Its been more than a year since the FDA announced a year-long pilot program to examine 1600 samples from producers of raw milk cheese, to check for the presence of pathogens.
Actually, its inaccurate to say the FDA announced anything. Rather, it communicated to the American Cheese Society the news about this pilot program, and the ACS has dribbled out news about the program to its members. The ACSs possessiveness about this important program seems in keeping with the special relationship ACS has evolved with FDA (quotes are mine).
Without getting into the appropriateness of the very close FDA-ACS relationship, Ill say that it looks as if the program should be wrapping up, or possibly even has wrapped up, based on the original timetable indicating the pilot program was a 2014 event.
So, what are the results? Where does the program fit in with the FDAs years-long analyses and investigations, all seemingly designed to narrow the 60-day aging rule on raw milk cheese, or even eliminate raw-milk cheese entirely?
As I indicated, the ACS, which includes many artisanal producers of raw-milk cheese among its members, has been dribbling out communication between it and the FDA. I have gained access to a number of FDA and ACS communications to its members, and here is some of what we now know about the mysterious “pilot program” on raw-milk cheese:
- The cheese-sampling pilot program seems to have been launched at least partly because of complaints in 2009 by the huge dairy processing industry, which was concerned about supposed favoritism granted raw dairy producers under a seemingly minor rule regarding the amount of non-toxic E.coli permissible in all cheese. According to an FDA letter to the ACS late last year answering an ACS inquiry about a change in the non-toxic E. coli rule, The International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) questioned the scientific justification for FDAs different criteria for considering regulatory action for raw milk cheese and pasteurized milk cheese with regard to non-toxigenic E.coli. The IDFA represents all the huge dairy processors, and when the IDFA asks questions, the FDA listens, and invariably does what it is told.
- In addition to seeking out pathogens, the 2014 pilot program was intended to measure the amount of non-pathogenic E.coli in raw-milk cheeses. However, no similar program was launched to investigate pasteurized-milk cheeses. Apparently the IDFA was only concerned about raw milk; it didn’t want the FDA nosing around in its members cheese production.
- In addition to being linked to Big Dairy demands, the pilot program is part and parcel of the Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law in 2011, but seemingly put on hold until the FDA could work out specific rules guiding its implementation. According to an FDA letter to ACS, The FDA began a food sampling pilot aimed at aligning with the goals of FSMA, which mandates a risk-informed and preventive approach to food safety. Through one portion of this pilot, the FDA is seeking information on the rates of microbial contamination in raw milk cheese aged for 60 days.
- So, how has the sampling gone? As of last August, with more than half the projected 1,600 samples collected, ZERO pathogens had been found in any of the samples from American producers, according to the FDA. The most recent tally from mid-August indicates that FDA reached 885 samples collected. These samples comprise raw milk cheeses coming from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Swaziland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the U.S. Five samples isolated Salmonella spp. or Listeria monocytogenes (two samples and three samples respectively). These stemmed from imported cheese and FDA subjected the involved facilities to DWPE.
- The pilot program has apparently just about ended. Since August, as far as I can determine, one sample of raw milk cheese, from an Amish dairy in Michigan, was found to contain listeria monocytogenes. The FDA forced the cheese maker to recall 1,100 pounds of cheese. The producer, to get the FDA out of its hair, discontinued all raw-milk cheese production (it produces mostly pasteurized cheese). The FDA, nearly alone in the world, operates under a zero-tolerance policy for listeria monocytogenes; thats because very small amounts have been found to not cause illness, and so most other countries have made their rules on the pathogen less rigid.
So the good news is that American raw-milk cheese producers have been found to be essentially free of any pathogens, and to comply with standards of non-toxic E.coli. Unfortunately, the bad news is likely to be that none of this matters. The FDA isn’t out to gather information, it is on a witch hunt against raw-milk cheese that has gone on for more than a decade now, since FDA dairy head John Sheehan (formerly of huge Lepizza cheese maker Leprino) co-authored an article signaling that FDA would “develop a strategy to eliminate potentially harmful cheeses from the market.”
My guess is that there are two possible outcomes from this most recent “pilot program” on raw milk cheese. Either the FDA will continue the witch hunt against raw milk cheese via more studies and investigations, or it will simply slap new restrictions or even a ban on before long.
I would love for the FDA to prove me wrong, but the signs for more of a crackdown are obvious: Big Dairy wants the competition from raw-milk cheese eliminated, and what Big Dairy wants, Big Dairy gets. Plus, the FDA wants to show that the Food Safety Modernization Act is working. Watch out!
