Attacks on Raw Foods Accelerate to Police State Levels

The attack is now extending to other raw foods. Raw nuts and honey are being impounded in their raids. When will we be told that it's illegal to eat raw apples, that all apples must first be turned into applesauce and cooked?

by Heidi Stevenson

26 July 2010

With specious claims and a police state mentality, the attacks on raw milk and other raw foods multiply. Well coordinated raids on farms and shops that produce and distribute raw foods are being done to intimidate the producers. They are effectively being informed that it doesn't matter if they're innocent or right, they'll be driven out of business by harrassment, costs to defend themselves, and even prison.

The Attack on Raw Milk Is An Attack on Personal Rights

Unless you choose a diet of pure junk food and want Big Pharma and Agribusiness dictating what you eat, you have a strong interest in what's going on. We are all effectively being put behind bars. We're losing our freedoms of speech and association, and the implied rights to freedom of food and health are under attack. The FDA has actually stated that we have no right to food freedom or health!

The primary focus of raids has been in dairy states. It's not hard to figure out why: The states and FDA are protecting the interests of agribusiness dairy factory farms against raw dairy competition. Gaia Health has covered recent events in Michigan^(1,2), Indiana^(1,2), and Pennsylvania⁽³⁾.

Attacks on Real Food Are Accelerating

However, the raids have been spreading. California is being hit, likely because it's a state where people have shown strong interest in healthy foods. Twenty County Sheriff agents raided Sharon Palmer's Ventura County farmhouse at 7 a.m.⁽⁴⁾ It was the third such raid there in 1½ years! They had already taken two computers, and this time they took their daughter Jasmine's computer for homework. So far, not a single computer has been returned. During the five-hour raid, the agents also took milk Ms. Palmer uses to feed her chickens and pigs.

The government isn't saying why they're harrassing the Palmer family, but it's obvious—especially in light of another raid done on the same day. In Venice, a tiny town surrounded by Los Angeles on three sides and the ocean on the fourth, a private food club was also raided. Rawesome Foods sells only to people who want unpasteurized dairy products, unwashed eggs—unwashed eggs stay fresh far longer than washed—and other healthy foods. Customers must pay a membership fee, which clearly indicates that they are aware of what they're purchasing.

Not only were there County Sheriffs at the Rawesome raid, there were also FBI and FDA agents—in all, about twice as many as at the Palmer raid. They made off with thousands of dollars of raw dairy, and even raw honey.⁽⁵⁾

To his credit, Rawefoods proprietor Aajonus Vonderplanitz defiantly reopened the store a few hours later. He's a true activist who has been active in promoting a raw food diet for health. It's not hard to see that he was selected because he's well known. They want to use him for a message of intimidation, to try to scare others to stop their involvement with raw foods.

The People's Will Is of No Interest to the FDA

Private groups with an interest in healthy raw, organic, and humanely raised foods, especially milk, which has been particularly demonized, have been increasing across the country. This is clearly seen as a threat to Agribusiness. So, your tax dollars are being used to destroy the distribution centers and the farmers who produce such products.

You need to be aware that the FDA says you have no right to food freedom! This is not hyperbole: it's a statement the FDA made in response to a lawsuit by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.⁽⁶⁾

Max Kane, who ran a cow share program, was arrested and agents demanded that he tell who his customers and suppliers were. He is currently fighting a contempt of court conviction for refusing. This appears to be retaliation for Max having the unmitigated gall to use the Freedom of Information Act to get records that document meetings of the FDA with state agriculture agencies in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois to target and make plans to destroy raw milk-buying clubs.

Of course, with such dangerous felons involved, the raiders are using extreme methods. They're pulling guns and aiming them at people on the premises. They are turning security cameras off and threatening people who try to film their raids. All of this is being done with the claim that they're protecting the public.

The FDA says that raw foods are dangerous. Therefore, they demand that milk be pasteurized, and they ignore the studies that document how such heating destroys most of its nutritional value. They ignore the people, like Max Kane, who claim that their health has been restored by raw milk. They are now extending the attack to other raw foods. Raw nuts and honey are being impounded in their raids. When will we be told that it's illegal to eat raw apples, that all apples must first be turned into applesauce and cooked?

It's even highly questionable whether raw milk was the actual cause of most of the outbreaks of disease that the FDA and state agriculture agencies claim. The recent raids on Michigan and Indiana farms that were allegedly for a campylobacter outbreak resulted in the Indiana location quitting the sales of raw milk. While the FDA trumpets a "link" between the campylobacter outbreak and raw milk, the fact is that their tests on the milk have never found any of that bacteria. These farms, which are trying only to provide the healthy food that people want, are being demonized for outbreaks of disease that the FDA, with all its might, cannot prove were their fault. Can you really believe that they are withholding the lab results for any good reason?

The FDA's Masters

The FDA does not serve the people—and neither do the state agriculture agencies that work with them. They are nothing but puppets of Agribusiness, serving their will at the loss of the people's rights. Unless the people speak out—loudly and quickly—the rights of free speech and assembly, and the obvious rights to eat what you choose and to pursue good health, will be irretrievably lost.

The FDA has punished small companies for having the gall to make claims backed by scientific studies about their food products. They have raided health food stores and have taken and destroyed books. Shades of Fahrenheit 451! If they can keep you from reading alternative views on health issues, what else can they keep you from knowing?

The FDA allows giant Agribusiness to do much as they please. Does anyone really think that General Mills was overly concerned about being told not to advertise their claim that Cheerios is good for health? Since small business don't have the money to fight such attacks and demands, it doesn't take a leap of faith to see who benefits from the FDA's draconian policies that serve only mammon, not man.

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