Rawesome Food Club Raided by Local, Federal and Canadian Agents

NOTE: This information was copied directly from a notification sent to LNH. Please take the time to read this eye-opening account of the Venice raid. Similar incidents have occurred in food co-ops around the country for quite some time now. Why does it bother the government if we, the people, make high quality food choices?

We know the answer, but it doesn't make it right on the part of the US government.

OC

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Hi, healthy-food lovers and supporters,

Our food-club, Rawesome, was raided by federal, California State and Los Angeles County Health Officials and Police with guns drawn and threatening. They unplugged our surveillance camera to hide their actions. They threateningly refused video capture of their raid when members commenced filming. They served warrants on volunteer workers. Volunteers told them that they were trespassing on private property. they had no jurisdiction and must leave immediately but government agents refused to leave. Instead, those government agents trespassed and kidnapped volunteers and members for the entire time that they seized the property, about 5 hours. Also, they stole, under the term confiscate, thousands of dollars worth of member's FOOD that was private property, mostly raw dairy products and honey.

Two individuals identified themselves as FBI and Canadian government agents but they did not show their badges or surrender their business cards as did agents: Senior Investigator Ted Holst for Los Angeles City District Attorney; Los Angeles Environmental Health Specialist lll Michelle LeCavalier for Environmental Health Food and Milk Program Food Inspection Bureau; Investigator Marco Solorio for U.S. Food and Drug Administration Los Angeles District; Consumer Safety Officer Anita L. Liu for USFDA Import Operations Branch Los Angeles District; and Supervising Special Investigator Robert H. Donnalley for California State Animal health and Food Safety Services of CA Department of Food and Agriculture.

County of Los Angeles Bureau of Specialized Surveillance issued HEARING NOTICE 654043 for the next morning at 11:30 am to Rawesome Foods. That hearing was to occur less than 24 hours after the raid; impossible, no sane court would support such brief notice. The Hearing Notice claimed ILLEGAL FOOD FACILITY violation of CAL Code 114381 (states that a food facility shall not be open for business without a valid permit to operate. Operation of a food facility without a valid permit may result in closure of the facility and penalty fees of up to three times the original permit fee) , and violation of Title 8 LA County Code 8.04.932 (Business without a public health license or permit prohibited. No person shall engage in, conduct, manage or carry on any business or other activity for which a license or permit is required by this chapter if: A. He or she does so without having, pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, procured a license or permit to do so and paid the fee required; or B. If such license or permit has expired, been suspended, revoked, or denied. (Ord. 96-0069 § 58, 1996: Ord. 89-0080 § 6, 1989.); 8.04.934 Operating without a public health license or permit–Deemed misdemeanor–Penalty. A violation of Section 8.04.932 is a misdemeanor punishable by fine, or imprisonment in the county jail for a period not exceeding six months, or both. Such fine shall not be more than $500.00, and shall: A. For the first violation, not be less than $100.00; B. For the second and any subsequent violation, be $500.00) (8.04.942 Operating without a public health license or permit–Civil penalty. A. Any person who violates Section 8.04.932 shall be liable for a civil penalty recoverable in a civil action and payable to the county treasurer-tax collector:

1. In an amount not less than $100.00 for the first violation; and

2. In an amount not less than $500.00 for the second and any subsequent violation.

B. The remedies provided in Section 8.04.934 and by this section are mutually exclusive.

Right To Choose Healthy Food (RTCHF) is a not-for-profit trust association formed to protect individuals' rights to obtain and consume healthy food. RTCHF has many branches of affiliated private clubs throughout USA and a few in Canada. The club members are well-educated and intelligent, who daily choose to reject standard toxic governmental food restrictions, preparations and packaging for natural God-given healthy food. RTCHF contracts with farmers to lease their animals and/or fields and owns the produce of those animals and fields. Therefore, all members of all clubs owns the produce, not the farmer. The farmer does not sell people anything but gets paid for his services to cultivate, grow, harvest, board and care for animals, collect, package and ship the produce owned by club members. All club members completely and heartily reject all governmental standards and authority in their membership agreements. See below.

In USA and Canada, we have the right to ownership. As it states in statutes of law, government agencies, including USFDA, have jurisdiction over Commerce. Commerce is the open exchange of goods to the public. Since RTCHF and its clubs are private closed-to-the-public associations, government has no jurisdiction, period.

