Who the hell do you think you are? ... Shouldn't this be directed at Obama and company?

For Prime Minister inject "President" For England inject "America" ...sound familar?

Exactly what is going on in America...only this is Gordon Brown getting it rammed back up his New World Order arse...

The Police State Cometh...and Willie Nelson goeth...to jail

Rawesome Foods raw milk co-op raid conducted by criminal elements of local, state and federal law enforcement

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
(NaturalNews) On June 30, 2010, a group of armed government agents from local, state, federal and even the Canadian government illegally trespassed on private property and raided Rawesome Foods, a private food buying club in Venice, California. With guns drawn, these agents tore through the property stealing computers, raw dairy products and honey, all while holding some of the volunteer workers hostage for several hours. When the agents finally left, they took with them thousands of dollars in private property as well as the surveillance footage of their armed rampage.

Sounds like a scene out of a horror movie, right? Except this actually happened, though unless you're tuned in to the health freedom movement, you've probably heard nothing about it. Most of the mainstream media outlets would never touch a story like this because it exposes just how tyrannical and out of control our government has become on issues like raw milk and food freedom.

[Editor's note: The reason we took so long to publish this story is because we were waiting on some promised video footage of the raid -- footage that never materialized. It is not yet clear whether this footage was confiscated by police or simply lost, but there is reportedly additional footage of this raid that nobody has seen yet. I regret that we have so far been unable to obtain it for you.]

It all started back in 2005 when, according to a Rawesome member, an under-cover agent was able to trick workers and get into the club without a proper membership. The agent allegedly purchased some items there, and authorities used this as an excuse to come back and raid the club. They claimed that the club was engaging in commerce without a proper permit.

But Rawesome immediately notified the agents that the cooperative is a private buying club that doesn't sell to the public. Therefore, it's completely outside the scope of government jurisdiction. In other words, government agents have no right to come on Rawesome's property uninvited, unless they have a valid search warrant and a lawful reason to show up.

Rawesome submitted all the necessary legal documents to authorities after the first raid, showing that the club is a legitimate, private membership co-op, but that didn't stop the same agents from performing another illegal raid five years later. Except this time, the agents had already been warned that such harassment is illegal and unwarranted, so they knowingly trespassed on private property without a legitimate reason.

The idea behind private buying clubs

Before going any further, let me explain why private buying clubs exist. In order for most Americans to get food that's untainted, unprocessed and unpasteurized, they have to form legal buying clubs that operate outside the mandates of local health departments and departments of agriculture.

These mandates include things like requiring all dairy products to be pasteurized, requiring that certain toxic chemicals be used to clean processing equipment, and so on. So people that want clean, unadulterated food either have to grow it themselves or buy it directly from farmers that hold their same philosophies about growing and raising food.

But to purchase things like raw milk, for example, members have to sign agreements with farmers in which they literally purchase a portion of a cow or goat in order to legally gain access to the raw product from the animal. So members basically own a portion of an animal and go to Rawesome to pick up the milk from their own animal. This arrangement is often called "cow sharing" or "goat sharing."

In California, clubs like Rawesome are perfectly legal -- they're basically nothing more than a group of private individuals who collectively share products from the animals and farms in which they own shares. There's nothing criminal or illegal about it; it's what individuals are free to do in the United States of America (although in some other states, cow and goat sharing has been outlawed, if you can believe that).

But in Rawesome's case, the Feds ignored the fact that the club was operating legally and lawfully, and decided to raid the club on false grounds, apparently for intimidation purposes. The whole idea appears to be to send a message to other raw food operations that if they try to sell raw milk, they will be raided at gunpoint too!

False felony charges and missing warrant pages

Following a NaturalNews investigation into this case, there are several things I want to point out that deserve critical attention. First, agents conducted this raid on Rawesome under the false pretense that they were addressing felony crime charges.

But Matthew, a member of Rawesome, explained during an interview with NaturalNews reporter Ethan Huff that many of the agents who were there during the raid had no idea what they were even raiding, or why they were raiding it. (The following quotes are from Ethan Huff's conversations with Rawesome members.)

