As Pressure Builds on Rawesome, Its Manager Tries to Make Sense of Endless State-Sanctioned Body Blows
Thursday, September 2, 2010 at 10:57PM 
James Stewart, manager of Rawsome Foods in Los Angeles' Venice district, has been having a nightmare--"that they'll come and bulldoze this property."
"This property" consists of one forty-foot and two twenty-foot shipping containers that have been refurbished into a funky food distribution center used by the 1,500 members of Rawesome, which is a private food club.
He's been studying the August 18 "Substandard Order" received from the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, and for the life of him, can't figure out what the exact appeal process is, or the date by which he needs to file an appeal. Nor can he get a straight answer from the department.
"Today could be the day--we could be shut even though we've done nothing wrong," and even though there hadn't been a peep from any city agency in the two years that the structures have been on the vacant lot. Stewart says he was led to believe that, because the containers are temporary, they aren't subject to the same building regulations as a permanent structure.
In the meantime, Rawesome has continued to serve its members, opening yesterday as scheduled.
Now, Stewart appreciates that the "Substandard Order" isn't about building codes or safety, It's about politics, and The State made a strong political statement with its guns-drawn raids June 30 (on Rawesome and nearby Rawesome herdshare farmer Sharon Palmer) that included practically a batallion of food and health regulatory agencies at the city, state, and federal levels. "I'm under full attack," he told me.
In addition, he's been trying to provide advice to Morningland Dairy (discussed in my previous post), which has been forced into a recall of all its cheese for supposed listeria--but really being penalized for supplying Rawesome. Stewart and others point out that the agents who confiscated the cheese placed it into coolers without ice, and then nearly two months later came out with a finding of listeria. The cheese seems not to have been refrigerated after leaving the Rawesome premises, and who knows how it was kept in the intervening weeks.
But, of course, all that is beside the point. The point is that what's going on here is, as I said in my comment following my previous post, amounts to a political gangbang. It was launched with a Los Angeles public health closure order. Followed up by the harassment recall of Morningland Dairy, a supplier to Rawesome. Followed up by the Los Angeles Building and Safety "Substandard Order".
You'll notice that in all this harassment, there's nothing that has anything to do with the substance of the real issue here: Can consumers and farmers arrange private contracts covering food? There's a reason The State doesn't want to deal with that issue: Private contracts are a bedrock of everyday commerce in the U.S., so judges are likely to support such arrangements. The State doesn't like to lose.
No, what would be much preferable would be for the State control freaks to bulldoze Rawesome as a form of "collective punishment." It's been a common tactic of the Israelis against the Palestinians--you inflict a harsh penalty on a few people, and hope everyone else gets the message. In the Middle East, the Palestinians have continually fought back against this tactic with whatever weapons they could muster. Would Americans do likewise?
There's some interesting debate about conspiracy theories following my previous post. It's easy to see conspiracies galore in what's happening with Rawesome. I guess the question that comes to mind is this: Is James Stewart being paranoid when they really are coming after him?
Reader Comments (48)
That is obviously part of the government's strategy here: make an example out of Rawsome and others.
But I don't think anyone needs to get paranoid, this effort on their part will go down in flames the same way prohibition did.
No, probably faster because they don't have the budget to keep this up on a large scale. Fly under the radar, or walk, even. Just don't let them make you scared enough to give up - that's what they're hoping will happen.
The people can be pushed to a point, but food sovereignty and bodily self-ownership are rights the public perceive that they have - no matter whether our laws actually spell that out or not.
As a consumer, and particularly as a nutrient-dense conscious food shopper, I am deeply concerned with the trend of the various government departments and agencies to preempt our options to purchase and consume foods of our choice. It is not so much the legislation passed, but the power of regulation resulting from so many laws enacted at all levels. All laws are subject to interpretation, political agendas, and abuse. Otherwise we would have little need for courts. In the spirit of Glenn Beck’s ‘Restoring Honor’ campaign, the emphasis on truth and character is amazingly lacking in so many aspects of our lives, and nowhere more so than within the halls of government. Yes, there are some entrepreneurial producers who may lack some character in this sense, and certainly many large corporations have objectives obscured by undesirable motives, but not nearly to the extent that the practices, motives and actions of government have adversely affected our lives. There are indeed two sides to the issue to all of our food policies and regulatory endeavors, and they seem to boil down to this dichotomy- (1) sterilization of our food supply is the answer to food born illnesses and much of chronic human disease, and (2) the challenge of developing the safest delivery system practicable of nutrient dense, natural, locally produced food.
‘Government’ espouses several views that are just wrong- or unconstitutional or against Natural Law that is the foundation of our republic, for instance:.
• that raw milk is inherently dangerous.
• That there is no absolute right to consume or feed children any particular food.
