Thursday, August 11, 2011

Something About This Rawsome Thing Stinks And I'll Tell You Why...

I have been captivated by the story of the Rawsome raid in Venice, CA for the last week. The Nourished Kitchen first published a great article detailing not only the details of the case but how one could get involved. Rallies have been staged, protests have been waged.

But something seemed off to me when reading the article.

Since reading Jenny’s account of the raid, I have read several different versions, from the article at Natural News which it seems has been publishing more than a few articles on the topic. Forbes magazine published an article. So did a site called yovenice.com. To recap for those who haven’t heard, on August 3rd Rawsome Foods a raw milk buying club in Venice, CA was raided by armed agents who seized raw milk, raw cheese, raw kefir, computers and $4,536 in cash. They also arrested three people, the owner of Rawsome Foods owner James Stewart, Weston A Price liason Victoria Bloch and Healthy Family Farms owner Sharon Palmer. The raw milk community has cried foul on the raid as the government’s intimidation of raw dairy consumers in the marketplace. The allegation has flown that the FDA wants to limit our food freedoms and the state government of California is trying to force a private buying club into paying state sales tax to which it should not be subject. Every account that I have read has accurately centered around the fact that the 13 count arrest warrant alleges that Rawsome Foods was operating an illegal grocery store because they did not have the proper permits to sell raw milk in the state of California, among other conspiracy charges.

Here is a copy of the search warrant provided by Natural News

It is worth it to note that the sale of raw milk is LEGAL in the state of California. One must obtain the proper permits in order to sell unpasteurized dairy. However the news coverage of this case alleges that Rawsome was NOT a grocery store at all, but a private buying club. The Natural News went even further as to say “they are not a public store. Rawesome Foods is a private member club where members actually own a percentage of the cows, goats and farms that produce the raw dairy.” Rawsome, they say is just the pick-up location. Anyone would agree that if you and your family across town all owned the rights to a little plot of land, any vegetables grown on the land that you formally agreed to split would not be a sale technically. You would simply be co-operative owners. You would all be subject to splitting the maintanence costs, property taxes on the land, investment in the farming operation and any yield that the land might bring. That makes sense right?

Is this a case of the government squeezing your rights as a consumer to freely choose the most healthful food you wish? Is the FDA stepping over your civil rights by intimidating sellers of raw milk? Some things for me…well they just didn’t add up. First and foremost, if Rawsome foods was just a pick up and drop off location, why did they have so much cash? The more I kept thinking about it, I belong to a CSA. I pay a lump sum in spring and enjoy fresh vegetables delivered to me all summer and fall. My CSA has organized a drop off location. It is a couple of folding tables at a restaurant in the park. No one has ever asked me for cash. I send that via mail directly to the farmer. And in my CSA which is private, while I pay for a share, I do not co-operatively own parts of the farm. What kind of business model is Rawsome? The reports aren’t clear. If people joined with a membership fee and then purchased however much or as little as they wanted from week to week, that sounds like a co-operative grocery store, not a co-operative ownership. Still semi private, but a business nonetheless, as far as I understand subject to the tax and licensing laws of the land. I visited the website of this Healthy Family Farms owned by Sharon Palmer. They are truly set up as a private buying club, with a membership fee of between $25-$35 in order to purchase products. Then you simply order what you want from their website. There is not an ‘about’ page where interested people can gain more information. There is no info, location or otherwise, about the farm, and several products listed for sale are noted as coming from out of state. A membership is easily attainable through a fee, making this in my opinion a completely public group. It is simply a more expensive handling fee, just like I pay when I shop at Target.com. My CSA runs a waiting list, and each year you wait 4-6 weeks to find out IF you have been accepted. I don’t just go to an open website and load the CSA fee in my cart.

