The AlamoIf we lose the right to organize private organizations to share food, then the food rights war war will be over sooner than you can say “raw milk.”
Why? Because the food regulators and politicians have full control of the public realm, and are gaining more with each passing day–the Food Safety Modernization Act gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration absolute power over much of the food supply. (As we know, absolute power corrupts absolutely.)
Without a private realm, there is nowhere else to turn. Oh, wait, there is one last realm they can go after: the right to raise your own food. They might leave that alone, as if to be able to argue that they respect private rights. But then again, they may not. If the food bullies are able to bowl over herdshares and food clubs, they may decide that they’re having too much fun. If no one stops them on herdshares, why should anyone stop them from going after people consuming milk or meat from their own animals. They can park a few drones around individual farms, and easily keep tabs on who is obeying the law. (Yes, there is the black market, but in that realm, you’re always a criminal in the eyes of the law.)
It’s important to appreciate that private food-related organizations are springing up around the country. People are, pardon the pun, starved for access to real food, nutritious food, creatively-prepared food, and increasingly, they don’t want the government telling them what is permissible and what isn’t. This article does a nice job of explaining the wide variation in food rights options.
One telling example from that article: San Francisco’s Underground Market originally gained approval from city health authorities as a private organization; then, when it became hugely popular, authorities sent the organizer a cease-and-desist…and he obeyed it. In a statement explaining his thinking, the founder, Iso Rabins, comes across as eminently reasonable and compromising.
What he doesn’t appreciate is that the people he’s dealing with aren’t similarly inclined. Want to take bets on whether the market re-opens?
Tim Wightman says it well in a comment following my previous post when he explains how foreign the private approach is. “Share arrangement is the first brush with community we have been denied from building for the past 60 years given the consumer economy that was to rule the world.
“Well we learned that was a failed experiment, but we cannot be too hard on producers and their partners if they have taken a step toward health but have yet to realize they are changing how we relate to one another and have been given an opportunity to take responsibility.”
Shareholders are going to have to understand a whole new set of rules that will enable them to withstand the effort already well under way to crush this movement. The article I linked to lists a number of court cases and criteria that help private groups qualify for protection from the bureaucrats.
As I said recently in connection with the Morningland Dairy case, organizers of private food groups are going to have to learn to dot their i’s and cross their t’s.
Mark McAfee makes an important point that people are timid. That’s why they are so quickly rolling over in the face of the cease-and-desist orders. But as Tim Wightman and others suggest, this is partly a matter of education. Most people don’t understand that the cease-and-desist orders have no legal validity. People don’t understand that by obeying the orders, they are surrendering key rights, possibly forever.
Moreover, people don’t understand that the authorities are engaged in one of the oldest tricks in the world–divide and conquer. Perhaps most important, they don’t appreciate how desperate the authorities are, how risky their intimidation strategy is.
Here’s the deal: A cease-and-desist is just a piece of paper. If the targeted groups simply ignore them, then the authorities have to go through a tough process to fight back:
* They have to get a prosecutor to seek court action. Since district attorneys are usually elected, the smart ones quickly realize that going after large groups of peaceful highly motivated voters isn’t the way to win re-election.
* They have to convince a judge that the organization isn’t private.
* They have to be able to withstand appeals that can go up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which historically has had a fair amount of respect for private organizations.
Shawna Barr makes a convincing case following my previous post that the California dairy laws do, in fact, allow herdshares. In fact, lawyer Gary Cox made a similar argument in challenging Ohio’s ban on herdshares in back in 2006…and won. (Ahd herdshares remain legal in Ohio as a result.)
I would take issue with one point she makes, though: “If I were a share owner, and the government ordered the herd share manager who I had hired to care for the my animals NOT to care for them, and to deny me the product that I already own, I believe that my right to own property would be violated. I think I might have to sue them.”
Maybe you sue them or make them sue you, but by all means, you don’t obey their cease-and-desist orders. I’d say that lesson number one in the food rights war is this: Defy all cease-and-desist orders. Ignore their threats of huge fines and jail time–it’s empty rhetoric. Stand up and fight. Victory may be closer than we realize. Besides, there isn’t any other choice.
