While Mrs. Obama plants an organic garden on the White House lawn and tours around the country promoting her pet project of adding salad bars to public school cafeterias to fight childhood obesity, Mr. Obama’s out of control and power crazed Executive Branch – namely the FDA, USDA, and CDC are sponsoring terrorist raids against organic health food store operators and small farms all over the nation.
The latest raid took place yesterday at Rawesome Foods, a private club in Venice CA. The armed raid was the culmination of a year long investigation in which undercover government operatives purchased unpasteurized goat milk, cheese, yogurt and kefir at farmer’s markets and at Rawesome Foods, a private organic food club.
While this raid and the subsequent arrest of three innocent citizens was clearly outrageous and illegal in every sense of the word, my biggest concern is how the private contracts between Rawesome, its primary farm supplier Healthy Family Farms and its customers are being completely ignored and swept under the rug by government authorities.
The contract, after all, is a primary vehicle in the exercise of this economic system we call Capitalism. When the contract falls upon shaky ground and is not recognized by the governing authorities as the binding and legal agreement that it is, the entire economic system becomes seriously at risk.
In the case of Rawesome, the issue appears to be the use of herdshare or boarding agreements for its dairy goats. Other goat farmers in California have experienced similar problems. Mike Hulme of Evergreen Acres in San Jose received a cease and desist letter from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office. Mr. Hulme along with several owners of the goats boarded at his farm are suing the State and County for denying their fundamental right to enter into an agreement to board livestock.
Since when are citizens of the United States of America denied the right to enter into private contractual agreements with each other?
This shocking development has occurred in tandem with the escalation of the Federal government’s efforts to destroy private food organizations whose intent is to obtain nutrient dense foods directly from small family farms. Clearly the government will stop at nothing – including denial of fundamental rights – to prevent consumers from circumventing the disastrous and recall plagued food distribution system monopolistically controlled by Big Ag and Big Food.
Protests are about more than Rawesome, although getting these three innocent citizens released as quickly as possible is certainly of paramount importance. This protest is about the sanctity of the contract, freedom of food choice and the right to conduct private business without the interference of government authorities.
If you are not in the Los Angeles area and want to help, please consider donating to the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund which assists business owners, consumers, and farmers with legal advice and representation during times of harassment such as this.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
What!!!! Politics are helping to erode our food security, and rights to healthy food.
Olga, you need to write to your Congressman and tell them to keep the politics out of our health and well being!
PS> Blog on Sarah! 🙂
Keith,
I read this blog to learn about how to feed my little one and my husband in a better and healthier way. I am very grateful to Sarah for providing all of this invaluable information for free.
I will not be posting any comments on this topic anymore and will not let myself be dragged into yet another blah-blah about “government – the boogie man”. There is too much of this all over the cable TV.
Respectfully,
Olga
Hi Olga,
She doesn’t claim that our government is the “Boogie Man.” She is just stating the unfair actions that they are involved in with our food. I find it very alarming that some people would tolerate such malicious behavior coming from our own government. It is complacency that has brought us to where we are today—- BIG government.
“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. Every generation needs a new revolution. God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government,” Thomas Jefferson.
In Australia the raw milk is sold as ‘bath milk’ or there are share cow groups. The policing is not as full on as the US., but they are on alert, and people have been caught out ‘breaking the rules’.
Hi Sarah,
I really enjoy reading your blog. I admire your passion for keeping your family healthy and well nurtured. A lot of your articles are very inspiring, BUT I really hope you keep politics out of your blog. I canget my politics elsewhere and the last thing I want to read about on your blog is your political viewpoints. All this senseless inflammatory anti-government rethoric is really disappointing coming from such an intelligent and well educated person as yourself. PLEASE, keep politics out of your blog or you will most likely lose a lot of readership.
Respectfully,
Olga
She is posting about whole food, on a whole food blog. And it happens to involve the government and how this government is attempting to restrict what sentient beings can and cannot eat.
Therefore, regardless of whether she is right or wrong, her post is not “senseless.”
Your logic is terribly flawed.
I have to comment though that I have my suspicions about whether or not you actually read her blog very often. Personally I read it everyday but don’t usually comment so maybe I’m wrong and just haven’t seen your name because I don’t do comments usually. But she comments quite regularly about our rights being infringed upon by not being able to legally drink raw milk, etc so if you were really that put off by her “anti-government” rhetoric, it seems that you would have been long gone by now.
Hi Ray, please comment more often. 😉
I’ve really enjoyed reading your comments on this post about the erosion of our contract rights since the New Deal. You are very clear thinking and I like your perspective on things!
Well said, Ray!
Hi Ray,
just like you I read Sarah’s blog every single day. I find the informaiton here very valuable and inspiring. But because I am very busy taking care of my 21 months old I almost never write any comments. Yes, Sarah does comment once in a blue moon on the issues of government abusing its powers. For some reason though this particular article stroke a nerve in me. It comes across as very Glen Beckish. Which is again very disappointing coming from such an open-minded and well-educated person as Sarah.
Respectfully,
Olga
Olga,
Please take this in a positive spirit, but what is important is the values at stake here. Should an individual have the ability to decided what they can eat? Really, how much more basic can the subject of citizens’ rights get?
Getting more upset about the mention of Obama than this awful violation of individual rights just seems out of balance somehow.
Hi Olga, feeding my family well and keeping them healthy can only be done if the government stays OUT of my kitchen. Consequently, I have no choice but to be political about what is happening about my family’s threatened access to Real Food. The two are inextricably intertwined.
Same here, Sarah! My local egg farmer who sells pasture raised eggs is also very nervous about the intense government restrictions on our food. He’s afraid that he may not be able to sell eggs anymore in the future if our government keeps raiding small farmers and people who grow their own food. I’m very nervous too since he’s one of the very few egg farmers I know of that sells truly pastured eggs.
