Pantry Raid (SWAT raid over Farm License confusion)

Reason Blog ^ | 12/09/08 | Katherine Mangu-Ward

[Wallace T.]

I disagree, whether or not there was a SWAT team involved in the raid. First, the co-op sold legal products. Second, as a co-op, these legal products are to be sold to members only. The general public cannot buy from it unless they join the co-op. Therefore, the local government has no justification to interfere with the operation of this private business. This is the sort of nanny state attitude that has led to the disastrous problems that, on a larger scale, led to the subprime mortgage crisis and the decrepit state of the American automobile business. It has to stop.

[WayneS]

Yes, but when regular depuites “dress up” in military garb they sure LOOK like a SWAT team to the average citizen.

Don’t worry, though, I and many others here stand ready to jump to YOUR defense too when/if you ever violate some un-just, un-needed, over-reaching law and find YOURSELF on the wrong end of some “Barney Fife’s” cowboy-tactics.

A “permit” to sell eggs off a farm? Who ever heard of such nonsense?

[DJ MacWoW]

From one of my links.

Lorain County Sheriff’s Office in Ohio arrived last Monday at the Manna Storehouse food cooperative in LaGrange with weapons drawn and trained on Katie Stowers and her children, along with her in-laws, there was one member of the family missing.

It doesn't need to be a Swat team. Drawn guns for non-government approved food is a little over the top.

[WayneS]

They don’t have the “right”, but they THINK they have they have the POWER!

[DJ MacWoW]

They aren’t even claiming to be looking for anything but “illegal food”. Talk about “over the top” abuse and control.......

[angkor]

Read the Plain Dealer story. A completely different account.

Which is not to say that the coop owners/employees weren’t scared, intimidated, and felt “abused”. That’s to be expected.

But from what I read it appears that they were told to get an operating license and refused over the course of one entire year.

I’ve never, ever heard of any kind of food outlet (resto, store, whatever) being exempt from local health, cleanliness, and business codes - including licensing - and most of us wouldn’t want that.

Case closed.

[WayneS]

..and most of us wouldn’t want that.

Speak for yourself, Sheep.

[DJ MacWoW]

The case isn’t closed as a co-op doesn’t need to be licensed. Police don’t come into a home, guns drawn, over non-government approved food. Totally ridiculous.

[Wallace T.]

The difference in this case is that it is a co-op, not an establishment catering to the general public. It thus should not fall under the category of public accommodations as would, say, a McDonald's or a Kroger. It is not organized for the purpose of circumventing laws against prohibited substances or illegal activities. As such, the local government should not extend its authority over such a voluntary, closed organization.

[angkor]

>>>>>And there are other links on FR.<<<<<<

I looked, and it’s more of the same emotional, quasi-hysterical “reporting” that is being scooped from internet blogs and “chat rooms”.

Sorry, it’s only sharpening my opinion that a lot of folks are being conned and taken for fools.... by the alleged victims and their champions.

>>>>>>Btw, why has the government the right to approve our food?<<<<<<

Well, back in 1910 to 1920 it was discovered that meatpacking houses and meat processors were selling rotten, disgusting, contaminated and infected meat products to the American public, and from that experience whoever it was that was U.S. President at the time decided to send food inspectors to Chicago. What they found was shocking and presaged the FDA and other food inspection bodies and regimes.

So now we can eat bologna, hot dogs, Spam, and Jimmy Dean sausage and not worry that we’re eating ground rat products.

Presumably these laws will also allow us to eat inspected and disease/contaminant-free organic lamb and beef products from the Manna coop, if they will submit to the same inspections as *every other food outlet in America*.

But I’d still avoid anything from Tyson.

[angkor]

>>>>>First, the co-op sold legal products.<<<<<

Selling uninspected meat products from an unlicensed facility is not “legal”.

[Still Thinking]

I’ve never, ever heard of any kind of food outlet (resto, store, whatever) being exempt from local health, cleanliness, and business codes - including licensing - and most of us wouldn’t want that.

I don't know. I'm not sure I disagree either, but I'm really not accustomed to thinking something would work better if only government had a little more control over it.

[angkor]

>>>>>>A “permit” to sell eggs off a farm? Who ever heard of such nonsense?<<<<<<<<

Well, just for starters the 99.99 percent of American farm stores that have a permit have heard of such nonsense.

It’s a license, a permit, not a doctoral degree combined with a stint in Marine boot camp and then a $10 million bond.

You fill out the application, write a check, and send it to the county licensing board.

Simple. Easy. What is the problem.

[angkor]

>>>>>Drawn guns for non-government approved food is a little over the top. <<<<<<

Sorry, the tenor of all these stories is generally hysterical and wayyyyyyyy over the top, making any single alleged fact as suspect as the many other laughable assertions.

I don’t doubt that they were scared and upset, after all they’d been ignoring county regulations for a full year.

Why did they insist they were exempt? Just fill out the application and pay the license fee.

[angkor]

>>>>>Speak for yourself, Sheep. <<<<<

America has had food regulations in place for 100 years.

No Sheep about it yoyo.

[WayneS]

So you just write a check, eh? To be ALLOWED to make a living...

That explains a lot.

About YOU... and, of course, about WHY our over-bearing government wants to interfere in ALL aspects of our lives.

I, for one, favor a Free Republic. Do you even know what that means?

[WayneS]

Well, if it’s been “in place for 100 years” then it HAS to be the right thing to do.

Gosh, I don’t know WHY I didn’t see that clear logic myself.

[Wallace T.]

Unlike, say, cocaine, which is illegal in any circumstance, meat from cattle, chicken, hogs, etc., is always a legal product. A co-op is a private arrangement not a public accommodation. A farm family may eat their own milk, produce, grain, and meat without it being inspected by the government. Co-ops are, like families, voluntary associations. While there are sales at a co-op, the price strictly covers the cost of the goods sold, and ownership in the co-op is collective, so that a member does not have a membership that he can sell. Hence, it falls under the area of private association, and should be exempted from laws regarding food inspection for items sold to the general public.

I suspect this co-op is radically anti-processed food. For example, there are people who say that, if the cattle are raised under the right conditions and the milk is processed in a sanitary facility, the unpasteurized product is safe and is in fact better for you than the pasteurized variety. I do not believe this, as there were many instances of people being sickened by unpasteurized milk in the 19th Century. I would not drink the stuff in any case. However, if people join the co-op and want to drink it, that is their business and not yours, mine, or that of the government.

[JimRed]

Why did they insist they were exempt? Just fill out the application and pay the license fee.

Otherwise, you're in big trouble for defunding the left!

[DJ MacWoW]

The Morning Journal isn't a blog.

So now we can eat bologna, hot dogs, Spam, and Jimmy Dean sausage and not worry that we’re eating ground rat products.

You're talking grocery store food. Do you know what a co-op is? Since when does the government have the right to tell us that we can't buy direct from farmers? Our food has to be from a licensed grocer?