The latest battle in the raw milk wars broke out today in south-central Pennsylvania. A group of ten state police and agents from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) descended on the 100-acre Nature’s Sunlight Farm in Newville, and confiscated about $25,000 worth of raw milk products, along with packaging and equipment.
Though Pennsylvania is supposedly one of the more liberal states with regard to raw milk distribution, allowing farmers with permits to sell it not only from their farms and in farmers markets, but also in retail establishments, farmers say the state has become increasingly hostile to producers over the last few months. Might it have something to do with tough warnings issued by the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on March 1?
This case could turn more messy before it gets better, since the owner of Nature’s Sunlight Farm, Mark Nolt, is under threat of arrest by August 22 unless he complies with the state’s demands. I spoke with Mark early this evening, shortly after the agents departed, and he explained to me that the state’s primary demand is that he renew his raw milk permit. He’s not ready to do so, for several reasons, and now seems in the process of being turned into a state whipping boy.
After eight years of holding such a permit, Mark last August made the decision not to renew it. He objected because, while the permit allowed him to sell raw milk, it also required that his other milk products—cream, butter, and cheese—all be pasteurized.
“That’s not what people want,” he says. “They want all the raw stuff.”
But there was more to his decision than providing for his approximately 200 raw milk customers. It was also a legal matter. “I have done a lot of research. I could not find a law that says I must get a permit…The rules and regulations that are in place have not been approved by the legislature…The only way they can enforce their regulations is by having people volunteer to agree.”
Mark argues further that the regulations, even if they were legal, wouldn’t apply to him because he is selling directly to consumers, via private contracts that are outside the purview of the state. “They’re trying to make a privilege out of a right I have. Our constitution gives us the right to private contracts.”
“I wrote the PDA and asked them to tell me the law requiring I get a raw milk permit. They never got back to me. By not getting back, they were tacitly agreeing.”
But the PDA did convince the courts, in numerous hearings this summer, that it was in the right, and recently obtained an injunction prohibiting the farm from selling raw milk. When Mark continued to sell, the court ruled him in contempt, leading to today’s raid.
He says he’s not alone in either refusing to go along with the state’s raw milk permit regulations or in being harassed. “Farmer after farmer is being harassed,” some of whom have permits and some of whom don’t, he says. “If I take a permit, they would have a dozen others (lacking permits) in court.” Pete Kennedy, a lawyer for the Weston A. Price Foundation, says at least eight Pennsylvania farmers who sell raw milk have received warning letters from the state for selling without a permit.
So Mark, who has ten children, understands that the state is using him as an example to scare the others into complying, and he seems prepared for what may come. “I stand on the truth. It’s not a fight I picked…I know that someone has to stand up for the truth. Tyrants will rule if no one stands up for the truth…I may have to suffer for a while, if that is what God wants.”
Mark also has a theory as to why states around the country have become so aggressive in going after raw milk producers. “Industry is starting to feel it. In the last seven years, this movement has mushroomed. If they don’t get control of it now, they’ll never get control.”
And in the meantime, he’s going to continue milking his 25 cows, and providing his customers with the raw milk products they want and need…for as long as he can.
P.S. I telephoned the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture at about 6:15 this evening, as soon as I heard about Mark Naylor’s situation, for comment, but officials had all left for the weekend. I left a message.
***
The head of a Chicago-area raw milk cooperative under siege by neighbors for possibly violating zoning laws has responded in a comment following my posting about the New York Times article August 8. As in most such situations, there are two sides to this story. I suspect that Sheri may be painting herself into a corner of sorts. Her neighbor appears unreasonable, and Sheri doesn’t want to appear to be caving in. But moving distribution to another location may still be the better part of valor.
Thanks for providing the info about FTCLDF. I had just been thinking about what one can do to make a meaningful difference in raw milk issues in these other states, when obviously the state authorities have no need to pay attention to protesters in other states.
Before I left on vacation, I did more research on ecoli 0157:H7 and HUS. In the year 2000, STOP coordinated a conference called, Long-Term Health Implications of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). I was able to download and read the transcripts of this conference.
Dr. Brandt gave these statistics: Just to point out the rarity of HUS, the incidence of HUS is about two cases per hundred thousand children per year. By comparison, the most common form of childhood leukemia, acute lymphatic leukemia, is about six times more common, and congenital heart disease is about 50 times more common. Only 10-15% of children who suffer from ecoli 0157:H7 contamination develop HUS and from this another 10-20% develop acute pancreatitis, which usually lasts a week or two. Chris case lasted for 2 months.
[A review of the factswe have two children living in two different Southern California Counties, both drink OP raw milk on the same weekend, both develop ecoli 0157:H7 (one case is confirmed), both develop HUS (on the same day) and they end up in the same childrens hospital.]
