You might think that after half a dozen years of intense debate and a procession of legal cases in the U.S. and Canada over raw milk and food rights, that there might be some softening, some moves to compromise and acceptance– live and let live, as it were.
Nothing doing. Rather, even as more local organizing takes place pushing food rights legislative agendas from Wyoming to Virginia, positions seem to be hardening. Those hardening positions are translating into ever harsher enforcement. Much like Alabama became the capital of anti-civil-rights actions in the 1960s, Minnesota has become the anti-food-right capital of the new century (in tough competition with neighboring Wisconsin).
Maybe a little bored as they wait for the next trial of farmer Alvin Schlangen to begin in a few weeks, officials at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture pulled out raw dairy farmer Michael Hartmann for some more public tarring and feathering. Now they have gotten a prosecutor to file three new criminal charges against him for, what else, producing raw milk. I havent seen the complaint, and its hard to know for sure from this report–there have been so many charges against the guy– but somehow it has to do with him supposedly violating a previous plea agreement and trying to supply his private customers, who are desperate for his milk.
The point here is that the hostility by public officials is nearly palpable. Sure, there is talk about protecting people, but that talk sounds ever more empty, since none of the farmers in the expanding dragnet are making people ill. (Hartmann was linked to illnesses back in 2010, nearly three years ago, so that rallying cry is becoming tired.)
All you have to do is read Michael Schmidts account of his recent six-day trial in British Columbia (during which he had to fly back to Ontario to gain permission from a judge in his sheep-napping case to extend his stay outside the province) to get a sense of the hostility (see part 1 and part 2). The prosecutor even mocked his slight German accent. (And you know Schmidt, ever polite, wasnt being provocative.)
Gordon Watson, a co-defendant with Schmidt for helping organize the few hundred person herdshare the British Columbia government wants so badly to obliterate, similarly sensed the hostility. (He acted as his own lawyer in the case.) Susan Beach, the lawyer for British Columbias Fraser Health, he wrote me, was harping-away like a buzz-saw about what bad guys Michael Schmidt and I were. Contumacious contemnors ! … she called us! Having operated in the upper echelon of government, in the capital city (Victoria), shes used to people deferring to her. What she didnt realize til it was too late, was the insolence of office which is her stock in trade, cut no ice with us … a couple of blokes who simply dont care about the prestige shes gained in twenty years before the Bar.
Now, there are even signs of infighting among the opponents of raw milk. It seems the Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation (MFBF) had the gall to break with the American Farm Bureau Federation and declare itself in favor of pending Massachusetts legislation to allow delivery of raw milk from permitted farms, according to an article in Farm Progress magazine.
Its reason for breaking with the big shots? “At least 37 states allow some form of raw milk sales, including Massachusetts. We believe that properly-regulated raw milk sales are a marketing opportunity for family farms.” The Farm Progress article added: For many dairy producers, this could be key to their survival, in a state where land, labor and regulatory costs are among the highest in the nation…
The key words are marketing opportunity. Could the worm finally be turning? Could dairy farmers finally be coming to the realization that raw milk offers an opportunity for economic survival, with the bonus of making customers happier and healthier…and that the farmers main enemies are the dairy processors fighting to hold onto market share?
And economics returns us to the hostility I lead off with. Sure, there is serious animosity by the rulers over the ruled. But at its heart, this is a struggle over economics, just as slavery was a struggle over economics, and economics can make people very hostile.
Tell me why your milk is better than the adulterated stuff, what you do differently than the store bought stuff, how you raise and feed, etc your animals/farm. Tell me the differences, show me the differences. Pictures speak volumes. Brief statements would suffice. That’s what people need to know, facts.
If the dairy farmers can’t see that selling raw milk directly to people is more profitable that being a slave to the current system, then perhaps they shouldn’t be in business. (This is a generalized statement-cow shares, feed lot dairies,etc are different issues).
http://www.historywiz.com/didyouknow/tarringandfeathering.htm
Those who don’t like, or aren’t in favor of the raw milk movement are always free to leave, and/or make no more comments, and bury themselves under the “half freedom” blanket. People like Bill want some freedoms (like his freedom to make raw milk cheese) but still want gubment regulations and control by the lackeys at places like the fdUh and the uSDuh. He’s a big fan of science FRICTION.