• That there is no 'deeply rooted' historical tradition of unfettered access to foods of all kinds.
• That an FDA policy does not require labeling of genetically engineered foods.
• That there is no fundamental right to freedom of contract.
• that an individual may not transport certain food purchase across state lines.
I don’t see how we are going to change the current situation through debates about enzymes, pathogens vs. toxins or through resistance to strong-arm government agencies supported and influenced by Big Pharma-Med-Agriculture-(fill in the blank). Not that such efforts should be abandoned, but unelected regulators are the product of misquided legislation passed by elected Congesspersons and state assembles and senates. We have choices coming up this fall- let’s put our feet to work and support candidates who respect our constitution, believe in limited government and, as Beck says, will help ‘Restore Honor’.
I am a resident of Connecticut, one of the ten states where the retail sale of raw milk is legal. In spite of an unfortunate incident a few years ago where raw milk was the source of a serious illness outbreak, a legislative committee listened and responded to citizens who attended a hearing and decided not to pursue much more stringent restraints on our handful of small dairies. It shows that government and industry can work together for the best interest of safety, nutrition, and individual liberty. Thank you Connecticut.
Dan
Chemtrails or contrails interesting theory or another nightmare???
Which ever it is one wonders what affect it may have on raw milk as the cows graze in pastures that have this stuff contaminating the soil.
This is a video clip that has been arround for a while. The scientists presented are a classic brain washed group. They will believe anything that they are told as long as it was conspiracy.
The pictures they use are of commercial airlines.
Trust me on this....commercial airlines would not ever and can not ever afford to do any spraying. They can not afford the spray systems, they can not afford the weight.
What may be described in some scientific research literature as a potential weather chnage technology has been morphed into a conspiracy theory. Aircraft making a contrail is an aircraft in a massive government program.
Our government is bankrupt and so are most airlines. The aircrews and FAA line workers at airports would be reporting information about this....no one is....
That is because it is not happening...
When the video speaks of finding aluminum in a glass jar left outside catching the fallout from Chem-trail spraying...this is the most rediculous thing I have ever heard.
Anything sprayed at 40,000 feet does not fall straight down. It blows in the airstream for a thousand miles and most certainly does not land in a glass jar right under the aircraft.
Mark
What Aajonus and James are doing in LA is leading edge activism and I support it 100%. But it is not a way forward politically. In fact it is a dead end street.
Big dairy, the FDA, CDFA and the public all believe that pathogens kill people. This is a concept that is not going away any time soon.
Aajonus recommends eating foods ladened with pathogens, while I agree that consumption of pathogens ( by a healthy person ) will probably confer immunity from those pathogens, it will not confer any political points in the mainstream medical profession, the liability arena or the legislative efforts. Big Dairy will use this food pathogen issue as fodder for beating up any raw milk and the labels that will be associated with pathogen filled foods. If you support pathogen filled foods you will be labeled as " baby killers".
In fact, this pro-pathogen position makes Rawesome appear to be " Out to a Road Kill Lunch". In order to make progress, we must all look and be beyond reproach and far cleaner and pathogen free than the CAFO highly processed junk being sold to Americans.
Mark
I sure do hope RAWSOME gets a lot of publicity, strong consumer and legislator support, and powerful legal counsel.
Miguel I liked your analogy too - best description of the situation thus far. When you define the problem accurately, it points to the solution. The herd could get organized, but they'll need to know what to do about those cattle prods.
Miguel wrote, in part:
"...I am sure there are people who are organized and have well thought out plans ,based on many generations of experience,to manage other people for profit. Do they see their role as evil? Or do they see their roll as essential to the welfare of all people?Does it matter what they think? From my point of view or the cow's point of view,when someone tries to run my life for their personal profit it's a conspiracy.
Is it human nature to be greedy?I think it is human nature to love your children and love and care for other members of your community.You have to be taught to be greedy.That is how we are controlled by those who want to profit by managing us. "
-Blair
What would people be like if they were all born at home,educated by daily life,doing things like growing food, building shelter,making their own music all uninfluenced by peer pressure and media.I think they would be very intelligent,strong,talented and self confident and highly respected and valued by other members of their community.In a word ,DANGEROUS to those who want to profit from their energy.An independent cow that won't stay within the fences,hides her calf,and resists when we try to milk her has a short life on a dairy farm.In our society,independent people meet the same fate for the same reasons.The manager of the herd knows that these individuals will make trouble for them whether they are cows or people.They set a bad example for the rest of the herd.
This fun to watch every now and then,We should be so fearless when it comes to protecting our children.
Some many life lessons come to mind.....
1. Hang together or get eaten one by one.
2. Groups are stronger as they get bigger regardless of the talent of the opposing forces or their historical preimminent position in the food change.