"Most of the local policemen who were there, they thought they were there serving felony warrants. And they weren't really told what they were serving them for," he explained. "One of the cop's mother shopped at Rawesome, so he was pretty upset when he found out that that's where they were raiding."

The agents were simply following the orders that had been passed down to them from higher-ups, even though these agents didn't really understand what they were being ordered to do, or the fact that their raid was technically illegal.

So what happened after they arrived?

"A SWAT team came initially, they ... took all the cameras, from what I understand they took financial data ... everybody's membership information, computers ... they took all the security footage that would have shown what the cops were doing."

"One guy was there with a camera, and they took his camera away and erased it, and they even made all the workers and employees stand up, and took pictures and profiles of everyone that was there. These are all Ron Paul type people ... so they were pretty vocal when all this was happening," explained Matthew.

Creating the appearance of guilt

You would think that with an armed SWAT team present, there was some sort of drug or terrorist activity going on, right? On the contrary, there was nothing criminal at all going on except by those conducting the raid in the first place.

According to the warrant that James, the operator of Rawesome, received from the agents, the supposed felony charges for which the raid was conducted were not felony charges at all. Every charge visible on the warrant was a misdemeanor.

Even worse, the warrant only permitted the agents to take "vial" samples of Rawesome products. But instead, the agents decided to just take everything they possibly could.

"They came in and stole ... 17 coolers worth of product, when on their search warrant it authorized the taking of vials of samples, which of course would have fit under your underarm in a soft-sided cooler. So ... why were they armed with 17 coolers when that was a violation of their own protocols on their search warrant?"

The agents not only confiscated thousands of dollars worth of food products, but they tagged most of the other food as "evidence" and ordered Rawesome workers not to "sell" any more of it to members. From about 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., the agents remained on Rawesome's premises until they finally decided to leave.

Rawesome attends mandatory hearing the day after raid, gets no answers

As agents left the day of the raid, they informed James that he had to attend a mandatory hearing the following day, July 1, at the Baldwin Park, Cal. location of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). So James complied in good faith, bringing with him Tony Blain, an attorney and member of Rawesome, as well as another member.

Sitting around a conference room table at HHS were representatives from the FDA, the FBI, the local health department and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Tony verbally challenged the group's jurisdiction in conducting the raid, and informed them that the issue had already been resolved several years prior when Rawesome submitted all the necessary information to officials.

But after giving this testimony and questioning the agents repeatedly about why the raid even occurred -- while receiving no valid explanation -- Rawesome' crew decided to leave. They literally got up and left and haven't heard anything from those specific agencies since that day.

Rawesome didn't even receive a complete warrant

An interesting aspect to the Rawesome case is the fact that the agents didn't even serve Rawesome a complete warrant.

"The search warrant says, of the four pages we got ... "four of 16", so where are the other 12 pages," James stressed during a phone interview.

Sharon Palmer, a nearby farmer who raises club members' goats, has also been raided four times in the last year-and-a-half, explained James, and in the most recent raid, she didn't receive a complete warrant either.

"She only has three of 12 pages while we have four of 16 pages, so she called the DA (district attorney), who refused to give her any information, which of course would seem illegal is he's the man that was the person who signed [as the] authority, and then got a judge to sign the search warrant."

"So she called the judge, who then hung up on her. And then she went downtown to get her copy of the rest of the pages and was told that it's sealed."

But according to the few pages of the search warrants that both James and Sharon received, it was specified plainly that the entire warrant had to be served, so how could it legally be sealed?

"It's sinister, corrupt behavior," retorted James. "You would think that they're the ones that are way more corrupt than anyone else."

What's really clear from all this is that law enforcement officials simply make up the law as they go, abiding by nothing resembling due process. As we've seen so often before in the nutritional supplements industry, members of law enforcement will even falsify information in order to create fictitious warrants that give them an excuse to raid any establishment they wish. Read the history of raids on the Life Extension Foundation (www.LEF.org) if you really want to see some fascinating information about what goes on.

Check out this story I wrote in 2007 called Tyranny in the USA: The true history of FDA raids on healers, vitamin shops and supplement companies at:
http://www.naturalnews.com/021791.html

Building and safety code officials illegally raid and assault Rawesome just two weeks later

If it's not bad enough that an armed SWAT team unlawfully raided a private buying club and stole thousands of dollars of private property, consider the fact that just two weeks after the first raid, local building and safety code officials showed up and conducted their own mini-raid.

