As the Illinois raw milk turmoil has dragged on through endless discussions and hearings and recriminations, my big question has been this: Why doesnt the state just end the misery and ban raw milk? Thats clearly what Big Dairy wants, what the regulators want, and what their funders and handlers at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control want.
Then I began combing through the transcript of a hearing held last Marchthe quarterly meeting of the Illinois Board of Health, attended by state public health officials. This is the one at which the family practice physician, Dr. Rashmi Chugh, first appeared on the scene in her (thus far) ill-fated campaign to get the American Academy of Family Physicians to endorse a ban of raw milk, described in my Nov. 15 post. (I also discovered that the Illinois Board of Health is chaired by a woman who just happens to be on the board of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Dr. Javette Orgain, pictured above; gee, these regulators and medical people are almost family.)
The transcript makes for tedious reading as the members of the Illinois Department of Public Health and key department officials go round and round on the technicalities of various laws and regulations. But in the 142 pages of testimony, they always return to the question I have been wondering about: Why not just ban raw milk? Indeed, in their estimation, and the estimation of assorted county and town public health officials from around Illinois who testified, there already is a ban, and the dairy farmers who produce raw milk have been violating the ban for at least the last 30 years. (For the record, I consulted with Pete Kennedy and Gary Cox of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, who dispute that assessment, but the technicalities of the argument are the stuff of another post.)
To me, that March meeting crystallizes the dilemma regulators are experiencing, not only in Illinois, but in many other parts of the country. as raw milk continues to explode in popularity. That is, the public health people detest raw milk, want to be rid of it. But huge numbers of their states residents are consuming it. Frustrating the regulators to no end, the states prosecutors and law enforcement want nothing to do with the ban obsessions.
In Illinois, the regulators have sought to put forth regulations, supposedly in response to the problem that raw milk is being sold illegally in the state. (The key problems the raw milk community in Illinois has with the proposed regulations were described in a post by Rosanne Lindsay Nov. 9.) Round and round the debate goes, as you’ll see from the discussion.
First, theres the issue of raw milks growing popularity. Molly Lamb, head of the Illinois Department of Public Health’s Division of Food, Drugs and Dairies, describes what she learned from a year-long process with a Dairy Work Groupstakeholders from all areas of the raw milk debate. We learned a lot through this process. We really opened our eyes and were quite naive going into this process. We didnt understand the amount of raw milk farms that are in Illinois that arent permitted, arent regulated, arent inspected, no quality counts, nono oversight. Probably 60 is what they would tell us number-wise, but I can tell you theres probably more than that. And the volume thats being sold isway exceeded our expectations. When we spoke of a volume limit for sales and we tried to say 40, we were laughed out. I mean, some have 20 to 25 cows, could milk upwards of 50 gallons a day.
She adds: Right now theres massive amounts of herd shares If we .turned our blind eye to the massive amount of herd shares that are occurring, it wouldnt coincide with what were trying to accomplish with the raw milk.
On top of that, raw milk pours in to the Chicago area from neighboring Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana, she explains: The out-of-state raw milk thats coming in northern Illinois and Chicagoland area is massive and due tounder herd-share type of operations.
Well, why not prosecute the bastards, asks one Illinois Board of Health member, Beth Fiorini: I would like to see local public health and DPH work together to figure out a way to ban it completely and then to set up ways to prosecute instead of going the other direction. (The other direction being workable regulations.)
Believe me, weve tried, explains one of the department officials, David Carvalho: Its illegal now .and it is widespread. Now, its not widespread like, you know, Jewel, Dominicks, and all that, but it is widespread. So the reality is right now it is illegal, and the laws not being enforced, and the only enforcement mechanism for something that is just flat illegal is to work with the local states attorneys and the attorney general, and that has not had any impact on this because theres not this prosecutorial imperative.
The board members seem not to be listening too well. Dr. Peter Orris, a board member, inquires: If we think this stuff is a problem, why is thisand the problem is the state has been unwilling to enforce, why is this not something that the attorney generals office should be handling?