Of course the most heated debate was about the permits themselves. It is clear that Rawsome did not obtain permits to sell unpasteurized dairy in California. The three were arraigned in court August 9th after being held on bail since August 3rd. So it is clear that the judge feels that a law has been broken sufficient to bring the case to court and not just throw it out. But that debate will continue as details of the case come out. Likely though the case will progress as it is not the first infraction against Rawsome. They were raided in 2010 for similar violations.

My problem with all of this is that it detracts from the larger issue at hand, your right to buy the foods you want to. This meddling over permits and taxes doesn’t do anything to change the fact that RAW MILK IS LEGAL IN CALIFORNIA. All you have to do is follow the rules. There are dozens of states, including Wisconsin, the largest milk producing state in the country, that do not even allow people to purchase raw milk from the farmer at his own farm. The case against Rawsome has a lot to do with how laws are IMPLEMENTED, but I prefer to fight against BAD LAWS. I think there are few mainstreamers who would want to deregulate the food industry. There are enough egg recalls and ground turkey fiascos to go around right now. Additional deregulation isn’t the answer in my opinion. Fair laws in every state that are in place for the consumer rather than agri-business are the answer. I mean, do we really think that there are zero unscrupulous people in the raw milk business? Are all small farmers so honest and true that NOT A SINGLE ONE would ever sell meat from a sick animal? And what happens when demand outpaces supply of raw milk? Will the community grow ever larger with still no scandal or charlatans looking to make a buck off of you?

In fact, The LA Times reported on August 9th that Healthy Family Farms Owner Sharon Palmer “may be considered a flight risk given that in 2000 she and her partner Edward Rostami were arrested near the U.S.-Mexico border as they fled to avoid prosecution for a real estate swindle.” The linked article details how Palmer (allegedly then Palmer-Ross) was sentenced to three years probation for a reverse mortgage scheme targeted at an eldery woman in Malibu. The article states that Palmer-Ross had previously served a prison sentence for the same crime against a Santa Clara homeowner. Palmer-Ross has also according to the LA Times been “arrested while trying to reenter the country with three Mexican nationals in the trunk of her car.”

It is true. There is nothing definite except death and taxes. I don’t try and fight taxes. I am not going to sit here and fight the tax laws that are on the books. If my state says I need to pay sales tax on my ground turkey, so be it. But please don’t let a small group of people who simply are denying the government’s right to govern them make all of the raw food advocates look like a bunch of people on the political fringe. Business of scale indeed do need to be regulated and thanks to all our writing, cooking, word of mouth and passion, the local and raw food movements are a business of scale. Maybe not the same scale as agri-business, but we are getting there. We can't expect to continually escape regulations.

I will fight for raw milk. But I can’t fight for these people if they simply didn’t follow the letter of the law. I will continue to watch as the story unfolds. But it smells a little spoiled to me.

Also see: You Tube Footage of Stewart at Healthy Family Farms.

This post is shared with Simple Lives Thursdays and Fight Back Fridays and Traditional Tuesdays

13 comments:

  1. Thank you for this. I too had some questions as I read the accounts.. and the more wild the accusations the more confused I got.

    I'm still not sure I agree with how this went about (guns drawn and emptying the shelves) but I'm more inclined to accept why it was done.

    and I agree it is a little sad how this is being turned into a David vs Goliath fight and not that one business wasn't following the laws

    ReplyDelete
  2. What Rawesome was doing would have been fine EXCEPT the part where they sold Raw milk to a non- club member, specifically an undercover officer, and that is where they were in violation of their private club set up and then became a grocery store. I really think that while they are getting people upset and making headlines this isn't going to help the raw milk cause. This is probably going to make it harder for other private arrangements for raw milk because of their violation. The judge is likely going to believe if this happened with the undercover that its happened before.

