This article has been updated since it was originally posted.
Last May, Robert Tauxe, a food safety bigwig at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (I know hes a bigwig because he has lots of initials after his name and a 16-word title) wrote a letter to state epidemiologists and public health regulators in which he slammed raw milk. He asked the regulators to continue to support pasteurization and consider further restricting or prohibiting the sale and distribution of raw milk and other unpasteurized dairy products in their states.
Nothing much new therejust another political thrust by the supposedly scientific CDC to get a raw milk ban. We wouldnt even know about the letter, except food safety lawyer Bill Marler put it on his blog with the heading, Dr. Rob Takes on Raw Milk. Marler added, patronizingly, It is good to see a leader in public health taking a stand for public health. Truly heart-warming.
Unbeknownst to Marler and others who read it, the letter contained a big boo-boo that sheds important new light on the level of federal armaments being brought to bear in the Illinois raw milk controversy.
The problem in the letter is this sentence: Pasteurization is recommended for all animal milk consumed by humans by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Practitioners, the American Veterinary . Hold it, stop there. You see, the fourth organization Tauxe mentioned, the American Academy of Family Practitioners (AAFP), never made the recommendation about pasteurized milk that Tauxe claimed it had, or any recommendation of any sort on raw milk. (By the way, Tauxe even screwed up the name–it is the American Academy of Family Physicians, not Practitioners.)
BFD, you say. So, the guy mixed up his medical organizations. They all sound pretty similar and, what the heck, one medical or veterinary association is like the other.
No, if you are Tauxe and the other folks who run the CDC, guaranteed you know the difference between the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). Why? Because these places and their recommendations are among the most valuable currency the CDC raw milk battlers seek out. Each of those organizations recommendations is worth its weight in Fort Knox gold, in their little world.
You see, Tauxe and the CDC have only two sources of data in their war against raw milk: numerical data and the credibility provided by the organizations that are willing to be part and parcel of the CDC/FDA/Dean Foods assault team. The numerical data has long been crumbling before our eyes, from the ridiculous studies on raw milk (like the Minnesota study supposedly showing 20,000-plus raw milk illnesses) to the realization that CDC is counting illnesses from pre-pasteurized milk produced by commercial dairies to help pad the raw milk illness numbers.
Moreover, studies seem to be nearly pouring out of Europe showing benefits from raw milk. The latest is the study of nearly 1,000 mothers of infantsthose infants who consumed raw milk had 30% fewer respiratory and other infections than the kids drinking pasteurized milk.
On top of that, the Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI) is coming on strong with safety standards for raw dairies. (See Mark McAfee’s account of Friday’s events at Penn State in a comment following the previous post.)
Time is running out for the CDC/FDA/Dean Foods assault team as ever more people learn about the serious health promises of raw milk and that safe raw milk can be and is consistently produced.
The CDC is in a very big hurry to eliminate raw milk before the agency’s perceived window of opportunity closes. So much in a hurry that now theres this embarrassing situation about the the anti-raw-milk endorsement not provided by the American Academy of Family Physicians. It is made even more embarrassing by the episode’s close connection to the two-year controversy in Illinois over proposed restrictions on the sale of raw milk. I know this is getting a little involved, but stay with me here.
First, understand that the American Academy of Pediatrics has 62,000 members, and the American Academy of Family Physicians is nearly twice the size, at 116,000 members. The AAFP is thus twice as tempting to the CDC as AAP, which was pretty tempting to begin with.
If youll remember, last December the CDC coordinated release of its Minnesota study with the AAPs release of a new policy statement advocating a ban on raw milk. I wrote about the interesting coincidences in timing of those releases for PR Watch.
The CDC seems to have attempted a similar sort of coordination effort in connection with the AAFP and the Illinois battle, only in this case, the CDC apparently got way ahead of itself, and assumed a done deal before anything was firmed up. And as a result, the whole tete a tete that the CDC likely envisioned may have gone up in smoke.
Before I explain the particulars, you should understand that not only is the AAFP nearly twice as large as the AAP, its also much less pliable than the AAP. Family physicians are an offshoot of the old general practice doctors who used to come around with their little black bags and make home visits. When these GPs tried to organize themselves into a new practice area devoted to treating the family unit, back in the 1960s and 1970s, there was much resistance from the established medical profession, which was increasingly oriented toward ever more specialization. Moreover, this new practice area represented business competition to internists.
Eventually, through expert organization and management, the AAFP established itself within the profession, though some of its doctors still see themselves as rebels and outsiders. Now that AAFP is well established, with chapters in each state, the chapters have increasingly taken on identities of their own.
Illinois, as we know, has become Ground Zero in the battle over raw milk. The federal government and Big Dairy have thrown everything they have into the two-year battle to obliterate raw milk in Illinois (per the previous post), and want to use the shock waves to intimidate other states in going along with similar tough-on-raw-milk strategies.
The Illinois public health community appears to have marched in lockstep with the FDA, CDC, Dean Foods, and others, and has worked on a local basis to mobilize support. One of those public health people very active in the anti-raw-milk effort has been an Illinois family physician and member of the Illinois chapter of the AAFP, Dr. Rashmi K. Chugh. Last March, two months before Tauxe made his blunder about AAFP being against raw milk, Chugh testified before the Illinois Department of Public Health (see page 15 of the testimony), along with four other state public health people. They all castigated the IDPH for its proposed rules to limit the sale of raw milkin their judgment, IDPH was being too accommodating, and all sales of raw milk should be banned in Illinois. There was absolutely no possibility for compromise in their rigid ideology.
Chugh identified herself as being a family physician as well as a medical officer for the DuPage County Health Department, and a spokesperson for something called the Northern Illinois Public Health Consortium. Her five minutes or so of testimony about the dangers of raw milk sounded as if it was put together by the CDC. So did Resolution #407 that she convinced the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians to introduce at the AAFPs annual Congress in Washington last month. It isnt online, so I have copied it below, following this post. My guess is both her testimony and the resolution were ghost-written by the CDC.
