From mid-spring to mid-autumn, my husband and I give ourselves over to local food. We eat it, live it, breathe it. Local foods and food activism consumes nearly every waking minute of our lives during this time: answering phone calls, attending conferences, meeting with municipal, county, state and even federal officials, visiting farms – it’s a mountain of work with very little thanks, but very good food.
We also serve a few farm-to-table dinners each year to help fund and support our outreach programs (like our self-funded WIC program and our real food bank). Small dinners draw about 50 people, but, at the time of the community’s annual harvest supper, our dinner draws upwards of 300 people who dine on local pasture-raised meats, organic vegetables, whole-grain sourdough bread and tree-ripened fruits picked only a day before.
Our farmers and our outreach programs can be shut down in an instant by the overzealous whim of a government official.
What frightens me most is that one day, I might need to make the same speech that Laura Bledsoe of Quail Hollow Farms did.
Last Autumn, Quail Hollow Farm’s Farm-to-table Dinner Was Targeted
And though we’re working in commercial kitchens, through a not-for-profit and buying only from certified sources, I’m terrified that one day, I’m going to have to make a speech like Laura Bledsoe did who saw an entire private dinner spoiled by an overzealous health inspector.
Despite hiring a professional chef, despite using licensed kitchens and on-site preparation facilities and despite holding a private event for her guests, Laura and her farm were targeted, and the health inspector even deemed her professionally prepared, organic and farm-fresh foods unfit for her guests, her family and even her pigs – insisting that they pour bleach over the meal and suggested that she go buy food from the grocery store to serve her guests.
How the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund Helped
When the health inspector arrived, a guest advised Laura to call the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund‘s 24/7 hotline to speak to an attorney, but it was already too late to save the food. But, not too late to save the evening. Gary Cox, Esq., the Fund‘s litigating attorney returned Laura’s call for help, he advised her of her rights and stayed on the phone while she shooed the health inspector off the farm.
Like Laura, I will turn to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund where you can read the full story of the farm-to-table dinner and see additional videos of Laura, her guests and the health inspector who deemed the meal not even suitable for pigs.
Upset? Here’s what you can do.
Are you upset? You should be. Our collective right to support small farms as consumers and for small farms to, in turn, nourish our families is threatened, and it requires constant vigilance and a commitment from food advocates, farms and consumers.
How to Support the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
If you see the terrible injustice in raids like this one, and you’re wondering what to do next, please consider becoming a member of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund which provides legal support for farms and ranches that have been targeted in similar raids as the one Laura experienced last autumn. Even a small donation can help to assuage the monumental burden that many farms face.
Right now, they’re holding their annual fundraiser, and donors can receive select gifts – a Weston A Price Foundation Tee-shirt, a copy of the book Folks, This Ain’t Normal, the film Farmageddon, and a limited edition lithograph of Early Haymaking in the Ozarks.
For a donation of $250, you may attend a farm-to-table event at Joel Salatin’s legendary Polyface Farm. My family is flying from Colorado to Virginia for this event because we support the cause so greatly. We even support the Fund with a regular, recurring donation because their work means so very much to my family, and I encourage you to do the same if your resources allow.
Spread the Word
While every donation counts, if you cannot afford to support the Fund financially, please make the commitment to spread the word: about the Fund, about the raidsand about real food.
Totally Asinine! The fact that the anyone other than yourself has control over what you can or can not eat makes me irate. What’s next? Gardens? As Laura said in the video: “This is what we’ve come to?”
I am not getting the video. It says it is not found. One would wonder…are they silencing another freedom they want to take away? Mostly, kidding but since I am wondering I guess I would not be too shocked if it was some group trying to silence our efforts.
just came back after 4-5 mins. weird. Thank you for posting!
Stop complying to this tyranny! It’s that simple… they get away with it because people cower and comply with them. WHO CARES WHAT GOVERNMENT WANTS! You have EVERY moral right to ignore unjust law, regulations, codes, ordinances etc.
Exactly, Dave
Right On!!! The government has NO RIGHT to tell us what we can or can’t eat!!!! Rebel…buy food at your farmers market labeled “pet food not for human consumption” That way you know for sure the government hasn’t had a hand in it!!!
The video stops after 8 seconds.
the video clip stops at the halfway mark. It has been about 10 minutes and it still won’t play beyond that
So sad! I couldn’t help but cry as this woman shares her experiences. I’ve posted it on my facebook page and hopefully a few will see and be able to help.
It would appear that the ‘powers that be’ are trying to shut those of us down that are trying to eat REAL food. These raids are all very concerning, as well as the cyber war that appears to be going on with the Weston A Price Foundation website. Anyone tried to get on that site lately?
Ignorance, malice, take your pick.
