Raw food raids: uncowed by the law.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine
• Position: Citings - Brief article

WHEN AGENTS of the Los Angeles County district attorney, the Los Angeles County sheriff, the Ventura County sheriff, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture showed up at the door of 12-year-old Jasmine Palmer for an early-morning raid in June, she knew exactly what to expect. She wasn't happy about it.

"If you take my computer again," she told the 20 officials assembled for a five-hour search of her family's Ventura County farmhouse, "I can't do my homework." The cops took the machine anyway, along with some milk. It was the third computer Jasmine had lost in as many raids. The search was part of an ongoing investigation into the way the Palmers label their commercial goat cheese.

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According to the environmental news site Grist, there has been an uptick in such raids around the country this year. On the very same day, a raid was conducted at the Rawesome organic co-op in Venice...