Now, Tauxe and company may have anticipated an easy win at the AAFP annual Congress, where about 50 resolutions on various aspects of health are introduced each year. But, surprise of surprises, Resolution #407, Prohibiting Sale and Distribution of Raw or Unpasteurized Milk and Milk Products, encountered opposition among some of the rebel AAFP docs. One is understood to have recounted raids on small dairies carried out by regulators in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and to have concluded: We shouldnt prohibit this, we should regulate it properly.
The entire discussion lasted less than ten minutes, but the raw milk resolution wasnt voted on, where it could have been passed or rejected, and was instead sent to the AAFPs board of directors for further study, which is generally understood to be at best a delaying mechanism, and often a means of disposing of resolutions considered tangential to AAFPs overall focus.
Rashmi Chugh and CDC werent about to give up, though. Earlier this month, a few weeks after the AAFP Congress, Chugh surfaced again, this time at the annual meeting of the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians (IAFP) proposing the same resolution. At this meeting, it passed the Illinois chapter.
I tried to speak to Chugh, but she relayed word through a spokesperson for the Illinois chapter that she wasn’t able to speak with me. Maybe because I had alerted her that I wanted to inquire about what specifically prompted her to take on this ban-raw-milk agenda, given that Illinois isn’t known to have had illnesses from raw milk in the last 30 years.
Heres my guess of how the CDC screwup occurred: Chugh either was encouraged by colleagues at the CDC or decided personally to spearhead a campaign to push the IDPH to seek a ban on the sale of raw milk in Illinois. A big part of that campaign for her turned into pushing through a ban-raw-milk resolution at AAFP. The CDC provided help, reviewing Chughs testimony, and the proposed AAFP resolution. Once Chugh committed to presenting the resolution to AAFP, a flunky she was dealing with at the CDC heard what he/she wanted to hearthat the AAFP was on board, and getting the resolution through would be a piece of cake. That enthusiasm led Tauxe to assume CDC had a deal when it had nothing.
When I pointed out the inaccuracy of the Tauxe letter to a spokesperson at the AAFP headquarters, an AAFP spokesperson suggested the organization was understanding, but firm in its neutral stance: “The CDC may have reviewed American Family Physician articles that recommended not drinking unpasteurized products, but we currently have no policy on this topic.”
Its one thing if Mark McAfee complains because the CDC misrepresents the raw milk illness and death data put out by the CDC. Or if I complain about the pathetic CDC raw milk studies. They can easily ignore us. But its a little tougher to ignore one of the nation’s largest physician organizations, especially when you have completely misrepresented its views on an important public health issue (and added insult to injury by misstating its name).
I guarantee you the CDC people will never blush, never offer apologies, however. They may look for ways to ease the pain by making a deal. They could offer the AAFP millions of dollars in research money for some AAFP person’s favored research project, or a job or two to one of its members who would like to move into government. ANYTHING to get that coveted, and desperately needed, AAFP endorsement of a raw milk ban. And suddenly, the AAFPs independence could quickly fade away, turning into cooperation.
Never underestimate the CDCs willingness to do whatever it takes to beat down raw milk, to beat down small raw dairy farmers, to beat down consumers who want access to this nutritious food…..and to support the medical and Big Ag corporations that profit from processed sterile foods.
Thanks again to Bill Marler for introducing us to the dirty business of the non-endorsement endorsement against raw milk. And keep those comments coming to the IDPH about why raw milk should remain widely available. This is one agency under a ton of pressure to do the wrong thing.
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From the Congress of the American Academy of Family Practitioners (AAFP)
Resolution No. 407 (Illinois B)
Prohibiting Sale and Distribution of Raw or Unpasteurized Milk and Milk Products
Introduced by the Illinois Chapter
WHEREAS, the American Academy of Family Physicians currently has no policy regarding the sale or distribution of raw milk or milk products, and
WHEREAS, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, and the American Veterinary Medical Association all strongly advise against human consumption of raw milk since it may contain a wide variety of harmful bacteria including Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, Listeria, Campylobacter and Brucella–which may cause illness and possibly death,1,2,3,4 and
WHEREAS, because of the potential for serious illness, federal law prohibits dairies from distributing raw milk across state lines in final package form (i.e., packaged so that it can be consumed), meaning that raw milk can only be distributed across state lines if it is going to be pasteurized or used to make aged (over 60 days) cheese before being sold to consumers,5 and
WHEREAS, each state makes its own laws about selling raw milk within the borders of the state; in about half of states, sale of raw milk directly to consumers is illegal, and in the remaining states, raw milk may be sold directly to consumers,5 and
WHEREAS, reports received by CDC from 2007 to 2012 indicate 81% of outbreaks were reported from states where the sale of raw milk was legal in some form; only 19% occurred in states where the sale of raw milk was illegal,6 and
WHEREAS, the rate of outbreaks caused by raw or unpasteurized milk and products made from it was 150 times greater than outbreaks linked to pasteurized milk, according to a study reviewing dairy product outbreaks from 1993 to 2006 in all 50 states, published by CDC in February 2012,7 and
WHEREAS, among dairy product-associated outbreaks reported to CDC between 1998 and 2011 in which the investigators reported whether the product was pasteurized or raw, 79% were due to raw milk or cheese; from 1998 through 2011, 148 outbreaks due to consumption of raw milk or raw milk products were reported to CDC, which resulted in 2,384 illnesses, 284 hospitalizations, and 2 deaths,5 and
WHEREAS, it is important to note that a substantial proportion of the raw milk-associated disease burden falls on children; among the 104 outbreaks from 1998-2011 with information on the patients ages available, 82% involved at least one person younger than 20 years old,5 and
WHEREAS, the American Academy of Pediatrics approves a ban on the sale of raw or unpasteurized milk and milk products throughout the United States,8 and
WHEREAS, the number of reported cases determined to be outbreak-related likely represents a small proportion of the actual number of illnesses associated with raw or unpasteurized milk consumption,9 and
WHEREAS, human consumption of raw, unpasteurized dairy products cannot be considered safe under any circumstances,7 therefore be it
RESOLVED, that the Illinois Academy of Family Physicians support prohibiting the sale and/or distribution of all raw or unpasteurized milk and milk products for end-user human consumption in the United States, by educating physicians, and by promoting implementation and enforcement of regulations by appropriate government agencies.
