Wisconsin raw milk producers, who have long faced opposition from regulators, judges, and the factory milk establishment, now have another opponent: Rural Mutual Insurance Co., which is owned by Farm Bureau.
The insurer recently sent out a letter to its Wisconsin farm policy holders “to clarify that your farm policy does not provide coverage for the sale and/or distribution for offsite consumption of unpasteurized (commonly called raw) milk from cows, sheep and goats for human consumption. The Liability and Medical Expense Coverage…is amended to clarify this exclusion.
“Also, if you have Farm Umbrella Liability coverage on your policy a new endorsement…Raw Milk Exclusion – is attached. The Farm Umbrella Liability endorsement does not apply to personal injury resulting from the sale, or distribution for off-site consumption of unpasteurized (commonly called raw) milk from cows, sheep and goats for human consumption.”
Off-site consumption isn’t prohibited in Wisconsin, but Rural Mutual Insurance Co. isn’t leaving room for even a sip of raw milk. The elimination of raw milk from policies crops up from time to time in various states. For the most part, dairies have been able to replace one company’s ban with a policy from another company. The best tactic by unaffected farmers: If you’re doing business with Rural Mutual, send the company a message, and switch your providers.
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The food police are after another food club. Mark McAfee reports that the Ventura County Health Department has threatened to interfere with a private food club in that area just north of Los Angeles that distributes Organic Pastures milk. The health department officials first said to a food club volunteer manager that there was concern about whether the milk was going to be stored. When that turned out to be a non-issue, since the milk is nearly immediately distributed to members, the “concern” suddenly shifted to whether the club needs to be registered as a retailer.
In an email to officials of both the Ventura County Health Department and the California Department of Public Health, McAfee stated: “According to the Ventura County Health Department, OPDC cannot drop off products (legal retail approved products) to a private buyers club for further distribution to its members. The club we are speaking of is a group of moms that want raw milk dropped, by the OPDC farm delivery truck, to a location near their homes at a discounted price. According to the Ventura Health officials, the buyers club is a store and must be regulated as a store. In our opinion, the buyers club is not a store at all and is not open to the public and furthermore all orders are made direct to the dairy and the location is a pick up point and not a resale point.”
Maybe the Ventura County public health officials are emboldened by their pursuit of three Rawesome Food Club individuals in the last few months. Or maybe Wisconsin legal thinking on food clubs is making its way to California, as in, let’s figure out new ways to harass these families.
plow through as much of it as you can stand, and you’ll appreciate why the FBI and the other alphabet-soup Acronym agencies get all sweaty when they hear the word “sovereign”…. comic relief for those of us who saw a lot of this Alice-in-Blunderland stuff go by
http://www.quatloos.com/Q-Forum/viewforum.php?f=37
James Stewart is not in the same ballpark as these guys
The insurance requirement is not new, though the specificity of the notice maybe. We have investigated various farm insurance carriers since 2006 and all have raised concerns regarding whether we would be permitting access of others (Notenot access specifically to consumers) to unpasteurized dairy. Because of insurance considerations alone I would never judge any dairy farmer for deciding to not provide unpasteurized dairy. The risk and potential liability exposure for the entire farm operation cannot be underestimated-especially is a farmer cannot find cost effective and adequate farm coverage.
In addition, consideration needs to be given to the what if . raw dairy is indeed legalized-how do farmers deal with insurance coverage for potential liability exposure? And can insurance companies be compelled to provide such coveragecost effective coverage that is?
Despite the broad range of discussions here-I do not recall anyone drilling down to look at this specific issue. This is a practical -nontheoretical-operational-in your face issue; where again the farmer and family stand alone and exposed-there is no risk to anyone else.
“According to the Ventura Health officials, the buyers club is a store and must be regulated as a store. ”
What is the “legal” definition of a store?
” In our opinion, the buyers club is not a store at all and is not open to the public and furthermore all orders are made direct to the dairy and the location is a pick up point and not a resale point.”
If they (tptb) are saying this is a store, then picking up anything for anyone else makes you a store. How dumb can they get?
I think tptb are getting really nervous, more and more people are waking up to the toxins in our food and environment and demanding changes (this is a slow process, yet a growing one).
Teaching people about grocery store/processed foods and the alternatives for them, has increased farmers markets, etc. I think many people don’t know how to cook from scratch, because they grew up on processed microwave foods. I think a lot of people don’t know how to prepare the various produce at the farmers markets, do they even know what a lot of it is? Many don’t know how to correctly store produce, raw milk, butter, cheeses,eggs, etc. When I was younger, I tossed (wasted) a lot of cheeses as they had mold on them, I did not know that I could scrape it off and they’d be fine. In most families, both parents work and time is in short supply. No one feels like standing over a stove after work, that is the picture many have about ‘cooking like grandma’. People are so distant from their foods in so many ways.
I’d get a cow too, if I could.
Why don’t they get on the drug companies, like that pharmaceutical plant in Nebraska that had to shut down to comply w/manufacturing process improvement after TWO YEARS if getting notices. Seems to be an uneven playing field here, when contaminated drugs are allowed to slide for two years and raw milk gets sensational negative press coverage and SWAT raids. Let something REALLY kill people, like the hundreds of thousands of prescription drug deaths every year and it’s just accepted.