You guys just aren’t listening, suggests Justin DeWitt, engineering chief for the departments Office of Health Protection, and he tries again to explain the difficulty associated with enforcement: The priority for the attorney generals officeand I would never speak for her but would guess that prosecuting or trying to track down purchasers of raw milk who are doing that illegally is not a high priority for that office So I would just caution that, if we think local law enforcement, state law enforcement, or the attorney generals office will take up raw milk sales prosecution, thats probably misplaced.
When department officials explain the value of all the testing data they will gain from proposed regulations, another board member, Dr. June Lee, expresses horror: Its quite harmfulunpasteurized milkand it sounds to me like we are planning on doing a prospective study on our Illinois residents on a product that is known to be harmful, and I haveI have reservations about that, for certain.
Another department official, Dave Culp, then makes an amazing admission, to the effect that the perceived risks of raw milk can be significantly lowered via smart regulation: If it is regulatedIm not ever going to say its safe, but if its regulated and processes that match Grade A are followed, the risk of disease goes extremely low down because, as I said, we test with a regular basis on raw milk samples. The CDC and FDA would not appreciate that professional assessment– that the risk of disease goes extremely low down. In their view, the risk is always unacceptably high.
One of the most perceptive observations comes from state department official David Carvalho: Weighing of public health issue versus, you know, personal choice issue, were very much on one side. When that conversation extends beyond this room, we may find there are other views on how thats weighedjust as, you know, sushi is legal and cigarettes are legal and alcohol is legal and all thateven though we, as public health, might well say those should be mustnts as opposed to shoudnts. But, you know, thats what the General Assembly and the process is for.
Theyre certainly a frustrated bunch, those public health regulators. Theyre frustrated because events are overtaking them. Many are stuck on banning raw milk, while the public is out clamoring for it and chugging it down by the gallon. The prosecutors? They know its a no-win situation. Wisconsin ag officials couldnt find a local prosecutor to go after Vernon Hershberger, so they pushed a state prosecutor to do the dirty deed. That may explain why prosecutions of raw dairy farmers, all the rage in 2009 and 2010, have tailed off to practically nothing.
What the Illinois public health regulators were trying to tell their bosses on the board was that they (the regulators) are trying to make the best of a bad situation (from their perspective): Regulation will give us a shot at getting back some semblance of control. Even that isnt guaranteed.
Raw milk advocates are clearly in a stronger position than they have ever appreciated. Kind of jibes with my sense from the beginning of all this: the best thing people who want raw milk can do is to go out and buy it. Buy as much of it as possible. Even if you have to travel a long ways to find it. And while you are at it, buy good meat and eggs and cheese. And don’t buy the Big Ag stuff. It’s all having an effect. In the end, it will mark the path to a more enlightened food system.
Dr. June Lee, expresses horror: Its quite harmfulunpasteurized milkand it sounds to me like we are planning on doing a prospective study on our Illinois residents on a product that is known to be harmful, and I haveI have reservations about that, for certain.
Didn’t she just hear her colleague’s say raw milk consumption was much higher than the public health people realized and GROWING!! Where are all the sick people from this harmful product?? If I as a farmer hold certain beliefs about how to grow something and thru observation find my beliefs to be wrong I better change or risk being unsuccessful. A bureaucrat like Dr. Lee doesn’t have to make those adjustments. Just stick with the dogma because there are few consequences. In addition, it doesn’t matter if you are wrong because the pay check keeps coming!!! In some ways it is the same with our science community. Which is why science seems to progress one funeral at a time, ex. Ancel Keyes.
his resignation from the office of Chief Medical Health Officer, bodes a very different approach to raw milk for human consumption, here.
through the efforts of Michael Schmidt, REAL MILK has been de facto de-criminalized in Ontario. I predict BC will be the first province to come up with an official regulatory scheme. When that happens … spring 2015 ? … the rest of the provinces will have no excuse not to do the same
It’s worse than bureaucrats just sticking with the dogma, Wayne. It’s bureaucrats sticking with each other. They are like doctors and cops in that sense–they stick up for each other, no matter what, no matter if even the safety of little children, the ones they always preach so loudly they are seeking to protect, are put at greater risk by their dogma and incompetence. For what? As you say, for their paychecks, and those pensions at the end of the bureaucratic rainbow.