Raw milk consumers owe you a great debt of gratitude for your astute, levelheaded research and commitment.
Thanks again
Ken
Ken, thank you. I would encourage raw milk drinkers to leverage the info I am providing by circulating it around via Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and other social media. It’s easy to do at the top of the right-hand column on this page. Also encourage other blogs to link to it. It’s important that we get the word out about the corrupt forces at work here seeking to deprive us of food choices. The mainstream media won’t touch it, so we need to work around them.
Salud!
It was wonderful to have the highest level reps from Pennsylvania Departnent of Ag in attendance.
The more I travel around the USA, the more I realize that American is literally 50 different countries when it comes to raw milk. Each with its own sovereign regulations and culture pertaining to our wonderful raw milk.
For those of you that have suggested that I am a bit smitten and passionate about RAWMI, you are very observant. I am deeply committed and dedicated to this cause…and any observation that suggests that I am committed…is just seeing the tip of the iceberg. I am passionate because RAWMI has gathered a community of the most loving, sharing, smart, caring, dedicated, ethical and committed mentors that this cause could ever wish to have. It appears that this magnet of Listed producers is gathering more gold dust as time passes as the value of being Listed becomes apparent to more and more like minded producers.
This does not mean that unlisted producers do not care…it just means that some producers are truly interested in going the extra mile to become exceptional and then share that exceptional effort with others. The result…all producers are risen with the rising tide of standards and market strength.
http://www.naturalnews.com/047633_cows_milk_premature_death_osteoporosis.html
How does that saying go, rocks and stones may break my bones but cows never do.
RAWMI is doing some great things by providing essential information to farmers about risk management and good practices. I’m very grateful that RAWMI stepped up to fill this information void, as the FDA and company just weren’t going to do it.
“Dramatic events … yesterday highlighted yet again … widespread use of long-term undercover infiltrators to gather intelligence on, and disrupt, radical groups…
The collapse of the trial of environmental activists arrested after protests at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station near Nottingham in 2009 has exposed the existence of a previously unknown police spying organisation, the National Public Order Intelligence Unit.
According to the Guardian, this organisation was set up in 2003 to monitor so-called domestic extremists. The NPOIU targets not only environmentalist, animal rights and anti-racist groups, but also far-right organisations such as the British National Party and English Defence League.
The trial collapsed after Pc Mark Kennedy, who had infiltrated the group, was exposed as a long-term mole and, either through fear or remorse, went native…”
taken from: http://www.bnp.org.uk/resource/police-infiltrators-also-use-lies-disrupt
“When the long history of political infiltration is reviewed, the Occupy Movement should be surprised if it is not infiltrated. Almost every movement in modern history has been infiltrated by police and others using many of the same tactics we are now seeing in Occupy…
…We will not know the extent of current infiltration and the activities of government agents for quite some time, but in the post-911 world, with record intelligence budgets and a massive new homeland security bureaucracy, spying is very likely more extensive than ever. Add to that the private security of corporations …
What Have Been the Goals, Strategies and Tactics of Past Infiltration?
The most common purpose of infiltration is … to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of these movements and their leaders according to COINTELPRO Documents.”
taken from: http://www.globalresearch.ca/occupy-infiltration-of-political-movements-is-the-norm-not-the-exception-in-the-united-states/29750?print=1
It looks like most of the self appointed leaders of the current raw milk scene are determined to ignore the vast evidence showing us how the government covertly deals with movements that threaten the Big Money Gangster network that controls it. So we have something like buffalos following each other over the cliff.
Anyone who takes a close look at the weird recent “disease outbreak” stories, that form the basis of arguments people use to justify ignoring thousands of years of raw milk safety, will see that these stories are not genuine events. The “Kentucky Incident” where 4 people out of 1000 (John Moody’s farmer no less)supposedly got HUS, which works out to be 400 cases per 100,000, adjust as necessary, when the establishment says there are only 2.1 cases per 100,000 for the rest of the populace and raw milk illness per 100,000 is close to zero. And then the mother goes on to write for Food Safety News, “Why I Will Never Give My Child Raw Milk Again”.
Give me a break! Foundation Farm, Mary Martin McGonigle, the weird Family Cow story, where even a year after the incident the government still had failed to produce any test evidence, … These stories are ridiculous and obviously made to order government stunts.
As far as the “bad bug” theory that is used to argue thousands of years of safety for raw milk should be ignored, anyone wondering about this can go look at farm children, such as Amish, and see if they are really dropping like flies as would be predicted. I don’t think they are. How can they be immune, if these are new microbes?
People are immune to disease when they eat good foods and avoid pollution to their bodies. People who want to run and hide from the microbes that live in our world, how long do you think you can run? Sooner or later you are going to encounter these microbes (typically they already live in your body). People who eat healthy diets and aren’t polluted don’t have any problems with microbes, maybe minor adjustments at times but nothing to speak of. Cases of severe e coli infection, etc. typically mean a person was already sick, their system polluted, demineralized, … and these microbes proliferate in the body because of this. They are able to live in toxic and altered environments other microbes can’t. They actually provide a janitorial service, metabolizing pesticides and other poisons that can then be eliminated from your system. As Miguel has repeatedly said, blaming the janitorial microbe lets Big Ag off the hook, with its pesticides, herbicides, sanitizers, these poisons that are found at every stage of modern agriculture. And can be tested for, as he says, but never are. When someone gets severely ill, surely it must be because of a microbe. But real world evidence shows otherwise.