By demanding only some freedoms, we will continue to have what we have, and that is certainly not working any longer. We need to start leaving more of the responsibility for these things in the hands of each individual state and eliminate the dead wood we have now.
D. Smith, good bet, and good points.
As I remember it from high school history, it was undesirables of one sort or another who were “tarred and feathered and run out of town.” It sounded brutal and humiliating…and a hell of a mess to clean up.
Our court date is in March to see what the FDA has to say for itself. Well…the best they can do is ….just before the trial begins announce that they now will answer the Citizens Complaint, making the trial mute!!! I can not wait to see what the answer says.
If they are smart they will allow raw milk over state lines on their terms, what ver that might be. If they are as expected….they will use bent up CDC data and flat out deny the petition.
I really hope they do something really stupid and attempt to lie. They will be an obvious opportunity to dress them down in court and expose the lie. We will see.
I was just sent a video produced by he FDA that warns pregnant moms to not drink raw milk,,.it makes me nauseated. It quotes CDC data that does not exist. A FOIA request I did with he CDC three years ago exposed the truth….there have been zero deaths from raw milk listed in the CDC database.
The FDA video claims deaths from raw milk!!!!
I want to sue so badly…the truth must come out!!
Our market building efforts in CA are working extremely well. Sales are raging with records every month. That one fact must drive the FDA crazy in their sterilized frenzied cubicle livin reality. Consumers do not trust them and their pharmacy commercial reality. They trust OPDC instead.
This is real war and they re really showing their weaknesses. If you need to lie you have lost..
The dairy industry has already surrendered their fluid pasteurized milk markets. Now the FDA is trying to save what little is still surviving….but lingers near its inevitable market death.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEKLfOExBKE This is a 3 part.
Thanks for posting the vid. And I agree with you about the misdiagnosis crisis in this country. That alone should tell us we’re in trouble.
It reminded me of when I was weaning my son from breast, all the formulas made him have projectile vomiting before he got 4 oz in him. The pediatrician told me to just keep feeding it to him!! UGH we were in Germany at the time, and my German wasn’t good enough to decipher the labels on the German formulas (back then I wouldn’t have had a place to look up the ingredients) and at the time, in the 70s, there were issues with tuberculin cows there. So he went straight to the store bought whole milk from the commissary, which was supposed to have been imported from the US. He never had a problem with the whole cows milk.
I wonder if they’ve thought of things like coconut milk or water? Or, after 3 years, have they even considered that he may have outgrown part of his initial problem and could now tolerate some veggie juices or fruit juices on a small scale, just to see what his body will do? I don’t think these things occur to a doctor who probably has 50 other patients in the same hospital.
When my daughter was newborn, she developed just a titch of jaundice, so I placed her in the sunlight as much as possible and we “watered down” my overly rich breastmilk with some goat milk and she did just fine. We only had to do that for about three weeks, and then she was good to go with straight breastmilk. She was breech and inverted and we had a difficult time, both of us. In the 70’s we were not drugged up into oblivion, so I knew what was going on all the time and the doctor consulted me on everything. I’ll bet dollars to dumbbells that wouldn’t happen today. Doctors barge their way around without asking question one of the Mom, as if she’s some lamebrained doofus and act as if pregnancy is an illness or a disease. It’s that overweening arrogance thing rearing its head again.
My daughter was born in mid-September, and it was already rather chilly, so most of the time she was in the sunlight through a window in our home. But on nice autumn days I would go outdoors with her, when I finally felt up to it but we were only in the direct sun for about 5-10 minutes or so. It was pretty amazing though because you could almost watch the yellowish skin disappearing and turning a nice pink. No more bili lights after that! I refused. No suntan lotion ever crossed the threshold in our home, not even back in the 70’s. That stuff made me sneeze (so did those perfumy baby lotions) and I’m not really allergic to them I don’t think, but my nose seemed to understand that something about them wasn’t cool.
I switched my babies from belly to back to side or whatever they seemed to need/want. It wasn’t a big, troublesome sounding deal like it is now. With good reason, no? ! Just another way to scare young parents into thinking they need a doctor for everything when in reality they should be exercising their own brains and maybe try to find out if they even have any common sense.
The co-sleeping thing never seemed like the thing to do, to my DH and me, so the only time our children were in our bed is for middle of the night feedings, and then back to their own rooms. By age 3 months they were sleeping through the night (pretty much) and none of them were ever popping into our room at all hours as they grew. They were quite independent in that regard. Today anything goes, it seems, and almost nothing is frowned upon.
