It looks as if we won’t get to see the modern-day version of the 1920s Scopes Monkey Trial over evolution that Mark McAfee envisioned for raw milk.
In an email with the subject line, “We surrender,” and in a comment following my previous post, Mark announced that he won’t challenge the U.S. government’s civil suit against him and his company, Organic Pastures Dairy Co. He said he made the decision partly on the advice of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which had previously been involved in helping him settle a possible criminal case over Organic Pastures’ sale of raw milk in states outside California.
With the FTCLDF unlikely to want to represent him in the civil suit, Mark decided discretion is the better part of valor. “We know when to fight…and when not to fight,” he told me last evening. “I’m not going to spend $10,000 a month to fight the FDA.”
Mark said he is taking a significant step toward settling the civil suit by ending sales this week of unpasteurized colostrum in neighboring Nevada. This had been a major bone of contention by the government. Mark describes his motivations further in the comment.
***
Local law enforcement officials have begun to give their side of the Manna Storehouse raid last week–to a friendly media outlet. The Chronicle-Telegram of Elyria does its best to paint law enforcement in the best light, but as Dave Milano notes in his comment following my previous post, it has holes:
–“They blocked every effort to get information.” The only “blocked effort” described is the Stowers ordering two health department inspectors off the property, which Katie described to me as well. But there is a big difference between government regulators being asked to leave private property, and returning to execute a search warrant with weapons-waving law enforcement officers. And there is nothing in the Chronicle-Telegram article about any reasons being offered the Stowers.
–“They had one uniformed officer…All we did was secure the residence…” Was it one armed officer or several, as in “we”? A residence or other building is typically “secured” by heavily armed security personnel or soldiers.
–“There were no guns held to anyone’s head.” Maybe not literally, but were guns drawn? Guns waved? The family ordered into a living room and held for hours against their will?
The reporter obviously didn’t want to press the case.
http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/manna-storehouse-co-op-raid-part-5-big-brother-and-the-holding-company-or-the-tip-of-a-much-bigger-iceberg/
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/12/lorain_county_sheriffs_office.html
——————-
Lorain County Sheriff’s Office disputes ‘raid’ at Manna Storehouse
Posted by Patrick O’Donnell/Plain Dealer Reporter December 09, 2008 21:55PM
PITTSFIELD TOWNSHIP — A SWAT team raided a family-run organic food co-op last week and held the family at gunpoint for hours while agents ransacked the place.
So say several Internet message boards abuzz with the tale of Lorain County’s Manna Storehouse, all screaming of "Gestapo" tactics traumatizing innocent farm folk.
But did it happen that way?
The family is not talking, but the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office, which conducted the "raid" along with the county Health Department and the Ohio Department of Agriculture, is puzzled by the outcry over what it calls the "very uneventful" execution of a simple search warrant.
Manna Storehouse is under investigation to determine whether it is a retail food business without a license. The seizure of Manna’s records and computers all but disabled the operation.
"The problem is these people on the Internet, from who knows where, were not there," said sheriff’s Capt. Richard Resendez. "They make up all these innuendos and create all these issues that are basically not true."
One of the highly charged postings reads: "SWAT team with semiautomatic rifles . . . herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM."
Another says: "It reeks of police state, lack of Constitutional Rights, and excessive use of force." Yet another site adds a photo of a SWAT team with guns pointed. The SWAT photo is from Long Beach, Calif.
Download the search warrant and supporting materials. (pdf)
Resendez said four deputies conducted the search over three or four hours — not the nine
claimed on some sites. There was no SWAT team and no semiautomatic weapons.
"We don’t even have semiautomatic weapons," he said.
One officer carried a shotgun, Resendez said, and the family was kept in one place to control the area, as is standard for any search warrant.
"Nobody was held at gunpoint," Resendez said. "That’s definitely something that didn’t happen."
Manna Storehouse owners John and Jacqueline Stowers declined to comment on the incident. None of the Internet posts quote the family directly, though a few include an e-mail reportedly from the family to friends and customers last week talking about "a very difficult time for our family" and struggles to restart the business.
Family members said they might have a statement later this week after meeting with lawyers.
Manna Storehouse is an organic and all-natural food co-op on Ohio 303, according to the store’s Web site. The site lists the store as selling dry goods, household items and frozen meats.
At the same time, store policies say it does not sell to the public — only to members of the co-op who pay a membership fee. Openly proclaiming it is not licensed and does not plan to obtain a license, Manna has members affirm that they "take full responsibility for their own health, health choices, food choices and food quality."
County officials say the business cannot operate that way.
Assistant County Prosecutor Scott Serazin said any business that sells perishable foods must be licensed and follow regulations covering those who store and supply food. There is no exception in the law for a co-op, Serazin said, and Manna cannot ask customers to waive safety regulations
"You just can’t have that," he said. "There has to be some kind of regulation and inspection of food."
The Lorain County Health Department tried to inspect the Storehouse in November 2007 but the family told inspectors to leave the property. Jacqueline Stowers wrote the department the next month that Manna does not need a license and that the inspection was an attempt to "cunningly coerce unlawful entry into our house and private property."