These building and safety code officials were not present during the first raid, but mysteriously decided to show up unannounced, and search the property to check for code violations. And in doing so, they broke the law and their own protocol by failing to give proper notice.

"The building and safety code people have their own protocols, which we've gone online to read," explained James. "If they want to enter a property in order to see if there's any code violations ... they are supposed to contact the owners of the property, in writing, and give us 30 days to get an appointment [set up] to come on the property."

"They did none of that, and decided to enter the property after they were even informed ... that it was private property and they were not allowed there."

According to James, these officials ignored warnings that they were trespassing, and proceeded to force their way into the building, physically shoving one of the Rawesome crew to the ground on the way in. So not only did the officials violate the law by entering illegally, but they assaulted a member of the club in the process.

What does the Canadian government have to do with all this, anyway?

Perhaps the strangest fact about the Rawesome raid is the fact that the Canadian government was involved in conducting it. Since when does the Canadian government have any lawful jurisdiction over local affairs in the U.S.? What law gives them permission to violate private American property?

The answer, of course, is that there's absolutely no justifiable reason for the Canadian government to be involved in any civil affairs here in the U.S. And nobody at Rawesome seems to know why they were there, either.

"I had no idea why Canadian anything would be involved," expressed James. "I have no clue."

Rawesome to press charges against the government for illegal harassment and theft

Rawesome operates as part of the larger organization called Right to Choose Healthy Food (RTCHF) (www.Rawmilk.org), which is a non-profit trust association with local food buying clubs like Rawesome located all across the country. A few members of the organization are located in Canada, which is perhaps the alleged justification for the Canadian government's involvement in the raid.

Dr Aajonus Vonderplanitz, president of RTCHF, legally represents both Rawesome and RTCHF, and is working on filing suit against officials for their crimes against the club. And according to both James and Matthew, practically every Rawesome member has indicated that they're onboard with the suit.

NaturalNews obtained a copy of the letter Aajonus sent to these officials back in 2005, and it's more than clear that the agencies involved in the raid flat out ignored the letter. If they had read it and taken it seriously, there would not have been another raid (unless, of course, these agencies have a different agenda that operates outside the law).

Private buying clubs do not involve interstate commerce

Regardless of what happened to prompt the first raid, there's no legitimate reason for government agents to raid a private buying club, especially if those agents deliberately planned a scheme to trick the club into selling to a non-member (entrapment, anyone?).

There was no terrorist activity, no prostitution, no drug dealing -- none of the outlandish things you would expect to have been taking place to justify an armed raid. This was just a regular group of folks pursuing healthy living through clean, whole, raw foods.

The whole things is really just another classic case of escalating government tyranny over private enterprise here in the U.S., and it's happening all across the country to many different co-ops and buying clubs. Our Founding Fathers must be rolling in their graves over the gross abuse of authority that today's government is criminally imposing over individual, sovereign citizens, especially on issues of basic food freedoms.

You can't sell fresh milk from a cow? Are you kidding? America was raised on raw milk from cows!

Federal tyranny escalates

The Feds have been raiding buying clubs all over the country recently, including clubs in Ohio (http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=84445) and Wisconsin (http://wholefoodusa.wordpress.com/2...). And Massachusetts legislators recently tried to prohibit buying clubs via legislation (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david...).

A lot of time and effort -- and taxpayer money -- is being spent bullying and intimidating innocent people who simply want to eat healthy food without government intrusion.

If the public really knew about all this -- and how much it's costing them in taxpayer dollars -- they would be outraged.

"If the public got wind of the fact that they're spending possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars while they're laying off firemen, policemen, schoolteachers ... the cities are broke and the counties and states are broke, and they're spending public taxpayer funds on raiding private membership clubs which have nothing to do with the public, wouldn't you think the public would be in outrage?" James explained, referencing a conversation he had with Sharon, a raw goat milk supplier.

He was also sure to note that it's most likely a few bureaucrats at the top who are driving this agenda; most of the people actually carrying out these raids don't even know that what they're doing is wrong. Cops are trained to just follow orders and not question them.

