Health department raids community picnic and destroys all food with bleach

A Distinctive World ^

[Sopater]

We were told our food was unfit for consumption and demanded that we call off the event...

Quail Farm

The evening was everything I had dreamed and hoped it would be. The weather was perfect, the farm was filled with friends and guests roaming around talking about organic, sustainable farming practices. Our guests were excited to spend an evening together. The food was prepared exquisitely. The long dinner table, under the direction of dear friends, was absolutely stunningly beautiful. The music was superb. The stars were bright and life was really good. And then, …for a few moments, it felt like the rug was pulled out from underneath us and my wonderful world came crashing down. As guests were mingling, finishing tours of the farm, and while the first course of the meal was being prepared and ready to be sent out, a Southern Nevada Health District employee came for an inspection.

Community Dinner at Quail Farm

Because this was a gathering of people invited to our farm for dinner, I had no idea that the Health Department would become involved. I received a phone call from them two days before the event informing me that because this was a “public event” (I would like to know what is the definition of “public” and “private”) we would be required to apply for a “special use permit.” If we did not do so immediately, we would be charged a ridiculous fine. Stunned, we immediately complied.
We were in the middle of our harvest day for our CSA shares, a very busy time for us, but Monte immediately left to comply with the demand and filled out the required paper work and paid for the fee. (Did I mention that we live in Overton, nowhere near a Health Department office?) Paper work now in order, he was informed that we would not actually be given the permit until an inspector came to check it all out. She came literally while our guests were arriving! In order to overcome any trouble with the Health Department of cooking on the premises, most of the food was prepared in a certified kitchen in Las Vegas; and to further remove any doubt, we rented a certified kitchen trailer to be here on the farm for the preparation of the meals.

The inspector, Mary Oaks, clearly not the one in charge of the inspection as she was constantly on the phone with her superior Susan somebody who was calling all the shots from who knows where.

We were told our food was unfit for consumption and demanded that we call off the event because:

EH Specialist II Mary Oakes

1. Some of the prepared food packages did not have labels on them. (The code actually allows for this if it is to be consumed within 72 hours.)
2. Some of the meat was not USDA certified. (Did I mention that this was a farm to fork meal?)
3. Some of the food that was prepared in advance was not up to temperature at the time of inspection. (It was being prepared to be brought to proper temperature for serving when the inspection occurred.)
4. Even the vegetables prepared in advance had to be thrown out because they were cut and were then considered a “bio-hazard”.
5. We did not have receipts for our food. (Reminder! This food came from farms not from the supermarket! I have talked with several chefs who have said that in all their years cooking they have never been asked for receipts.)

At this time Monte, trying to reason with Susan to find a possible solution for the problem, suggested turning this event from a “public” event to a “private” event by allowing the guests to become part of our farm club, thus eliminating any jurisdiction or responsibility on their part. This idea infuriated Susan and threatened that if we did not comply the police would be called and personally escort our guests off the property. This is not the vision of the evening we had in mind! So regretfully, again we complied.

The only way to keep our guests on the property was to destroy the food

Bleach is poured on organic food

I can’t tell you how sick to my stomach I was watching that first dish of Mint Lamb Meatballs hit the bottom of the unsanitized trash can. Here we were with guests who had paid in advance and had come from long distances away anticipating a wonderful dining experience, waiting for dinner while we were behind the kitchen curtain throwing it away! I know of the hours and labor that went into the preparation of that food. We asked the inspector if we could save the food for a private family event that we were having the next day. (A personal family choice to use our own food.) We were denied and she was insulted that we would even consider endangering our families health. I assured her that I had complete faith and trust in Giovanni our chef and the food that was prepared, (obviously, or I wouldn’t be wanting to serve it to our guests).