If there was ever doubt that Chris had ecoli 0157:H7, the transcripts of this conference made it very clear that he definitely had a SEVERE case of ecoli 0157:H7 contamination. One of the presentations given by Dr. Phillip Tarr, Gastroenterologist, called Escherichia coli 0157:H7 of the GI Tract: Complication Beyond Diarrhea validated Chris experience. He had all the classic signs.
Lethargy and a short lived fever a few days before the onset of diarrhea
Vomiting and small bowel symptoms consisting of bloody and non-bloody diarrhea
HUS typically develops between day 6 and 8, with the window being from day 5 through 9 (Chris was diagnosed on day 5)
The right lower quadrant, in the region of the appendix, is often quite inflamed and abdominal ultrasounds frequently see parts of the small bowel surrounding the appendix being quite swollen. These symptoms in Chris began on day 3
Rectal prolapse can also be a sign of ecoli 0157:H7 infections. Chris experienced rectal prolapse on day 3. The resident doctor was so shocked she didnt know what to do. Tony ended up pushing his rectum back inside his body where it belonged
Pancreatitis is a problem that occurs in about 10-20% of children with oligoanuric HUS, a form of HUS in which there is no urine output. In these children, the abdominal pain persists well after their diarrhea is resolved.
I found another excellent article on HUS at http://www.emedicine.com/emerg/topic238.htm. The last update was 1/11/2007. It states that a few days before the onset of HUS presenting symptoms may mimic ulcerative colitis and appendicitis. On day three, they thought Chris may have appendicitis and on day four a sigmoidoscopy revealed ulcerative colitis. In other words, in severe cases of ecoli 0157:H7 infection, these GI symptoms are warning signs of the impending diagnosis of HUS. What this means is Chris most likely would have developed HUS on his own. The antibiotics probably didnt cause it. However, prescribing Claforan, a beta-lactam antibiotic (day 4), could have made his HUS more severe, but then on the other hand, it may have saved his colon. Children die from HUS in three different ways: heart failure, brain failure, or the colon dies. All Chris diarrhea came to speedy end after taking Claforan for 12 hours. This was very welcomed after 5 days of non-stop, intense, painful diarrhea. His last bowl movement was a clear liquid gold substance.
On a positive note, all of Chris blood work looks great! Were just waiting for the final blessing from our favorite nephrologist at LLUMC. He was on vacation and then we were on vacation. We’re hoping to speak with him next week.
But they are just warming up for all those round ups of those who will not sign up their premises under NAIS….see nonais.org for the ridiculous USDA program called NAIS….a so-called disease tracking program that will put livestock owners under closer surveillance than illegals, drug dealers, convicted six offenders/child molesters.
So then, raw milk should not be outlawed but follow procedures to keep it clean and safe from contamination. What is so hard about that? But nooooooooo, the USDA prefers to play gestapo of the US!
Testimony from Mr. Stan Painter, Chairman, National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, American Federation of Government Employees
…when we see violations of FSIS regulations and we are instructed not to write non-compliance reports in order to give companies the chance to fix the problems on their own. Sometimes even if we write non-compliance reports, some of the larger companies use their political muscle to get those overturned at the agency level or by going to their congressional delegation to get the inspection staff to back off. Some of my members have been intimidated by agency management in the past when they came forward and tried to enforce agency regulations and policies.
… In December 2004, I began to receive reports that the new SRM regulations were not being uniformly enforced. I wrote a letter to the Assistant FSIS Administrator for Field Operations at the time conveying to him what I had heard. On December 23, 2004, I was paid a visit at my home in Alabama by an FSIS official who was dispatched from the Atlanta regional office to convince me to drop the issue. I told him that I would not. Then, the agency summoned me to come here to Washington, DC where agency officials subjected me to several hours of interrogation including wanting me to identify which of my members were blowing the whistle on the SRM removal violations. I refused to do so. I was then placed on disciplinary investigation status. The agency even contacted the USDA Office of Inspector General to explore criminal charges being filed against me… It was not until August 2005 that over 1000 non-compliance reports weighing some 16 pounds — were turned over to both AFGE and Public Citizen that proved that what my members were telling me was correct that some beef slaughter facilities were not complying with the SRM removal regulations. 1 Coincidentally, on the same day that those records were released, I received written notification from the agency that they were dropping their disciplinary investigation into my actions…."
1981, there were 181 FSIS employees per billion pounds of meat and poultry inspected and passed; in FY 2007, FSIS employed fewer than 88 workers per billion pounds
<a href="http://domesticpolicy.oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1870">text</a>
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