* HBV: Hepatitis B vaccine; recommended to give the first dose at birth, but may be given at any age for those not previously immunized.
1-2 months
* HBV: Second dose should be administered 1 to 2 months after the first dose.
2 months
* DTaP: Diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis vaccine
* Hib: Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine
* IPV: Inactivated poliovirus vaccine
* PCV: Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine
* Rota: Rotavirus vaccine
4 months
* DTaP
* Hib
* IPV
* PCV
* Rota
6 months
* DTaP
* Hib
* PCV
* Rota: This third dose may be needed, depending on the brand of vaccine used in previous immunizations.
http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=FDA-2009-P-0147-0012
It appears that a couple of big milk producing groups are requesting permission to use “non-nutritive sweeteners” in milk as a way to make it more palatable for kids. This would include Aspartame, and could be used with or instead of, the current sweeteners of HFCS and sugar. They believe that this “…Finally, IDFA and NMPF argue that the proposed amendments
to the milk standard of identity would promote honesty and fair dealing
in the marketplace and are therefore appropriate under section 401 of
the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 341)….”
What is interesting, however, is in the very next paragraph, where it is stated…”However, IDFA and NMPF argue that nutrient
content claims such as “reduced calorie” are not attractive to
children, and maintain that consumers can more easily identify the
overall nutritional value of milk products that are flavored with non-
nutritive sweeteners if the labels do not include such claims. Further,
the petitioners assert that consumers do not recognize milk–including
flavored milk–as necessarily containing sugar. Accordingly, the
petitioners state that milk flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners
should be labeled as milk without further claims so that consumers can
“more easily identify its overall nutritional value.”…”
I must admit that I am intrigued about how the lack of labeling would lead to both a more informed consumer AND a less informed one, all at the same time. Any ideas?
In the meanwhile, the time for comments is now. No matter how this turns out, it makes me glad that I do not drink any milk from a farmer that I have not learned about.
The deeply divided opinions at the coroners office underscore the evolving scientific thinking regarding sudden infant fatalities. In recent years, forensic pathologists have become increasingly aware of ailments and conditions that can cause symptoms that mimic the signs of child abuse.
Last year, ProPublica, NPR and FRONTLINE analyzed nearly two dozen cases in the U.S. and Canada in which people were wrongly accused of killing infants and toddlers. The joint reporting effort found that faulty medical evidence played a central role in each of the cases.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/criminal-justice/the-child-cases/california-governor-commutes-sentence-in-shaken-baby-case/
http://www.sidscenter.org/Statistics.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/magazine/06baby-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
I could not find reliable information on SIDS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_infant_death_syndrome
Babies, at birth, who are given the useless Hep B and Vitamin K shots can also succumb to SIDS. Few babies are without vaccinations anymore, even from a newborn state. From experience with it in my own family, even when the parents have signed papers and given them to the hospital staff that they do not wish to have their children receive the Hep B shot, it’s usually given anyway, violating the wishes of the parents. Some young parents are now wising up and having a lawyer draw up the papers, which seems to carry a bit more weight but I can only surmise that even this tactic won’t last too much longer.
Sorry, I wandered off the topic. My apologies :).
My family, kids included, has absolutely no problem drinking around 5 gallons of raw milk a week.
The only point of any legal argument is, which legal interpretation makes for the best political agitation.
As a matter of principle and morality, the only acceptable demand is total decriminization for the Community Food sector, which is naturally local/regional and can never effectively or justly be “overseen” by any alien central hierarchy, government or corporate.
I’d say this is also winning political demand for “the law”, certainly over the long run. Anything short of that, anything which still concedes the “authority” of alien power over OUR FOOD, has already failed in principle and mindset (one has already surrendered in his mind), and will certainly fail in political practice, which is the only reality there is, as far as this stuff goes.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/25/usa-corn-aflatoxin-idUSL1N0BP9SP20130225?feedType=RSS&feedName=industrialsSector&rpc=43
http://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/us-farmers-flood-fields-with-dangerous-poison-to-fight-monsanto-superweeds/
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/02/23/front-yard-food-gardens-defying-conformity-and-challenging-authority/
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/02/23/wave-of-ag-gag-laws-aimed-at-protecting/
Milk that is subjected to the current manipulate until it is dead paradigm is little more then highly processed unpalatable junk food i.e. crap!!!