There are some foods, namely meats, that become rancid if left out, accumulating toxins, … but raw milk isn’t like this. It stays edible for months as Ken has pointed out. The risks have been wildly exaggerated, and the amazing health benefits have been censored.
It’s a safe bet the raw milk scene is infested with government agents. I assume one of the stunts they have planned will be to have “farmers” diligently follow RAWMI type microbe testing policy, … and then down the road they will have a “disease outbreak” at their farm, they will be “confused” and then “see the light”, and go on the talk show circuit, “Raw Milk: A Farmer’s Story”, about the horrors of whole, unprocessed food.
May not be that far fetched, Mark. Today’s NYTimes lead article (2 columns, which means it is super important, and super verified, since NYTimes won’t come down on government without serious documentation):
WASHINGTON The federal government has significantly expanded undercover operations in recent years, with officers from at least 40 agencies posing as business people, welfare recipients, political protesters and even doctors or ministers to ferret out wrongdoing, records and interviews show.
At the Supreme Court, small teams of undercover officers dress as students at large demonstrations outside the courthouse and join the protests to look for suspicious activity, according to officials familiar with the practice.
At the Internal Revenue Service, dozens of undercover agents chase suspected tax evaders worldwide, by posing as tax preparers, accountants drug dealers or yacht buyers and more, court records show.
At the Agriculture Department, more than 100 undercover agents pose as food stamp recipients at thousands of neighborhood stores to spot suspicious vendors and fraud, officials said.
Undercover work, inherently invasive and sometimes dangerous, was once largely the domain of the F.B.I. and a few other law enforcement agencies at the federal level. But outside public view, changes in policies and tactics over the last decade have resulted in undercover teams run by agencies in virtually every corner of the federal government, according to officials, former agents and documents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/us/more-federal-agencies-are-using-undercover-operations.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0
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Heck, the U.S. Justice Department admitted in its court action against Pennsylvania dairy owner Dan Allgyer a few years back that its agents joined the Maryland food club undercover to buy raw milk.
Mark, I should have added that I don’t think the person who taught your RAWMI session was an undercover agent, it’s just that people like those referred to in the NYTimes article above give sincere and honest government-related professionals a bad name.
You’re right about their MO, but you miss the goal. The goal isn’t to stamp out raw milk per se. Rather it is to maintain control. Pasteurization is simply a tool of centralization and control.
Sure the sickness industry would like to keep raw milk under wraps. But if they can’t stamp it out they’ll fall back to their next position: regulate, co-op, control.
This is why after the initial ruling in favor of Michael Schmidt the CA Milk producers association came out with an op ed saying if its going to be legal, it at least needs to be regulated.
Part of that is because they’ve been using regulations to drive dairymen out of business for several generations now. But even under a PMO like regulation of raw milk, there would still be some produced; but only in a controlled and increasingly centralized manner.
This is why in the face of mass consumer acceptance some groups will say its fine to consume but must be regulated to be safe.
This is why Mark’s instance that RAWMI milk is safe and wonderful and everything else is dangerous is so problematic. He’s toeing the regulator line: raw milk can’t be safely produced unless it is regulated and the farmer trained.
And that gets to the thrust of my opposition to RAWMI. It is ideally setup to co-opt the movement and bring it into the regulatory fold.
Once it is set-up, it is only a simple change in the law to make raw milk legal, so long as you are a member of RAWMI, or even illegal where it once was legal unless you’re in RAWMI.
That may seem far fetched but it is so transparently predictable because that is exactly how many industries of been co-opted and brought under licensure and regulation.
And its hard to think Mark wouldn’t be in favor of it. Not only would it bring lots of money and power and control, he’s already laid the moral ground work for it with his frequent instance that RAWMI milk is uniquely safe and producers outside it are producing dirty milk.
And for those who think that would be a good thing, that at least then we’d have raw milk available everywhere, you’re wrong. You’ll only have the appellation of raw milk from a few big dairies.
Remember, Mark was bragging how his RAWMI milk was so clean it wouldn’t clabber. Sterile milk is sterile milk, whether produced by UHT pasterization or hypercleanliness. So you won’t get that raw goodness nor likely the same health benefits. While science out of Europe is showing benefits, they’re not as hung up on sanitization as we are and many of their milk handling practices would not pass scrutiny here.
And the inevitable affect of regulations is to keep out new competitors and the remaining producers get big or get out. So rather than see an agrarian resurgence of small and medium scale family farms, and the attendant revitalization of local economies and agriculture, you’ll instead have just a few corporate owned mega producers.
Please read this article: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2014/11/will-mechanically-tenderized-beef-labeling-be-pushed-back-to-2018/
The gist of the story is that mechanically tenderized beef is a health hazard.
….and how are they going to handle this food safety issue???????
“A number of foodborne illness outbreaks have been connected to mechanically tenderized beef in recent years, including the 2012 outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in Canada from XL Foods, which resulted in the largest beef recall in Canadian history. According to USA Today, at least five outbreaks in the U.S. have recently been attributed to mechanically tenderized beef, resulting in 174 confirmed illnesses and four deaths.”
If these folks want to be consistent in their food safety handling….shouldn’t they be calling for a ban on this process????????
Not a fat chance….
“In a federal register notice from June 2013, the USDAs Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) estimated that E. coli illnesses from mechanically tenderized beef ranged between 587 and 4,657 each year. Labeling that beef could prevent an estimated 133 to 1,497 of those illnesses, the agency said, which would translate into roughly $1.5 million in economic benefits from avoided illnesses each year.”
They admit they do not want to ban this process stop the public from getting sick & die…..
they only want to **REDUCE** the number of those that get sick and die….