Farm food is destroyed

I then asked if we couldn’t feed the food to our “public guests” or even to our private family, then at least let us feed it to our pigs. (I think it should be a criminal action to waste any resource of the land. Being dedicated to our organic farm, we are forever looking for good inputs into our compost and soil and good food that can be fed to our animals. The animals and compost pile always get our left over garden surplus and food. We truly are trying to be as sustainable as possible.) Again, a call to Susan and another negative response. Okay, so let me get this right. So the food that was raised here on our farm and selected and gathered from familiar local sources, cooked and prepared with skill and love was even unfit to feed to my pigs!?! Who gave them the right to tell me what I feed my animals? Not only were we denied the use of the food for any purpose, to ensure that it truly was unfit for feed of any kind we were again threatened with police action if we did not only throw the food in the trash, but then to add insult to injury, we were ordered to pour bleach on it.

Food Lined up to Be Destroyed by Health Department

Now the food is also unfit for compost as I would be negligent to allow any little critters to nibble on it while it was composting and ingest that bleach resulting in a horrible death. Literally hundreds of pounds of food was good for nothing but adding to our ever increasing land fill! At some point in all of this turmoil Monte reminded me that I had the emergency phone number for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) on our refrigerator. I put it there never really believing that I would ever have to use it. We became members of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund several years ago as a protection for us, but mostly to add support to other farmers battling against the oppressive legal actions taken against the small farmers trying to produce good wholesome food without government intrusion. The local, sustainable food battle is being waged all across America! May I mention that not one battle has been brought on because of any illness to the patrons of these farms! The battles are started by government officials swooping down on farms and farmers like SWAT teams confiscating not only the wholesome food items produced but even their farm equipment! Some of them actually wearing HAZMAT suits as if they were walking into a nuclear meltdown! I have personally listened to some of their heart wrenching stories and have continued to follow them through the FTCLDF’s updates.

Please Help By Signing the Petition!

[isthisnickcool]

She is pretty well paid:

http://www2.8newsnow.com/salaries/detail.php?id=92772

[B4Ranch]

As I to read this I could feel the indignation and anger building inside of me. How dare government official abuse citizens this way!

Then I started looking for the authors name. This has been omitted. So, I looked for the date of the alleged agency abuses. This too has been omitted. This is starting to smell like an emotion filled marketing scheme. No thanks

[The Sons of Liberty]

Please Help By Signing the Petition!

Petition, hell. Jack boot thugs pay no attention to petitions! That's why the Founders demanded, and got, The 2nd Amendment!

[AnTiw1]

i haven’t seen George Washington on his white horse around
anywhere

think i’ll continue readying the sailboat for a little trip just in case...

[thesearethetimes...]

I am on a whole foods group online, and did a search on our website since I had not seen this specific raid mentioned. It did indeed really happen in October of 2011 : |

Sad to say, there are raids on farms and dairies that happen more than most folks would ever believe.

Our freedoms are being attacked from all sides : \

May God give us strength.
Tatt

[Utilizer]

While I am sympathetic as to their horror at seeing perfectly good food destroyed, their main mistake was in so readily obtaining a 'permit' for their private gathering. Had they gone ahead with their PRIVATE dinner with personal guests with their PRIVATELY grown and prepared food on their own PRIVATE property; absent any obvious evidence of any laws being broken during the event, the EH nazis could rant and scream all they wanted -from the public street or sidewalk.

Unless she had at the time a valid Warrant (signed by a judge and with the name and identity of the complaining party legibly printed therein) at least during the episode referenced above with the stipulations presented, at the very least they could have had her legally arrested for trespassing, and if she really became a wanker about it, then move everything indoors and serve the meal in smaller groups. Inside the house out of public view means she could not legally justify attempting to enter uninvited and anything she viewed during any such attempts would be inadmissible in court.

[dforest]

That has nothing to do with food. Also, all Santorum was doing was saying he would see to it existing laws on that issue were enforced.

Cheesy cheap shot.

What does porn have to do with this?

[Digger]

Call me when the revolution is about to start.

....Crickets chirping.

[muawiyah]

We had an earlier thread on this particular event. People paid a fee to attend.

