Got Raw Milk?

Guns drawn, authorities entered the premises of Rawsome Foods, in Venice CA, in June of 2010. This is a members only health food co-op that sells that awful suspect underground stuff: raw milk products!

They terrorized the employees, helped themselves to whatever they wanted and destroyed thousands and thousands of dollars worth of food in the process.

No less than 5 government agencies were involved in the raid. Besides the felonies “to conspire,” the misdemeanor charges were for processing milk without pasteurization, operating an unlicensed milk plant, selling milk or milk products that don’t “conform to the standards,” and selling milk that had been produced or handled using unsanitary conditions.

After the raid depicted in this video, the Rawesome raw foods buying club was raided and ransacked again, on August 3, 2011.

James Stewart, the owner of Rawesome, was arrested and charged with seven misdemeanors and six felony counts of conspiracy. His bail was set at $123,000.

Sharon Palmer, who operates Healthy Family Farms, LLC, in Santa Paula, Ventura County, CA, was arrested and charged with three of the misdemeanors and the six conspiracy charges. Her bail was set at $121,000.

All for daring to sell Healthy Family Farms’ raw goat milk and raw goat milk dairy products (and raw cow milk from Pennsylvania) to their loyal club members and shareholders.

People who belong to the “Right to Choose Healthy Food’s Rawesome Club” sign a membership agreement that states: “I completely reject and refuse all governmental food standards. I fully trust the board members of this club to properly oversee and manage the preparation, handling and packaging of the food in this club, including but not limited to raw meat, raw eggs, raw produce, raw juices, raw dairy…”

But it is legal to sell raw milk in California. No one complained or got sick from these products.

This bust is about controlling the small dairy farms and small co ops, and making it very difficult, expensive and complicated to supply real, raw and untreated food to the public.

Learn more at the Farm To Consumer Legal Defense Fund, because more and more stories like this are unfolding across the nation.