The comments here have definitely gotten a little edgy over the last few days. The Rawesome Food Club episode seems to bring out lots of unpleasant emotions in all of us.
I assumed when I posted Victoria Blochs retrospective, it might open some old wounds, but I didnt expect the discussion to become as difficult as it did. Yet Id like to suggest that there have been positive outcomes to emerge from the difficult exchanges, and from the Rawesome episode in its entirety.
- It takes eccentric people to be in the vanguard of a new movement. Aajonus Vonderplanitz was there, nearly alone, fourteen years ago, when the authorities had nearly eradicated raw milk from the California landscape (and much of the American landscape). And he was an important force for change that has made raw milk and other nutrient-dense foods much more widely available. But the people who form the vanguard of any movement sometimes arent the people there when the movement expands, and requires people who can lead and mobilize.
- There need to be allowances for peoples imperfections. In other words, there needs to be compassion and forgiveness when things dont always go as planned, or various members of the movement community dont do things the way you hoped or expected. It seems clear that everyone involved in the events leading up to the Rawesome implosion made errors of one sort or another. What has been missing is the sincere desire by the leadership to move on in ways that are constructive to the community, rather than soothing to their own personal egos. This is where the concern with Vonderplanitz has come from–his seeming inability to let go of errors of the past, and to move on.
- The movement, if it is reflective of peoples wants and true aspirations, will continue and grow, despite the infighting. Much as many food rights advocates would like to put the Rawesome episode out of their minds, even pretend it never happened, the fact is that it will remain an important part of the food rights history that is even now being written. A new and quite penetrating review of my book, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Food Rights, makes this observation about Rawesome: The prosecutions gained widespread attention but never became a cause celebre, thanks to infighting among Rawesomes founders and erratic behavior among the Rawesome Three. To encourage readers to keep their focus on where it matters most, I have included above a schematic from the search warrant served on Rawesome on June 30, 2010–sketched out by investigators of the Los Angeles County District Attorney.
Rawesome had a sad ending, But hopefully the lessons to emerge from it will serve the movement in positive ways moving forward.
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The review of my book referenced above does an interesting job of assessing the reality of expanding the private food realm, and suggests as one option that the food rights movement consider third-party oversight in place of one-size-fits-all government regulation. It just so happens that the Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI) is expanding its reach by involving more dairies (five now officially certified), serving both the private and public realms. RAWMI is even hosting its first webinar this evening–you can still register to participate.
ecCENTRIC, I don’t recall being called that but maybe it’s overdue. Color me shade
1. Ask them about their sleeping patterns at night
2. Ask them about their insurance policy rates.
3. Ask them about how their raw milk tastes.
4. Ask them about their bacteria counts before and after becoming LISTED
5. Ask them about the long line of people that want their delisious raw milk!
It is a lonely place producing raw milk. Being LISTED creates a community of like minded and committed farmers that care deeply about a whole list of things. You are never alone when you are LISTED.
The invitation to become LISTED is always extended to everyone. The LISTING process is a growth process and it may be difficult or even not something you want to do…but it is rewarding and the returns are priceless. At OPDC, is was super valuable for our RAMP program and general operations to be visited and critically evaluated by Dr. Cat Berge DVM. All humility aside….food safety has no ego….it can not hide. It demands transparency and integrity. It demands a team and a plan. We are so very proud of the five LISTED dairies that have made the leap of faith so far. More farmers are in line for the program and we are very excited to be working with more and more great people that can not wait to serve their customers at the very highest levels of quality possible.
In my world….there are those that talk alot and but a very few that actually act.
But solutions are needed, and as David referenced in one of his articles regarding the Hershberger trial, there are many solutions happening. RAWMI is one of those solutions.
As a California herdshare listed with RAWMI, we are not guaranteed that we will be un-harrassed by the CDFA. However, we are openly demonstrating our extemely high level of RESPONSIBILITY, which must accompany the freedom we desire. Freedom necessitates responsibility, and vice verus. Our hope is that by doing so, our herdshare will be respected by the state and we will be left in peace.
RAWMI could be a model for how we address food safety at the local, community level. For Kitchen producers and on-farm meat processors. I just spoke with a young woman who wants to produce ice cream on the extremely micro-scale. Despite having an impeccable food-safety plan that is appropriate for her scale, she can’t do it. She just doesn’t fit into the regulatory box. She commented to me, “We need a RAWMI for small scale food producers!” Voluntary, private, third-party oversight and standards, with partnerships for education and support, and standards that can be met with innovation appropriate to any scale, is a SOLUTION for the re-localization of our food.
By the way, Cat Berge did a great presentation last evening on implementing safety and sanitation standards for raw dairy farms. While much of it seemed most appropriate to larger operations, there were any number of suggestions on topics like integrating new cows into a herd, the dangers of stressing animals, and precautions from contamination by even your own vet. I believe RAWMI will be making the slides available to those who request them (email: contact@rawmilkinstitute.org).
Shawna….your words are golden. Thank you so much. RAWMI was never intended to be the fix for all raw milk challenges or an end point solution. It was intended to be a strong first step to demonstrate the possibility of what happens to raw milk risk with applied standards and high ethics. We want to create an auditable database. University PhDs are getting ready to really look at this data and figuer out how and why RAWMI LISTED raw milk is so consistently clean. A track record is what we want to create. The future holds promise for much more than RAWMI. RAWMI is just a very serious grass roots experiment to prove a point and open doors for a great future for raw milk for all people. We must take down the ignorance and exploited negative dogma that plagues the last 200 years of raw milk. We must demonstrate and prove that when done well….raw milk is a pure and a very low risk… high benefit food!! When that task is done…the doors fly wide open.
