A Tale of Two Sharon Palmers

Sharon Palmer of Healthy Family Farms, via Edible Ojai

Here is the story the Healthy Family Farms apologists would like you to hear. It is the same story I heard about a year or so ago: http://www.ediblecommunities.com/ojai/spring-2012/sharon-palmer.htm 
 
Two things from this lovely pastoral farmer profile that I would like to point out: 
1) Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia and hero of the real food movement (what, you haven't heard of him?) recommends in his book, You Can Farm, that as a new farmer it is wise to not keep pets because their feed bills add up and when you are getting any new business off the ground you need to cut out all unnecessary expenditures to ensure that your business will be economically sustainable and viable. Not that the act of rescuing isn't noble, but Sharon Palmer rescues many animals and that means more mouths to feed.

 2) "A longterm frustration for Sharon has been finding high-quality feed. For example, she believes soy to be much too challenging to a chicken’s digestive process to produce a truly healthy bird. After a long search she finally found a supplier that custom mixes her own soyfree, non-GMO recipe including high-protein whey and pea, flax, essential minerals, etc." This is the same long term frustration of many local animal farmers and ranchers, especially if they produce at the scale that she once did. If she has found a feed supplier that is doing all of these things than I am sure that that feed supplier would be a huge success and in demand amongst the local farming community. Unfortunately, no one can figure out the name and location of this supplier.

The second tale that hit my inbox yesterday paints a far more sinister image of Palmer, from a bonafide local news article:
http://m.vcstar.com/news/2012/mar/20/expert-testifies-on-sales-pitch-given-farm/

This is testimony coming out of the Ventura District Attorney's case against Palmer, Stewart and Otting that paints a picture of Palmer as the main player in a scheme to bait others to help her buy her farm:

"Frank Huber, an investigator with the District Attorney's Office, described how criminals use a "straw buyer," an individual who lends his name and good credit rating on a bank loan application. A criminal also will use so-called "silent seconds," money concealed from bank officials and used as a down payment on the loan....The focus of Tuesday's testimony was how the bank loan was obtained. Huber said that in his opinion, duping the bank and in some cases not being straightforward with people about a business venture constitute real estate fraud."

Another important point for both myself and Palmer's apologists:
"Huber said his concern isn't about the farm operation but only about fraud that was committed.
"It was about being ripped off and a bank being ripped off," he said."
My concerns about potential consumer fraud at farmer's markets and apologists concerns that she is being targeted by "the powers that be" because she is independently providing food, specifically raw milk, outside of government regulation...neither of our concerns matter in this case. It is about real estate fraud.

My question to the Sharon Palmer apologists is thus:
How can you reconcile these two very different women named Sharon Palmer?
One wants to grow healthy food for her community, and
The other allegedly ripped off members of her community for her own gain: "He said the Hetheringtons were promised 12 percent interest on their $60,000 investment and were sent an unsigned promissory note through an email. ...
Investors allegedly weren't told that their money would be used as a down payment on the farm or that it would be concealed from bank officials.
Huber said none of the investors have been repaid. One investor, Michael Kirrene, testified he was promised 9 percent for two months on his initial $25,000 investment. Kirrene invested $125,000."

Take Home Points:
My intro to criminology teacher taught me a valuable lesson through countless examples:
"If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is." People have, can, and will try to scam you in this life. It is your obligation to protect yourself and do your homework.

What I have learned:
I would like to highlight that the Edible Ojai farm profile was written by Joanie Blaxter, who was at one time a WAPF co-chapter leader for Ojai/Ventura County (I cannot confirm the current status of the Ventura WAPF chapter as they are no longer listed as a chapter on the WAPF website). AnnMarie Michaels and Victoria Bloch are also Sharon Palmer supporters, and were both chapter leaders of the WAPF Los Angeles chapter when my curiosity in this matter began. Victoria Bloch is a current co-chapter leader of the Los Angeles WAPF chapter, and AnnMarie is a current co-chapter leader of the Las Vegas WAPF chapter.

I would caution people to learn how to source food from farmers and farmers markets on your own and not to take anyone's word for it, even, in all likelihood, the good intentioned WAPF chapter leaders. Like I keep promising, it is my goal to write a Farmers Market Consumer Guide. I promise to float it around to the knowledgeable farmers and farmer's market managers: the food producers and distributors that have helped me make sense of Sharon Palmer's claims versus farm reality and the very people and markets who will be hurt WHEN this story is made more widely public (It is not a matter of IF anymore). 

Caveat Emptor!

