State investigates LaGrange organic food business & Swat Team conducts food raid

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Comment: 2 versions of the same story............ Maybe one 'official' and

the other '?'

 

State investigates LaGrange organic food business

_http://www.chroniclet.com/2008/12/09/state-investigates-lagrange-organic-food

-business_122/_

(http://www.chroniclet.com/2008/12/09/state-investigates-lagrange-organic-food-b\

usiness_122/)

 

Steve Fogarty | The Chronicle-Telegram

 

LAGRANGE — An organic food business accused of selling meat products without

a license is the subject of an investigation by the Ohio Department of

Agriculture and the Lorain County Health Department.

 

The Manna Storehouse on state Route 303 could face charges of operating

without a license, according to Lorain County Assistant Prosecutor Scott

Serazin.

The charge is a third-degree misdemeanor.

 

There have been no reports of anyone getting ill from consuming meat or

other products sold by the business, Serazin said.

 

The fact that the business deals in organic food **has no significance at

all** in the investigation, Serazin said.

 

**This is just about getting a license. It*s a question of, *have they met

the criteria required of everybody else in Lorain County who sells eggs and

meat and other perishable items?* If they have no regulations on them at all,

the results can be very serious.**

 

Serazin said the business owners, John and Jackie Stowers, maintained they

were exempt from having to be licensed.

 

**They blocked every effort to try to get information,** including ordering

two county health officials off their property prior to the Dec. 1 execution

of a search warrant by Lorain County sheriff*s deputies.

 

Sheriff's Capt. Rich Resendez denied online reports of a SWAT team being

part of the search.

 

**There was no SWAT team there. They had one uniformed patrol officer who

wore a black-style uniform who is assigned to a warrants unit, but that*s his

daily uniform. There were no guns held to anybody's head.**

 

Jackie Stowers said SWAT officers accompanied state agriculture officials to

the family*s home, but she declined to detail the episode, saying the family

planned to issue a statement later this week following a meeting with the

family*s attorney.

 

**We have not been given the complete facts yet,** she said.

 

According to an account posted Dec. 5 at _www.digitaljournal.com_

(http://www.digitaljournal.com) , **SWAT police, armed (with) riot control

weapons (and)

packing automatic rifles ... stormed a family food cooperative in Ohio.**

 

**I saw that Digital Journal story,** Resendez said. **It was absurd. All we

did was secure the residence and the Department of Agriculture did the

rest.**

 

Items confiscated as the result of the search warrant included 61 boxes of

beef, lamb and turkey, and a number of cell phones, and computers **that

related to retail sales ... and had accounts on them for the Manna

Storehouse,**

Serazin said.

 

Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or _sfogarty_

(sfogarty)

 

 

Swat Team conducts food raid in rural Ohio

_http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/08/swat-team.htm_

(http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/08/swat-team.htm) .

 

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