Nerves are raw among local food advocates one week after a packed Grass Valley showing of the film, “Farmageddon” and a swat team-style government raid on Rawesome Foods, a private health food club selling raw milk in Southern California.

Already a new local committee has loosely formed calling themselves, “Nevada County Local Food Freedom” made up of physicians, farmers, businessmen and Weston A. Price Foundation leaders who, despite political differences, agree that everyone deserves the right to choose what they eat.

A draft resolution is in the works, outlining a community desire for freedom to purchase food for health and keep government intervention out of the local food system.

After creating a “buzz,” a second showing of “Farmaggedon,” a film documenting government raids and harassment of small farms across the country, is already tentatively scheduled for August 24 at a bigger venue, the Veteran's Memorial Auditorium in Grass Valley with room enough to seat 1,000 people.

Community members and local politicians are invited to “talk about solutions,” said Cathe` Fish, Gold Country Chapter Leader of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

Farmageddon on the ground

Last Thursday's raid in Venice, involved the arrest of three people: James Stewart, Rawesome club organizer, farmer Sharon Palmer and Victoria Bloch, a Weston A. Price chapter leader.

“This was the Farmaggedon on the ground,” said Mark McAfee, founder and owner of Organic Pastures, the largest raw milk retailer in the state. McAfee spoke at the Grass Valley showing of “Farmaggedon” and attended a rally of 150 people and court house proceedings in Los Angeles after the Rawesome raid.

You-tube videos captured a scene not unlike a drug bust of federal, state and county agencies as they swarmed the members-only food-buying club. Armed with guns and handcuffs agents dumped out gallons of raw milk, loaded up organic produce onto pallets and confiscated raw cheese and yogurt.

Swat team-style raids are nothing new, said local chiropractor Dale Jacobson citing a year and a half-long government sting on a Pennsylvania Amish farmer for selling fresh milk across state lines. He regularly prescribes raw milk, yogurt and kefir to his patients.

Jacobson points the blame squarely at government affiliations with corporate agriculture giants like Monsanto and believes corporate dairies feel threatened by ma and pa raw milk producers who are slowly eating away at profit margins.

As public awareness peaks with publicized raids, typically sales of raw milk spike, too, McAfee said.

“This is a tremendous opportunity. In order for a movement you have to have an event. This is a galvanizing event,” McAfee said.

A question raised by the incident is whether or not private agreements like those arranged through the food club are subject to the same kind of scrutiny that large corporate retail operations undergo.

“This is a big interpretive lawsuit. This is about scaring people. … It's about food control,” McAfee said.

Representatives from the California Department of Food and Agriculture say it all boils down to the law, and that permits and licenses are required when food changes hands.

“To them, we're just bullies kicking down doors and arresting people,” said Corey Pruitt, office technician for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, (CDFA), Sacramento office who says it is the state agency's job to protect people.

“No one's saying you can't. What we're saying is you have to have a license to do so,” Pruitt said.

For small farmers with only a few cows or goats, licensing and inspection is costly, and doesn't make practical economic sense.

“That's why people are saying cow shares are the way to go,” McAfee said, who spends millions of dollars to legitimately sell his raw milk products on grocers' shelves.

Cow shares are an arrangement that allows several people to “own a cow” and in return get fresh, raw milk. In recent months, cow sharing has come under fire.

A woman from Shingle Springs who started a cow share with 15 other people is challenging a cease and desist order by CDFA and is getting support from her county supervisors.

“I'd much rather buy from my neighbor”

Pasteurization, a process of heating milk to kill disease-causing germs, became popular in the early 1900s as a method to prevent bacteria carrying disease such as tuberculosis in small children, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Raw milk supporters say small grass-based dairies and a sanitary environment is key to keeping out pathogens while protecting nutrients found in milk's raw state.

They point to studies that show people are more likely to get sick from other foods.

Some point to the level of risk with all foods, and the growing rate of incidence of food-born illnesses associated with mass-produced conventional food items on grocer's shelves, including the recent Cargill Inc. recall of 36 million pounds of ground turkey that sickened 79 people with salmonella poisoning.

“I'd much rather buy from my neighbor,” said local attorney Gregg Lien, a fan of local food for years.

Raw milk and other raw foods have gained popularity in the last decade. At least five local physicians prescribe raw milk to their patients and thousands of people drink raw milk in the county, said Fish.

Organic Pastures sales grow by 15 to 20 percent each year, McAfee said. Briarpatch Co-op in Grass Valley is consistently the number one and two biggest sellers of Organic Pastures milk in the state along with a San Francisco market, McAfee said. Twice a week, the co-op gets deliveries of hundreds of gallons of fresh raw milk to waiting customers.

“It's a pretty popular item, one of our best sellers,” said Michelle Peregoy, perishable foods manager for Briarpatch. In the 11 years she has worked at the store, she has never had an instance of someone becoming ill from drinking raw milk.

Last week, the store sold 221 half gallons and 60 quarts of milk and 50 pints of cream. The store also sells colostrums, kefir, butter and cheese.

Some people with lactose intolerance who can't stomach pasteurized milk say they can digest raw cow and goat milk. Mothers of children with allergies and asthma have claimed symptoms disappeared after switching to raw milk.

Since she began drinking raw milk products 10 months ago, Terry Lewis, a receptionist at Jacobson Chiropractic says she is cured of the irritable bowel syndrome that plagued her for 20 years. She says pasteurization, even of organic milk, kills the “good bugs” or beneficial bacteria that her body's intestines need to function properly.

“I don't appreciate the government telling me what I can and can't eat - especially if it's milk from a cow,” Lewis said.

Instead, people should be allowed to feed their families the healthiest, purest foods available without government intervention, Jacobson said.

“It's like freedom of religion. It's ridiculous to even have to deal with it.”

Laura Brown is a freelance writer who lives in Grass Valley. Contact her at 530-401-4877 or laurabrown323@comcast.net.