Consider this case of governmental intimidation and interference to the private sector with government raid of Rawesome Club in Los Angeles County on Wednesday, June 30, 2010. The warrant claims that the property listed:
1. was used as the means of committing a felony
2. is possessed by a person with the intent to use it as a means of committing a public offense or is possessed by another to whom he or she may have delivered it for the purpose of concealing it or preventing its discovery
3. it tends to show that a felony has been committed or that a particular person has committed a felony.

Firstly, the County's claims the violation on Hearing Notice are felonies. As the law states, cited above, they are misdemeanors.

Authorities could not obtain a search warrant without substantial violation support so they made a false probable cause of felony. Therefore, the warrant is false and challengable in court, and the procurers and possibly executors are without immunity from criminal and civil prosecution. We all know that the City Attorney is not going to charge himself so it will be up to the members to file civil suit against all of those involved. Secondly, all members completely and implicitly reject all health department regulations as toxic, therefore a county health permit is not only a moot point but an absurdity. Thirdly, this ploy of the county was attempted in 2005. I sent the letter below to county health officials, rejecting their claim and hearing, citing its lack of jurisdiction. The same county health services department from Baldwin Park, CA was the perpetrator as it is now. In my letter, note that I gave them notice that if they entered the private property again, they would be in violation of trespass and harassment.

Why, 5 years later, is the county attempting to close Rawesome? Why were U.S. federal and Canadian government agents presentfor a county raid? Why, in the warrant, were Healthy Family Farms, and owner of Healthy Family Farms Sharon Palmer from Santa Paula, CA, and James Stewart named? James Stewart is a facilitator of Rawesome for RTCHF and his name does not appear anywhere on any documents relating to RTCHF or Rawesome's executive branch. RTCHF has a lease contract since December 1, 2009, for Healthy Family Farms animals, including its goat's. So members at Rawesome own the daily produce of their goats. Again, the county health department is out of the jurisdiction for RTCHF/Rawesome goat's milk, kefir and yogurt. The county health department knew all of this long before its raid on Rawesome on June 30, 2010.

This raid was most likely the result of RTCHF's/my recent actions to protect several dairies in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Illinois that had been raided and robbed by state and federal agencies, including USHHS and its branch FDA. I sent them noticed (see below) with the Expert Report In Favor of Raw (Natural) Milk, animal lease contracts and club membership agreements to prove they had no jurisdiction. They are upset.

What is the larger picture/story here? We must consider that the government is aligned with Big Dairy and has clandestine representatives in government. They want to continue to monopolize dairy and regulate it to the point that small diary farmers cannot survive with or without them. The proverbial thorn in their sides is the healthy raw diary movement. It has also been suggested and argued by many people that there exists a ruling class that wants to dumb-down everybody so that they can be easily controlled. The greater civilization grows in numbers, the more they feel the need to control people. Lowering people's health results in a weak populations that is not going to have the health, energy and time to stop politicians from stealing tax dollars for banksters, Big Pharma, agriculture and food-processing industries and medicine. They control the armies of police, sheriffs, highway patrols, marshals, military reserves, coast guards, homeland security police and all clandestine departments of every state and federal government. With the actions I have witnessed in the last 10 years. I must admit that I believe that the ruling class wants us controlled.

In my research with food over the last 42 years, I learned and proved that raw dairy provides nutrients to arrest many toxins and protect our bodies' systems more than any other food barring raw eggs. Our industry controlled society has already ruined most egg production by feeding chickens cooked and chemically processed soy and tons of antibiotics that are never a natural part of any fowl's diet. Consider also, the larger the local government ix, it is more likely that it will side with federal agendas. It has been established for at least 100 years that if states do not adopt federal law preferences, federal government withholds and/or denies federal funds to that local governments. If that local government is hurting for funds because they overspend as 99% of all politicians do, its a no-brainer who local government is going to favor between individual Constitutional rights and money.

Therefore, we have a David and Goliath situation here. We must produce the funds to pursue this raid in judicial and civil courts now before we do not have another opportunity. Obviously to me, they have come to my backyard Los Angeles to cut off the legs of RTCHF/me. They want to win this here so they can establish precedents. We cannot allow that to happen. It will affect everyone in USA and Canada.

