Thursday, November 10, 2011

Outrage: Government Forces Private Citizens to Pour Bleach on Home-Grown Organic Food

Via ojibwa, L&P



“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”

The Declaration of Independence
July 4, 1776

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With 48 million Americans on federal food assistance we are bewildered by the latest government outrage from Nevada, where a group of private citizens gathered together at Quail Hollow Farm for a Farm-to-Fork dinner consisting of an organic spread prepared by Chef Gio were forced to dispatch and sanitize hundreds of pounds of food with bleach.

As invited guests began to arrive, mingle and satiate their appetites, one unexpected individual, operating under the auspices of the Southern Nevada Health District, had another plan in store for dinner.

The following outrageous first-hand account of the incident should make your blood boil. If it doesn’t then we don’t know what will.

Via Laura Bledsoe of Quail Hollow Farm:

Our guests were excited to spend an evening together. The food was prepared exquisitely. The long dinner table, under the direction of dear friends, was absolutely stunningly beautiful. The music was superb. The stars were bright and life was really good.

And then, …

for a few moments, it felt like the rug was pulled out from underneath us and my wonderful world came crashing down. As guests were mingling, finishing tours of the farm, and while the first course of the meal was being prepared and ready to be sent out, a Southern Nevada Health District employee came for an inspection.

Because this was a gathering of people invited to our farm for dinner, I had no idea that the Health Department would become involved. I received a phone call from them two days before the event informing me that because this was a “public event” (I would like to know what is the definition of “public” and “private”) we would be required to apply for a “special use permit”.

If we did not do so immediately, we would be charged a ridiculous fine.

Stunned, we immediately complied.

We were in the middle of our harvest day for our CSA shares, a very busy time for us, but Monte immediately left to comply with the demand and filled out the required paper work and paid for the fee. (Did I mention that we live in Overton, nowhere near a Health Department office?) Paper work now in order, he was informed that we would not actually be given the permit until an inspector came to check it all out.

She came literally while our guests were arriving!

In order to overcome any trouble with the Health Department of cooking on the premises, most of the food was prepared in a certified kitchen in Las Vegas; and to further remove any doubt, we rented a certified kitchen trailer to be here on the farm for the preparation of the meals. The inspector, Mary Oaks, clearly not the one in charge of the inspection as she was constantly on the phone with her superior Susan somebody who was calling all the shots from who knows where.

Susan deemed our food unfit for consumption and demanded that we call off the event because:

1. Some of the prepared food packages did not have labels on them. (The code actually allows for this if it is to be consumed within 72 hours.)

2. Some of the meat was not USDA certified. (Did I mention that this was a farm to fork meal?)

3. Some of the food that was prepared in advance was not up to temperature at the time of inspection. (It was being prepared to be brought to proper temperature for serving when the inspection occurred.)

4. Even the vegetables prepared in advance had to be thrown out because they were cut and were then considered a “bio-hazard”.

5. We did not have receipts for our food. (Reminder! This food came from farms not from the supermarket! I have talked with several chefs who have said that in all their years cooking they have never been asked for receipts.)

The only way to keep our guests on the property was to destroy the food.

We asked the inspector if we could save the food for a private family event that we were having the next day. (A personal family choice to use our own food.) We were denied and she was insulted that we would even consider endangering our families health. I assured her that I had complete faith and trust in Giovanni our chef and the food that was prepared, (obviously, or I wouldn’t be wanting to serve it to our guests).

I then asked if we couldn’t feed the food to our “public guests” or even to our private family, then at least let us feed it to our pigs. (I think it should be a criminal action to waste any resource of the land. Being dedicated to our organic farm, we are forever looking for good inputs into our compost and soil and good food that can be fed to our animals. The animals and compost pile always get our left over garden surplus and food. We truly are trying to be as sustainable as possible.)

Again, a call to Susan and another negative response.

Not only were we denied the use of the food for any purpose, to ensure that it truly was unfit for feed of any kind we were again threatened with police action if we did not only throw the food in the trash, but then to add insult to injury, we were ordered to pour bleach on it.

Now the food is also unfit for compost as I would be negligent to allow any little critters to nibble on it while it was composting and ingest that bleach resulting in a horrible death. Literally hundreds of pounds of food was good for nothing but adding to our ever increasing land fill!

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18 comments:

  1. Should have put the bitch back in her car and told her to haul ass. Small farmers are going to have to refuse to comply with this b/s and those of near those under assault are gonna have to help.

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  2. are gonna have to help.

    These little tyrants make me sick.

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  3. My comment is awaiting moderation here:

    http://blogs.usda.gov/2011/11/10/aphis-veterinarians-love-of-animals-starts-at-a-young-age/#comment-361890

    I doubt they'll post it. ;-)

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  4. Well, we can post it on ours, if all else fails!

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  5. Outrageous. Posted and linked back to you.

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  6. That was a Green.

    A Green where armed, determined men should have confronted tyranny.

    What's it gonna take?

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  7. A Green.

    I like that, and good question.

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  8. I noticed the word "ask" used a lot in this story. Why? Why are folks asking permission to do as they see fit? I, for one, find myself not feeling like asking permission to do much of anything any more. I would not have been a very polite house guest at this dinner party. But...then again...I am an uncouth Yankee, and a bit rough around the edges. I probably never would have received an invitation.

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  9. Do these petty little tyrants understand the danger of their actions?
    "When the People fear the government, there is Tyranny. When the government fears the People, there is Liberty." --Thomas Jefferson
    When people fear the government, they "ask."
    When the government fears the people, they know and keep their place.

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  10. Do these petty little tyrants understand the danger of their actions?

    Absolutely not, as they think they are infallible backed by the police state.

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  11. Mixed feelings here, Boss...

    The article and vid make it seem like this was a bunch of friends who got together and were harassed by evil jackboots.

    The TRUTH is that this was a $100/plate dinner for which tickets were sold to the public.

    Now...

    Should I - as a Free Man - have the right to pay $100/plate to eat anything I please? DAMN RIGHT! - I don't care if "fecal-patties smothered in e-coli sauce" were on the menu!

    I am a free man and what I do with or put in my body (including drugs) - PROVIDED NOBODY ELSE IS HARMED - is my own damn business!!

    That said, these people are *ALL* responsible for the laws being what they are. I'm willing to bet they're all members of some PAC which has lobbied their local/state/fed legislature for SOME law regarding "licensing of family/organic farms" or the like. Notice they called the chef a "Licensed Chef."

    You just can't have it both ways!

    While *I* think the laws should be repealed, you simply can't lobby FOR them when they help you and protest when they don't!!

    If they hadn't sold tickets to the public - instead limiting "members only" - it would be different, but in this case it seems to me they were acting as a public venue, so... it's only fair that the laws they support being applied to others should also apply to them!

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  12. If they hadn't sold tickets to the public

    I missed that. Thanks.

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  13. If it was that far out, she should have been added to the compost pile.

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  14. she should have been added to the compost pile.

    :)

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  15. If we the people dont stand against this and every incident then we all fall.

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