"I believe that 99 percent of all the agents and all the agencies are just ignorant. They're just doing their job. They don't know any better. They're trained to do something and follow orders," he emphasized. "I don't have any beef with any of those people. The only beef I have is with the few people, wherever they are ... writing all these ridiculous, insane, unfair, unjust laws."

But that doesn't justify the behavior of these agents, no matter who they are. They are still responsible for stealing private property, causing undue harm and trespassing illegally. When the cops become the criminals, stealing raw milk while intimidating those who are trying to preserve the availability of real food for health-conscious consumers, you know something has gone horribly wrong with law enforcement.

If you'd like to learn more about Right to Choose Healthy Food (RTCHF) or to find out what's happening with this case, visit: http://www.rawmilk.org to learn more.

NaturalNews wishes to thank reporter Ethan Huff for his investigative contributions to this story. If you find this story interesting, please forward this web page link to others who you think need to know.

NaturalNews, by the way, has a long history of covering illegal raids on food freedom champions. See my related story, Raw Foodists Arrested for Trafficking Chocolate; Interrogated for "Cacao Crimes" at: http://www.naturalnews.com/024304.html

And this from the Los Angeles Times

Raw-food raid highlights a hunger

Some people balk at restrictions on selling unprocessed milk and other foods. 'How can we not have the freedom to choose what we eat?' one says. Regulators say the rules exist for safety and fairness.

July 25, 2010|By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times

With no warning one weekday morning, investigators entered an organic grocery with a search warrant and ordered the hemp-clad workers to put down their buckets of mashed coconut cream and to step away from the nuts.
Then, guns drawn, four officers fanned out across Rawesome Foods in Venice. Skirting past the arugula and peering under crates of zucchini, they found the raid's target inside a walk-in refrigerator: unmarked jugs of raw milk.

And this from cryptogon.com

SWAT Team Conducts Food Raid in Rural Ohio
December 6th, 2008

Via: Crossroad:
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 on the western side of the greater Cleveland area for many years.
…
Presumably Manna Storehouse might eventually be charged with running a retail establishment without a license. Why then the Gestapo-type interrogation for a 3rd 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.

And...  Do you seriously think Willie Nelson is going to harm anyone?

Willie Nelson pot possession charge shows ludicrousness of marijuana prohibition

(NaturalNews) Marijuana prohibition is the cornerstone of the U.S. police state. It gives cops a reason to search vehicles and keeps DEA employees on the payroll while filling the prisons with literally millions of people who have harmed no one except themselves.

Country singer superstar Willie Nelson is the latest victim of this police state marijuana prohibition. His vehicle was stopped at an immigration checkpoint (yes, immigration) in Sierra Blanca, Texas, where an officer claimed he smelled pot. A search of the vehicle turned up six ounces of marijuana for which Willie Nelson was arrested along with two other people.

For the record, Willie Nelson is 77 years old. The whole point of arresting people and sending them to prison is to isolate violent, dangerous people from the rest of the public in order to protect public safety. Does anybody seriously believe that Willie Nelson is a threat to public safety? He's practically the most harmless guy on the planet.

Immigration checkpoints used against U.S. citizens

The other important point here is that all this took place at an immigration checkpoint. This is supposed to be a place where U.S. officials look for vehicles full of people illegally entering the United States from Mexico. Did Willie Nelson look like an illegal alien? Of course not. He's obviously a U.S. citizen (and a well-known celebrity on top of that), yet that didn't stop this immigration checkpoint officer from searching his vehicle.

You see, there's something that all the people who support tighter illegal immigration fences, walls and checkpoints haven't yet realized: All that security is going to be used against YOU, too! Border Patrol officers and U.S. feds aren't just looking for illegal aliens, you see: They're also looking to arrest people who are obviously U.S. citizens -- and they will arrest you for things that have nothing to do with immigration.

Are you carrying some fertilizer in your truck? Ah, now you're a terrorist with "bomb making materials." Have some duct tape in your vehicle? Now you have materials that can be used "to bind the hands of kidnapping victims." And if you're smoking a joint, God forbid, now you're going to be hauled off to jail by these immigration checkpoint officers who apparently have nothing important to do.