I like this:
http://www.slowfood.com/international/27/be-a-coproducer
Slow Food encourages everyone to slow down and use their senses to become a 'co-producer', a responsible consumer who chooses to enjoy quality food produced in harmony with the environment and local cultures. What's good for you is good for the world!
Slow Food coined the term co-producer to highlight the power of the consumer that we can go beyond a passive role to take an active interest in those who produce our food, how they produce it and the problems they face in doing so. In this way, we become part of the production process.
In order for them to get any binding effect in their notices or stop orders, they will need to get a judge to sign off on it with a court order….then they need to get the local DA or Sherrif to enforce that order.
That is a huge leap from a executive department order to an actual binding cease and desist order with enforcement.
I agree….the first thing is no one comply with the orders….that means no one…that forces other agencies and divisions of government to review the CDFA cease and desist orders and either agree with them or not. This is about deliciuos food….not drugs, guns or prostitution etc….
The more that people just tell CDFA to just go jump off a cliff…the more they may just have to jump off a cliff. There are at least two more steps prior to anything like arrest happening. A judge and then the sherrif. That is a lot for CDFA to have to do. It is also very unpopular and gets a lot of press and pisses off lots of people and in the RAWESOME case…it failed miserably. Let RAWESOME be the example….follow in their footsteps and just keep on drinking and eating like CDFA does not exist…because for Share agreements CDFA does exist except in their own minds.
Orders from CDFA in the case of Share agreements should be disregarded entirely. By everyone all the time. They do not have enough resources to sue 100 share operators and their 20000 share owners. En Masse you will win. Just do not comply. No one is getting sick….where is this about food safety????
I will be the first to post bail money for any arrested farmer or share owner…in CA. That is a promise. I want our food rights secured and this is the battle line….right here right now.
Mark
http://www.epi.hss.state.ak.us/bulletins/docs/b2011_18.pdf
MW
In 2008 Alaska had 99 reported cases of Campylobacter from fresh peas due to the Sandhill Cranes pooping on the fields. I note that Alaska has not felt the need to ban or jail Sandhill Cranes or ban sales of fresh peas in their state.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/print-article.aspx?id=65736
Everyone should grow their own foods….I'd like to be on the jury.
You never called me:)
FYI . . . Food can never be sterilized. As Mary Martin says all the time "SHIT" Happens:)
So do we grow everything under plastic to keep the bird poop out of our gardens?
This is just silly. . . . .
We went from caveman to urban man in 10,000 years. Our immune system is still wired to that caveman existence. Unfortunately, most of us are living in a sterile bubble now. Which is why we are suffering so horribly from allergies, asthma, etc., and why we get sick from every little bug. We are also stressed to the max from modern day living and this does have a big effect on our immune system and our mental health.
Kids need to eat dirt to give that immune system the boost that they need. . . . they need to pick up cow pies, chicken poop, eat sheep and rabbit pellets, etc. . . . to keep them healthy. Kids just need to be kids . . . . and be around lots of animals . . . not helicopter parents who schedule everything and keep a sterile house. . . just let your kids play in the dirt and with friends in your community . . . what is so wrong with that?
Vaccines should only be given for life threatening diseases like Polio.
The SAD has made so many of our kids not only fat but sick . . . . Our government is to blame for this.
Not only are we dumbed down but we believe everything that the government says.
A diet based on grass fed meats, eggs and diary with organically grown vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains is the way to go. Processed foods from Big Ag need to be discouraged.
My son had a 90% chance of having severe asthma due to severe Meconium Aspiration as a newborn infant . . . . he was 1 hour away from being put on an ECMO machine. I made sure that his immune system was challenged as soon as he started to crawl. We were outside . . . in the grass . . . no air conditioning (we lived in Virginia at that time), we had a dog in the house, he ate lots of garden vegetables and grass fed meats, he played in the chicken coop when he was three, drank raw milk when we moved to Maine when he was six . . . . nothing wrong with him now. As a matter of fact, he was at the top of his class this year and only missed two days of school due to a bad cold.
Kind regards,
Violet
http://www.kilbyridgefarmmaine.blogspot.com
The above article entitled Blame it on bacteria references research that will serve humanity well, provided we can temper our simplistic, narrow minded, overbearing and destructive approach to bacteria.
