Part 1 of 3. Part Two and Part Three
Does anyone care that farmer's market consumers were allegedly sold repackaged meat, poultry, and eggs by Sharon Palmer and Healthy Family Farms representatives, such as Victoria Bloch?
From the "Declaration in Support of Motion Regarding Source of Bail and Bail Deviation" dated August 12, 2011:
"Other invoices and records seized in the search warrant at Palmer's Healthy Family Farms location in Santa Paula also revealed that she was buying thousands of dollars worth of meat, poultry, and eggs from other vendors and reselling it at farmer's markets and at Rawesome, despite claims and advertising that it was raised on her farm and not fed commercial feed." Source: PDFs on South Pasadena Patch
Healthy Family Farms Then: April 2008, Fillmore, CA
Certified organic?
Sharon Palmer says that her farm was certified organic when her farm was located in Fillmore, CA. Farm Muckraker has not been able to track down any paperwork or certifying agency through which Palmer was organically certified.
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Courtesy of CHEESESLAVE blogger, AnnMarie Michaels, former co-chapter leader with Victoria Bloch of the Weston A. Price Foundation's Los Angeles Chapter, from her flickr photostream:
"Healthy Family Farms produces some of the very best chickens and eggs in southern California. They are pastured raised -- meaning the chickens get to run free outside (not just "cage free" which means that although they are not in cages, they are still cooped up inside).
One of the most important things about eggs and chickens is what the chickens are fed. Most chickens, even "free range" "cage free" organic chickens, are fed corn and soy. I don't care if the soy is organic -- I don't want to buy chickens that ate soy. It's not good for them and it's not good for us. Another thing I read was that chickens that get adequate protein from the pasture (worms, grubs, snails, etc.) are much healthier. The reason they have to de-beak the chickens who live indoors is two-fold: (1) they are often living in quarters that are too close for comfort and (2) they do not get enough protein from insects, which causes them to peck at each other. Very sad. Many organic "free range" and "cage free" chickens are still debeaked. But that doesn't happen at Healthy Family Farms! It is also very important for the health of chickens for them to take in sunlight and eat grass. Pastured eggs and chickens are a LOT more nutritious than battery eggs and chickens. www.motherearthnews.com/eggs.aspx
Healthy Family Farms also raises turkeys. I bought one of their turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner -- it was delicious. I think they also have duck sometimes. And, best of all, they will sell you chicken livers and chicken feet. I put some on order to pick up next weekend."
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Healthy Family Farms Now:
After her move to the new farm in 2008, Palmer did not bother to get re-certified as organic. But this doesn't matter too much to Palmer because her farm-raised meats and eggs are now "always grass-fed, free-range, fresh and delicious!" Her egg laying hens are "proudly non-vegetarian. No corn, no soy, no antibiotics, no hormones." She sites the whole organically certified vs. what's IN the organic feed debate. She would rather not feed her chickens soy than give them organic feed that has soy in it. What's funny about that is that the eggs I buy are truly pastured, and according to my organically certified farmer, there is no soy in the egg layers' feed because they are moved around on pasture and get enough protein from the organic feed they receive and the plethora of bugs that they eat. I know that HFF eggs are free range, yes, but are not truly pastured. They are raised in a large pen, and according to Ventura Ag as of April 2011 there were 2,000 egg layers at HFF which means that this is not a small egg operation. Contrast that with the farmer I buy my eggs from who has around 200 egg layers rotated on 100 acres of irrigated pasture (it is green year round). Gama Farms claims their 2,000 free-range egg layers are on an ACRE of land. From the pictures below it looks like the egg laying chickens are on significantly less than an acre of land.
Feeding 2,000 egg laying chickens requires a lot of feed, and the bugs (if there are many living in the waste of so many chickens in a confined pen) are not plentiful enough to provide adequate protein to produce quality eggs. In other words, the bird's waste needs to be dealt with because it accumulates, and how are bugs supposed to live in that harsh environment? Too much chicken waste is considered a pollutant. So if protein in the feed is a must, then what type of protein is in the feed of Healthy Family Farms chickens? So far Sharon has yet to report what kind of feed she feeds her egg layers, how much she buys, and from whom.
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| Always Grass-fed and Free Range! |
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| "Free Range Eggs from Chickens Raised on Pasture"from Healthy Family Farms. |
If the egg laying hens don't eat organic soy laden feed, then what do they eat? For the thorough answer, which is very helpful and encouraging about Healthy Family Farms practices, see this video posted on youtube in February 2009. Notice this is former employee, Vanessa Parrotta, Sharon's niece and former market laison and salesperson for Healthy Family Farms to LA area restaurants.
