Today’s a day of catching up on new developments about earlier posts. Longtime readers may recall a post from November 2010, entitled, Raw Foods Raids: The Fight for the Right to Eat the Food that You Want, about an armed raid on the Rawesome Foods co-op in California.
They’ve been raided yet again.
Here’s a new video about the raid, with an accompanying description from Reason.
A little more than a year ago, Rawesome Foods, a health food co-op based in Venice, California was the target of an armed raid by several agencies, and the resulting video went viral. On August 3, 2011, Rawesome experienced another multi-agency raid, but this one resulted in the arrest of the establishment’s owner James Stewart.
Stewart, and Sharon Palmer, the farmer who supplies him with raw goat milk, are being held on bails in excess of $100,000 and are each charged with four felonies and several more misdemeanors. Some examples of the charges are “processing unpasteurized milk,” “improper labeling of food,” and “improper egg temperatures.”
The government has kept pursuing Stewart and his club for years, despite a lack of any reports of illness or injury from consumption of his foods. Rawesome members argue that they are part of a private club, not subject to government regulation, and that they are being persecuted for their alternative lifestyles.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office would not comment for this video, but offered this press release and also released a list of the charges against Stewart and Palmer.
Reason.tv covered the first Rawesome raid in 2010 here.
Approximately 3:30.
Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Camera by Sharif Matar.