That makes a lot of difference in most jurisdictions.

When my next door neighbor started running a dive on her balcony I turned her in.

Lest you get all tangled up in your boot stomping and clothes rending, she'd earlier filed a complaint with the board of health about my backyard garden!

Yup, I passed muster, and she didn't.

So, did they serve wine or distilled beverages?

[21twelve]

I’m not sure how “private” it is as she said guests paid money and came from a long ways away. It sounds like they were members of their Organic Farm club or whatever.

Not that it excuses the food Nazis. I suppose that might apply to the next Men’s breakfast at church - although that only has a “Donations” jar.

BTW - those vegetables in the bucket look amazing!

[Myrddin]

Sounds like a commercial event organized with paying customers, not a private event with "guests" invited at no personal expense outside of personal travel to the location. The manner in which the food was destroyed by the busybody bureaucrat was inexcusable. The bureaucrats should bear the full financial burden for compensating the operator for the food destroyed. Criminal penalties proportional to the damaged property should also be assessed. If it was truly a private event, the operator should have never applied for the permit and should have required a written invitation be presented to private security to enter the property.

[gitmo]

Isn’t this how Stalin killed the farmers off in Siberia?

[BubbaJunebug]

Go to the bottom of the web page and see you the petition is being run by...here is the link

http://www.change.org/

Now look to the right of the change.org page and you see the causes they support...which are the following listed under TOP CAUSES...

Animals
Criminal Justice
Economic Justice
Education
Environment
Gay Rights

Health
Human Rights
Human Trafficking
Immigrant Rights
Sustainable Food
Women’s Rights

No sympathy from me...I see a scam

[sockmonkey]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/nov/12/farm—table-event-turns-sour-when-inspector-crashe/

Here’s the Las Vegas Sun story on the incident. The event was back in November 2011. The place was Quail Hollow Farm, and the owners are named Bledsoe.

[X-spurt]

Same here. Something akin to a dark gentleman in the woodpile. Otherwise another good reason to not live anywhere near Las Vegas.

[Cboldt]

There are other sources covering the same event ...

Unaware of their rights, the Bledsoes initially complied with Oaks' unlawful demands and destroyed the food. But shortly thereafter, Laura's husband Monte remembered that they had an emergency contact number for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) on their refrigerator.

Shocked that they even had to resort to this desperate measure, the Bledsoes called FTCLDF for advice and spoke with General Counsel Gary Cox, who instructed them to ask Oaks for a search and arrest warrant, which of course she did not have. The Bledsoes then asked Oaks to leave the property, upon which she allegedly stormed off in anger and screamed that she was going to call the police.

Police eventually arrived, but unaware of why they had been called and what the alleged crime was, they, too, left and offered their apologies to the Bledsoes. Fortunately, the Bledsoes were able to improvise with the chef to create a whole new meal for their guests, which ended up turning out to be a type of blessing in disguise, according to Laura.

Health department tyrants raid local 'farm to fork' picnic dinner - November 11, 2011

[gogogodzilla]

Ahh, I see. Having governmental control over an aspect of your personal life is okay (porn)... but having government control over an aspect of your personal life is not okay (food).

Like I said:

Don’t look for sympathy from “conservatives” anymore. They’re just as happy to see the government control every aspect of your life as the liberals.

All that matters is whose ideology will be enforced, now.

[I see my hands]

To: Quail Farm Owner

Did you vote for Obama?

If your answer is 'no' then I am sympathetic. If it is 'yes' then you deserve what you have condemned others to.

[muir_redwoods]

I wonder how many of these organic farmers gleefully voted for people like Obama and Harry Reid. Payback’s a bitch.

[dforest]

That is not the argument. Enforcing existings laws is something that isn’t done much anymore.

Immigration laws regarding illegals. It is bad because existing laws have been unenforced for far too long.

Besides, the only reason you focus on that is to push a false notion as though it is the truth in order to boost Newt.

Good luck wit dat.