VP: "They can access bugs, they're vegetarian fed, so they get fresh produce, and strawberries, in addition to their grain which does not contain any corn or soy and they're high in wheat barley and flax. So what they're eating is what you're eating.
Interviewer: "So their natural diet is to eat bugs, grubs, worms, even grass-hoppers, snakes, all that good stuff..."
"And they're outside, they're on huge pasture so they're always scratching around...especially when it rains because that's when the worms come up...that's they're favorite time they go out and play in the rain all the time. Yeah, Lot's of protein. They're high in Omega-3, you're just getting all of those nutrients. Especially because our land is organic, everything that's coming up is organic."
So the land is organic, just not certified so?
VP: "They can access bugs, they're vegetarian fed, so they get fresh produce, and strawberries, in addition to their grain which does not contain any corn or soy and they're high in wheat barley and flax. So what they're eating is what you're eating.
Interviewer: "So their natural diet is to eat bugs, grubs, worms, even grass-hoppers, snakes, all that good stuff..."
"And they're outside, they're on huge pasture so they're always scratching around...especially when it rains because that's when the worms come up...that's they're favorite time they go out and play in the rain all the time. Yeah, Lot's of protein. They're high in Omega-3, you're just getting all of those nutrients. Especially because our land is organic, everything that's coming up is organic."
So the land is organic, just not certified so?
Who knew that to be, or not to be, certified organic would be such a conundrum?
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| View of the Farmhouse from the parking lot of the Red Barn. Small garden on right? |
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| View of the Red Barn where market workers Diane and Jose were unloading a Healthy Family Farms van. |
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| The sign reads: Goats |
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| Healthy Family Farms goats, or Rawesome goats? |
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| Cardboard dumpster across the street. Sharon Palmer acknowledged the dumpster in a phone interview and said it is used by at least 6 neighbors. When I asked if Healthy Family Farms uses the dumpster, she acknowledged that they do. |
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| View of Palmer's farmhouse across the street from dumpster. |
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| On the boxes: Harrison Poultry: Young Chicken, USDA inspected seal. Harrison Poultry is located in Georgia. A sales representative for the company said that Healthy Family Farms is not a known customer. She did say that although they ship young dressed chickens that are freshly slaughtered all over the world, California is their largest market. I asked how a small farm might get hold of their birds. She replied that they sell to wholesalers who in turn sell to vendors. She proudly said that they are a commercial poultry producer and that they slaughter ONE MILLION young chickens per week. ONE MILLION young chickens per week...and they sell for $3 a chicken. |
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| Bags of Feed from the dumpster. I have no idea what type of feed this is...organic, soy free? |
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| Ah, Kruse's Perfection Brand. Maybe someone can help me out here? I don't know what's in it? |
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| Another Dumpster View |
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| Signage says the chick barn. |
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| The red egg layers in the back? White meat birds up front? "HFF" feed silo. |
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| "Open Sunday: Big Red Barn (Organic)" At the bottom: "Cheese!!" It doesn't say if it is pasteurized or not? |
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| The HFF silo in the background. Garden in foreground: to feed the chickens their strawberries? |
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| The dry and dusty canyon in the background where I thought the beef cows were hiding. |
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| Horses? Sheep? Goats? Not sure if these are even HFF owned? |
Before I had even written a public blog but was just a Weston A. Price Foundation member angry and looking for answers from my local chapter leaders as to why the state claimed it had evidence that she was purchasing, repackaging, and selling commercially raised meat and eggs, Sharon emailed me directly. She was gathering her receipts, she said, and was certain the receipts mentioned in the bail documents were from her slaughtering receipts or receipts for the business she has selling to restaurants, private chefs, and...charities? I wonder why the assistant district attorney would lie about finding receipts that clearly showed she was buying meat, poultry and eggs from different venders and selling them as her own?
Sharon has also said that she buys these chickens to give to her employees. When asked how many employees she has, she said she has one part-time employee. Currently is seems she has none, as Victoria Bloch sent out this appeal to Los Angeles area WAPF members to volunteer at Healthy Family Farms. So did she buy the commercially raised chicken for her employee dinner of one, or for her volunteers who believe in local, sustainable, and ethically raised animals? What was the date of these dinners and charity events? What are the names of the charities? Would Sharon care to provide receipts of how many she purchased and from whom? After all, if she is doing her taxes she needs to keep records of these purchases so she can write them off for charity. But according to the state, she hasn't paid her taxes...?!?
She would probably also like you to know that she is a small farmer, a single mother, and that farming (ranching?) is very personal business. She said, "If you don't like one farmer, go to another one." Thanks, Sharon, I did that a long time ago.
Part 1 of 3. Part Two and Part Three