Oh and David, if you haven’t discovered it yet, you owe it to yourself to check out http://www.whitebarnfarm.org because it’s easily the best organic food around and great people.
Yes, Shawna, you are spot on about with your explanation of what the benefits will bring by being a member of RAWMI. I wish you the very best with your dairy farm and know that your product will bring great health benefits to your consumers.
Ora, thanks for the suggestion. It looks like a great place. It’s a little far for me on a regular basis, but I’ll try to check it out when I’m in the area.
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/mailbag/dr-william-b-hobbins-let-farmers-sell-raw-milk/article_a92125a2-88b2-5735-b73b-973ca09d8662.html
http://www.naturalnews.com/041359_Big_Ag_small_farms_federal_government.html
“Though poorly known, radiation breeding has produced thousands of useful mutants and a sizable fraction of the worlds crops…including varieties of rice, wheat, barley, pears, peas, cotton, peppermint, sunflowers, peanuts, grapefruit, sesame, bananas, cassava and sorghum.”
Several certified organic brands, whose companies support strict labeling or outright bans on GMO-crops, market their use of branded wheat and other varietal strains which were derived from mutagenic processes without any reference to this genetic manipulation. These organic products range from mutagenic barley and wheat ingredient used in organic beers to mutagenic varieties of grapefruits sold directly to consumers as organic.
Mutation breeding, is the process of exposing seeds to chemicals or radiation in order to generate mutants with desirable traits to be bred with other cultivars. From 19302007 more than 2540 mutagenic plant varietals have been released that have been derived either as direct mutants (70%) or from their progeny (30%). Crop plants account for 75% of released mutagenic species with the remaining 25% ornamentals or decorative plants.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57505149/modern-wheat-a-perfect-chronic-poison-doctor-says/
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-problems-with-modern-wheat/#axzz2aCMXMTL3
http://boingboing.net/2011/10/26/triticum-fever-by-dr-william-davis-author-of-wheat-belly.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutation_breeding
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2229/10/264/abstract
I am very impressed with our suitor, he was born in the US but made his money oversees and loves raw milk. He has excema and effectively treated himself with raw milk. This product would qualify for interstate shipment because it is not in “final package form” and requires rehydration prior to consumption. He has already spoken with the highest levels of regulators in CA and they have directed him to initiate communications with the NIH for initial research and testing. We have great connections at the NIH and help is already starting to flow. This product could solve travel issues for moms and babies. It could be a great back packers food…or military or anyone. It could solve all sorts of issues if you really Think about it. The greatest issue it solves is the test and hold issue. Each batch could be tested as fresh raw milk and then immediately dried…only to await comprehensive batch testing to assure pathogen free status. This product could actually make someone at the NIH and or FDA take notice. Enough sharing of raw milk top secrets for now….this is huge!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ViwvgtvbA
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/116/2/400.full
Could an infant survive solely on a diet of raw cow’s milk? Probably, and I’m sure historically many have for lack of a better alternative. But given the choice between pasteurized breast milk from a milk bank, or plain raw cow’s milk, I’d take the breast milk. Given the choice between raw milk FORMULA and pasteurized breast milk from the milk bank, we chose the raw milk formula. I’m convinced it is an excellent and complete diet for an infant under one year, and I’ve seen several adopted infants thrive on it.
There were postings here at TCP (I want to say 2 years ago) the first story involved the stories of someones grandfather who came to Canada(?) from Russia. So, when grandfather was a youth, his younger siblings were dying very young. It was explained why: bad milk. The family emigrated. Grandfather was in his teens then and began dairying to supply milk to the family. Several more siblings (all of them sisters, was it?) came along and thrived. Grandfather produced very high quality milk. It was also a business to the young man. When the sisters were old enough, grandfather left the dairy business.
In summary: bad quality cows milk contributed to high infant mortality, when fed good quality cows milk, the children were the picture of health.
The second story is contemporary, a man who was left with infant twin sons to care for alone. It was a ranch or farm situation. He fed them diluted raw honey and diluted raw cows milk as infant formula. As of when he posted this at TCP it was said the young men (now twenty years of age perhaps) had thrived all their lives long, never sick, never in need of doctoring. In summary: two infant boys were raised on a formula of raw honey and raw cows milk (both(?) diluted) and the children thrived, now in their twenties.
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/116/2/400.full
On a somewhat different note…I have 2 adopted children. My adopted son was born just 10 weeks after I gave birth to my biological daughter, and so I was already nursing. I was there for his birth, and had a great relationship with his birthmother. We both agreed that I would nurse him…I mean, why not??? I was already making milk. How great that he could be nursed, as most adopted babies cannot. Well, it probably won’t surprise anyone here that the hospital staff just about had a stroke to see me nursing a baby who was not biologically my own. I mean…that’s raw milk after all….bodily fluid! The pediatricians weren’t sure if they would “allow” it and they all had to have a great big pow-wow to discuss our strange situation. We both (birth mom and me) had to sign release forms, acknowledging that nursing my adopted son could transmit disease. Is that whacked out, or what?