It goes to show that Raw Milk is not about health issues….it is about protecting the PMO Milk Industrial Complex….
Mark, I admire your religious fervor in pursuing RAWMI. I have learned a lot from you (and the listed farmers) and will apply your instructions in our goat dairy.
But please understand that your battle is really a political battle. The PMO Milk industry will not allow the Raw Milk market to expand beyond what is today…because their “life” depends upon that system…and they will fight tooth and nail to protect the current PMO Milk system.
And that gets to the thrust of my opposition to RAWMI. It is ideally setup to co-opt the movement and bring it into the regulatory fold.
Once it is set-up, it is only a simple change in the law to make raw milk legal, so long as you are a member of RAWMI, or even illegal where it once was legal unless you’re in RAWMI.
That may seem far fetched but it is so transparently predictable because that is exactly how many industries of been co-opted and brought under licensure and regulation.
And its hard to think Mark wouldn’t be in favor of it. Not only would it bring lots of money and power and control, he’s already laid the moral ground work for it with his frequent instance that RAWMI milk is uniquely safe and producers outside it are producing dirty milk.”
That hits the nail on the head, several times.
Raw milk that doesn’t clabber? That doesn’t sound right.
This is my concern as well. There is no free market once this freedom is taken away from us. Some farmers test, and some don’t, but state up-front to your customers and let the consumer decide. If they don’t like your product or way of doing things, then they’ll walk away. Government has no business interfering in the free market. This includes anything from corporate bailouts to banning lemonade stands.
But here we are.
Where are the masses of people being sickened by kid made lemonade and bake sale pies? There arn’t. Just like with raw milk these things have gone on for generations without problem. Its all about power and control.
The problem isn’t a lack of regulations or education or associations. The problem is the regulators.
Update: The AAFP did get back to me with a response to my question of how the CDC might have inferred that AAFP had come out against raw milk: “The CDC may have reviewed American Family Physician articles that recommended not drinking unpasteurized product, but we currently have no policy on this topic.” Of course, CDC knows that articles by individual physicians aren’t the same as a organizational policy, and the AAFP, in the most gentle way it could, reminded CDC of that fact. I updated the post.
I recognize the strategies of our mutual enemies and I also understand the combination to this nutritional human health and biome vault. I have received formal HACCP training and now RAWMI has evolved our combined knowledge into a non kill step pathogen reduction system ie…RAMP, that works exceptionally well.
If feeding large numbers of people with safe raw milk is something out of your realm of imagination, then I guess you need to expand your vision of possibilities. If raw milk was so damn safe…then why does RAWMI continue to recieve calls from producers and consumers that are plagued with pathogens, recalls, and illnesses. Oh…I forgot, all illnesses are just an imaginary mirage and a conspiracy sent by governement.
Remember this…four of our RAWMI Listed producers are “cow share operations”. One of which is in California. Each and everyone of them gets 100% support. If I was a selfish capitalist pig…I would never have started RAWMI and would never ever have shared the hard earned “secret sauce” of low coliform RAMP systems and protocols. If I did not understand that this blog serves as a critical conduit to communications with government agencies and a greater community of raw milk producers, I would have stopped posting long ago. So I will just put up with your collectively unconstructive reactionary BS. In fact, the more that you guys express your intolerance of RAWMI progress, the more rational RAWMI becomes to outside observers. Producers are lining up for Listing: why….. Insurance being cancelled…pathogens being detected, consumers demanding safe raw milk. Testimonials from consumers flowing in like crazy from RAWMI Listed producers….need I say more.
Why is it that the common raw milk producer is not prepared to address these issues? It is not their fault, but it is their fault if they fail to seek knowledge and fix their problems. So far….I do not see much solid and accessible help being provided to producers and their consumers outside of RAWMI.
Save your abuse for some other politically appropriate cause.
NO….RAWMI is not a political organization, but its successes and its actions are ( by default) highly political and will cause very profound change. Thank god and our Listed producers.
As a raw milk producer, you are either Teaching or you are Leaching.
If a producer build market by teaching raw milk and promoting its health value, then there will be an ever expanding demand and market for raw milk. But…if a producer simply makes cheap raw milk and tries to take consumers from producers that are committed to high auality,…and does not add more consumers to the greater market that is a Leach on all of us.
You are either Teaching…or you are Leaching.
a. leach
Ken
Compulsive types need to find other interests in life, for balance. Farming is a noble thing, but there is more to life than milk. Sheeple types need to get in the habit of checking things out in the real world, learning, instead of waiting for someone to tell them how to think. People who want to provide dairy can go out and find local farmers, even retired, who have first hand experience in their region. Learn how things work in the real world, instead of relying on government controlled microbiology textbooks.
Now here’s a guy with some self esteem, Claravale Dairy. I don’t mind copying this again, from their website: “…at Claravale Dairy we have our own well defined ideas about how dairying ought to be done. We do not need other dairies or committees or governments or customers to tell us how to do it.”
Now tommculhane, nothing says trust me with your life and pass into law whatever I say to like a draped stethoscope, and nothing shows the sureness of the foundation of that trust than a white lab coat that croaks scientist!, scientist! you must trust my every word, written and spoken.
Anyway, Tom, many might say: I am so busy with so many things cant I check my responsibilities at the door and kick back and simply obey the stethoscopes and white lab coats?
Your answer would be no way! correct?