When will the FDA get its head out of its ass and once and for all connect the listeria M dots….listeria is associated with processed cheese and other dairy products and not raw. I should say “Truly Raw” Dairy products. We know that the FDA allows Raw Label cheating and that leads to Fake Raw Cheeses.
Connect these dots in the data. How many truly raw cheeses had any listeria?? Even Organic Valley Raw Cheeses say on their labels….”heated to 158 degrees”. There was no classification of truly raw verses heated fake raw. In this study. Again, total ignorance of cheese chemistry and biology.
I am so sick of FDA liars. It is nothing short of blatant deception, coercion, bias, corruption, intentional market confusion by design and a tax payer funded federal agency misinformation campaign. I can not be more vocal about all of this anti- raw policy. The fda attacks raw when the CDC data clearly shows raw to be innocent and pasteurized to be guilty ( when it comes to listeria illnesses ).
When our regulatory agencies are supposed to be driven by data and science and they are not this is beyond unjust…but it does seem to matter to anyone. I guess lemmings will eat anything.
Now the FDA says that whooping cough vaccinations do not work or that they are not working…what is their advice, get a whooping cough vacination.
Do they think we are idiots.? …I guess so
Mark, I don’t think there was any reference in that FDA press release to the fact that pasteurized cheeses were produced at the dairy in Michigan. Funny they wouldn’t mention that as something they wanted to investigate further. No, I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets much worse–that this single finding of some unknown number of listeria monocytogenes cells, out of 1,600 cheese samples, is the focus of the FDA’s conclusion that raw milk cheese is inherently dangerous.
After doing extensive FOIA work on my little raw butter project, nothing surprises me anymore. The extent of coverup…industry collaboration, scientific coercion and false reporting of data, just does not phase me anymore.
My upbringing and morals are in stark contrast to the FDA John Sheehan reality. My niave prospective on good government is totally over. So sad really. I love my country….but want change so badly for our regulatory agencies. At the end of the day…truth does matter.
Kind of like attacking raw milk after deaths are caused by pasteurized cheeses or pasteurized milk.
This is loco….totally non sensical.
confer with the Bible, in which one of the appellations of the Adversary is “Accuser of the Brethren”. That’s his job. Which brings to mind the masterpiece of Tupper Saussy = “Rulers of Evil”. Required reading in order to preserve your sanity in this game
an excellent article about the crux of the controversy around raw milk for human consumption = the tyrant state inteferring with our right to use and enjoy private property
https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2015/02/09/perspectives-cow-sharing-crime-syndicate-next-door/
Thanks for sharing it.
I love the term used by the article’s author: “Safety cultists.” Isn’t that the truth!
“the safety cultists are sure to chime in with how this type of needless regulation is saving us from ourselves.” Saving us from ourselves??? Who’s going to save us from THEM? I’m still waiting for those safety cultists to make sure they save us from ourselves, only for us to need permission from them to die. It’s not that much of a stretch to think it could come to this. For example: seatbelts, helmets, and other protective gear so that we don’t get ‘hurt’ or ‘killed’. Why do they care? These same morons complain of ‘overpopulation’. So, which is it? You can’t complain that there are too many people on this earth, then lament about supposed ‘preventable’ deaths. Maybe some of us don’t want to survive an accident. It’s enough to make my head spin.
“…thinly veiled control freak wishing to forcefully impose his collectivist notions of the greater good upon others.” Yep, emphasis on control freak.
“Of course, there are those who oppose cow share programs on the grounds of safety.” No one says they have to participate. Don’t like the milk? Don’t drink it. All they need to do is mine their own business, and we’ll mind ours.
A truth teller, writer, educator and leader. Thank you David for simply teaching and then teaching even more.
Forget Republican/Democrat, let’s get rid of this idea.
Net Neutrality is on the table now for your input.
I would say that 332 pages from the Whitehouse cant be good.
It will be sold and pushed as something good for all when it is good for nothing but tyranny and to silence voices and to pick your pocket.
This sort of thing, combined with FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 can result in a heavy hand silencing, twisting, distorting venues such as TCP.
Silence will get you silenced. Speak.
Here is a bit from the breitbart website (http://www.breitbart dot calm com/big-hollywood/2015/02/09/republican-fcc-member-warns-net-neutrality-is-not-neutral/).