Do you know the names of the pathogens that end up in raw milk products?

"Raw milk does have a checkered history of safety issues," acknowledged McAfee, alluding to the high incidence of milk-borne illnesses before the 1900s. But with modern sanitation, he believes "we know now how to produce very safe, very clean raw milk."
"We just don't know how it happened," said McAfee, who has since added new cleaning protocols.

Mary McGonigle-Martin, 52, of Murrieta, says she didn't fully grasp the health risks when her 7-year-old son Chris was sickened in the 2006 outbreak. Pro-raw-milk websites and conspicuous advertisements at her local health foods store convinced her that raw milk could be a safe, natural remedy for her son's chronic sinus congestion. She bought Organic Pastures milk after reading about the farm online. "That they tested the milk and they'd never found a pathogen -- the testing was what sold me," said McGonigle-Martin, a school counselor.

Even with sophisticated lab tests, E. coli can be much harder to detect in milk than in, say, ground beef, said Michael Payne, a UC Davis food safety expert. "I have zero faith that there exists technologies that currently allow for the adequate on-farm testing of raw milk for pathogens," he said.

Chris Martin developed HUS, experienced kidney failure, and at one point required a ventilator. "My choice almost killed my child," said McGonigle-Martin. For other parents, she stresses that drinking and serving raw milk is a personal choice that should be made knowing all the risks.

 "You better know what pathogens could be in the milk and what could result," said McGonigle-Martin. "If you can't name those diseases and illnesses, then you shouldn't be making the choice."

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_20183193/recent-cdc-study-reveals-dangers-raw-milk-but

Finally someone has the story right

"Harman added that Palmer is a 'wolf in sheep's clothing' who preys on people who distrust the government.

Stewart was 'rounding up people to put money' into the business, said Harman, adding that Stewart considers himself a 'sovereign citizen' not subject to state laws."
http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/mar/08/judge-reduces-bail-for-santa-paula-farmer-with/#ixzz1ofCDIbpY

I hope that Sharon Palmer learned from her last criminal proceedings that fleeing the country to Mexico doesn't solve any of your problems...

Or you can keep reading the paranoid conspiracy theorists choice news outlet which I keep seeing re-blogged: http://www.naturalnews.com/035186_Sharon_Palmer_Rawesome_Foods_arrest.html

The truth hurts sometimes, people. I doubt that the District Attorney would have gotten involved in this without some complaint by the investors. I also doubt that Sharon will repay them as soon as is practicable.  According to this video, she says she's doing right fine financially.



Which Sharon are we to believe?
The poor single mother of 5 (at the time she had three children at home) who consistently and historically couldn't pay her feed creditors around town? or this Sharon Palmer, above, who is a victim of someone trying to take away her 3 million dollar property? And 2 million has been payed back into the property!?!? Why wouldn't the loan be re-payed and she'd be well on her way to paying back her personal creditors?
I'd say neither, because I've come to learn you can't trust a thing that comes out of her mouth.

I'm basically outraged, and why you should be too...

From a Healthy Family Farms Facebook post: "Here's an amazing, painterly photo of a Weston A. Price Foundation chapter leader and mom elsewhere in the country."
I would warn people like I, who once had the idyllic notion of farm life as pictured above, to take heed of the lesson in the story below.

The word is out, folks. Sharon Palmer of Healthy Family Farms has today been charged with "38 felony counts, including two counts of conspiracy, multiple counts of grand theft involving several victims, two counts of elder theft, several counts of money-laundering, violations of the corporate code relating to the offer and sale of securities, and tax evasion," according to an article just released by the Ventura County Star.


Healthy Family Farms formerly and may still sell in farmer's markets from Santa Barbara down the coast to Santa Monica. They are also a vendor last I checked at one of the biggest farmer's markets in the state of California, Hollywood Sunday Farmer's Market.


"Ventura County Senior Deputy District Attorney Chris Harman said Palmer faces a significant amount of time in prison based on the amount alleged to have been stolen, which includes $1,144,542.10 from Rabobank."