Look at whats going on with Governor Jay Nixon in Missouri, the very same who unconscionably squashed Morningland dairy on ZERO, (excuse me, as I recall it was ZERO!) honest grounds, kowtowing to those who would misuse government, making of it a commercial bludgeon. Let him roll around in Ferguson. If he ever connects with reality again maybe his life as Governor will be easier. Who will make Morningland whole? Not to put to fine a point on it: what difference would RAWMI make in that exact circumstance? There was nothing except a connection to the authorities in Los Angeles who are yet to be indicted for their criminal mischief in the Rawsome affair (and that one, on the face of it, must include in the description of the alleged criminal behaviour the Judge that signed-off on the raid as either being the director of the crime(s) or for not enforcing the law by holding to public account those that criminally abused his endorsement, or for being unworthy to hold the position of judge owing to negligence regarding whats going on in his bailiwick, under his very nose and signature). Dont forget that we are living in a Three Felonies a Day environment that tolerates an infestation of Administrative Law, aided and abetted by a somnolent and ill-informed citizenry.
To quote David Berlinski (davidberlinski.com):
Scientists are no more self-critical than anyone else. They hate to be criticized, and they never criticize themselves. The popular myth of science as a uniquely self-critical institution and scientists as men who would rather be consumed at the stake rather than fudge their data I mean thats ok for a PBS Special but thats not the real world thats not whats taking place put yourself in the position of a Daniel Dennett or a Richard Dawkins who are used to being the regnant priests of a powerful orthodoxy and for the first time in their lives someone says Hey! You guys are simply not credible. Of course they are going to react with outrage and indignation I dont think we should make any large claims about the progress of science, we understand science as little as we understand the cosmos I like to think of all of evolution as groaning its way toward the accomplishment of the noble and lovely thing that is me, but of course as a critic of Darwinian theory I dont hold with that. For heavens sake lets open up the discussion a little bit and present some countervailing views at least to the extent of apprising Darwinian theory in the context that realistically portrays it for what it is: a kind of amusing 19th century collection of anecdotes that are utterly unlike anything we see in the serious sciences. That would be my favorite position, yeah, biologists do agree that this is the correct theory for the origin and diversification of life, BUT, here are some points that you should consider as well: 1. The theory doesnt have any substance, 2. Its preposterous, 3. Its not supported by the evidence, and 4., The fact the biologists are uniformly in agreement about this issue could as well be explained by some solid Marxist interpretation of their economic interests.
That would satisfy me.
Its not asking too much is it?
Have a wonderful day!
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
To start with…we teach how to teach…then we help farmers to figure out how to keep the manure and bio films out of their systems and their raw milk.
If that is a bad thing….then go eat your sh… and be happy with your impressive immune system. The consumers that live off the farm do not have a robust immunity anymore. That is why things have changed and that is why farmers must change if they intend to feed consumers that are trying their best to improve immunity but would prefer not to visit the ICU while they are doing it. Your proposed concept of raw milk is actually quite selfish and sounds like” farmer only” immune elitism and population control by illness and carefree production methods.
At the grand table of life,their is a place for everyone. Just please make sure you let your consumers know that your local untested and carelessly managed raw milk has a short shelf life and….they are getting more than just raw milk, they are getting a fecal transplant in their bargain.
This was not raw cheese, this was pasteurized cheese and the outbreak was broad and interstate.
http://foodpoisoningbulletin.com/2014/two-2014-deadly-listeria-outbreaks-linked-to-soft-cheeses/
The deadly aftermath of the official PMO FDA policy of “kill everything so the bad bugs can thrive” is here and very much alive. Not one mention of the word pasteurized in the article.
At a RAWMI training, we learn that actually, pathogenic microbes ARE NOT everywhere. And actually, the wide majority of illness related to fluid raw milk, if you look at the well-documented records, is caused by two pathogens: E Coli 0157 and Campylobacter. E Coli 0157 is quite serious, but also, thankfully, quite rare. We learn that this nasty bug can live in the guts of cows and can shed into their manure. It also is likely not “native” the cows natural intestinal flora, but rather has morphed into existence thanks to industrial, CAFO husbandry practices. If manure containing 0157 contaminates milk, people can get sick. A little 0157 goes a long way. We also learn that certain farm conditions can reduce the prevelance of 0157 carriers and shedders in a herd–low stocking density, closed herds, clean and green environments–basically non CAFO conditions.
We learn that our farm conditions can reduce, but not totally eliminate, the risk of pathogen presence in our herds. So we also learn that there are some important practices in the barn that help to ensure that feces is not getting into milk during collection, and that the equipment we use…albeit very basic on the micro farm…is not a reservoir for unwanted microbes between milkings.
Its really not that complicated. A little understanding goes a long, long way. Mark mentioned that one of the RAWMI LIsted cowshares is in CA. I’d like to correct him by adding that actually there are 2 CA cowshares listed. We welcomed Susan Munoz about a month ago. Susan is RAWMI’s first Biodynamic farmer. If you know anything about Biodynamic farming, it is all about soil building. Susan is cultivator of microbes! And her farm is beautiful and abundant. And yet through her RAWMI training, she understands that while the vast majority of microbes are beneficial and essential for life, there are a few bad actors that we need to understand and manage. RAWMI practices are implemented on her farm, and she’s producing beautiful, living milk from healthy cows, that is pathogen free.
In northern Ontario during the winter the instruments of choice vary when it comes to cleaning out the barn, from a shovel and fork, stable cleaner, manure pump, or all of the above.
Heaven forbid if the manure pump plugs and you have to climb down into a 6-8 foot deep manure pit and unplug or repair its workings. Ive done it on several occasions and let me tell you, youre covered with shit by the time the job is done. Have you ever dug cow shit out of manure pump pit with your bare hands and/or bailed it out with a bucket Mark? Ive been exposed to more then my share of fecal bacteria, so perhaps you can understand why I think going to extremes to avoid such bacteria is silly.
Ken
In northern Ontario during the winter the instruments of choice vary when it comes to cleaning out the barn, from a shovel and fork, stable cleaner, manure pump, or all of the above.
Heaven forbid if the manure pump plugs and you have to climb down into a 6-8 foot deep manure pit and unplug or repair its workings. Ive done it on several occasions and let me tell you, youre covered with shit by the time the job is done. Have you ever dug cow shit out of manure pump pit with your bare hands and/or bailed it out with a bucket Mark? Ive been exposed to more then my share of fecal bacteria, so perhaps you can understand why I think going to extremes to avoid such bacteria is silly.