Ajit Pai, one of two Republican Commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), inferred in a tweet that President Barack Obamas secret, 332-page Net Neutrality document is a scheme for federal micro-managing of the Internet to extract billions in new taxes from consumers and again enforce progressives idea of honest, equitable, and balanced content fairness.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler recently acknowledged that the three Democrats on the commission had decided to avoid Congressional input regarding the Internet by adopting President Franklin Roosevelts 1934 Communications Act to regulate the Internet with the same federal control as the old AT&T customer monopoly. To make sure that libertarian advocates would remain in the dark, Wheeler embargoed release of any of the specifics in the new administrative policy that will act as law.
The FCC legislation that was passed eighty-one years ago by the most leftist Congress in American history to ban companies from participating in unjust or unreasonable discrimination when providing phone services to customers.
But in 1949, the Democrat-dominated Commission implemented the Fairness Doctrine that required holders of media broadcast licenses to present issues of public importance in a manner that is honest, equitable, and balanced in the Commissions view. It would take 39 years before a conservative Congress could overturn a policy that hijacked the mainstream media to kowtow to liberals or face loss of their licenses.
If the Internet economy was a country, it would rank fifth, behind only the U.S., China, Japan, and India. Economic activity on the Internet totals $4.2 trillion, and almost half of the earths 7 billion people are already connected to the Web.
Have a glyphosate free month!
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
Thanks, Mark. You heard right. Lots of people (well over 100 at last count) have been incredibly generous and kind. The additional support will be used to extend the book’s reach.
From their private comments, it seems supporters simply want to set the record straight about raw milk, get the truth out. As you say, they want to be part and parcel of the teaching.
(The crowd funding campaign is http://www.rawmilkanswerbook.pubslush.com.)
A very interesting article about raw milk from the mainstream media. A reporter went out and brought back to the newsroom some raw milk and raw milk cheese, and shared the goods with his colleagues. An excerpt:
The responses were some of the most positive we have ever had in a newsroom taste test.
City Editor Lauren McGill said the milk was creamy but refreshing, adding that it didnt linger the way some store-bought varieties tend to do.
Its richer than normal, kind of like a thin milk shake, copy editor Andrea Rectenwald said. I really like it.
Obituaries clerk Travis Hogbin said, I like it a lot. Id buy more.
Managing Editor Philip Maramba said there was something special about the raw milk.
Theres whole milk and then theres this, he said.
Its smooth, its good, its not scary at all, Publisher Brad McElhinny said.
Life editor Billy Wolfe, who typically prefers organic whole milk, said he would switch to raw milk if it were available.
This is some of the best milk Ive ever had, he said. If I could buy it regularly, I would.
– See more at:http://www.charlestondailymail.com/article/20150210/DM06/150219907/1281#sthash.kPwiw9EL.dpuf
I love that…”not scary at all.” Indeed, one of the first such articles without a CDC/FDA “warning” that you might die. Maybe the start of something new?
This week, OPDC attended a conventional dairymans briefing seminar at the Tulare Ag Show. The conventional dairy industry spends millions in market assesment to analyse the markets to figure out trends and know the data. Our OPDC spy reported back to the team, that the dairy marketing experts got it right on the nose:….Trust, knowing your farmer, no GMO use, no antibiotics, farm tours, connecting and educating on social networks, animal treatment, less processing, green pastures…all matter deeply to the millennials in today’s markets.
In response to this report, the attending dairymen rolled their eyes and made loud depressing sounds as they basically lamented their lack of interest in: building trust, knowing consumers, not using GMOs,not using anti biotics, having consumers tour their farms, processing less, managing pastures, and the rest of the social network thing. They even mentioned how raw was growing.
Our opdc spy basically confirmed that our marketing and education plan was perfectly on target. And…we did not spend a dime to hear this great and very accurate marketing report. All we had to do was show up and listen.
What a great confirmation that the raw milk community has hit the bulls eye and conventional dairy industry has zero interest in pursuing the real consumer. What can I say…wow!!
His epitaph is :
“Find a way to tell the Truth “
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/sign/stop_the_Ultimate_Monsanto_Protection_Act/?t=3&akid=1493.948189.rLoi4G
Ken
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153098275919539&set=a.10150283943659539.356835.502309538&type=1
http://thelibertybeat.com/usda-approves-two-genetically-engineered-apples/
Hopefully they won’t be feeding this to cows.
http://www.hoards.com/blog_Big-Fat-Surprise
Your Hoards article reminds me of a profound statement made by Dr. Bruce German professor and researcher at UC Davis and founder of the International Milk Genomics Consortium. At the closing of the IMGC conference held in Arhus Denmark in the fall of 2014, he said this is an auditorium filled with PhD milk researchers from all over the world: “how could scientists think they were so right for so long and be so wrong when it comes to the low fat diet” he went on to say, that the low fat diet has been responsible for our massive decline in health including obesity, diabetes etc….and that good fats are critical to our health!!! Then he said….how can we be sure that we are not making the same mistake thinking we can make a better baby formula when breast milk is the gold standard for baby food.