Why marijuana prohibition makes no sense

For the record, I'm not a marijuana smoker, and I would never encourage any individual to take up such a habit unless they had a legitimate medical need for pain relief. However, I am totally against the continued persecution of individuals who buy, possess or consume this medicinal herb. They harm no one but themselves, and smoking marijuana produces side effects that are far milder than drinking alcohol.

In fact, in America today it's perfectly legal to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and even drug your own kids with "speed" in the form of prescription amphetamines for ADHD. And yet marijuana -- which makes people feel lazy and hungry -- remains illegal. You have to wonder: Why?

Why is marijuana criminalized in America? The answer is simply that marijuana prohibition is the cornerstone of the American police state. Keeping this herb illegal keeps millions of people employed in law enforcement who otherwise wouldn't have jobs. It keeps the prison industry strong and gives cops a reason to search vehicles.

It even gives law enforcement officers yet another excuse to hold "terrorism drills." Seriously: A recent terrorism drill in Northern California imagined pot heads taking over Shasta Dam and blowing up vehicles (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle...). These cops must have a lot of free time on their hands to dream up these wild (and highly improbable) scenarios. But keeping marijuana criminalized allows them to spend more taxpayer money running these useless drills that, after all, keep them all well paid.

At the same time, it causes billions of dollars a year to flow into the underground black market economy -- money that would otherwise be used to raise tax revenues for states. (http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy...)

The "War on Drugs" has been a complete and utter failure (http://drugpolicy.org/drugwar/). It's also a huge waste of law enforcement resources. I'd much rather see cops going after real criminals like the CEOs and executives of drug companies, Monsanto and Wall Street banksters.

Legalizing and taxing marijuana would end the illegal drug trafficking in marijuana and deny revenues to drug gangs and drug dealers. It would raise billions of dollars for states and eliminate the huge costs of incarcerating marijuana "criminals." It would free up resources throughout the court system and give cops the time to go after violent criminals such as murderers and rapists.

And it would end this moronic system that arrests a harmless 77-year-old country western singer for marijuana possession at an immigration checkpoint.

Learn more about ending the criminalization of marijuana possession

Here's some additional information:

www.Norml.org
www.DrugPolicy.org
www.StopTheDrugWar.org
www.FlexYourRights.com

Editor's note: Do not interpret this article as a "pro-marijuana" position. I am not pro-marijuana, I don't consume this herb personally and I don't advocate consumption of this herb. I do, however, advocate freedom and liberty for individuals, and I believe that individuals have the right to make their own decisions about what they choose to eat, drink or smoke. The argument that government must "protect" people from marijuana just doesn't hold water: That same government openly allows people to kill themselves with cigarettes, alcohol and FDA-approved prescription drugs that are far more dangerous than marijuana.

Climate Change...they're at it again! - The G20 and Free Trade...oh no! not again! - and, ...the effort to remake America’s food culture (Hey, don't touch my junk...food that is!)

Climate Change Issues (Cancun); Trade: and Food Issues

Climate Change Issues (Cancun)

Reuters news reported yesterday that, “Nearly 200 nations were to meet in Mexico on Monday to try to agree on modest steps to slow climate change, a United Nations gathering overshadowed by global economic problems and strains between the top two emitters, the United States and China.
“The 12-day meeting, in a heavily guarded resort, will seek to revive negotiations stalled after last year’s Copenhagen summit meeting fell short of a binding United Nations treaty to slow global warming.”
The article stated that, “The ultimate goal is to extend the present Kyoto Protocol, which controls the greenhouse gas emissions of all industrialized countries except the United States, which did not ratify the pact. The United States and major emerging economies now have to make emissions pledges if the protocol is to survive, the European Union said Sunday.”