Shawna, risk reduction is the next logical step. But unfortunately, you are not dealing with logical people here. If they were logical, they wouldn’t be preaching a ban when prosecutors have long been telling them to find more important “crimes” to be solved. It’s interesting that one of the IDPH people tried to tell the board members that regular testing could cut risk significantly, but it didn’t sound like they were listening to such radical talk. What’s the old saying, “Don’t bother me with the facts.”
http://www.farmers-exchange.net/detailPage.aspx?articleID=10719
I think by now, you know what side of raw milk I’m on, but that doesn’t mean I’m siding with those who want to ban it (any of the yahoos listed in your article). The first time I heard about this story (hope the link posts okay, I haven’t done any of this in quite some time), I let out a “WOO HOO” for the sheriff! I even tried to call to say I was in support of him, and would be happy to have him as a sheriff in my county any day. I don’t know if he ever got the voice message I left.
http://www.farmers-exchange.net/detailPage.aspx?articleID=10719
I think that sometimes health department folks think all raw milk farms look like this: http://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2010/08/do_you_know_where_your_milk_co/
How about talking to or visiting the 7 RAWMI Listed farmers? We are very proud of what we do, and always willing to talk about it, share our RAMPs, our test results, and learn more….to the point of maybe being annoying?
Public Health folks need to get out of the office and into more barns, in the spirit of learning and helping. Go to the sparkling clean farms, go to the not-so-clean farms, and everything in between. Extension Specialists should go along. Maybe drum up some funds for research? I think that they would learn some things, and also discover areas where they could provide support to farmers who want to produce raw milk and do it as well and as safely as possible.
Your last piece of advice is central to making change happens…” go out and by it!” Even the economically deaf and dumb regulators, FDA, processors, and health department representatives can not ignore the dollar voting market clamor. This is the loudest voice that can be screamed. I have known this for years….build the market…teach like crazy. The dollar voting does the rest.
As individual states try to ignore other states raw milk successes….it simply does not work. Now more than ever….the Internet makes the USA united inspite of individual states attempts to ban raw milk etc…there are no barriers on the www. The truth universally becomes heard.
The more I hear about raw milk suppression….the more I realize that some government and health department people are deeply ignorant and uneducated. Why….maybe it is sheer laziness. Some research and some reading solves ignorance. One must ask, is their any love in the hearts of those in charge?? Parsifal, Gabriela, Pasture Cohort, Amish, LMU, Koala….all of these studies and many more proclaim the high value of raw milk for : asthma, pregnant moms, colds in kids, excema, ear infections, etc….the Internet then tells the rest of the story. Crohns recovery from Kefir!!!
Perhaps we all fail to realize how damn evil the FDA is. The FDA knows that when respected Universities publish their findings showing the power of raw milk, consumers listen. Two years ago, the Splash Newsletter was stated. The Splash Newsletter is published by the UC Davis IMGC team of PhDs and contains the latest science about Breast milk and raw milk….what did the FDA do???? They banned the public viewing of the Splash Newsletter. Yes…they directly told the IMGC not to freely publish the information for fear that the public might see value in raw milk!!
Now that is true evil. 9 kids die every day from Asthma, when we know that asthma gets better with raw milk. A recent Splash Newsletter showed proof that yogurt was not associated with lactose intolerance unlike pasteurized milk.
I know the enemy and it is the FDA and current medical establishment. Why…because they block education, refuse education, refuse data, and embrace ignorance and encourage medical enslavery. How do we change them? We don’t…instead we simply build a new system by dollar voting. Just bypass the bastards. So far…I think we are doing great! As time progresses more and more of the other side starts eating on our side and suddenly and quietly, some years from now…we simply declare victory.