Ken
But when milk starts leaving the farm and feeding the greater community, I have to think about what happened on Foundation Farm, Dee Creek, the McBee Herdshare, etc. Again, its about knowledge and management. How did pathogenic E Coli show up in these small, seeminly low-risk herds, and how did it go from the cows gut to the milk jar?
My theory is that as we gained understanding of those diseases, of how they were transmitted and under which conditions they thrived, we learned how to manage them. Could we not do the same for the contagious diseases of our time, like Shiga Toxin Ecoli? Currently, the common management practice is to use heat as a kill-step. But as we gain understanding about this microbe, can we adopt alternate management strategies that are effective without heat? Perhaps we will learn how to make STEC go the way of Tuberculosis and Bubonic Plague…both of these disease causing microbes still exist, but the threat they present to human health has largely been mitigated.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/last-line-drug-resistance-poses-alarming-european-health-threat/article21618766/
With a smaller number of effective antibiotics, we are gradually returning to the pre-antibiotic era when bacterial diseases could not be treated and most patients would die from their infection, said Marc Sprenger, the European Center for Disease Preventions director.
Ken
City people need the rich microbe diversity of naturally produced, “untested” raw milk more than anyone. The yuppies that are washing themselves down with antibacterial soap, reading fake government stories, cleaning their dishes with superhot water in their dishwashers to kill “pathogens”, eating sanitized food, … how long can they run before they inevitably encounter the microbes that live in our world? As their internal microbe terrain becomes increasingly disconnected from Nature around them, they are just setting themselves up for a major adjustment to their system down the road, which might be rather unpleasant. For people that think city people can isolate themselves from the microbes of the country, guess what? All the food they eat comes from the country. Let’s stop being childish. There are 46 deaths every day from prescription painkillers in the US, zero deaths a year from raw milk. Let’s move on to the real issues in life, shall we? Ken and Pete and miquel and the other good people in this blog are probably tired of having to repeat themselves.
I’m a little surprised that, as a resident of Ontario, you cannot get your mind around the concept that E coli 0157 can, and does, cause disease in susceptible humans. In May 2000 the water system of the town of Walkerton Ontario was infiltrated with run-off water from a small cattle farm. The E coli 0157 in the water from the manure sickened 2300 of the 5000 or so residents, with 7 deaths. In my mind, one should assume all cattle as potential shedders. Therefore, the most likely reason you don’t get sick from your cattle manure means you have become resistant to E coli 0157/other pathogens via previous exposures (the equivalent of being vaccinated). The residents of Walkerton were likely almost completely susceptible because of limited exposure to cows or their manure. The high dilution of the manure (E coli) in the water system was not enough to protect them.
John
Are you assuming that all raw milk dairies are producing “cheap” milk? This is what your statement allude to.
” and tries to take consumers from producers that are committed to high auality,.”
Huh? Who is trying to take consumers from producers? Please do elaborate.
“..and does not add more consumers to the greater market that is a Leach on all of us.”
Wow, so if a producer does NOT want to go big, they are leaches? Is this what you mean because it sure as hell reads that way.
“You are either Teaching…or you are Leaching.”
Again, what makes you think the small raw dairies are not teaching anything?
One wonders why he doesn’t just pasteurize it.
For all his squawking about teaching and helping farmers one would think RAWMI was an educational organization or an ag consultancy. And while those things might be beneficial and welcomed it is not.
It is a certifying agency or a private regulatory agency. And so RAWMI’s inherant interest is to maximize its membership, tout its benefit and minimize the number of other options and farms outside of it.
Which is why Mark has repeatedly denigrated farmers who are not part of RAWMI and characterized non-RAWMI milk as dirty and disease causing despite centuries of history to the contrary and has pushed independent dairies to submit themselves to the regulators.
But if its really about education and teaching and not empire building, why doesn’t he push out this vital education for everyone to access for free like FTCLDF did? Why does he denigrate farmers who learn from him and don’t join?
So is the solution then to wage an un-winnable war of sterilization and isolation from nature, or to vaccinate ourselves against these diseases by living with nature and eating healthy, probiotic foods?
Afterall, dairy and beef farmers arn’t dropping like flies from E coli.
Even if you ‘win’ against e coli, you have knock on affects from diseases of cleanliness.
I’ve lived in the third world and when people get the runs from the water (dysentery), it’s normally a minor thing. This Ontario incident had a number of people dying which tells me it was probably something much more serious, as in agricultural poisons, the got into the water.
But if “Mr John” is right, and since I can’t find any evidence that farm kids have been dying from this “new” type of e coli, then it appears that “Mr John” is suggesting that raw farm milk immunizes us against it, and so I’m going to take his unspoken advice here and have myself a nice big raw milk oat flour chocolate whole sugar blended drink here. Happy days.
“…why doesn’t he push out this vital education for free …?” Because the last quarter -century of Mark McAffee’s vocation taught him a lesson in marketing that money cannot buy … Americans value what they get according to its price. ( TM guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi got that part right) Which partly explains why Organic Pastures is persistently unable to fill demand … even as the 2nd-most-expensive REAL MILK in the world.
locked-in to your adolescent socialist mindset, brainwashed by the Public Fool System to believe that all financing flows from the public purse, you cannot understand that prime producers are the ones who, generate the wealth. with MILK, and with proprietary information : you get what you pay for
next question : “are you saying that you’re against branding, entirely?”
http://tinyurl.com/nr26d8b
There is no guaranteed protection just ask my son aka “broken rubber”
Mark, I’d suggest that learning how to learn is equal to or greater than knowing to teach, after all if you didn’t learn than you can’t possibly teach.