At first I was shocked, and then it all came to me in a wave. I remember trying to figure out how in the world a known felon like Sharon Palmer was gifted a farm. The private investigation report on unhealthyfamilyfarms.com had an interview that I remember precisely because of the amount of money people who are devoted to good food had invested in Sharon Palmer:


"Judi Dawn von Schleifer was also interviewed in detail and a detailed statement was prepared based on the interview. Ms. von Schleifer indicated that she was introduced to Sharon Palmer by James Stewart and that when she first met Ms. Palmer in August, 2008 and asked Sharon what she needed help with. Sharon replied, "I need money." She began fundraising efforts by identify and developing contact information for investors and determining the amounts that the investors would be willing to invest in an organic farm. This information was given to Sharon Palmer who made the actual arrangement with the investors as to how much they would invest and what return was being promised them. It was Judi's understanding that each of the investors were promised a 12 percent return on their money to be paid back within three to six months. Sharon indicated that she was "on track" to get a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan between $900,000.00 and $1,000,000.00. Judi said that she never saw any paperwork pertaining to the loan. Judi's fundraising assistance permitted Sharon to raise $500,000.00 to help in purchasing the farm." 

The article states that the felony charges are between Feb. 1, 2008, and April 1, 2009. This woman met Sharon Palmer in August 2008 and Sharon moved to her new farm some time that Fall.  

From The history and Facts presented by Aajunus Vonderplanitz on his website: "In about 2008, James Stewart and a small goat’s-milk farmer Sharon Palmer entered an agreement to purchase a 62-acres farm for approximately 2 million dollars. James Stewart and several Rawesome members invested about 1 million dollars. Member Larry Otting acquired a 1-million dollars loan for the balance to secure the property and leased the property to Sharon Palmer who completely runs the farm. They called it Healthy Family Farms (HFF)." This must be where Larry Otting comes in as a new defendant as per Aajonus' account he secured the loan. There is that amount of "$1,144,542.10 from Rabobank." which may be the loan. It will all come out eventually. 

It seems James was working with Sharon from the beginning. I knew that he was her partner in crime from the testimony given to me by one of our sources. I just had no idea it went this deep. But the evidence was there, on unhealthyfamilyfarms.com all along. I am outraged. A monster describes her best, if indeed these charges are true. She was able to manipulate so many people into thinking she was a victim, a single mother of 5 children (when in actuality she had 3 living at home, now 2) and that she had good intentions of raising good food. Let's face it folks. If these charges hold true, Sharon Palmer is a great con artist.


I have a few select words for James Stewart as well. His past with raw milk is not so clean. And now it appears he using the hard earned money of his Rawesome club members to con them as well. 

It looks like Aajanus is not so crazy after all. It was because of his website that I first decided to no longer buy from Sharon Palmer. 

And this I say to you: I wish this was the only case of fraud in the real food movement that I know about. Sadly, it is not. This is a huge case of fraud that we can easily wave off as one that is an outlier...not normal. Yet, think about it this way: out of 100 people, 3 will be sociopaths who will only care about their own gain and not care about the wellbeing of the whole. To think that the good intentions of the farmers market managers, raw milk supporters, Rawesome supporters, real food people, and her customers, employees, and volunteers were so badly manipulated... It is disgusting and despicable, if the charges are indeed true. 


Caveat Emptor definitely applies to the real food movement and to farmer's markets. 


Further Reading: My investigation into Healthy Family Farms in Three Parts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

New Arrests for James Stewart of Rawesome and Sharon Palmer of Healthy Family Farms

Tweeted from David Gumpert approximately 1 hour ago: "At Rawesome hearing, James Stewart and Sharon Palmer arrested, jailed, charges unclear." And "James Stewart held on $1million bail, Sharon Palmer on $2million bail from Ventura County arrest warrant." More news to come, I am sure.

My take on this issue in Three Parts: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

No more raw milk from me

I just decided to opt out of raw milk politics. What does it have to do with my current enjoyment of life anyway? I don't drink the stuff.

I unsubscribed from WAPF "alerts" which used to annoy the crap out of me anyway. I stopped the google alerts. I've already un-friended all the people that would post this raw milk crap in FB a while ago.

It is going to be nice and quiet about raw milk in my little corner of the world. A welcome change.

CDC has a Raw Milk Problem

Updated 2/22/2012: To be fair, Claravale dairy, discussed below, is being investigated for a possible campylobacter outbreak. The dairy voluntarily recalled it's milk products. Sally Fallon of the WAPF rebuts the CDC article linked to below in a press release today. It's contents will be published at the end of the article. My only comment is that the facts and figures make my head spin and it's hard to trust either side who makes such hardline cases for and against raw milk. I just know I will no longer feed it to my family.