If you value truly healthy food and your right to it, please visit www.RawMilk.org and donate today through Paypal to optimal@earthlink.net, or send checks to RTCHF, POB 176, Santa Monica, CA 90406-0176. When making a donation through Paypal, be certain to state that your money is for RTCHF.

Thank you.
Appreciatively,
Aajonus vonderplanitz

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http://www.thecompletepatient.com/

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Rawesome Membership Agreement:
CLUB MEMBERSHIP AGREEMENT
Right To Choose Healthy Food’s RAWESOME CLUB
.
[Right to Choose Healthy Food of P.O. Box 176, Santa Monica, CA. 90406-0176; email: optimal@earthlink.net.]
I, _______________________________, attest that as a member of this club, I demand access to food that
1) is produced without exposure to chemical contaminants such as industrialized pesticides, fertilizers, cleansers or their gases; 2) is not subjected to artificial temperatures above 99 degrees Fahrenheit (F.), dairy not below 42 degrees F., and meats not below 38 degrees F. ; 3) is complete with its natural unadulterated enzymes intact; 4) may contain microbes, including but not limited to salmonella, E.coli, campylobacter, listeria, gangrene and parasites; 5) the cows are grass-fed and the goats are pastured; 6) fowl are free-range outdoors and not fed soy products; and 7) the eggs are unwashed and may have bacteria and poultry feces on them.

I fully understand that these features represent a different paradigm for food preparation, storage and safety
than those that are currently enforced by all local, state and federal government agencies. As a member of
this Club, I fully trust its administrative members to ensure that the preparation, handling and packaging of
the food obtained through this Club meet the standards I set forth above. I affirm that no government
regulations apply to our products and that regulatory agencies have no jurisdiction over any of our products I
obtain through this Club.
.
Because the standards currently enforced by government agencies cause industrial chemical contamination
whose effects on my health may be severe, immediately or cumulatively, and have the effect of denying me
access to the quality of milk and other foods I require to improve and maintain my health, I reject those
standards and any attempt by any government agency to regulate food production, preparation, packaging or
labeling for this Club. I affirm that any government-agency would exceed its authority if it were to require
members of this club to testify on any such matters. Also, in case of any government-proceeding relating to the
application of government standards or interference to this club, I will be available to testify about any activities
by government employees that overreach their authority, including trespass, conspiracy and kidnapping (false
arrest).
.
I affirm that I am not acting under color of law or in any way disguising my motives, acting on behalf of any
agency, person, or other entity in order to entrap, hurt, gather information about, or testify against the
members of this club and thereby affect this Club, Healthy Family Farms, or Right To Choose Healthy Food,
their members or their purposes.* By my signature below and with payment of twenty-five dollars ($25), I
join this Club and testify that I fully subscribe to this Club Membership Agreement. This agreement confers
on me an ownership interest in farm animals and other food products produced for distribution among the
members of this Club. Any money I pay upon acquiring my food is payment for services rendered by
farmer, workers and his/her agents. I agree that my food I acquire through this club is for my household’s use
and I am fully responsible for its use. I will not hold this Club, Healthy Family Farmsa, or Right To Choose
Healthy Food responsible for any effects of its use. I reaffirm that the food I acquire through this Club is not
subject to government regulation because I own the food on the farm and am not engaging in commerce.
.
I understand that my membership in the Club requires annual renewal. The attached check, made payable to
Fairmount Farms, carries the notation “RTCHF membership” and pays for my membership in Right to
Choose Healthy Food’s Rawesome Club and given or mailed to Rawesome or Healthy Family Farms, 6780 Wheeler Canyon Rd, Santa Paula, CA 93060.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
PRINT NAME INITIAL OF PERSON COLLECTING FEE
___________________________________________________________________________________________
SIGNATURE DATE
*See U.S.C. Title 18, Sections 241 and 242. Conspiracy against rights and Deprivation of rights under color of law.