Shawna, I hope some of those Illinois public health people will read your comment and stop to think a bit. I’m afraid, though, that they are politically and ideologically incapable of taking any of your wise suggestions. If you recall the recent post I did about the CDC and the American Academy of Family Physicians, a number of Illinois public health people are working first and foremost on behalf of the CDC agenda. And the CDC agenda is to collect as many medical organizations and legislatures to join it in pushing for a ban of raw milk. There is no room in that ideological agenda for actually learning about dairy farming and safety and standards. The notion that raw milk can be produced more safely with standards is totally counter to what these people are about. I hate to say this, but in their scheme of things, safety initiatives like that of RAWMI are a threat. These people sit around rooting for illnesses from raw milk, so they can claim they were right. Anything that reduces the threat of illnesses is unacceptable.
If policy change happens as a result, that is a great but secondary benefit.
Shawna, I should clarify my response. I don’t think all the Illinois public health people are misguided. You could tell from the transcript I excerpted from that some of the public health professionals were trying to talk sense to their bosses, the board members, about the importance of testing and about the reality of raw milk demand. But the board members are calling the shots to a significant degree, keeping the public health professionals in a bind.
Unfortunately, you can’t completely separate RAWMI’s approach from CDC/FDA/public health policy. To the extent that raw milk production is kept underground in places like Illinois and Wisconsin, for example, RAWMI can’t gain traction in those places. RAWMI is based on transparency–open access to its education programs. It depends on farmers publicly sharing their testing data and otherwise communicating with the marketplace. Dairy farms kept underground are inhibited from participating in RAWMI education programs like that just held at Penn State, and from joining RAWMI and publicly proclaiming their involvement. Who wants to join RAWMI when that essentially paints a bulls eye on a dairy farmer’s back?
Certainly RAWMI can continue doing its education and standards-setting activities, it’s just that they are limited to the extent the ban-raw-milk crowd continues to exercise its considerable political influence.
I have often felt the same way, Tomm, that I should pray for regulators who take it upon themselves to deprive others of nutritious food. Of course, the regulators rationalize their actions by telling themselves they are saving people from getting sick. But they don’t count the nutritional deficiencies they promote via discouraging/prohibiting good food as “sickness.” That doesn’t count, in their minds, because it is long term, and can’t be easily traced to the food deprivations and prohibitions. But as more research comes out showing raw milk’s health benefits, surely some of these public health people need to be wondering, just a little in the recesses of their consciences, if they are doing evil.
the journals and reports of white settlers go a long way to educating those filled with such fables. For instance ; one of the gods worshipped by the redskins who inhabited the seaboard colonies, was “Opee”. Their religion held that Opee was the god of pain. So the way to placate him, and keep him away from hurting them, was to torture and sacrifice members of other tribes. The more the victim writhed and screamed in pain, the more favourably Opee was to those who served him. Whites who fell into the hands of those who worshipped Opee endured unspeakable tortures as they were sacrificed.
Tomm, you’re shovelling the same kind of BS as your pal, Bill Anderson … carried-away with his ridiculous campaign against ‘white privilege’
Let’s dispense with the Hiawatha version of history, ie. ‘the noble savage in the garden of eden ’til the evil white man intruded’
Sadly, time also measures the tragic consequences of delayed action. In five years 18,000 kids will have died from asthma. If right now the CDC and FDA decided to support raw milk and help vet good standards….guess what?? most of those 18,000 would have a healing choice and chance!!