*****************************************

If you didn't already know that I used to be a member (well, technically I still am a member through the Spring, at which time I won't be renewing) of a cultish like group that claims superior health benefits from drinking raw milk and claims raw milk is inherently safe because it kills pathogenic bacteria, well, now you do. Dear Sally Fallon of the Weston A. Price Foundation and any other group that makes such wholly inaccurate claims: "Here's your sign"

Why the angst? I used to feed raw milk to my children from Organic Pastures dairy and Claravale dairy, the two legal and regulated dairies in California. I blindly listened to Sally Fallon and thought it was safe!  Back in August, when I was shocked out of my idealistic sunshine and rainbows world by the Healthy Family Farms/Rawesome saga, I spoke with a lady who is very close to raw milk politics here in California. The inevitable questions she always gets from the newly enlightened raw milkies like myself are somewhere along these lines: "Should I drink the raw milk? Should I feed it to my kids?" Her answer to such a query from me, loosely paraphrased: "I've drunk enough raw milk in my life to know that my campy titers are probably through the roof." "Campy?" I said. "Campylobacter, it's a raw milk pathogen." "Oh" I said, sheepishly, feeling guilty about never knowing such a pathogen could exist in my raw milk. "As for my children, well, they probably don't have as much immunity as I do."  I was crushed. From then on I continued to buy Claravale milk only for myself but Strauss for the kids. Organic Pastures had a history of outbreaks, I soon learned. But Claravale, I reasoned, had never been associated with an outbreak in CA. They are a small operation with a closed herd. They MUST do it right, and their milk MUST be the safest, I hoped.

Well, after following raw milk politics closely since that August of 2011, Organic Pastures came down with an e.coli outbreak that sickened 5 children with 3 hospitalized. A raw milk dairy called "Your Family Cow" in Pennsylvania had a "campy" outbreak that sickened at last count 77 people.

The latest Campy outbreak, and perhaps most depressing for myself, is out of, you guessed it, Claravale. This farm was held up by some members of WAPF as a model raw milk dairy. I haven't met Ron Garthwaite, owner of Claravale, but I've heard he is a true dairyman and takes his raw milk quite seriously. The fact that he isn't such a smooth talking salesman like Mr. McAfee of Organic Pastures kinda endeared me to the guy. My heart breaks because I used to by his milk for my children. Just like with Organic Pastures dairy, those sick kids could have been mine. Those sick adults could have been me.

Thank you, dear Ethicurian, for helping my put my head on straight and sort through the disillusion. After reading this blog post, you might understand why we moms get a little bit ticked off when it comes to lies about raw milk.

I'd like to leave you with a comment on this post on The Complete Patient blog from a person who claims to have been sickened in the outbreak from the Pennsylvania dairy, "Your Family Cow". Just in case you might follow the raw milk supporters line of reasoning and feel that Campylobacter is not such a big deal:

"I am a victim of this tainted raw milk. In my life on this planet I drank raw milk ONCE! And it nearly killed me! About two weeks ago, I was so sick I almost wished I would die. I will never drink raw milk again, EVER! I do not care how clean your new facilities are or how nutritious raw milk is supposed to be. Thank God for Pasteurization!

I thankfully did not give any of the tainted milk to my grandchildren who I baby sat that day. Their young metabolism may not have been able to fight off this horrible infection. I am still not fully recovered but thankfully am getting better! I now worry about the possible complications down the road, but that is a concern for another day. All the science talk about how to clean this or that is all fine and good for future avoidance of such errors. But I have never been so ill as I was that week and a half. I do not have the time nor patience to read all the commentary above. All I can ask is "What about the victims?"

February 9, 2012 | bill walker"

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Dear Members,

Yesterday the CDC issued a press release claiming a rate of 150 times more outbreaks from raw milk than pasteurized.  We have prepared the press release below, with a critique of their data.

Please send this press release to your local newspapers and post on your various email lists and websites.  You can also use the information below to write to local newspapers and your elected officials.

Thank you for joining us in raw milk activism!

Sincerely,

Sally Fallon Morell, President

Kathy Kramer, Executive Director

CDC CHERRY PICKS DATA TO MAKE CASE AGAINST RAW MILK

Agency ignores data that shows dangers of pasteurized milk

WASHINGTON, DC, February 21, 2012. In a press release issued today, authors affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control claim that the rate of outbreaks caused by unpasteurized milk and products made from it was 150 times greater than outbreaks linked to pasteurized milk.” The authors based this conclusion on an analysis of reports submitted to the CDC from 1993 to 2006.

According the Weston A. Price Foundation, the CDC has manipulated and cherry picked this data to make raw milk look dangerous and to dismiss the same dangers associated with pasteurized milk.