Isolating ourselves from bacteria and adopting antagonistic solutions that disrupts symbiosis is clearly foolish. There is a great deal more we need to learn.
Violet
With the exception of your belief in the polio vaccine, I couldnt agree with you more.
Ken Conrad
Just encourage people to let their children roll around in cat and dog poop to promote a healthy immune system. It is so silly to make kids wash thier hands, especially before eating.
"…every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain."
Get out in the real world, CP, and meet some real people who live real lives instead of trying to construct a perfectly sterile bubble. Only through experience will you learn.
Thank you for your commitment on bail money for any arrested farmer or share owner. That is the kind of commitment that both farmers and share owners need to for reassurance and to reduce the fear many have about ignoring the cease-and-desist orders.
Right now, the farmers and share owners know they can obtain legal defense from the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Plus, if the state actually does come down on a number of farmers and share owners, other lawyers who believe, and see opportunities for promotional publicity, will come to their defense. Money will come in to help pay the expenses.
In unity, there is unbelievable strength we can't even imagine at this point.
David
It is time for a full court press.
I am still in shock over Monsanto purchasing Blackwater ( commercial soldiers for hire )
I think that it is time for private food clubs and herd shares to stop hiding out under the radar.In CA, herdshares have enjoyed a time of peaceful, under-the-radar bliss. However, agencies like the FDA and CDFA have, with cases such as Rawsome and now the CA Herdshares, put an end to that era.
It is time to come out and declare our rights.
One of the biggest challenges to the success of a private club or herdshare is not the law, but rather helping people make the huge paradigm shift from being "customers" and "consumers" to being "owners" who are responsible for themselves.
However, I can think of no better way to get share owners on board than to try to deny them their right to own property. When they hear, "No, you can't own a goat and drink it's milk." Or "Sorry, you can't form a private group and exchange goods", folks don't like that. And that dislike crosses a lot of political and social lines. The people are starting to get it.
"He who controls the food controls the people" Henry Kissinger
It use to be simple enough for Government agencies to steer people in the direction of few choices by using fear. However as fear fades the old USA model of– some worked more must be better– is applied, but as awarensss allows less fear and a better understanding of that applied to our choices, the more-on theory is ramped up.
Our government has its own capability to call out the troops in a food bourne illness outbreak, why would one of the largest companies in the world not have the same option to a perceived threat, after all they are a person and have a right to defend themselves(sarcasim)
As the real truth of the inner workings of government and corporations become known and the detriment to our health and fabric of our soceity is understood, it will for a time take stronger action to keep the ship headed in the traditional direction.
The ship may be still on course for the corporations, the passengers are jumping ship, and in time the course will have no relivance.
Yes we need to come to the aid of those who are being made example of, but never lose sight of what is really going on and the variety of ways it will succeed.
Tim Wightman
Right on, David! An Injury to one is an injury to all!
Way to go Mark. Now that's what I call solidarity!
http://redgreenandblue.org/2010/10/16/too-much-of-a-bad-thing-monsanto-did-not-buy-blackwater/
However, the article says that Monsanto did HIRE Blackwater, but they never bought it.
The more I dig arround, the more I find the same thing. The internet rumor mill sure can get all caught up in its self.
Perhaps….it is Monsanto that was purchased by Blackwater….because they make black water and black soil with their GMO's ….just guessing.
Mark
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/monsantos-agent-orange-being-used-to-clear-brazils-rainforest/
I am sickened that monsantos continues to poison the environment and life. I've taken care of many Veterans who've suffered from the toxic after affects from Nam. A horrid legacy for sure.
Unfortunately, in this land of the free, corporate "rights" are more important than human rights or the enviroment.
Don't be too sure, Bill… as the following week's article points out:
http://redgreenandblue.org/2011/01/04/did-monstanto-finally-buy-blackwater-theres-no-way-to-know/
On another note, I ran into an interesting NYTimes article yesterday, about how human's instinctive egalitarianism may be what makes us unique as a species.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/science/05angier.html?_r=1
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F2011%2F06%2F17%2FFDCU1JUGE1.DTL