Behind the scenes, the RAWMI Listed dairy community has been celebrating the bacteria counts each month as each farmer reports their yesr results. Talk about awesome!!! Super low, super clean. Less than 1 coliform and SPCs of 10!! So far that is the record and it is held by Shawna and her team at the base of Mt. Shasta CA. Everyone else is also doing incredibly well. I would be Hogging the entire blog space if I went on about how fanstatstic the numbers are! Small, medium or large…all RAWMI listed producers get about the same coliform numbers with SPC being the only differentiator. RAMP plans work. The credit goes to the Listed farmers and also Dr. Linda Harris PhD. She testified in 2008 in front of Senator Dean Flores during SB 201 hearings and risked near job when she said that ” a Food Safety plan was better than a simple bacteria count measure” she was and is so right. We took that advice and Dr. Cat, Dr. Ted Beals, Dr. Ron Hull and plenty of work by others…. We now have RAMP. It is scary it is so effective. David….you are right, RAWMI is a threat to some….but a blessing to the people I care about.
God, I ask that the evil done to interfere with our right to natural dairy return to those doing it, in the best way.
David, I wanted to respond to your comment about RAWMI not being a reality for farmers who are underground due to raw-milk prohibition in some states. I’m responding in cae there might be any such farmers who are reading here, and who desire to be a part of a producer community committed to education and risk reduction, but are fearful of exposure. RAWMI had the forsight to anticipate this reality, and therefore they do not require their LISTED farmers to present themselves in any public way. In other words, a farmer could work with RAWMI, create a RAMP, become listed, and not have their identity or specific farm information be made public in anyway, if they so choose.
So, it is possible for “underground” farmers to work with RAWMI, without necessarily putting a bull eye on their back. And personally, I think having a bullseye that says that you are committed to safety is a much better variety to have, than one that is associated with an outbreak of illness.
Thanks Shawna for that clarification. I know a number of farmers in “underground” states monitor this blog, so hopefully some may want to take advantage of the RAWMI confidentiality option. Would be neat to build bridges in some of those states. And given the distaste by most prosecutors with going after decent hard-working farmers producing good food, as described in my post, it may be that fewer farmers than expected will see the need for the confidentiality option.
seriously, Tomm, thanks for answering the question. the Bible tells me “there are gods many and lords many”, so you’ve told us that the god you serve is the one where members of that religion, wear the ring with that great big ‘G’ on it… also known as “Freemasonry : anti-christ among us”
“God” is the symbol people in these parts have been given for that idea. I didn’t used to use that symbol because of the false associations establishment religions have linked to it, such as the idea that the Creator punishes you for being healthy. But I was guided to “heal the symbol”, so I use it sometimes when talking to others. The symbol I came up with on my own was “The One”, because I believe the Universe has One Source, and the world of form in which we live comes from Sound, emanated from The One. The One is within all of us. So here’s another prayer for you:
“True Creator, I ask that the evil return to those doing it, regarding the raw milk situation, in the way that is best.”
The idea here is that by putting energy into the mix at this level, it can make it easier for the Mission Control level within to do its end of things. This is a mathematical Creation. A Great Work.
in all serious-ness … Clayton Christensen ought to do a chapter on RAWMI, in the next edition of his book The Innovator’s Dilemma : When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
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In this revolutionary bestseller, Clayton Christensen demonstrates how successful, outstanding companies can do everything right yet still lose their market leadership or even fail as new, unexpected competitors rise and take over the market. Through this compelling multi-industry study, Christensen introduces his seminal theory of disruptive innovation that has changed the way managers and CEOs around the world think about innovation.
… Christensen shows how most companies miss out on new waves of innovation. His answer is surprising and almost paradoxic: it is actually the same practices that lead the business to be successful in the first place that eventually can also result in their eventual demise. This breakthrough insight has made The Innovators Dilemma is a must-read for managers, CEOs, innovators, and entrepreneurs alike.
Great observation about innovation and leadership. I am not sure who said this….but I do believe it to be true of revolutionaries I general.
” it takes a different kind of person to lead the peace after the revolution is over”.