Ill continue to drink my milk raw and untested, (a practice Ive held to for the last fifty plus years) and free from this highly regulated, idiotic, germ phobic driven agenda.
Fortunately we happen to have access in our area to a variety of raw milk cheese products from Quebec Unfortunately however, and despite intense regulation its overall future availably is subject to the whims of the control freaks of the world.
Ken
Find an unlicensed dairy farmer to sell raw milk to you, and as long as he doesn’t enter into commerce (advertise, etc.) he should be left alone by the state.
The situation isn’t unlike that with GMO foods. The producers know that increasing numbers of people are worried about “stuff” in their food (antibiotic residues, pesticides, etc.), and so want to reduce the amount of info. The more people know about how their food truly is messed with, the less inclined they will be to buy the factory stuff, and the more inclined they will be to seek out alternatives…which both the corporations and the regulators want to avoid.
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) urges United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) to keep thimerosal in vaccines rather than consider banning the preservative in a global mercury treaty, stating that the use of the mercury-containing preservative in vaccines is necessary to conduct mass vaccination programs in developing countries.
Theyre just a bunch of greedy pigs.
They dont need to use mercury in their useless vaccines, and the only reason why they use it is to keep their cost of production down, which results in increased sales and profit.
The fact that they use herd vaccinations programs in developing countries in order to justify their use of toxic mercury is indicative of their contempt for the people of those countries.
Ken
😉
The past two days articles have been most interesting, and in line with what you mentioned in your above post. The reader comments are always quite interesting too, as there are several PhRMA trolls there.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Breast-cancer-ties-to-environment-probed-4310594.php
Two more being LISTED this Spring. We are seeing less interest in RAWMI LISTING and more interest in RAWMI learning. Farmers are calling wanting help…but not interested in investing time to become excellent.
Raw milk producers really seem to love their secrecy. Interesting to note that RAWMI LISTED dairies are the dairies that get the calls from consumers that complain about the super short shelf life of raw milk purchased by those consumers from “other dairies”. When the consumers other dairy raw milk is tested it is absolutely filthy….BUT the consumers do not complain to their dairyman!!
Freedom from oppressive regulation will only come when farmers become bastions of personal responsibility, educators, market builders, and pillors of integrity. I only know a few of these. The rest need a frickin gun to their heads to do anything right.
“Further… consumers do not recognize milk–including flavored milk–as necessarily containing sugar. Accordingly…milk flavored with non-nutritive sweeteners should be labeled as milk without further claims so that consumers can`more easily identify its overall nutritional value.”…””
In other words, the fact that the system already lies about added sugar, and therefore people “don’t recognize” that there’s added sugar, is now used to justify lying about more things.
“I lie, therefore I am.”
Does anyone still have any doubt about the absolute evil of these creatures, that their evil is systematic and all-comprehensive, and that in the end there can be no compromise with them?
I am sad to hear you know of only a few responsible and integrity filled raw milk farmers; I know of dozens, in multiple states, and that is without trying. But since a farmer doesn’t have to agree with my 100% on everything, I guess my standards may be too low?
Your comment brings to mind a statement made by John F Kennedy
The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.
Your Orwellian language of totalitarianism that, consumers can more easily identify… things the way the system wants them to, if they’re systematically lied to, is correct and only valid in societies where a large cross section of the population have lost their moral compass, hence their true identity and are therefore unable to distinguish basic right from wrong.
Ken
With regards to secrecy and ultra protective cultures that surround many raw milk dairymen, what I find most disapointing is that these super secret farmers are also the farmers that are often times totally filthy and could care less about being organized, clean or even green. I have been invited to audit some of these places and what I see is the equivalent to Manure Clutter Hording. It is disgusting….and the farmer is proud of the place.
Total disconnect with reality.
Consumers beware…what you see at the farm is what you get in your bottle.
As far as the comments from anyone about high standards etc….I couldn’t careless about them. Cream rises to the top and the manure sinks to the bottom. The cream will lead America and Raw Milk to a new future for farmers and consumers alike. The manure is always going to be manure.
The conditions official name now is Acute Flaccid Paralysis but it was once known as infantile paralysis/ poliomyelitis (polio for short).
In 1977, Dr. Jonas Salk (inventor of the Salk polio vaccine) testified along with other scientists that most (87%) of the polio cases which have occurred in the U.S. since the early 1970’s probably were the by-product of the polio vaccine itself.
