Thanks to National Juggernaut for making us aware of this fun little gem.

• Confiscate customer lists of raw milk dairy farmers
• Undercover information gathering
• Entrapment schemes
• Various forms of intimidation

These, of course, are just the tip of the iceberg. The FDA looks more like Comrade Vladimir Lenin’s secret police than a law enforcement agency of these United States of America… the land of the free and the home of the brave.

As always, please support our Estrellas. Also, forward this post around to all your friends to raise awareness of the FDA heavy-handed tactics. Thanks!

Aside from the video above, here’s a Huffington Post article on the FDA raid (via the LAPD) of Rawesome in Venice, CA. There were about 20 people (some of them armed) involved in raiding of Rawesome today, August 3rd, 2011. This is the second raid on Rawesome. The video above is, I admit, pretty irritating. I think it’s worthless to browbeat the enforcement officers. In any event, one of the comments below the video is quite telling:

I have a neighbor who is selling illegal drugs out of his house. I have reported it to the police multiple times and they do nothing. Maybe if I tell the police he is selling raw milk out of his house they will actually come out and do something!!

Can’t keep people, drugs, or weapons from coming across the border, but somehow our government finds the time and inclination to bust private raw milk joints like Rawesome. This is all very sad. Please repost this and put it up everywhere. We need to continue making noise about it. Thanks!

As to pathogens, Kelli clued me in to this wonderful article that (*hold your breath*) actually attempts to educate people in regards to bacteria generally and foodborne pathogens in particular. I know, I know… it’s WAY more fun simply to scream “LISTERIA! LISTERIA!” at the top of one’s lungs and point guns at people. But, when the fun is over, some folks my ask, “Well… what, after all, is listeria?” If you’re one of those folks, you’ll really appreciate the article over at realmilk.com. Here’s a refreshing gulp to get you started:

Those who wish to ban all milk that is not pasteurized use the horrors (human listeriosis) of systemic disease caused by Listeria monocytogenes to support their cause. They consistently broadcast the high mortality rates from L. mono and focus on the susceptibility of pregnant women, fetuses, newborns and the elderly. However, Listeria monocytogenes has never been a significant public health risk from drinking fresh raw milk. Because of the long processing times and storage conditions, there have been rare outbreaks in which cheeses have been associated with listeriosis cases. This is a risk with cheeses prepared from both raw and pasteurized milk.

Thanks and have a great day!

Death in a Bottle

As always, please support our local family that the FDA’s shut down. The Estrellas still need a great deal of financial support. Please be generous.

A friend of mine on Facebook made me aware of this nice little article on Front Porch Republic. Give it a read. It’s informative and well-written. The author, Jerry Salyer, gives us yet another example of government tyranny in the area of food and drink. He also gives us an example of how citizens are working around that tyranny.

Please go read his article. In the meantime, I’ll go out strong with one of Salyer’s tastier morsels:

As for Louisville’s MiniWel [the Whole Life Buying Club] in particular, as of this writing its representatives have conceded that the quarantine has no legal basis – yet evidently regard miscreant raw milk drinkers as undeserving of an apology. It seems hunting the White Whale is so important that there is no time to express the slightest hint of embarrassment (much less remorse) at having been caught out-of-bounds: OK, OK, so we overstepped our authority – so what? We’re still right and we know it, and what you need, comrade, is a tall, cool, frothy glass of USDA-approved shut-the-hell-up.

Here is the FDA’s press announcement. Here is some commentary on the same.

Don’t forget to support our Estrellas!! - We’ve almost hit the 10% mark.

FDA Seeks Permanent Injunction Against Amish Farmer Dan Algyer – see here for original post.

On Tuesday, April 26, the FDA revisited Pennsylvania Amish farmer Dan Algyer, serving notice that they have “filed a complaint for permanent injunction against [him], for distributing unpasteurized (or “raw”) milk for human consumption in interstate commerce,” according to the FDA press release.

What Dan Algyer does is as much a right as breathing. He has done nothing unlawful in conducting direct private trade with other individuals. He is not engaged in interstate commerce as the FDA accuses. Aside from the Constitutional guarantees of right to contract, food sovereignty, of which Dan’s trade is a perfect example, is a God-given inalienable right. No state has the right to proscribe the food choice of an individual. It might have the power through enforcement agents to hinder it, but it does not have the right.

Algyer was raided by the FDA last April when they came with a warrant to essentially gather evidence against him. According to documents the FDA gave Algyer Tuesday, the FDA has had a spy in the buying club that gets fresh milk and milk products from Algyer since October 2009. This person has allegedly written twenty-three checks to Algyer for his fresh milk in that time and has received the products. Let us hope, for that person’s sake, that he or she actually consumed the products and gained the benefits of fresh milk.

During that same period, approximately 200,000 people died from FDA approved medications, in government approved medical procedures, and following the direction of the FDA approved pharmaceutical companies. Not one person has been ill from Dan Algyer’s “dangerous” fresh milk. “Drinking raw milk is dangerous and shouldn’t be consumed under any circumstances,” said Dara A. Corrigan, FDA’s associate commissioner for regulatory affairs, in the press release.

We will continue to report on this and suggest appropriate actions.

Please read on the NICFA website more about food sovereignty and how it is being usurped world-wide through “free-trade” and the international agencies that implement regulatory policy through legislation such as the recent Food Safety Modernization Act.

Please pray for Dan and his family.

Media inquiries:
Liz Reitzig
liz.reitzig@verizon.net
301.807.5063

[Here is a]n article in the Washington Times also reports on Algyer.

Yours for real food freedom,

Deborah Stockton, Executive Director
National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association (NICFA)
nicfa@earthlink.net

http://www.nicfa.org

Shaking hands with Charlton Heston

You are INVITED! Wednesday, April 20, at 7 PM in Lynnwood, WA

It’s America, the “Land of the Free”, 2011. America where all are promised the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. America where the FDA now claims citizens of the United States do not have the right to consume any food they wish…?