I sum-up my experiences in Court and with the govt., with what Elvis Costello sang [ back before you were born ?] “I used to be disgusted, now I just try to be amused”
“Hate energy” ? you got that part right, “I hate the enemies of my God. Yea, I count them mine own” said King David … whom God called ” a man after my own heart” If you could grasp the Big Picture, you’d be compelled to admit that the genesis of the raw milk thing is = America’s mortal enemies attempting to cut us off from our God.
Multi-cult-ism ? Read Jarod Taylor’s American Renaissance website, reporting daily outrages in the race war in N. America, and see if you come away laughing. White Christians are so stupified by the hirelings / false teachers in the pulpits of the Baal-barns, they don’t even know it’s going on. Jeremiah was called “the weeping prophet” … seeing his nation slipping down into the nadir of the Israelite national cycle … exactly where we are now. My effort in the REAL MILK thing, is the small part can do to obey Jesus’ command to us = “occupy ’til I return”
Anyone that attempts to draw a parallel between natural acquired immunity and vaccinations fails to grasp the complex nature of the immune stimulating process.
E coli 0157 including several other members of the e coli family tree such as the ST131 group of E coli, represent a complex systemic problem that will require much more then our focus on the organism itself. Concentrating efforts at isolating, excluding, and eradicating such microbes represents a simplistic band aid solution that fails to address their true nature and role with respect to disease and illness and likewise tends to ignore their symbiotic role in nature.
The Walkerton fiasco turned into a blame game scenario, as is the case with most so-called food born illness outbreaks.
However when it comes to blame perhaps we aught to consider the fact that E. coli is the primary bacterium used in genetic engineering and that antibiotic resistant marker genes are also used in the development of GMOs.
Walkerton is in the heart of GMO corn and soybean country. Yet in all of the so-called in depth studies that have been done on the Walkerton incident, no mention is ever made of the huge amounts of transgenic DNA released into the environment by GM crops, GM soil inoculants, and GM rabies vaccine baits which they dropped all over the countryside, or the industrial uses of GMOs, all of which most certainly could be taken up and incorporated into soil bacterial genomes by horizontal gene transfer.
Joe Cummins Professor Emeritus of Genetics at the University of Western Ontario states in an ISIS article (attached) that genetically modified soil inoculants have, the antibiotic resistant marker genes for streptomycin and spectinomycin, and that the commercial release of this GM bacterium, has resulted in the establishment of GM microbes in the soil of millions of acres of cropland, where it can spread antibiotic resistant genes for antibiotics that are extensively used in medicine and agriculture. In reference to several studies he states there is little doubt that the antibiotic resistant markers for streptomycin and spectinomycin will be transferred to soil bacteria and to a range of animal pathogens. He also states that these organisms have, persisted in the soil for six years even in the absence of legume hosts.
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GMMINA.php
Ive referenced the above material before and I state again, that, in light of Professor Cummins report, it should be of no surprise that naturally occurring, soil born ubiquitous organisms, such as e-coli, have mutated and become infectious, not to mention very difficult to treat in humans as well as animals. Bearing this in mind perhaps we should re-explore the Walkerton fiasco. Unfortunately officials respond to the above problem by blaming the foods we eat as well introduce toxic interventions such as vaccines, various drugs, and more powerful antibiotics which further serve to assault the environment and our immune systems. What they fail to realize is that there attempt to control is out of control.
Ken
Background to my comment:
The science of statistical process control (SPC) is well proven. Consistent-across-decades, top-down application in the industrial world explains the consistent high quality of Honda and Toyota cars for one example.
If I recall correctly something that I read: identical transmissions (trannies) from Ford Probes, 3 from the USA factory and 3 from the Japanese factory were torn apart and the dimensions of every part measured. But the Japanese parts for all three trannies were identical (a physical impossibility, there has to be some measurable difference). The next level of precision measuring tools was necessary to reveal any differences in the parts. That is why Ford customers would specify and then wait for Japanese factory trannies; they were trouble free even though the USA factory trannies were the exact same design. Production quality was the difference.
My comment:
SPC formulas yield upper and lower boundaries for the output (or product) of a system. Every product of the system that is between those boundaries is a by-design output of that system. What is outside those boundaries is not a by-design output.
For what the system produces that is outside those boundaries, causes can be discovered and fixes applied, improving the system. But what of the system products that lie within the boundaries but very close the boundary, either the upper or lower boundary? Without the SPC formulas you would typically not know that there was any difference, certainly not a significant difference, between the two. They are very different products in this regard. One is definitely OK (inside), the other is definitely not OK (outside). The outside product can be fixed. The inside product cannot be fixed. The inside product distresses you and everybody (customers, lawyers, public health doctors, elected officials, assorted administrative law vermin) but all you can do about it is to take a step back from the system and then apply, one at a time, an improvement to the system, and measure the result. This cannot be phoned in or simply done by the numbers by one who is not well familiar with what the system is about (i.e. an arrogant ignoramus, usually on a hubris high to boot, does not have the right stuff to make themselves useful in these precincts).
Following these guidelines, in an iterative manner, the system will be improved, converging on your design goals. This applies to biology systems as well; this is why those Japanese trannies were so trouble-free. You cannot phone this shit in. You cannot legislate this shit in. You cannot adjudicate this shit in. Anymore than you can suspend the law of gravity by any of those or any other similarly futile gestures. You had best simply understand it and conform to it. Just like we deal with the Newtons Universal Law of Gravity.
The science of SPC has a punch line.
Here it is: IF you try to discover fixes and then apply those fixes to anything inside the boundaries, you WILL get what you may not expect, and it is a catastrophically bad result.
To wit: instead of helping the system converge on your design goals, the system will NOT be unchanged by such ignorant efforts at improving it. The system WILL diverge asymptotically from the system design goals. In other words, THE SYSTEM WILL BLOW APART.
Which leads to this question: is that what you want?
Have a wonderful day,
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard