Ohio Drama

I've never given much thought to the Ohio Department of Agriculture...I mean, how would they affect my life? I'm almost certain that John and Jacquiline Stowers wouldn't have thought that the ODA would affect their lives either prior to December 1, 2008 when 12-13 SWAT team agents swarmed their home. The reason? According to the court, search warrant and affidavits, county health department officials and an ODA enforcement agent said, "they believed the Stowerses were operating a retail food establishment without a license.."

The Stowers maintain that they were running a private members only food co-op.The public could not buy food there.



Food, cell phones, the children's computer and the family's entire year's worth of stored food, including meat that they'd raised and slaughtered to sustain them, was confiscated. The Stowers children who are home schooled have lost their lessons that were on the computer. And while that may not sound like a big deal, trust me, having experienced home-schooling three children...the computer is the school. Another issue I have with the computer being taken was that the children's father is currently serving in Iraq and that is their main mode of communication with them. The children and their mother are actually living with their grandparents while he is out of the country.

I read about this horror at Granny Miller's blog...and kept thinking...a decade ago, that could have been our home, our family. There are so many similarities...I home-schooled, co-oped, and stored a years worth of food... and no, I don't live that life any more...I garden and Kroger instead of co-oping, my daughter is in a public school... but I could still feel the horror that I know those people felt.

This really shouldn't be happening in our country...
Really.

I shudder to think that this could have ended like Ruby Ridge...thankfully, it didn't.