Almost every Polio case in the US in the last 30 years has been associated with the vaccine itself.
Our problem is not with shit but rather with the establishments antagonistic, toxic mindset.
Ken
How else could we as a country represent only 5% of the worlds’ population and consume over 50% of all manufactured PHARMA drugs? Tea, anyone?
Breaking news here!!
The FDA just answered the 3.5 year old Citizens Petition and it was delivered via Email to me today. What a read. David has a copy.
Our very narrow and specific request to amend CFR 1240.61 was met with a tirade of broad misstatements of CDC data and fact. They never answered the reqauest or the Citizens Petition. The most glaring was the claim that raw milk killed 48 people during the Jalisco Cheese incident in 1985….that was pasteurized cheese that killed not raw milk anything!!! Wow…lies being told by the FDA to further and protect their agenda. It was written as if to be published as a testiment to their stand against raw milk in any form. At least they are consistent.
The FDA never answered the question of why raw milk that is legal to be sold in 400 stores in CA can not also be sold in stores in Arizona where raw milk sales are also legal with the same standards….they never answered my question. Instead they went on and on with data about all sorts of illnesses from all over America that were from untested questionable sources. They spoke of data from the 1970-1990’s and very old junk that is old news. They used data from common milk pool farm tanks instead of pathogen data from certified raw milk producers!!! Twisted and ugly. Would never have stood up in court…a judge would have laughed as he had them sactioned for lying. They never compared raw milk to pasteurized milk and said that pasteurized milk was a gurantee of safety. Tell that to the three dead people at Whittier farms in 2007. One hell of a guarantee….
The FDA went on to say that they are not aware of any data or statistics about raw milk being a valued health food product. They deny PARSIFAL, GABRIELA, AMISH studies and also avoid all mention of the 422,000 illnesses and 77 deaths from pasteurized milk or the 13 people that die every year from Oysters etc… or the 34 deaths from Cantalopes!!
It was a political masterpiece of grandstanding against legal raw milk.
It has me scratching my head about the next steps. It would sound to me like we continue to sue them for not responding to the questions posed in the Citizens Petition. They did not answer the question….they answered their agenda instead. They even said that ” becuase the Citizens Petition did not further FDA policy efforts”…..it was denied. Since when does anyone need to kiss their Kings ring finger to pass their test or please them ? That is the most arrogant concept and it comes from the dark ages when the King needed to feel good to approve anything. The FDA is not my king!!
Since when does anything good for the people have anything to do with supporting the FDA and furthering their policies.
That was the greatest peice of arrogant BS I have ever heard. The fight continues and our sales rage upwards inspite of them. Perhaps the inverse relationship between FDA disapproval and raw milk popularity has reached new highs. When their denial gets washed all over the internet….sales will rage even higher. Real people hate the FDA!
How can they sleep at night knowing that FDA approved drugs are a leading cause of death in America!! and Asthma inhalers are found next to the dead bodies of asthmatic kids!! Raw milk is winning in the real world of moms dads and kids and there is nothing that the FDA can do about it. Their own website LISTS pasteurized milk as the MOST ALLERGENIC food in America. 8 kids are listed as dying from allergies to pasteurized milk since 1998. They have blood on their hands.
I hope they are reading this. I know they do…it saves me postage and sending a letter to them.
Perhaps a mom will sue the FDA for denying her access to raw milk when her kid gets sick from pasteurized milk and she lives in Arizona.
Mark
http://myfox8.com/2013/02/25/mountain-man-vs-the-government/
Our kids always seemed to signal when they were ready to sleep on their own (while still babies), and they never showed a desire to come into our room after that. Of course, it helps that they room with one another-it eases the possibility of night fears, or loneliness.
There really isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to these things. If we truly love our little ones while still respecting ourselves, it works out fine.
I’m very thankful that my kids never took co-sleeping or breast-feeding past babyhood. I think in our culture it can make our lives more exhausting.
Nothing screams hygiene like a latex hospital glove inside the mouth of a newborn.
God bless my wonderful homebirth midwife…and may these talented women multiply!
The hospital even tried to bill us for baby’s “room and board”, after they kept us quarentined for MRSA. That was easy to shoot down! (Ironically, I never wanted my sweeties in the nursery anyway. The first few days were always the easiest!)