    So in other words, I think you are right on in your assertion. The biggest shame of it is that CA is one of the best raw milk states and because these guys didn't have their act in gear they are making a mess of things

    ReplyDelete
  3. The thing that gets me is that so much of the pro-Rawsome arguments are people crying out how they never made anyone sick. But that was never really the issue -- the issue was that they were trying to use legal semantics to avoid collecting sales tax for the state. While I agree that some of the extreme practices in this particular case (like throwing out all that food) had to do with prejudice against raw dairy, I can't really stand by this as an example of a little guy getting trampled by "the man" when really it was a group of people trying to play fast and loose with certain laws and getting called on it.

    Great post, bringing up this point.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for this article! I have been wondering about this too, since all the articles I read basically said the same thing: "Poor little store, terrorized by a senseless raid." Not a single one mentioned that raw milk is legal in CA, or that an undercover officer had been illegally offered raw milk. Important details, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm not sure if you've stumbled across this (I assume you have), or if you have any idea how legitimate it is, but this report from a private investigating company seems to show a few more suspicious details regarding Healthy Family Farms.

    http://www.scribd.com/doc/61657586/Investigative-Report-EVIDENCE-of-FRAUD-at-Healthy-Family-Farms-HFF

    Unimportant side-note: it's interesting if you visit the Healthy Family Farms website - the "shady organization" warning signs are pretty glaring! No address, phone number, or even email address, at a family farm??

    I guess the courts will discover the truth, but it does make you wonder if Ms. Palmer simply decided that organic farm fraud would pan out better than bilking-old-ladies-out-of-their-homes fraud.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I too am confused by the Rawesome business, and I haven't written about it on my own blog because I'm not sure what to make of it. It does seem like they may have been legitimately breaking laws. The Healthy Family Farms business is shady. But at the same time, I support the right of legitimate private food clubs to exist.

    It is legal to buy raw milk at the store in California, but there are only two licensed raw milk dairies. I am still investigating why, but I suspect there may be economic barriers. Both certified dairies are cow dairies. Rawesome also made raw goat, sheep, and camel milk available. I'm also not convinced that grocery stores are a good distribution model for such a perishable food, and I doubt if state regulation makes raw milk much safer (see turkey recalls!)

    Thanks for bringing a critical voice to the case. We should all watch it carefully.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Danielle, that link is frightening!! Did you read all 22 pages? It makes some pretty serious accusations. If people in the raw dairy community read what this paper states: that conditions at Healthy Family Farms were bad with unclean conditions and dying animals and that conventional eggs were being passed off as organic....I think people would choose to not support their cause.

    Thank you for bringing it to my attention. I will try and update the post.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you for all your research work in this story!! Your article was very written and clarified a lot of questions I had. I, too, have read many articles about this raid and still have many questions. I don't think we will ever know the real story.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Clabbermouth, your writing is excellent. Count me in and please don't stop!!
    FYI, because I think you'll think it is funny, my auto corret wants me to call you Blabbermouth instead of Clabbermouth. Anyhow, great site I am following you now!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thank you for this article. I always love reading more than one side of a story.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Pretty good journalism here: http://www.thecompletepatient.com/

    Hopefully that site will provide a bit more insight into the details of this case.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Andrea, I really appreciate your link. I read some of the articles. Very good journalism in fact. However, even that article recognizes that Rawsome broke the law by not obtaining the permits that the state asked them to acquire in 2010. The article goes so far as to say that Stewart and his lawyer stood in court and stated that they rejected the authority and jurisdiction of the LACDPH (Los Angeles county department of public health) and they would reopen and they would defy the order. I personally don't want to do business with farmer's like that. There are plenty of law abiding farmers for my food dollar to go to. I am no anarchist.

    However, I encourage you to follow your heart and believe what is right for you and keep coming here to set me straight if you think I am wrong. Tell me WHY you think I am wrong. I am ALWAYS open to hearing a well though out dissenting argument.

    ReplyDelete
  13. sadly they were raided How many times? and the first time not a sole was arrested, get real if they were doing something wrong they would have been hauled off day one,but they were not, the whole case is a load of BS, had someone gotten sick or died or anything you could justify these actions, other wise its all government control crap

    ReplyDelete