“What consumers need to realize, first of all,” said Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, “is that the incidence of foodborne illnesses from dairy products, whether pasteurized or not, is extremely low.  For the 14-year period that the authors examined, there was an average of 315 illnesses a year from all dairy products for which the pasteurization status was known.  Of those, there was an average of 112 illnesses each year attributed to all raw dairy products and 203 associated with pasteurized dairy products.

“In comparison, there are almost 24,000 foodborne illnesses reported each year on average.  Whether pasteurized or not, dairy products are simply not a high risk product.”

Because the incidence of illness from dairy products is so low, the authors’ choice of the time period for the study affected the results significantly, yet their decision to stop the analysis with the year 2006 was not explained.  The CDC’s data shows that there were significant outbreaks of foodborne illness linked to pasteurized dairy products the very next year, in 2007: 135 people became ill from pasteurized cheese contad with e. coli, and three people died from pasteurized milk contaminated with listeria (wwwn.cdc.gov/foodborneoutbreaks/Default.aspx).

Outbreaks from pasteurized dairy were also a significant problem in the 1980s.  In 1985, there were over 16,000 confirmed cases of Salmonella infection that were traced back to pasteurized milk from a single dairy.  Surveys estimated that the actual number of people who became ill in that outbreak were over 168,000, “making this the largest outbreak of salmonellosis ever identified in the United States” at that time, according to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

According to Fallon Morell “In the context of the very low numbers of illnesses attributed to dairy in general, the authors’ decision to cut the time frame short, as compared to the available CDC data, is troubling and adds to questions about the bias in this publication.”

According to Fallon Morell, the CDC’s authors continue to obscure their study by failing to document the actual information they are using. They rely on reports, many of which are preliminary. Of the references related to dairy outbreaks, five are from outbreaks in other countries, several did not involve any illness, seven are about cheese-related incidents, and of the forty-six outbreaks they count, only five describe any investigations.

Perhaps most troubling is the authors’ decision to focus on outbreaks rather than illnesses.  An “outbreak” of foodborne illness can consist of two people with minor stomachaches to thousands of people with bloody diarrhea.  In addressing the risk posed for individuals who consume a food, the logical data to examine is the number of illnesses, not the number of outbreaks. 

“The authors acknowledge that the number of foodborne illnesses from raw dairy products (as opposed to outbreaks) were not significantly different in states where raw milk is legal to sell compared with states where it is illegal to sell,” notes Judith McGeary of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance.  “In other words, had the authors looked at actual risk of illness, instead of the artificially defined “outbreaks,” there would have been no significant results to report.”

This does not end the list of flaws with the study, however.  The link between the outbreaks and the legal status of raw dairy mixed an entire category of diverse products. Illnesses from suitcase style raw cheese or queso fresco were lumped together with illnesses attributed to fluid raw milk, a much less risky product.  In the majority of states where the sale of raw fluid milk is allowed, the sale of queso fresco is still illegal.  The authors had all of the data on which products were legal and which products allegedly caused the illnesses, yet chose not to use that data.

Similarly, to create the claimed numbers for how much riskier raw dairy products are, the authors relied on old data on raw milk consumption rates, rather than using the CDC’s own food survey from 2006-2007.  The newer data showed that about 3 percent of the population consumes raw milk—over nine million people--yet the authors chose instead to make conclusions based on the assumption that only 1 percent of the dairy products in the country are consumed raw.

The authors also ignored relevant data on the populations of each state.  For example, the three most populous states in the country (California, Texas, and New York) all allow for legal sales of raw milk; the larger number of people in these states would logically lead to larger numbers of illnesses than in low-population states such as Montana and Wyoming and has nothing to do with the fact that raw milk is illegal in those states.

“It would hardly be surprising to see some sort of increase in foodborne illnesses related to a food where that food is legal,” said McGeary.  “If we banned ground beef, we’d see fewer illnesses related to ground beef products.   Yet this new study fails to prove even that common-sense proposition, even as it claims to prove a great deal more.  What the data really shows is that raw dairy products cause very few illnesses each year, even though the CDC data indicates that over 9 million people consume it.” 

Contact:  Kimberly Hartke, Publicist, The Weston A. Price Foundation
press@westonaprice.org
703-860-2711, 703-675-5557

The Weston A. Price Foundation is a 501C3 nutrition education foundation with the mission of disseminating accurate, science-based information on diet and health. Named after nutrition pioneer Weston A. Price, DDS, author of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, the Washington, DC-based Foundation publishes a quarterly journal for its 13,000 members, supports 500 local chapters worldwide and hosts a yearly conference. The Foundation headquarters phone number is (202) 363-4394, www.westonaprice.org, info@westonaprice.org.