These are profound words from the worlds leading breast milk researcher.
I was wondering the same thing. I can recall how my mom acted when I was younger. I’m quite a bit older than my youngest sibling, and even women at that time gave formula to their babies (I never had any of my own, so I can’t comment further). It was just the whole attitude, “What? Me NURSE my own baby? Are you kidding?” That how I remember it. Do you have any idea where it all started from, because I’m really curious.
There’s no replacement for mama’s milk, and that’s also what I feed my calves. I did use milk replacer for calves a number of years ago, but at the time, they were ones I got from the farm I occasionally work at, and then again later on when my girls freshened, and went to that farm to be milked, because I didn’t have the facilities here yet. I would have preferred natural cow’s milk, but didn’t have a choice at that time.
Oh, and something else. I think you were the one who said something about typing your comment in a little box. I accidentally found something out when I posted my earlier comment. You can expand that box. If you haven’t figured it out, put your cursor at the bottom right corner, and it will change into a diagonal arrow, then you can drag the box to a larger size.
” … organic food sales will reach a startling $35 billion this year. For those of us who dont take our health for granted, this is just the beginning of a food revolution.”
……..
BY CHRISTINA SARICH
Perhaps you remember a time not too far in our collective grocery-shopping past when regular grocery stores chains and places like Walmart had no idea what organic food was. Organic milk? Bread? Produce? They didnt carry it. You had to find an obscure health food store or a farmers market if you didnt live near a Whole Foods to find non-GMO, healthful food that wasnt full of pesticides. But thankfully, consumers are demanding different products now. Demand for organic food has busted through its glass ceiling.
You can attribute this change in market demand to education. You can attribute it to the mass awakening happening around the planet. But either way, you cant argue with the numbers. Eating organic is no longer fringe or something done solely by health-nuts and athletes, hippies, and paranoids. In fact, consumer demand for organic food is seeing double digit growth year over year, and it doesnt show signs of stopping.
Over 20,000 stores now offer organic food products. A report has shown that in 2012, more than $28.4 billion was spent on healthful organic food, and that number has grown since the report published such findings. According to Nutrition Business Journal, organic food sales will reach a startling $35 billion this year. For those of us who dont take our health for granted, this is just the beginning of a food revolution.
Were eating better in every category of food, too, not just organic apple and oranges. People are boycotting toxic food-producing companies faster than you can say lawsuit as they realize weve been lied to. People now know that something made in vats with chemical additives or spliced and diced with GMOs is anything but natural.
We are turning away from companies like Kelloggs and Pepsi-Co, Coca-Cola, and Kraft to companies that we can actually trust companies that dont sell us non-food and call it food.
Or how about putting harmful additives used to make yoga mats in bread, as Subway once did before individuals pressured them to remove azodicarbonamide from their food? We just wont sit silent anymore. Even beer companies are feeling the pressure to not only disclose toxic ingredients, but to change their ways, and stop using them.
While fresh fruits and vegetables leading the way in organics for the past three decades, and accounting for 43% of U.S. organic food sales in 2012, dairy, bread, packaged foods, snack foods, meat, poultry, seafood, and even condiments are seeing an up-turn in organic sales.
For now, individuals are purchasing their organic foods primarily through conventional and natural food supermarkets and chains, according to the Organic Trade Association (OTA), but this is also changing as more people turn to food co-ops and even neighbors for fresh, organic food.
Weve come a long way since the organic food movements beginnings. Yes, our grandparents and great-grandparents just grew food. They didnt even call it organic, though they often didnt use pesticides or herbicides, and certainly not petroleum-based or chemical fertilizers.
The modern organic movement began at the same time as industrialized agriculture. It began in Europe around the 1920s, when a group of farmers and consumers sought alternatives to the industrialization of agriculture. In Britain, the organic movement had gathered pace in the 1940s. Today, people around the world, from the US to Bhutan, are asking for, and even growing organic food.
Indeed, growing our own food is becoming an absolutely essential part of our collective future.
In the same way that petrochemical companies dont want to see the impending evolution of solar and wind power, Big Ag doesnt want to accept what is happening with our food consciousness. We know better now, and so we ask for better. Our wallets are truly determining the future food landscape.
