuse to comply with regulations that would make sure their products aren't going to make people SICK. Permits and licenses are NOT unreasonable requirements, and I guarantee you that if people got sick from Rawsome products they would sue the government for not making sure the food was licensed and inspected.

Nelson Joanie

Do you honestly believe that the processed foods, often junk foods, offered in the supermarkets will keep you well?

Abolish Cops

"The government has regulations to keep consumers safe." HAHAHA! Really? Did you learn that in your government school? I bet you were a good little boy who memorized what the text book said so you could correctly answer the teacher and get a pat on the back. So what incentive does the government have to keep the diaper baby safe? They get your tax money no matter what, so why should they care if their government approved foods are extremely unhealthy or not? The best you can do is have a tiny, minute fraction of a say of who gets to be the guy who appoints the guy to the post in the institution which is not at all subject to the threat of losing "consumers" and which decides what is "safe" or unsafe" to eat. I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say that maybe, just maybe, these bureaucrats couldn't give a crap less about your safety and would rather get rich off of bribes from giant faceless corporations who spend endless amounts of money bribing bureaucrats to pass laws which stomp out any potential competition.

Yes, these requirements are entirely unreasonable as there is not a single rational reason why anyone should be forced to get permission from a third party to engage in voluntary trade.

Mystified

I don't get schmoey's point... so because the existing regulations and requirements are not as strong as you'd like (i.e. don't require disclosure of bromide), we should instead reject all regulations, refuse to comply with the health code, and let people operate... with no restrictions whatsoever and no requirement to disclose anything at all that is in the food. yeah, that makes sense.