3. Mother lions can only be beaten if they are taken out one by one.
Do not mess with a Pissed off Bull Waterbuffalo. Mammals beat Alligators.
Mark
I enjoyed your comment and its insights. There's almost a positive (or at least problem solving) tone to it, which is refreshing on this blog. Regarding this...
" (2) the challenge of developing the safest delivery system practicable of nutrient dense, natural, locally produced food."
I'm curious if you have any knowledge of what might have gone wrong in the CT incident "where raw milk was the source of a serious illness outbreak." The state report clearly implicates the dairy, but doesn't include any details about practices (or lack thereof) that might have contributed to a contamination event. The regulatory standards were met according to the report, but that doesn't necessarily mean something was missed.
Thanks.
MW
"say that for years they tried to sound the alarm to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090302455.html
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100903/BUSINESS01/9030360/-1/cyclone_insider/Egg-recall-Buyers-consider-own-rules-on-safety
The producers, the buyers, and the govt ignored many things for a long time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/health/policy/04salmon.html
More Frankinphood....
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gEaZonqV2R7YILYXQTNfjjuEuKkgD9I0PG400
"look at tougher regulations" Perhaps they SHOULD LOOK at how the food is processed/produced etc?
http://twincities.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2010/08/30/daily44.html
They must like being in the news....
Why would anyone think that MORE regulation will fix anything?
I also enjoyed your comments. You are correct that Connecticut consumers and politicians organized themselves to isolate the state's agriculture bureaucrats, who wanted to use the only illnesses from raw milk in recent memory to eliminate retail sales. Unfortunately, Connecticut is one of the few such success stories over the last couple years. The regulators have learned from the Connecticut upset and aligned themselves with industry in places like Wisconsin and Massachusetts to stymie consumer will.
I disagree that discussions and arguments about the nutritional benefits of nutrient-dense foods, and about pathogens, are a distraction. I believe there's an important education task that must be accomplished so increasing numbers of consumers appreciate that much of what they are being told by the regulators and public health professionals is itself tainted and amounts to fear mongering.
David
"An estimated 87 million cases of food-borne illness occur in the United States each year, including 371,000 hospitalizations and 5,700 deaths, according to an Associated Press calculation that uses a CDC formula and recent population estimates."
"But experts believe the bulk of food poisonings are unreported illnesses from food prepared at home. "
And what is the percentage of people who actually cook real food at home? That do not eat anything from outside the home? The recent egg, meat & spinach contamination reached far and wide; caused by producers/processors, and lets not leave out to stores/shippers who mishandle foods in route. It sounds like the egg producers should have been shut down years ago, yet the "regulators" were asleep on the job. Were they paid under the table? Crating hens and feeding un-natural feed to them only opens the door for contamination. Millions have eaten partially cooks eggs for years with no bad effects. Now suddenly there is a vast number ill and the huge number of recalled eggs were temporarily removed from the market (they'll be resold for use in processed phoods) this story along with many others implies blaming people for not fully cooking the food. They totally ignore the producers/processors/stores, etc.
When I am in my office for lunch, I cringe when I see my coworkers eating the frozen dinners. They really believe they are eating healthy. Low cal, low carbs, HFCS, fake sweeteners.... When I read the ingredients I shudder. I'm not a chemist and would need to research many of the words. No one can tell me the content of nutrients in what they are consuming, only the cal,carbs,fats,sugar. Those are not nutrients.
Education is a major key for people to wake up and have an educated say in what they consume and what is going on with our govt. Education is also key for people to stand up to those who oppress them. In this fast paced world, people don't want long drawn out answers (some do want detailed answers),factual bullet statements, short and to the point. Elaborate when needed or asked. Keep it simple.
I don't know if a tendency to self interest must be taught, but it is plainly true that human history is essentially a story of near perpetual manipulation of population groups to singular benefit. The few moments of relative human brotherhood popping up here and there in history stand only as exceptions to prove the rule. The many “ifs” invariably sprinkled through discussions of utopian idealism is evidence enough of our own doubts of their validity. (This gets to, by the way, the essential nugget of Christian and Jewish truth. If we are to be honest we must admit that we are not able to reach personal perfection, not able to build our own ladder to heaven, and thus require a savior.)
Now any of you who have been reading my words here for any time will have noticed that I prefer and support life and community in decentralized form. Very decentralized form in fact. In that way perhaps I am as much the Utopian as anyone. But the thing is that decentralization to me is not so much a tool to improve our hearts as our behavior. I don't expect inter-neighbor dependence to make us perfect, but rather to encourage the notion that one-hand-washing-the-other is both necessary and pleasant. Also, and not incidentally, decentralization limits each man's power to act on self interest---it prevents as much as possible one man from gaining the power of an agency, or corporation, or army, or government. That is where I find the value in our Constitution, for it codifies the rights of individuals as supreme over groups. The Constitution is essentially designed to protect a decentralized society (its dreadful misuse by self-interest notwithstanding).