This is something Ive not considered.
http://www.cytotoxicsafety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Exposure-of-family-members-to-antineoplastic-drugs-via-excreta-of-treated-cancer-patients.pdf
Exposure of family members to antineoplastic drugs via excreta of treated cancer patients.
Excreta = feces, urine, perspiration, tears and mucus.
The shedding of skin cells and hair loss are other possible factors to consider since that to is an ongoing process.
Ken
https://www.ringoffireradio.com/2015/02/cdc-scientist-still-maintains-agency-forced-researchers-lie-safety-mercury-based-vaccines/
There are 4 million US children born each year, and autism prevalence is at least one child in 68 and is continuing to get worse even in the absence of mercury in many of the vaccines. This means there are at least 59 thousand vulnerable children who are born each year that will develop autistic neurological damage from taking vaccines. The claim that reactions to vaccinations are rare is ridiculous and focusing on mercury alone is equally ridiculous.
Ken
http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/u-s-and-canadian-autism-rates-on-the-rise-studies-show-1.1749020
The U.S. government increased its autism estimate on Thursday to 1 in 68 children, a 30 per cent jump from the last estimate of 1 in 88 children The latest calculation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control means autism is more than twice as common as officials said it was just seven years go.
This seems like a fairly hefty hike to be attributed primarily to improved diagnosis. It is certainly not going down!
Ken
“The Agriculture and Health and Human Services Departments will take those recommendations into account in writing final 2015 dietary guidelines by the end of the year. The guidelines affect nutritional patterns throughout the country from federally subsidized school lunches to food package labels to your doctor’s advice.” One more reason to turn a deaf ear to anything they say.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2015/02/20/healthful-diet-report-coffee-and-water-instead-sugary-drinks-more-eggs-are-ok/
I totally agree with that statement, although it seems to fly past the heads of the masses who are either not thinking about this subject at all, or have no idea about the number of vaccine reactions.
I, like you, agree with some of what RFK Jr has to say, but I don’t always agree with his every word.
And the shedding thing isn’t really new, either. I’ve been in the baby care business for 26 years now and I cannot be around newly vaccinated babies. They must stay with their parents for at least 72 hours after being vaxxed or I get a very upset stomach, a headache, and my eyes burn like mad. This happened for a long time before I finally connected the dots to the culprit vaccinations. The cluster vaccinations are the worst – MMR, DPT, etc.
You find this comment interesting on the following Natural News article.
http://www.naturalnews.com/048665_vaccine_propaganda_public_suspicion_medical_profession.html#comment-1862144463
Babies and children cannot tell you how they feel moments from a mercury/thimerosal filled shot. I can, being deathly allergic.
Within 2 minutes you are dizzy. Then your heart is beating out of your chest–tachycardia, I guess. Then you feel like your brain is crawling with a million ants–sorta burning sensation too. You feel morbid on the edge of death going up and down on a roller coaster. That I am told is, “a mild reaction”.
The doctor held my hand for 30 minutes debating next moves. Long story short, I have a note from Doctor saying, “no more vaccines for me”. BTW I had no reactions to previous vaccines that had no thimerosal.
Imagine a baby having a quarter (or tenth) of my volume and weight–and many more doses. MY OPINION: It is a miracle if a baby come out of this unchanged. Your baby is trying to say, “Mommy, I feel weird. Scared. Dizzy. Panicky. And my head hurts.” Make that exponential.
BTW everyone is allergic to mercury. How much can your body take? Over time as it accumulates? Or at once as in babies’ cases.
If this is not a crime against humanity I don’t know what is.
And again she state,
Reminding everyone that ophthalmic lense cleaning solutions began labeling their bottles “Thimerosal Free” as a marketing advantage over 30 years ago, a response to widespread allergic reactions. My ophthalmologist took me off all solutions that had thimerosal–eyes were itching like mad from wearing lenses.
Guess what? I had reactions in Optical stores twice since, while trying on lenses–because they too were kept in thimerosal infused viles. Be careful. ?One optical rep laid me on the floor in the back office put his coat on me and left me there–alone. He was pretty scared. Big box, minimum pay reaction. Anyway, I walked out after 30 minutes.
Ken
Do you remember mercurachrome from when we were kids? My Mom used that stuff on us all the time. It stained our skin yellowish red, so I can only assume it contained mercury as well as some sort of iodine, likely the povidone iodine. So far I don’t seem to have actual mercury poisoning unless Sjogren’s Syndrome is caused from mercury.
http://safeshare.tv/w/FEDEwZHZXu
http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/the-government-at-your-dinner-table/
http://www.lewrockwell.com/lrc-blog/start-cooking-again/