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Swat Team Conducts "Food Raid" in Rural Ohio
ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com ^ | Thu, 4 Dec 2008 | John Loeffler

Posted on 12/07/2008 3:48:32 PM PST by TenthAmendmentChampion

On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite traumatized. At some point, the “bad cop” SWAT team was relieved by another team, a “good cop” team that tried to befriend the family. The Stowers family has run a very large, well-known food cooperative called Manna Storehouse

http://www.mannastorehouse.com

on the western side of the greater Cleveland area for many years.

There were agents from the Department of Agriculture present, one of them identified as Bill Lesho. The search warrant is reportedly supicious-looking .

Agents began rifling through all of the family’s possessions, a task that lasted hours and resulted in a complete upheaval of every private area in the home. Many items were taken that were not listed on the search warrant. The family was not permitted a phone call, and they were not told what crime they were being charged with. They were not read their rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the family’s personal stock of food for the coming year. All of their computers, and all of their cell phones were taken, as well as phone and contact records. The food cooperative was virtually shut down. There was no rational explanation, nor justification, for this extreme violation of Constitutional rights.

Presumably Manna Storehouse might eventually be charged with running a retail establishment without a license. Why then the Gestapo-type interrogation for a 3^rd degree misdemeanor charge? This incident has raised the ominous specter of a restrictive new era in State regulation and enforcement over the nation’s private food supply.

This same type of abusive search and seizure was reported by those innocents who fell victim to oppressive federal drug laws passed in the 1990s. The present circumstance raises the obvious question: is there some rabid new interpretation of an existing drug law that considers food a controlled substance worthy of a nasty SWAT operation? Or worse, is there a previously unrecognized provision(s) pertaining to food in the Homeland Security measures? Some have suggested that it was merely an out-of-control, hot-to-trot ODA agent, and, if so, this would be a best-case scenario. Anything else might spell the beginning of the end for the freedom to eat unregulated and unmonitored. food http://www.westonaprice.org/.

One blogger

http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/oda-swats-manna-storehouse-co-op/

familiar with the Ohio situation has reported that:

“Interestingly, I believe they [Manna Storehouse] said a month or so ago, an undercover ODA official came to their little store and claimed to have a sick father wanting to join the co-op. Both the owner and her daughter-in- law had a horrible feeling about the man, and decided not to allow him into the co-op and notified him by certified mail. He came back to the co-op demanding to be part of it. They refused and gave him names of other businesses and health food stores closer to his home. Not coincidentally, this man was there yesterday as part of the raid.”

The same blog

http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2008/12/03/oda-swats-manna-storehouse-co-op/

also noted that the Ohio Department of Agriculture has been chastised by the courts in several previous instances for its aggression, including trying to entrap an Amish man in a raw milk “sale,”

http://familycow.proboards32.com/index.cgi?board=news&action=display&thread=12013

which backfired when it became known that the Amish believe in a literal interpretation of “give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away” (Matthew 5:42)

The issue appears to be the discovery of a bit of non-institutional beef in an Oberlin College food service freezer a year ago that was tracked down by a county sanitation official to Manna Storehouse. Oberlin College’s student food coop is widely known for its strident ideological stance about eating organic foods. It seems that the Oberlin student food cooperative had joined the Manna Storehouse food cooperative in order to buy organic foods in bulk from the national organic food distributor United http://www.unitedbu yingclubs. com/

, which services buying clubs across the nation. The sanitation official, James Boddy, evidently contacted the Ohio Department of Agriculture. After the first contact by state ODA officials, Manna Storehouse reportedly wrote them a letter requesting assistance and guidelines for complying with the law. This letter was never answered. Rather, the ODA agent tried several times to infiltrate the coop, as described above. When his attempts failed, the SWAT team showed up!

Food cooperatives and buying clubs have been an active part of the American landscape for over a generation. In the 1970s, with the rise of the organic food industry (a direct outgrowth of the hippie back-to-nature movement) food coops started up all over the country. These were groups of people who freely associated for the purpose of combining their buying power so that they could order organic food items in bulk and case lots. Anyone who was part of these coops in the early era will remember the messy breakdown of 35 pounds of peanut butter and 5 gallon drums of honey!