William Booth reported in today’s Washington Post that, “Mexico is battling billionaire drug mafias armed with bazookas, but when President Felipe Calderon ranks the threats his country faces, he worries more about methane gas, dwindling forests and dirty refineries.”
The Post article explained that, “Calderon hopes to play a leading role as host of the United Nations climate conference starting this week in Cancun, where he will advocate a ‘third way’ for developing countries such as Mexico: making commitments to serious, verifiable reductions in greenhouse gases in exchange for billions in aid and technology transfers from big polluters such as the United States and European Union.
“‘The president is extremely engaged and very committed. He has instructed us to move, and move now, and not wait for anybody else,’ said Fernando Tudela, the deputy secretary of planning and environmental policy.”
“Calderon’s energy minister, Georgina Kessel, calls climate change ‘the greatest challenge of the 21st century,’” today’s article said.
And Bridges (International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development) reported today that, “Nearly a year ago, when the 193 members of the UN Climate Convention pasted the politically charged Copenhagen Accord into the final decisions of their annual conference, many said the agreement would never hold. Others, however, held that the political will building up to the Copenhagen meeting could carry through 2010 and yield greater results in Cancun. Yet on the eve of the 2010 Conference of the Parties, expectations are low. Many key countries as well as the UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres, have clearly stated that a comprehensive deal including emissions reductions is out of the question at this year’s meeting. Instead, the best case scenario is a small package agreement that would cover climate governance and agriculture and that would include early planning on new institutional mechanisms, as well as partial delivery of promised funds. Such an accord, observers say, could keep spirits, relatively, high.
“The global landscape has changed much over the past 12 months. As the financial crisis continues to undermine economic stability and employment rates around the world, voters – particularly in rich countries – have other priorities for how politicians should be engaging on the international stage. Addressing climate change is no longer a critical concern; in some cases, it is increasingly considered a threat to national interests. The most obvious example of this is in the United States, where Republican gains in November’s mid-term elections essentially hamstrung the Obama administration on climate policy. The once palpable expectations that the US would tackle climate change at home and take on a highly demanded leadership at the UNFCCC talks have given way to disappointment.”
A report last week on NPR’s Morning Edition Program (“Climate Change Bill Languishes On Capitol Hill,” by Elizabeth Shogren) indicated that, “The new Congress has many ambitious priorities. Global warming is not among them. There weren’t many takers on the issue, even before the election swept Republicans into the House. And now the issue appears to be off the table entirely. NPR’s Elizabeth Shogren explains.
“ELIZABETH SHOGREN: During their campaigns, many of the newly-elected members of Congress flat out denied that people are causing global warming. Others called the cap and trade bill a job killer.
“Representative CORY GARDNER (Republican, Colorado): And I believe one of the biggest impediments to creating jobs in this nation is a government that is now bent on working cap and trade policies, not just through the legislature, but through the administrative and through the regulatory process.”
The NPR piece added that, “SHOGREN: That’s what Republican Cory Gardner had to say in a debate just before he won his election in Colorado.
“The cap and trade bill was designed to cut greenhouse gas pollution. It passed the House but got stuck in the Senate. And so, even long-time supporters of action on global warming like Eileen Claussen of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, agree: legislation is off the table.
“Ms. EILEEN CLAUSSEN (Pew Center on Global Climate Change): I think there is almost no chance of getting a major climate bill through Congress for the next two years, at least.”
Meanwhile, Darren Samuelsohn reported on Saturday at Politico that, “For eight years, the world waited for a U.S. president to help stop global warming and save the planet.
“So far, Barack Obama hasn’t lived up to the expectations.
“Cap-and-trade legislation Obama promised two years ago on the campaign trail is dead and buried, and his administration is attempting to regulate carbon dioxide emissions and cover billions of dollars in pledges without majority support in Congress.”
The article added that, “Internationally, heading into the United Nations-led climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, next week, prospects for a multitrillion-dollar transoceanic carbon market are in tatters and a new binding treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol remains years away.
“Obama won’t be going to Mexico for the conference that starts Nov. 29, and neither will Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or many of the other members of Congress who went to ice-cold Copenhagen for last year’s U.N. climate negotiations.