In September, the county asked the Ohio Department of Agriculture for assistance, and an agent purchased eggs at the store. When agents learned of a possible delivery of meat, they obtained a warrant to search for evidence of the business’s activities.
Serazin said charges are likely later this week. He also said that if the Stowerses try to reopen without obtaining a license, he would likely go to court to block it.
"Protection of health is one of the important roles of government," Serazin said. "That’s what this is all about."
Jackie’s letter to the Lorain County Health Department is also hilarious, but may have been what goaded the departments involved into their extreme actions.
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/12/Lorain%20Sheriff's%20report.pdf
Excerpt, and probably the source of the SWAT discrepancy/confusion:
"At approximately 11:42 hrs Sheriff Department units arrived at the Rt 303 residence. Detectives Kovacs, Onderko and Jackson along with Sgt. Barker maintained an outside perimeter around the residence. Deputies Gawlik, Montes, Pozega and myself made contact at the front door. Note: The outside perimeter Deputies were Detectives all wearing Lorian County Sheriff Deputy Jackets or Jackets that were marked as Sheriff. The Deputies at the front door were in full Lorain County Sheriff Uniform. Of further note: Deputy Gawlik was wearing a clearly marked Sheriff`s Department kevlar vest and as well as raid pants, as his duty uniform as a member of the Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force. Deputy Gawlik knocked on the door, where eventually a female, believed to be the daughter (Tina) of Mr. Stowers) answered the door. When Tina realized that we were sheriff`s Deputies she stated that she needed to go and get the ‘Owner’ and started to shut the door."
On the OPDC case, I’d be interested in a link to the change in the federal register. I wasn’t able to find a reference. I don’t think it mattered for that "super leche" product anyway, but probably for the actual colostrum product.
The report doesn’t say how long they were held, but the seven or eight hours seems right, especially since at least one additional officer was called in during the operation (his report is at the end).
We also learn that when the teenage son of the elder Stowers attempted to call his father via cellphone, the boy was grabbed by the arm and his phone taken from him–presumably in mid-conversation. The reason, according to the cops: the search warrant provided for seizure of cell phones. But did it prohibit family members from telephoning a parent or lawyer about what was happening? The entire account is framed to make it look like the Stowers were resisting because of a request from his mother that the teenager alert his father that eight law enforcement people and five or six state inspectors were surrounding the house and pushing their way in. That’s how police often come up with "resisting arrest" charges.
The report doesn’t say if the cops had their weapons out, but I would assume they did, since so far, nothing the Stowers have said about what happened has been shown to be in error. (The identification of the cops as a SWAT team seems reasonable, given how at least one was dressed, and the fact that at least one shotgun was on display.)
I also wonder if the Stowers will be blamed for the injury to the police officer who hurt his leg on the ice outside the residence.
David Gumpert
It appears that you don’t need a license to perform "cottage food production", operate a fresh fruit/vegetable roadside stand or to sell eggs directly if you own fewer than five hundred birds. From Jackie Stowers’ letter to the Lorain County Health Department, it appears that she is claiming an exemption under "multiple numbered subsections" of 3717.22 (B). From my layman’s reading of the Revised Code, I would guess that exemptions 3712.22 (B) 1 and possibly 6 would apply to them:
"(B) All of the following are exempt from the requirement to be licensed as a retail food establishment:
(1) An establishment with commercially prepackaged foods that are not potentially hazardous and contained in displays, the total space of which equals less than two hundred cubic feet;
…
(6) A cottage food production operation, on the condition that the operation offers its products directly to the consumer from the site where the products are produced;"
BTW if anyone wants to see the source of pervasive rules purporting to regulate, make inspections, license and generally control nearly all aspects of food, check out your state’s food law to see where the regulators are coming from and the tools they may have in their toolkit. Only the Grade A milk and milk products laws are more specific and thorough-going. My guess is, that most states’ food laws are pretty similar, since many of them derive from the federal model. It goes on for many, many pages and much power is allocated to the regulators.
I just read the sheriff report which definitely suggests more firepower than the local news article. We are in a small rural area too and I’ve seen the garb. It can be intimidating. It’s really not SWAT level intimidating, but I do know that these guys who can be teddy bears if I run into them at the post office also get into a serious ass-kicking mode when they are "on." There’s also something about the size of a shot gun that adds to the tension. And frankly, I might choose to be shot with a pistol depending on where/what/etc.
Not to excuse the numbers of officers in this incident (which does seem excessive), we’ve had situations here where a half a dozen sheriff vehicles show up on a bust and it’s been clear to me that they didn’t have a whole lot else to do at that moment and wanted to be around for the action. Just a few properties down from our house about ten years ago, a neighbor got that kind of action. He wasn’t even home, but a whole lot of law enforcement showed up and removed a few dozen marijuana plants. Neighbors drank beer and watched. (Including me. LOL)
Is there an explanation for this discrepancy?