These buying clubs have persisted and flourished over the years due to their ability to purchase high quality organic foods at reduced prices in bulk quantities. Most cooperatives have participated greatly in the local agrarian economies, supporting neighborhood organic farmers with purchases of produce, eggs, chickens, etc. The groups also purchase food from a number of different local, regional and national distributors, many of them family-based businesses who truck the food themselves. Some of these food cooperatives have become large enough to set up mini-storefront operations where members can drop in and purchase items leftover from case lot sales. Manna Storehouse had established itself in such a manner, using a small enclosed breezeway attached to their home. It was a folksy place with old wooden floors where coop members stopped by to chat and snack on bags of organic corn chips.

The state of Ohio boasts the second largest Amish population in the country. Many of the Amish live on acreages where they raise their own food, not unlike Manna Storehouse, and sell off the extras to neighbors and church members. There is a sense of foreboding that this state crackdown on a longstanding, reputable food cooperative operation could adversely impact the peaceful agrarian way of life not only for the Amish, but homeschoolers and those families living off the land on rural acreages. It raises the disturbing possibility that it could become a crime to raise your own food, buy eggs from the farmer down the road, or butcher your own chickens for family and friends – bustling activities that routinely take place in backwater America.

The freedom to purchase food directly form the source is increasingly under attack. For those who have food allergies and chemical intolerances, or who are on special medical diets, this is becoming a serious health issue. Will Americans retain the right to purchase food that is uncontaminated by pesticides, herbicides, allergens, additives, dyes, preservatives, MSG, GMOs, radiation, etc.? The melamine scare from China underscores the increasingly inferior and suspect quality of modern processed institutional foods. One blog, commenting on the bizarre and troubling Manna Storehouse situation, observed that:

“No one is saying exactly why. At the same time the FDA says it it safe to eat the 40% of tainted beef found in Costco's and Sam's all over the nation. These farm raids are very common now. Every farmer needs to fully eqiped [sic] for the possibility of it happening to them. The Farmer To Consumer Legal Defense Fund

http://www.ftcldf. org/

was created just for this purpose. The USDA just released their plans to put a law into action that will put all small farmers out of business. Animals for the sale of meat or milk will only be allowed in commercial farms, even the organic ones.” December 3, 2008 7:09 PM file://localhost/ comment.g

John Loeffler

Western Bureau Chief

Steel on Steel Radio Program

IRN/USA Radio News

P.O. Box 3358

Hayden Id 83835-3358

Tel: 208-765-8337

Fax: 208-765-2033

Email: john@steelonsteel.com

Web: www.steelonsteel. com

Distributed by: www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: Ohio
KEYWORDS: bob152; food; gmo; raid; socialism; survival
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To: Neu Pragmatist
W is still the Prez

I did notice that. So clinton took children at gunpoint and W took food at gunpoint. God knows what BO will take at gunpoint.

41 posted on 12/07/2008 5:59:30 PM PST by PistolPaknMama (Al-Queda can recruit on college campuses but the US military can't! --FReeper airborne)
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To: TenthAmendmentChampion

You forgot to post:

“Posted: 12/04/2008”

Another unsourced blog entry.


42 posted on 12/07/2008 6:06:19 PM PST by ColdWater
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To: rawcatslyentist

It wasn’t just GW, it has been going on for years. We as a nation could never live up to the Constitution. We have given away our freedoms and grew government because then we don’t have to take responsibility for ourselves.


43 posted on 12/07/2008 6:10:56 PM PST by panthermom
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To: The Working Man

I did not know those laws existed.

Is you screen name a reference to the Rush song The Working Man?


44 posted on 12/07/2008 6:22:14 PM PST by stockpirate (Democrat Syndrome, psychological disorder that makes victims loyal to their abusers)
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To: The Working Man

I did not know those laws existed.

Is you screen name a reference to the Rush song The Working Man?


45 posted on 12/07/2008 6:23:09 PM PST by stockpirate (Democrat Syndrome, psychological disorder that makes victims loyal to their abusers)
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To: Beamreach

I’ll go ya one further,

Name me one, just one activity that you engage in, from the time you get up till the time you go to bed, that the government, federal, state, county or city, does NOT regulate, tax or have laws against.


46 posted on 12/07/2008 6:26:33 PM PST by WorkerbeeCitizen (Kitty's name is Genaker - I will call her Genny)
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To: Beamreach

Atlas Shrugged. If you can’t find enough criminals, you create them. Just remember it’s all about control, and those who control the producers.


47 posted on 12/07/2008 6:30:39 PM PST by factoryrat (Better living through American Industrial Might.)
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To: SevenMinusOne

Sorry; it’s the ILLEGAL drug Dealer that should have been persecuted, not patriots PROTECTING our border.

Or maybe you prfer total anarchy.


48 posted on 12/07/2008 6:42:01 PM PST by DLfromthedesert
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To: ColdWater
Local food cooperative searched by state
49 posted on 12/07/2008 7:28:39 PM PST by TenthAmendmentChampion (Join us on the best FR thread, 7000+ posts: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1990507/posts)
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To: fr_freak; DLfromthedesert
No, we will become a police State when LE does not have to follow procedure (as long as the ends justify the means).

Reality is Compean and Ramos discharged their weapons and then lied / and/or covered up evidence surrounding said event.

Whom they were "shooting at" while CONUS (illegal or not) bears no weight. Nor should it.

Punishment too severe? Question for honest debate and I can agree. However, what they did, discharging of weapons and then not being full and up front about such is a quick and slippery slope to a Gov't sponsored police State. They did deserve time and the loss of their jobs.

And lets be clear, warriors down range do more paper work (required) than either of these two did in their AARs (or lack of), and that is in Iraq / Stan (in a war zone no less).

How many times had either of these agents discharged their weapons in the last year? Last 5 years? Last 10 years? The notion that this wasn't a big incident for them (and their Dept) is absurd. It certainly was so. Full and detailed AARs would have been SOP. It was not done. It should have been. It must be done. We do not live in a police State. Why wasn't it?

Reality is both men are part of civilian LE and both men went about, purposely, to obscure what took place that night. That cannot be allowed.

50 posted on 12/07/2008 7:29:42 PM PST by SevenMinusOne
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To: SevenMinusOne
Reality is Compean and Ramos discharged their weapons and then lied / and/or covered up evidence surrounding said event.

The Ramos/Compean cult just will never see that.

51 posted on 12/07/2008 7:31:58 PM PST by Clemenza (Red is the Color of Virility, Blue is the Color of Impotence)
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To: TenthAmendmentChampion

Nothing about SWAT and jack-booted thugs in the article. Nothing about guns pointed at children for hours. Nothing about holding hostages without access to the phone. Nothing.


52 posted on 12/07/2008 7:32:17 PM PST by ColdWater
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To: Clemenza
The Ramos/Compean cult just will never see that.

It's ok for jack-booted thugs to shoot illegals and cover it up. They are the good jack-booted thugs just doing the work that the evil jack-booted thugs don't have time for because they are too busy busting old grandma's for their marijuana.

53 posted on 12/07/2008 7:34:23 PM PST by ColdWater
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To: Clemenza

I guess if the cult includes Congressmen Hunter and Rohrabacher, I’m proud to be in that cult.


54 posted on 12/07/2008 7:40:17 PM PST by DLfromthedesert
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To: DLfromthedesert

I love both men, but they are wrong in defending two incompetents who covered their a-ses in a criminal manner.


55 posted on 12/07/2008 7:41:09 PM PST by Clemenza (Red is the Color of Virility, Blue is the Color of Impotence)
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To: SevenMinusOne
And lets be clear, warriors down range do more paper work (required) than either of these two did in their AARs (or lack of), and that is in Iraq / Stan (in a war zone no less).

And very few people on this forum believe that our soldiers should be held to the same level of accountability in war that law enforcement are held to at home, because the circumstances are entirely different. The fact that many lefties want our soldiers to be held to that standard only demonstrates their lack of understanding of combat.

I view our border patrol as a separate entity from regular law enforcement, because they are specifically tasked with dealing with foreign invaders. That's right - they don't just deal with criminals, they deal with foreign INVADERS, often including members of the Mexican military. To expect them to act like local cops on the beat is asinine.

Now, I'm going to assume that you've read up on the Ramos and Campeon case at least enough to have understood where some of the contention is. If you haven't, you should read up before spouting off. I'm not going to rehash all of that here. You can look up all the old threads if you want. The point that I'm going to make is that most people, such as yourself, who are just fine with their incarceration point to the lack of proper paperwork as justification for that sentence. I haven't seen anybody dispute the fact that they let their superiors know there was a shooting, verbally. So, we have a situation where two agents tasked with defending our country from foreign invaders were sent up the river for ten years each for failing to fill out the proper paperwork. We have civilians who kill people who get less time than that.
56 posted on 12/07/2008 8:04:20 PM PST by fr_freak
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To: Clemenza
The Ramos/Compean cult just will never see that.

I have seen legitimate concerns regarding the prosecution of those two over and over. You are entitled to your own conclusions, but to refer to those who disagree with you as a "cult" is both childish and lazy as hell.
57 posted on 12/07/2008 8:09:56 PM PST by fr_freak
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To: The Working Man

I’m going to post your comment on another thread. Imagine all the defunct or unenforced laws that the gov’t can use to oppress us. They won’t even need Congress to pass new laws (although their agencies can do that) - all they need to do is fund the agencies who would carry out the legislation signed years ago.


58 posted on 12/07/2008 9:00:55 PM PST by TenthAmendmentChampion (Join us on the best FR thread, 7000+ posts: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1990507/posts)
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To: TenthAmendmentChampion; milford421; Calpernia; Velveeta; DAVEY CROCKETT

A poster on the anothread said that there are still laws on the books (executive orders) against “hoarding.” We have no idea what can be used against us. The mind boggles at what this country has become. <<<

As I recall, Clinton made the hoarding law stronger in the late 1990’s and placed it under FEMA.

That is when FEMA suddenly had camps and railcars built to move citizens to them.

Every time I read this article, I see Elian in Miami, with a swat team gun pointed at him.

Ruby Ridge was under the first Bush, but Waco falls into this class and if you will really do some digging, you will find a bunch of deaths, arrests and put out of business, small churches and militia groups......the clinton ‘vast right wing militia’.

True some were ugly groups such as the nazi’s calling themselves a church, they still do.

But the sweep took out a lot of nice people with single churches and I know some of them are legit, as one of the best Christian Churches that I have ever gone to, was just that a Christian Church, it preached from the Bible and God.

Does anyone remember Chuck Harder, that is a difficult story to tell, but I was a listener to him long before clinton was elected and after he told some truths about the clintons, they sicced the IRS on him, until he was bankrupt fighting them.

Then the Ross Perot crowd bought his radio station and did not pay for it.

It is my opinion that the elements of our gov, are already taking control, after all the old clinton bosses are picking up the reins and the crazy commies are in control.

If anyone plans a rebellion, do not call it a militia, call it granny’s quilting bee, hilary hates the militia, as do the rest of the liberals, you have seen how they have a violent reaction to seeing a Marine in dress uniform, imagine what seeing grandpa in camouflage clothing with a gun will do to them.


59 posted on 12/07/2008 10:20:36 PM PST by nw_arizona_granny (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1990507/posts?page=7451 [Survival,food,garden,crafts,and more)
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To: nw_arizona_granny

I remember Chuck Harder! I used to listen to him when he was on shortwave. Whatever happened to him? I had no idea Clinton used the IRS to defeat him (that was their trick in the 90s, to use tax law to destroy their enemies). I will need to read more about this. Thanks for the information Granny.


60 posted on 12/08/2008 7:07:40 AM PST by TenthAmendmentChampion (Join us on the best FR thread, 7000+ posts: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1990507/posts)
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