“The State Department’s Todd Stern will be the face of the Obama administration during the two-week meeting. His job is to sell Plan B: a suite of Environmental Protection Agency climate regulations and billions of dollars in renewable energy stimulus bill spending that the White House says would curb domestic emissions 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.”
The Politico article pointed out that, “Much of Washington seems oblivious to Cancun. Several top Democrats who normally are in the middle of the international climate debate were unprepared last week for questions about the next stage of the U.N. process, including Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman.
“Republicans, meanwhile, are gloating at the current state of the international process and relishing the opportunity to undo even more of Obama’s domestic climate agenda next year.”
And Neela Banerjee reported in yesterday’s Washington Post that, “For decades, California has set the pace for the country on air pollution and climate change, adopting ever-higher standards for controlling auto emissions and, more recently, greenhouse gases that scientists say have led to global warming.
“Now, California’s dominance is being challenged by another mega-state, which wants to freeze the status quo instead of move toward tighter controls.
“In effect, Texas is staking out a role as the anti-California.”
The article explained that, “With Republicans about to control of the House, powerful Texans such as Rep. Joe L. Barton of the Energy and Commerce Committee have vowed to check the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to use its authority to curtail greenhouse gases.
“An even more ambitious challenge is coming directly from the Texas state government and leading Texas politicians. State Attorney General Greg Abbott, with the support of Republican Gov. Rick Perry, has filed seven lawsuits against the EPA in the past nine months.”
And more specifically with respect to agriculture and the climate change issues, Ross Tieman reported on Friday at the Financial Times Online that, “The figures are stark. Livestock produce 18 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the aeroplanes, trains and automobiles combined. They chomp what grows on 80 per cent of the world’s agricultural land and swallow up, directly or indirectly, 8 per cent of our water.
“To feed 6.8bn people, we nourish 1.3bn cattle, 1bn sheep and 16bn chickens. Ruminants such as cows digest grass, a useful ability since we cannot. But in the process they burp vast quantities of methane, which is 23 percent more warming to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.
“The world’s appetite for animal produce grows apace, as populations in emerging countries become richer. In 1980, the average Chinese citizen consumed 12.8kg of meat a year, 2.3kg of dairy products and 2.5kg of eggs. By 2005, meat consumption per person had risen fourfold to 59.5kg, dairy consumption rose 10-fold to 23.2kg and egg-eating had reached 20.2kg, an eightfold increase.”
Trade
Reuters writer Jonathan Lynn reported on Friday that, “Ambassadors at the World Trade Organization, heeding a call from leaders at the G20 and APEC summits, have agreed to push for an outline deal in the long-stalled Doha trade round by next summer.
“They face the challenge of translating their upbeat rhetoric into negotiating reality if the new target is not simply to join a long list of missed deadlines in the Doha talks.”
The article added that, “An outline agreement, known in trade jargon as ‘modalities,’ by summer would leave the rest of the year for the details to be filled in, so that an overall deal could be signed at the WTO’s next ministerial conference in December 2011.”
Mary Anastasia O’Grady opined in today’s Wall Street Journal that, “In an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box from the Americas Competitiveness Forum in Atlanta two weeks ago, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was asked if he found it awkward to face the attending Colombians, who have been waiting since 2008 for ratification of their free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States.
“‘Actually,’ Mr. Locke declared, ‘there are a lot of intense negotiations going on as we speak, and I’ve been meeting with some of the ministers and representatives of the government of Colombia here.’ That was news to my Colombian sources familiar with what happened. They told me that there were no such ‘intense negotiations.’
“Why should there have been? This deal is already signed by both parties. It is even likely that it would be ratified if President Obama would only send it to Congress for an up-or-down vote under ‘fast-track negotiating authority.’ Instead, the administration has been letting it languish in a drawer, and its explanations for doing so grow more convoluted every day.”
The opinion column noted that, “Next year, Ottawa’s Colombia free trade agreement will enter into force, and Canadian producers will join the list of competitors who have an advantage over Americans in the Colombian market. The European Union and South Korea have also signed FTAs with Colombia and will have advantages on the industrial production front.”
Food Issues