That’s why everyone needs to know their rights! I would have said “no way, you are on my property with no warrant, leave now, you can call the police if you have to, I’m not destroying this food”. If they would have known their rights they wouldn’t have lost hundreds of dollars, maybe thousands, worth of food. I would never, never have destroyed the food, I couldn’t make myself, she would have had to, that’s just too horrible to even imagine.
Is there any way this can be posted on Youtube so that it can reach a wider audience ?
Also the video is spoatic and halting.
I wish – it’s not my video and it’s very difficult to embed/share.
Thanks for what you do Jenny… fantastic blog and appreciate your ability to spread the word about these injustices and what we can do to help. I will see you in VA – looking forward to meeting you!
YAY! I can’t wait and am so excited to go. The whole family’s coming!
Thanks for posting about this. It was high time I wrote a post about the FTCLDF. My husband and I are members and it infuriates me when I see a story like this! Keep fighting
This breaks my heart!! I’m appalled! Thank you Jenny for posting. I will forward and share via my sight.
Here is a link to a 25min radio program with the farm owners, one of the guests that night and the health inspectors supervisor discussing more details of what happened that evening.
http://www.knpr.org/son/archive/detail2.cfm?SegmentID=8314&ProgramID=2357
I left the United States and moved to Europe because the swill on offer in grocery stores there is nearly inedible and harmful to public health. Outraged? Outraged enough to never entertain the notion of returning there! I know a lot of people, and have yet to meet one who actually wants to come there even to visit on holiday. My sincere sympathy with all of you.
I’m closing on an apartment in Europe as we speak. People keeps asking me why. THIS is why.
Where are you? It must be better than Sweden, cause here isn’t much better than the US. At least there are brave and educated people galore over there. Here, people have learned long ago that you do as you’re told.
I, too, am wondering where Rai lives. Germany is much like Sweden (do as you’re told, …). And they’re learning many of the wrong things from the US like using unhealthy ingredients in their store-bought foods (they used to be better!), … .
Interesting. No video. It just wont work.
ok, NOW I can view the video
Thanks! Made my donation and posted on FB to bring awareness needed to support our ability and right to real local organic food from our small family farms <3
If you’re a fan of irony, here’s a local news story from April about that very same Southern Nevada Health District working out of “unsafe and unsound” buildings, and it also recalls a lawsuit back in 2009 claiming a health inspector there died due to mold in a SNHD building.
http://www.ktnv.com/news/local/147846365.html
I just wanted to pass along how upset this articles made my 11 year old daughter. She wrote a letter to the president and called her best friend and asked her to do the same. I wish I could attach her letter.
I just realized that you’re in Colorado–where are you? I am north of Denver, and would love to compare notes on where you get your food, etc. Our farmer runs a co-op (he raises buffalo, and co-ops with other farmers that provide chicken, eggs, beef, milk, etc), and he got raided almost two years ago–it was right before Christmas (the dirtbags!), and I wasn’t aware of this, but we also supported him during the several-month “investigation,” after which he was not returned any of the material that was confiscated (probably a couple thousand pounds of meat and milk), nor was he remunerated in any way.
Thanks for posting this–when we are able to get the inspectors to be responsible for remuneration, then there will be some thinking twice before destroying enough food to put farmers out of business. Not fit for pigs–sounds like they’re on to us with our “for pets” consumption loophole!
I remember watching this and some follow-up vids last year. It made me sick (like the Rawesome raids) to think of all those humanely raised animals whose lives were completely wasted because of these brazen power-sporting agencies. Disgusting. And I agree with Marie. I’d have gone to jail before allowing anyone to destroy my hard-work and waste animal lives!
We have supported FTCLD for the last few years. My favorite recents were the Farmageddon film and the Pampered Chef fundraiser. (I finally bought the stoneware muffin pans I’d been wanting for years and after using them am kicking myself for waiting so long to get them. They are the best!) A worthy organization indeed. Thanks for bringing this back into public view.
This is an absolute outrage. Another way for government to try to control. I really believe they want people sick and full of disease from processed garbage food so they go out and make big pharma bigger and when everybody is hooked on perscription drugs where they can’t think straight anymore then government will be able to control them even easier.
I don’t have money to donate to the fund right now, but I did pass the info about the fund on to the farmers I buy from. Thanks for sharing.
This behavior on the part of the Federal and Local governments is fascist. Our public servants need to be sent a very strong message that if they continue to take on the fight against our right to eat as we see fit, that they will be fired. Let it be that the only candidates for a public office that we will vet, must FIRST come out with their stand on the right to eat and drink whatever the hell we want.
This outraged me so much that I made my first donation to the fund. This government is so out of control and so out of touch with reality that if we don’t stand up for our rights we are going to continue to be trampled on. Thanks for posting this article and video.