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Letter to County Health Services Baldwin Park 2005 was faxed and sent registered mail (signed return receipt is on file):

Right To Choose Healthy Food
P.O. Box 176, Santa Monica , CA 90406-0176
e-mail: optimal@earthlink.net

FASCIMILE

July 22, 2005

County of Los Angeles Department of Health Services: 626-813-3017
% Kunle Adesian, Food & Milk Program
5050 Commerce Drive
Baldwin Park, CA 91706

Re: Hearing Notice No. 567989

Dear Mr. Kunle Adesina,

I hope that you are well and happy. This letter will clear all questions that anyone may have about our club.

I am the elected President of Right To Choose Health Food’s Rawsome Club. I represent the Club in all matters. Right To Choose Healthy Food’s Rawsome Club is not open to the public. It is a members-only club. No one may enter the premises without having voluntarily and supportively signed the Membership Agreement (copy accompanying this letter). The Agreement explains in specific terms our pursuit of healthy life, liberty and happiness. We rejected, and continue to reject, any government health department regulations because they are harmful to our health. Therefore this club and its membership are out of your jurisdiction. All members have adamantly supported and signed the Agreement. Please understand and accept our choices for our pursuit of healthy life, liberty and happiness.

Now we come to the issue referenced above. I was notified by several of our volunteer members that you served the above mentioned Hearing Notice on the premises at 665 Rose Avenue, Venice, CA 90291. Without intending to be antagonistic, we must face the legal implications regarding your trespassing onto that property clearly posted as no trespassing. Seven of the members testified that you enter the posted NO-Trespassing premises without permission or warrant. Four of them testified that they told you to leave the property immediately but you refused and did not leave for about 30 minutes. That was antagonism and harassment against us. We are willing to forgive your trespass unless you and the county continue to harass us. Resultantly, the Hearing Notice is without legal merit. This letter and supportive document have explained everything that you would have learned in a hearing and we choose not to attend.

Thank you and have an enjoyable weekend.

Sincerely,

Aajonus Vonderplanitz

cc: Arlene Binder, Esq

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Notice to Wisconsin Dept of Agriculture (also sent to WI Governor, USHHS and USFDA):

<>Right To Choose Healthy Food
Aajonus Vonderplanitz, Ph.D,, President
P.O. Box 176, Santa Monica , CA 90406-0176
e-mail: optimal@earthlink.net

June 15, 2010

Wisconsin Department of Agriculture Wisconsin Department of Agriculture
c/o Jacqueline Owens, Field Services Director Division of Food Safety
and Cathleen Anderson c/o Steven C. Ingham, Administrator
P.O. Box 8911 P.O. Box 8911
Madison, WI 53708-8911 Madison, WI 53708-8911
(608)224-4711 Fax (608)224-4711 Fax

Re: Vernon Herschberger / Herschberger Dairy / Grazin’ Acres Farm Coop Glub

Dear Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, all of its Directors, Agents and Employees,

I hope that your day is happy and healthy. You are hereby advised that Vernon Herschberger of Grazin’ Acres Farm is not engaged in commerce. His farm animals are leased to Right To Choose Healthy Food’s Grazin’ Acres Farm Coop Club who owns them. Vernon Herschberger is the boarder, caretaker, milker, packager and deliverer of our animals’ products. I have included a copy of our lease. Before I state more, I will make a one-paragraph-long preamble. The purpose of preamble is to evoke open-mindedness so that the facts of this issue will stand on their merits rather than prejudice from fears for the public. Many health departments in many states, USFDA and the CDC, have taken strong stands against raw milk because they believed the unscientific rhetoric that raw milk is dangerous. To assuage any fears the health-department employees and officials might have about raw milk, I present Petition and Report In Favor Of Raw Milk (2001) (herein referred to as “Report”) by retired US government military medical doctor William Campbell Douglass, Jr and Aajonus Vonderplanitz, Ph.D. Nutrition. When used as evidence to legislatively gain commercial access to Grade A and Guaranteed Raw milk in 2001 in Los Angeles County, California, the Report provided legislators the truthful facts about all of the benefits of raw milk and the dangers of pasteurized milk. Although the Los Angeles County and California State health departments, along with CDC representatives were present at the legislative meeting, they did not contest any portion of the Report. Legislators granted lawful raw milk that did not have to be certified for the first time since 1968. In 2007, we used the Report to educate and lobby Congress, along with our Petition to Congress (copy of Petition followed by Report are included with this letter). The Report proves that fears about raw milk are based on prejudicial surveys that have no scientific fact to support them. In fact, Report shows that all milk-borne food epidemics were caused by pasteurized dairy products. The Report shows extensive evidence that pasteurized dairy is a great health risk to the public, having caused numerous epidemics. One pasteurized-milk epidemic involved 200 people, another 468 people, another 1,492, another 16,284, another 17,000, and another 197,000 people. In each incident the product was from a single-source pasteurized-dairy producer. In the years 1978-1997 there were 232,485 people who suffered due to outbreaks from pasteurized dairy. (Report p. 8-10.) Why don’t health departments issue such information to the public through media as it does with its prejudice against raw milk? If we were to disregard all of the other outbreaks from pasteurized dairy and consider only those listed on pages 5-8 Report, we have: 232,485 cases ¸ 19 years = 12,236 people affected each year from pasteurized milk products. In all cases, CDC reported that investigation showed proper pasteurization. CDC’s figures and CDC’s conclusion that “pasteurization provides assurances against infection” are contradictory and untrustworthy. Report shows that raw milk is the safest dairy product to consume and does not merit the prejudice that it receives. Health departments are guilty of slander against raw milk and could and should be liable. After reading the Report, I trust that WDA will be open-minded to the factual issues of raw milk in the future.