To be honest, I’m very happy that you continue to shed some light on what is truly happening in America. People need to know what is happening to our food and to our small farmers. No one should take these situations lightly. If they do, they may very well be living in a too comfortable situation where their community hasn’t been exposed to any food raids yet.
I don’t want to wait until my local farmers are forced to shutdown their businesses for me to get serious about this situation. This situation concerns everyone! I think it’s time for people as a whole to look out for others and their country rather than only looking out for themselves. After all, a country divided is not a country at all.
It occurs to me that if you view Sarah as intelligent and well educated person you would not want to silence her on this very important issue! Questionable.
Ironically, processed pasteurized milk is partly responsible for the epidemic of chronic disease while raw milk has no where caused this much illness. Yet they attack the raw milk!
Free citizens should be able, by definition, to enter in to private, consensual contracts with one another. But the water was muddied long ago, and many people who would argue for such freedom will argue against it just as easily if the scenario suits them.
Try arguing against the 40 hour work week, and see how popular that makes you at your next dinner party. If two sentient adults ought to be able to enter in to a private, consensual contract, then that would apply to a laborer who agreed to work a 50 hour work week at a straight hourly rate. But it is against the law for two people enter in to such an agreement.
Point being is that the population as a whole, even those who find this raid as outrageous as it truly is, are not interested in liberty, but only in what benefits them directly. Only when things go wrong in their back yard do they become concerned, or only when their ox gets gored, so-to-speak.
Hi Ray,
I believe if people looked into what is truly going on to the world around them, there would be revolts in the streets of America right now. However, many people are sadly not informed. The situation regarding Rawesome concerns everyone. It denotes how powerful our government really is in taking or expanding our rights. They have the power to make or break the people of America. They’ve already lessened the power of our Constitution so that they could expand theirs. Don’t you think this alone is scary enough?
RE: Constitution
Yes, that’s my point.
We lost our right of contract somewhat gradually but essentially the Supreme Court slowly undid “Lochner v. New York” during the New Deal era. The undoing of that decision, and the tragically broad interpretation of the commerce clause, and it’s been all downhill from there.
Some others were throwing political bombs earlier in the comments, but it’s really a matter of the individual and the government. Any time power concentrates, the individual gets crushed. I highly recommend Richard Epstein’s “SImple Rules for a Complex World.”
Thanks for the recommended book 🙂
Hi everyone,
Here is an update on what’s happening with Rawsome. Please watch this exciting video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=-x7qXP7rt7w
Oh Good Lord! I tried watching that video and it made me dizzy and nauseous after about 2-3 minutes. Who on earth hired that dood to be the cameraman? Whew! I think I’ll wait for someone else to report later. The original story I saw was on Yahoo! News so yes, the regular media is covering it (not just alternative media as Mikey Adams is reporting) but probably not to the same extent.
LOL, D. Yes, the cameraman was definitely annoying. 🙂
Sometimes when I read through some of the comments of those who DON’T see the link between our food supply and a government hell-bent on controlling everything….well, I just feel angry at the lack of KNOWLEDGE! People are ignorant because they have been taught not to question, just pass the test. (Familiar?) The Nazis did it too..they dumbed down the population so they would NOT dare to question what their government was doing? It is in the details. Look around and see what is happening to our freedoms! THANK YOU SARAH! EDUCATE All of us on whatever needs addressing! If it’s on Obama’s watch, then HE should pay attention and take the heat. Keep up the good work Sarah! Also, I just want to thank everyone out there who IS paying attention! We have to support each other and keep telling our friends and families what is going on; they are purposely being kept in the dark! (media) God bless and SAVE America.
Well said, Watchmom3!
This is a very serious time in our nation. Our rights are being taken away left and right, and if we do not wake up there will be nothing left of our freedom. For those who support President Obama, I would ask if you really love freedom. Don’t get me wrong, Republicans aren’t really any better. Not only would we have a lot more freedom if we got rid of a bunch of the above mentioned agencies, we would save a lot of money. Maybe we could also balance the out of control budget as well.
Sarah, I just wanted to say that I voted for Obama & would again, but I am also dismayed that this is happening under his watch. I don’t trust ANY politician, frankly. Even if their intentions are good, the system is too broken for them to effect much change. It’s time for a revolution.
Yes, Kay! It is certainly time for a revolution!
Ok, I agree, but how do we start?
By informing as much people as possible. It is certainly not easy to bring millions of people together to fight for our rights. However, the more people the better. If people in the past could initiate powerful revolutions without the use of televisions or the internet, imagine what we can do.
Brilliant observation, Erica!
Start by getting involved in political action groups that write, email, and essentially raise a voice.
And just as important, go beyond the idea that this politician is bad, and that one is good. I could write paragraphs of how both Bush and Obama have violated their own professed ideologies, but the larger point is that the government continues to creep in to our daily lives no matter who is in office.
If everyone would make a list of the values that mean the most to them and hold their politicians to those, it would be a much different place.
YES, this is exactly how I feel. Was having a hard time articulating it above.
Here’s the solution: Everyone buy a cow, plant a garden, can your harvest, homeschool your children, disconnect your televisions, work from home, visit your neighbors and turn off your cell phones, walk where you need to go, burn wood for heat. 🙂 See? Problem solved.
Working on a few of those. Buy cow–need a different house for that. Garden–check….Can harvest—check homeschool–check disconnect television–not unless I have to Visit my neighbors–check Turn off cell phones—why? Burn wood for heat–ok for a fireplace, but if everyone does it talk about air pollution YIKES!