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As a side note, I am continually taken aback by the endless labeling of people into thought-groups. I had no idea, for example, that I might be working toward establishing a “US Libertarianism,” as opposed to “egalitarian libertarianism,” or for that matter, any group “ism.” I thought, quite to the contrary, that I was espousing an ideal of “non-groupism.”
My guess is that most everyone is like me in that regard. We simply want the freedom to go about our lives untethered by petty or powerful rules and rulers, and are happy to live within the boundaries of fairness, to be supportive of the Golden Rule, and to expect that when swinging our fists our freedom ends where another's nose begins. To find oneself suddenly aligned with this or that group is curious indeed!
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And one more aside... Why would a big farming state like, say, Kansas, allow raw milk sales from un-licensed and un-inspected farms directly to consumers in any amounts? Is it because Kansas officials have discovered that raw milk makes Kansans healthier? I'd guess probably not. It likely has more to do with the fact that Kansas is not a significant dairy “industry” state, so has no significant corporate self-interest at work in that particular arena.
This is emphatically not to suggest that discussions of health and pathogenesis are not important, but that they are important only among citizens, to help those citizens direct their governments, and not among government officials so THEY can decide what's best for everyone.
A quick internet search found three (presumably accurate) interview transcripts or other quotes from the man himself:
http://www.soilandhealth.org/06clipfile/Interview.with.Aajonus.Vonderplanitz.htm
http://www.whale.to/a/aajonus-interview-apr-2009.pdf
http://www.meatalovestory.com/excerpt.html
If we believe in the accuracy of the pieces, then we learn that Aajonus Vonderplanitz:
• has craved orgasms since age three.
• has overcome dyslexia, autism, juvenile diabetes, peritonitis, blood and bone cancer and eating the “death cap” mushroom.
• began his raw food mission when (close to death in the desert) eleven coyotes fed him raw jackrabbits at a Native American burial ground.
• has found value in a cleansing consisting of fasting, daily enemas and drinking his own urine for 41 days.
• believes that AIDS was created at UCLA in 1961-62 and that AIDS, polio and swine flu are government conspiracies.
• believes that you can’t get viruses (say rabies, herpes) from an animal or another person.
• has passed a 45-foot tapeworm.
• has sex for between one and six hours every day.
• and has a diet which will cure 90% of cancer cases.
To say the least, he is a colorful character.
cp
The egg contamination has been a long standing problem with these producers, yet the govt ignored it. Why aren't they shut down?
If one consumes raw meat, the chances of encountering a tapeworm increases, your guts are approx 25-30 ft long. Do you really care about another's sex life? Is that pertinent to something?
The govt entities are "presumably accurate", yet have been found to mislead, out right lie and promote big business..... NOT look out for the people, which is what they are paid to do.
Over the next 15 months, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigators will team up with state and local partners to visit about 600 egg producers—those with 50,000 or more laying hens—to determine if their facilities are in compliance with an egg safety rule that went into effect in July as part of an effort to prevent future outbreaks of Salmonella Enteritidis.
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm224979.htm
I can only wish them good hunting.
First, I should point out that the outbreaks were ‘associated’ with raw milk from the Simsbury Town Farm Dairy. David made a point of this in his entry on 7/27/08. It was reported that “As part of the investigation of the outbreak, CDA conducted an environmental inspection of the Simsbury Town Farm Dairy. CDA found a number of troubling practices at the dairy”, with numerous findings listed. The dairy was somewhat unique as illustrated in another report, “Town Farm Dairy was originally shut down by its owner in 2003, but was reopened recently by a group known as Friends of Town Farm Dairy. The farm is also the only one in the state of Connecticut that is a certified organic dairy farm that has retail and wholesale distribution. The group running the dairy had hired farmers to run daily operations, but the farmers left July 1, (2008) leaving the group’s board members and volunteers to operate the farm.” I think such a situation, where a dairy farm not operated by a independent owner, and particularly when there is a change of management, should have raised a red flag at the regulating agency. To me it brings into question the effectiveness and efficiency and purpose of regulatory bodies in general. If safety was the primary concern, there was a flaw in the regulatory system. If there was a flaw, the ongong emphasis should have been on correcting the flaw. The reactions prompted blame throwing, lawsuits, and proposed legislation to crack down on and effectively eliminate raw milk producers. A regulatory body is not there just to find violations and impose penalties; it should help guide legal businesses to meet appropriate standards of quality and safety which best serve the interests and rights of the members of the community.
Dan