The Rawesome Raid and The Sanctity of the Contract

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