In CA we are really trying our best to lead a peace while the revolution rages in many other states and in Canada. California has had its little raw milk battle and the people spoke loudly. I will be forever grateful to Alta Dena and the Steuve family that stood watch for all those years to assure that the California raw milk laws were not stricken from the books like they have been in most of the other states. In 2007, California had its defining moment when the SB 201 hearings were held. The world gathered and 1400 consumers gathered in three hearings to assure that raw milk stayed available in CA. That was 2007-2008. Now…raw milk markets are reigning supreme, there is constructive peace. CDFA is largely helpful and inspectors do all they can to provide good feedback to producers.
So the lesson here is that we must fight like crazy for our freedom and to assure our rights to access raw milk…but, in the peace that comes after, we must assure that our raw milk is safe!!! That is the harder part. The part that is based on hard work and persistent effort. No media…no rallies….no celebrations or hearings. That is behind us now…what we have now is real work and proving that our rallies and our cries for freedom are based on more than a battle cry, but rather true dedication to the long term feeding of people.
I met an Armenian food broker today. He had come by to get some Raw Butter from the OPDC farm store for his 3 yesr old son with Autism. His western trained pediatrician MD had recommended it!!! Along with Raw kefir. Now that is serious progress. He shared with me that Chinese officials have just released a national datapoint….14 million Chinese children have autism!! All countries that eat and vaccinate like Ameria have that same horrendous report!! Projections that in 15 years 1 in 20 boys will end up diagnosed with autism. He said ….it is the processed food, the vaccinations, the GMOs, the chemicals, …words from an Armenian food broker!!
He told me ( in his Armenian accent) that the Internet can no longer hide the truth and instead it shares it broadly and things are changing so fast…it is hard to keep up. He wanted to start selling OPDC products in 600 ethic stores in CA. He said ethics from Eastern block countries get it! They want raw everything just like back home. Managing the peace…that is an educational and supply management problem. All very good news for farmers that choose to feed people instead of processors. If the FDA is reading this….wake the hell up!!! It is the gut flora that has been tortured by your policies and PMO practices. Look at your own NIH human genome discoveries. In 15 years there will be no males in America to propagate a future for America. How can it be more clear. Even an Armenian food broker can read this forecast and prediction.
Power of poop and the microbiome…Rapidly expanding adoption of fecal transplants to cure auto-immune conditions like colitis and Crohn’s, described in latest issue of The New Yorker:
“No one knows how many people have undergone fecal transplantsthe official term is fecal microbiota transplantation, or FMTbut the number is thought to be at least ten thousand and climbing rapidly. New research suggests that the microbes in our gutsand, consequently, in our stoolmay play a role in conditions ranging from autoimmune disorders to allergies and obesity, and reports of recoveries by patients who, with or without the help of doctors, have received these bacteria-rich infusions have spurred demand for the procedure. A year and a half ago, a few dozen physicians in the United States offered FMT. Today, hundreds do, and OpenBiome, a nonprofit stool bank founded last year by graduate students at M.I.T., ships more than fifty specimens each week to hospitals in thirty-six states. The Cleveland Clinic named fecal transplantation one of the top ten medical innovations for 2014…”
“Zain Kassam, a gastroenterologist who is OpenBiomes chief medical officer, put it this way: Its the closest thing to a miracle Ive seen in medicine. “
“Its possible that no Americans have gut microbiomes that are truly healthy. Evidence is mounting that over the course of human history the diversity of our microbes has diminished, and, in a recent paper, Erica and Justin Sonnenburg, microbiologists at Stanford, argue that the price of microbial-species loss may be an increase in chronic illness.”
Sound familiar?
A. get a T-shirt, B. take a dump in the T-shirt, C. Close-up the T-shirt, making a T-shirt-shit tea bag, D. make a tea with that tea bag, E. drink the ensuing tea, is beginning to be understood by a wider audience.
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
What can I say….the FDA are a bunch of dumb shits…whoops, let me rephrase, shit is far more intelligent and valuable to humans. The fecal transplant is now a fda regulated ( it may even be banned …they claim that it has not been properly evaluated ) procedure. No…They are simply dumb.
