jreedmiller.

My 12 year old brother saw my tweets last week about the raid and asked me what was going on.

I've copied my response to him below for you to read:

Hey Jacko - Sorry it has taken me a while to get back to your text.  I've been so busy and haven't had the time to write you a proper response explaining what happened last week and why it is important to me. There is a little food store across the street from my house in Venice called Rawesome.  Basically - they sell lots of different types of raw food because they believe that applying HEAT to food kills off a lot of the nutrients and that, unless you eat all raw food, you aren't fully getting the benefits of the food that you are eating.  While I don't eat raw only, I do agree with their point. It makes sense to me that if you eat a piece of organic broccoli right out of the ground, there will be more available vitamins and nutrients than if you boil it for 4 hours until it is mushy.  Broccoli is just an example to demonstrate what these people believe, but Raw Dairy is the main reason why this place exists, or existed. As you may or may not know, all dairy and milk products that we eat must be Pasteurized by law.  This is a process in which milk is brought to a high temperature for a relatively short period of time to kill potentially harmful bacteria.  Pasteurization isn't a really big deal to me as I am not strict about only consuming raw foods, but it is to a lot of people. The point is: it is LAW that ALL dairy has to be pasteurized, or cooked, before we can use it.  For those people that eat RAW diets, dairy products that you find in normal stores like Ralph's or Whole Foods don't cut it. People that eat raw foods argue that raw milk and dairy is much more nutritious and healthy than pasteurized dairy - again, it doesn't matter whether or not it IS or ISNT more healthy - just that it is Illegal and that Rawesome sold it.  Rawesome broke the Law. As a result, people who eat strictly raw diets would flock to Rawesome to buy their unpasteurized dairy products.  The federal police became aware that Rawesome sold these raw goods, and raided the store because they were selling "harmful" foods illegally.  They arrested the owner and seized all of the raw dairy products. There was a lot of action on that day and it was right across from my house - that's why I was tweeting so much about it.  It was exciting and close to home. but the MAIN POINT about this whole thing:  Rawesome broke the law and they were shut down for it.  That's fine- I don't take issue with the fact that they broke the law.   The frustrating thing is that the government is spending money that we DON'T HAVE to enforce ignorant laws that infringe on our liberties as humans.  It's GREAT that the gov't makes it illegal to murder.  It's NOT GREAT that the government makes it illegal to sell and consume raw milk.  Don't they have better things to do with their time and our money?  They certainly do. It's a similar argument that Dad makes about online poker.  In this day when public money is so scarce and the USA is in such great debt, why are we spending money to enforce such stupid rules that shouldn't exist in the first place?  online gambling and consumption of raw dairy are TOTALLY DIFFERENT from Murder and Theft.  The government has no right to tell me or ANYONE that a mom cannot feed her child raw dairy.  The government has no right to tell me or ANYONE that I can't play poker online!  It's such BS!!!  and the fact that they are spending money that we DON'T HAVE to enforce these things when Americans are starving and poorly educated?  It makes me so ANGRY!  The government is not a Nutritionist, nor is it a moral authority.  I believe that it should not spend money while trying to be either of these things. This is why the raid on Rawesome Foods in Venice last week was so important to me. Let me know if you have any questions. Love, Jason

They shackle your minds and you're left on the cross! When ignorance reigns, LIFE IS LOST!

They shackle your minds when you're bent on the cross! When ignorance reigns, LIFE IS LOST!