The AP reported yesterday that, “When the Enosburg Food Shelf [Vermont] opened three years ago in this farm country town, organizers expected to serve 60 families a month, at most. Now, an average of 160 take advantage of it.
“Food shelf treasurer Suzanne Hull-Parent says the resources of lower middle-class familes are drying up as the economy continues to wobble.
“A new federal report on hunger issued Nov. 15 found that Vermont and Alabama have had the highest increase in ‘food insecurity’ during the last 10 years.”
The article added that, “In the last three years, the Vermont FoodBank – a statewide anti-hunger organization – has seen a 40 percent increase in the number of people seeking help from its network of food shelves, meal sites, homeless shelters and senior centers around the state.”
Yesterday at the DTN Ag Policy Blog, Chris Clayton pointed to three interesting articles that recently appeared in the Kansas City Star that highlighted the issue of “food deserts.”
Mr. Clayton noted that, “On Thursday, the Kansas City Star’s Jill Wendholt Silva likely brought joy to hearts of USDA officials by writing a special package on both rural and urban ‘food deserts.’ In her rural article, Wendholt Silva pointed out that grocery stores in small towns are hard to find.
“‘Kansas may be known as an agricultural state, but these days large swaths can be considered food deserts, without easy access to affordable and nutritious food. The Center for Engagement and Community Development at Kansas State University found 82 out of 212 rural grocery stores in communities with fewer than 2,500 residents have closed since 2007.’”
Yesterday’s DTN update added that, “In the urban piece, the article described the difficulties of a single mom with no working car who has an easier time going to a fast-food location than trying to bring home groceries with her kids.
“(Jamie) ‘Svejda is shopping for light food — not to be confused with ‘lite’ food. The family can only buy what they can carry since they walk three-quarters of a mile from their home in the Budd Park neighborhood of Kansas City to reach the Cosentino’s Price Chopper at the intersection of bustling Independence Boulevard and Wilson Road’”
A third article on food deserts from The Kansas City Star is available here.
Meanwhile, Josh Verges reported yesterday at the Argus Leader Online (SD) that, “From blood oranges to snow peas, blueberries and starfruit, Karen Lukens’ second-graders have tried them all. And for the most part, they’ve liked them.”
“This year, 2,790 students at seven Sioux Falls public elementary schools and the Children’s Home Society are getting daily snacks from the federal Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.
“The program began in five pilot states in 2002 and went nationwide in 2008, becoming a permanent part of the federal budget through the Farm Bill. The goal is to introduce students at high-poverty schools to fruits and vegetables as healthful snack options, improving their eating habits over time.”
And Melanie Grayce West reported today at The Wall Street Journal Online that, “Decades after most small dairies were forced out of business in New York, a new crop of boutique dairies is springing up in the state to produce fancy cheese, milk and yogurt.
“Much of it is being devoured by ‘locavores,’ people who try to eat locally produced food and are willing to pay up to get it. There’s also growing demand for ‘heritage cheese’ produced by breeds of cows, goats and sheep not found in normal dairies.
“There was an approximate doubling of small dairy plants in New York over the last two years, to around 80 statewide. Thirty-four plant permits have been issued this year.”
The Journal article noted that, “‘In 1977 I saw all of these small plants that were making products go out of business. Then, we only inspected large, corporate operations for a number of years,’ said Dennis Moore, a dairy products specialist for the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets. ‘There is a huge resurgence of these small, artisanal cheese makers.’”
Lastly today, Brent Cunningham and Jane Black penned an opinion item in Saturday’s Washington Post stating that: “If you shelled out $10 a pound for a ‘heritage turkey’ this Thanksgiving, tea-brined it and stuffed it with rosemary bread (that you made), speck (from the local charcuterie guy), fennel (from the farmers market) and lemon (okay, there are limits to this), you might assume that everyone, if given the opportunity, would support such a makeover of a meal that not long ago was dominated by frozen Butterballs and jellied cranberry sauce.
“In fact, not everyone would. And that is an important thing to understand about the effort to remake America’s food culture. Advocates of fresh, local and sustainably raised food say it is healthier, better-tasting and morally sound. If everyone could afford that heritage turkey and had a local charcuterie guy, the argument goes, then all Thanksgiving meals would be elevated to ethereal heights.
“But many in this country who have access to good food and can afford it simply don’t think it’s important. To them, food has become a front in America’s culture wars, and the crusade against fast and processed food is an obsession of ‘elites,’ not ‘real Americans.’”
The entire opinion item is available here, “Next up in the culture wars: Food fights.”
Keith Good

BHO vs MLK ~ ...this pretty much sums it up