Now if I remember right, didn’t “Mr. John” say stomach acid should destroy any beneficial bacteria that would be in food, like raw milk, or any probiotic. Oops looks like he got that wrong. And I thought he knew everything!!!
Hadn’t seen this, Wayne. Makes sense. My guess is we’re going to be seeing quite a lot of variations on this theme over the next few years–frozen, freeze-dried, extracts, etc., etc. Probably scary at first to Big Pharma, but they’ll no doubt figure out ways to patent certain approaches, and turn poop into intellectual property.
Ensuring the natural integrity of all food especially raw milk as a diverse self-preserving living food is critical.
Ken
My grandparents had me use the same procedure we used for bee stings: pee on the ground and smear the resulting wet mud on the spot of the sting. This was a time tested treatment that everyone knew about and used, gross as it may sound to some it really works without a doubt.
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http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2014/11/26/coca-cola-launching-expensive-milk-that-is-more-nutritious-than-regular-milk/?intcmp=features
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The article says this “milk” will contain 1/2 the amount of sugar than “regular” milk….and later it says it does not contain any **lactose**….so what sugar are they adding to it?
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Big Ag complains about “almond milk” and “soy milk”…so what is Fairlife…is it milk????
Doesn’t the FDA have a definition of what milk is?
I know what my definition of milk is….and it is not this junk….
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It is really, really sickening when they have to resort to soft porn to sell a product…
Well, . . . you got your number one scorpion over there, its a Portugese Ouch! Scorpion, and this big un here, really lethal, we call the number two scorpion. Anyway Ill back check on this pee plaster and see if the rural southwest did that as well.
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
That is why I do not consider myself a member of a raw milk movement whatever that is. If I am a member of anything it is of the natural world, and therefore I move that we begin now the generations-long process of dismantling our car- and truck-based society and begin expanding opportunities for people to grow strong and healthy by living near clean, organic , low-toxin, natural and agricultural environments.
I wonder if the Open Biome staff have read some of Aajonus Vonderplanitz recipes in his cook book.
Dave, I suspect this dismantling of our car-and-truck-based society on behalf of an agricultural one will probably only occur as the result of “a movement.” That is just the way many major societal shifts occur in our culture, whether it’s stamping out slavery or implementing Prohibition or gaining recognition for home-schooling….or spreading access to raw milk. So you might start thinking about a catchy phrase for your natural world movement.
If there is to be movement on this it will come when and as individuals decide to properly care for each other. Obviously the chance of that happening is near zero, so long as there is money to be made, and there is always money to be made.
Fortunately we are all, every one, like it or not, members of nature’s cooperative. And we will, like it or not, suffer the respective blessings and curses resultant of our gracious or bullying actions. Given our greed and hubris, a sour end is in store for most. Sad indeed, but that cannot nor ever will overcome nature. In the end, nature always wins.
So for now, for the few that are willing to forego money, and instead pursue relationship (with each other and with the earth God made us from) there will be the enjoyment of optimal life and health and happiness, even as the masses carry themselves to heck in their expensive handbaskets.
Here’s a quote from Wendell Berry’s The Memory of Old Jack that sums things up pretty well:
…modern ignorance is in people’s assumption that they can outsmart their own nature. It is in the arrogance that will believe nothing it cannot prove, and respect nothing it cannot understand, and value nothing it cannot sell… The new ignorance is the same as the old, only less aware that ignorance is what it is. It is less humble, more foolish and frivolous, more dangerous. A man, Old Jack thinks, has no choice but to be ignorant, but he does not have to be a fool. He can know his place, and he can stay in it, and be faithful.
Dave, I somehow sensed my “movement” assessment wouldn’t grab you. I appreciate your vision, and even more, your ideas about relationship. I do believe change is such a strong force, though, that it’s probably not possible to return to the romantic place you envision. Might there be a place in between, that acknowledges the reality of positive change and technological progress, that people learn to relate to more positively than we have been accustomed to?