A state judge has declined, for now, to hold raw-milk producers Barb and Steve Smith in contempt of court for refusing to unlock their coolers last December for inspectors from the NY Department of Agriculture and Markets.
March 2008
I want to catch up on a few odds and ends from the past couple weeks:
The crackdown by state and federal authorities on raw-milk dairies, and the generally inhospitable environment for sustainable agriculture, is assuming a new sense of irony as global shortages of food commodities take hold.
If you look through the web site of the Centers for Disease Control for statistics on the number of food-borne illness occurring each year, you find different numbers—6 million, 14 million, 76 million.
Last September 20, I posted an item that seemed humorous at the time, about Mark McAfee’s encounter with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the issuance of a press release concerning the recall of Organic Pastures Dairy Co. cream contaminated with listeria monocytogenes. FDA officials had asked Mark to write his version of a press release and, not surprisingly, he came up with language very much at odds with the FDA.
Mark McAfee had just a few hours to celebrate yesterday’s issuance of a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of AB 1735--what he called “a big win for California raw milk and producers”—before he learned about the next phase of the government’s campaign against Organic Pastu
Like a fighter down for the count who gets back on his feet at the last moment, and then stuns spectators by knocking the opponent back on his heels, the team of Organic Pastures Dairy Co. and Claravale Farm scored a big win in a California courtroom today.
What does the medical establishment have in common with the political establishment? Both have discovered that, in terms of self preservation, it’s preferable to sicken us slowly rather than quickly.
I kind of expected Mark McAfee might have something to say in response to the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s suggestion, reported in my previous post, that he might be committing a felony because he didn’t file for a renewal of his milk products plant license.
The request by California’s two raw milk producers for a temporary restraining order, originally scheduled to be heard by a state court on Wednesday, has been put off for at least until next Wednesday (2 p.m. Pacific time). It seems the state attorney general’s office didn’t submit its opposing argument until Tuesday, and the judge wanted time to review the arguments. (The dairies submitted their arguments last week.)
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This site's mission is to provide news and analysis about food rights and raw milk. Increasingly, our access to privately available food is under attack by government and industry forces that seek to impose their choices on us. The Complete Patient seeks to provide up-to-date information and encourage the development of community to maintain traditional food acquisition options.