Right To Choose Healthy Food’s Grazin’ Acres Farm Coop Club is NOT open to the public. It is a members-only club. No one receives any food from this club unless they have voluntarily and supportively signed the CLUB Membership Agreement (copy accompanies this letter). The agreement explains in specific terms our pursuit of healthy life, liberty and happiness. We rejected, and continue to reject, any government health and agricultural department regulations because they are harmful to our health. Please understand and accept our choices for our pursuit of healthy life, liberty and happiness. The animals and produce, we lease/own are our legal property. Note that in courts of law, lease is ownership.

Regarding the issue of engaging in commerce, it does not apply to us or Mr. Herschberger. Members own the animals and farmer Mr. Herschberger, family and his helpers provide their services of boarding, tending and milking our herds, and bottling and processing our milk production and preparation of our other products for the private club to members/owners standards established in our Club Membership Agreement. Unlike cow-share programs, lease-ownership agreements have precedence and a long history of success in all courts throughout USA. In fact, leases of all types are upheld everyday and are part of the backbone of our society.

CONCLUSION: Since the private club owns dairy, egg and meat production, there is no commerce involved. Since no commerce of buying or selling raw milk and our other products to the public is involved, or distributed in public places, government agencies have NO JURISDICTION over the production, labeling and use of the club’s products consumed by its members, nor is any permit required. WDA has no jurisdiction over our club’s products, labeling or not labeling, and transporting them. It is shameful for WDA to try to prevent us from producing and distributing our health-giving raw milk and other farm products to our members by threatening and imposing false warrants, seizures and arrests of our property. Since you were duly warned that this was a private club and you had no jurisdiction over it, your actions were criminal stealing, kidnap and trespass. Our raw milk and other products are health-giving. They are not health-damaging cigarettes, alcohol, or recreational or medical drugs.

Please cease and desist all searches, seizures and trespass on to Grazin’ Acres Farm, coop and club, Vernon Herschberger, family, helpers and vehicles. Also, we request that you cease and desist all of your survey-based scientifically unsubstantiated rhetoric about raw milk.

I am President of Right To Choose Health Food. I represent GRAZIN’ ACRES FARM COOP CLUB in all matters. If you need any information, you are to contact me at the email address above. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Aajonus Vonderplanitz, Ph.D. Nutrition, President
Right To Choose Healthy Food

Encl.: Petition and Report In Favor Of Raw Milk
Farm-Animals Lease and Boarding Contract
Right To Choose Healthy Food’s Grazin’ Acres Farm Club Membership Agreement

cc: Governor Jim Doyle
Michael L. Morgan, Secretary of Administration
Vernon Herschberger/Grazin’ Acres Farm
Law Offices of David G. Cox, Esq., Attorney for Farm To Consumer Legal Defense Fund
Roger Noorthoek, Esp. and Arlene Binder, Esq. Attorneys for Right To Choose Healthy Food and its affilate Clubs

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