617 SHOULD FARMERS BE ALLOWED TO SELL US THEIR FOOD?

[michaelo]

The SWAT team held the Stowers family with assault weapons for nine hours while tearing their farmhouse apart looking for evidence. The Stowers’ crime? Selling farm-fresh foods to friends and neighbors! This SWATTING of farmers leads us to ask…

Should farmers be allowed to sell us their foods, or should we be forced to buy their foods from government-sanctioned corporations?

[michaelo]

On Monday, December 1, 2008, members of an Ohio Department of Agriculture commissioned SWAT team carrying semi-automatic assault rifles forced their way into the farmhouse of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family into their living room, and held them there for nine hours while other team members ransacked the farmhouse for evidence.

The Stowers’ crime: Selling farm-fresh foods to friends and neighbors.

Earlier in 2008, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) undercover agents in California tried to entice Amanda Hall, a 23-year old mother and employee of Organic Pastures Dairy, to secretly record conversations with her boss using a hidden microphone. She refused.

Organic Pastures’ crime: Selling farm-fresh foods to friends and neighbors.

The incidents mentioned above are but two of many, as it is now apparent that governments of all shapes and sizes have become determined to take out farmers who sell farm-fresh foods directly to consumers.

The reason given for governments’ enthusiastic suppression of farm to consumer commerce is sanitation. Farmers, governments seem to be saying, simply do not have enough economies of scale to be clean; their foods must therefore be processed through a large corporation before those foods can be safely sold to consumers.

This SWATTING of FARMERS leads us to ask:

Should farmers be allowed to sell us their foods, or should we be forced to buy their foods from government-sanctioned corporations?

[honeybearranch]

You've got to be kidding me! SWAT teams ransacking farmers' homes because they sell locally to friends and neighbors? It's the corporate food that's unhealthy and unclean! It's corporate agriculture that ought to be shut down. Our local grocery stores sell moldy produce and we sell just picked naturally grown produce that we raise ourselves. Local doctors actually send people to us to buy our meat and produce because we don't use hormones or antibiotics or pesticides. Maybe the goal of corporate agriculture is to poison us all to reduce the population. OF COURSE farmers ought to be able to sell their produce locally! Consumers deserve a choice - and informed consumers are choosing healthy, locally grown food.

[qbarfarm]

I have a couple of questions: Who called out the SWAT Team? Is there something missing from the story?
Thousands of farmers sell their produce off the farm and at Farmers Markets. It is perfectly legal and laws have been in place for a very long time protecting this right.
Either somebody is not telling the whole story, or the police have been drinking too much Koolaid.

[Energy Examiner]

With these events happening to farmers, I ask where are we going next? They are after the raw milk in California. What happened to our right to choose...or freedom to make a mistake and take the consequences...either way I would like to preserve my right to choose. I think there are a few CEO and manangement teams in the financial industry who should have their home/office searched but farmers I really wonder. I will continue to buy fresh foods and raw milk as I choose. Where else can I find vital, life supporting products and they keep me healthy too.

[Jim Blair]

Hi,

Wow, I didn't realize things were this bad. Can't sell to the public? I often give away my surplus garden zuccini and rubarb. Think a SWAT team will bust me :-(

[LEE]

A willing seller; a willing buyer...this has always been the way it worked,till the late 20th century anyhow,so yes of course farmers should be able to sell and people free to buy.
BUT the corporations/govts dont like that arrangment and so they have worked to crush small farmers and homesteaders and others by using laws,not the real constitutional law;but the twisted greedy paid for system to smack down anyone who dares to take a bit of their profits away,they want it all,every cent and your soul to boot!
One question I have to ask is quite simple but no one seems to ask it: WHY IN THE NAME OF ALL THATS HOLY DOES OHIOS AG DEPT HAVE A SWAT TEAM?????
That is ridiculous!!!
I noticed they picked a fight too with defenseless women and children,( BIG BRAVE NAZI THUGS,)people who wouldnt or couldnt fight back,a word to the morons involved; you aint gonna be so lucky one of these times; you are gonna shove a gun in the wrong persons face and lose yours,this is America,not Russia,not Europe ,America,there is and was no excuse for this and all the 100s of similar injustices done by govt to their people over the years,none!!! I find this police state BS to be over the top and do not apoligize for saying so!