It all depends on who gets the profits, and by the way Sig Heil, Monsanto! You dictate our foods without our consent so Monsanto (etc) are the head Food-Nazis, and the alleged health depts and bureaucracies are their Gestapo, their little corporate whores. Just being honest.
“Supporters of the meat industry on Wednesday fought back, calling the product safe to eat. Iowa Governor Terry Branstad appeared with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in Des Moines, Iowa and said consumer activists were conducting a “smear campaign” against meat producers.”
Smear campaign”? LMAO The facts sunk into the consumers and they didn’t like what they saw.
“Let me reiterate without any equivocation something that we have said hundreds of times … this product is safe,” Vilsack said. “There’s no question about it.”
Safe for who or what?
The nation’s top three supermarket chains — Kroger Co, Safeway Inc and Supervalu Inc — all said they would no longer sell hamburger containing the product. Walmart, the nation’s largest food seller, said it would no longer use the product in its trays of hamburger.
Proof that educating the masses does make changes.
look at the bills and laws the pres has passed.
The National Defense Authorization Act ( NDAA) that makes protesting illegal,
and on midlight in march 16 he pushed threw the
Executive Order — National Defense Resources Preparedness
that allows the gov to take over every part of america from food,water to manufacturing and labor.
just like hitler did.
and people are surprised about this story.
incredable.
The crackdowns on private groups are scary. We’ve got to keep pushing back.
http://www.infowars.com/
At any possible opportunity, I will completely take advantage of this incident to hold a press conference and give away free raw milk to all members of the buyers club in a very public and educational way…I will even invite James Stewart to say a few words.
Do not mess with OPDC buyers clubs moms and their legal, state inspected, over-regulated retail approved organic raw milk!!
The government does not seem to have learned this yet…there is an inverse relationship between harrassment of raw milk and increased sales and popularity.
Mark
Supplements, too: “Just take one with your first bite or sip of dairy and enjoy any dairy food, anytime, anywhere.”
I guess in the minds, or pockets, of our governing agencies any factory food that has lobbying money behind it is ok, anything fresh and unprocessed is bad. Sigh…
http://www.lactaid.com/products-home#Whole_Milk
“The Rise of the Fourth Reich” by Jim Marrs; “Trading With the Enemy” by Edward Black; “The Crime and Punsihment of IG Farben” by Joseph Borkin; “World Without Cancer” and “The Creature from Jekyl Island” oth by G. Edward Griffin; anything by Zachariah Stitchin
There is a battle going on world wide for this planet; its land and resources. It’s as old as humankind. It began thousands of years ago and continues through the families who decided centuries ago they were better than the rest of us. The 1%? They are the families who have continued their plans down through the centuries. Religion has been used to hide this….like a magic trick….watch ths hand…the hand of a savior coming to “save” you if you believe….while the other hand usurps mankind; the resources of the planet and gains global control through lies, cowardice and fear. Don’t belive me? You’d best read the books and then decide. Oh and for those who have some guts…read some David Icke. We have been duped for thousands of years by religion, politics and those in power.
Last fall, RAWMI was hit with a round of serious malcontent from all sectors. As a direct result, the Directors have considered the commentary and made some adjustments to the Mission.
RAWMI has sent out an electronic survey to the Executive Advisory Council which responded and submitted comments on the proposed Common Standards. After the first round of comments are considered and intregrated the modified Common Standards will be sent electronically in the form of an Online Survey to all farmers that have voiced interest in participation in the LISTING program.
It appears that across America, farmers do not seem to see what we see. They do not seem to appreciate the big ass train coming and what we need to avoid being hit by it. Not havig safety standards and denial of insurance will be a KEY way that the FDA will rid America of Raw Milk.
Insurance is a critical component and if we can not get insurance, access to raw milk is slammed shut for most people.
Insurance is critical. An organization that protects the farmer with a workable and effective food safety plan is critical.
BIG ASS TRAIN GUYS….get on board RAWMI. This is not a fear based comment. It is real. Your fear will come when your insurance company pulls your plug….then what??? At OPDC, our insurance company loves our food safety plan and risk management program.
We will be making our Common Standards survey available to all that are interested in commenting after the farmers have had a chance to look it over. This is a plan for “we the people” and is not top down. It is a plan to protect yourself and your consumer and it is 100% YOUR plan. The RAWMI mission has been modified slightly. RAWMI is your resource. Change is upon us. Evolve or be eaten.
“What makes LACTAID® Milk drinkable for those suffering from lactose intolerance?LACTAID® Milk is 100% real milk, just like any other milk brand. The only difference is, LACTAID® Milk has an added lactase enzyme that has already broken down the difficult-to-digest lactose (complex milk sugar) into easily digested simple sugars (galactose and glucose), so those suffering from lactose intolerance can still enjoy milk. LACTAID® Milk contains all the nutrients found in regular milk such as calcium, Vitamins A, D and B12, potassium, riboflavin and protein.”
Evidently they are NOT telling you that some of the other vitamins and minerals may also be “added” rather than natural (as they claim 100% milk). I’m sure it’s pasteurized and probably homogenized. What they SHOULD be saying on their web site is that if people just drank raw milk they wouldn’t have to worry about this at all, and would be drinking a real product, not something messed with by man until it’s unrecognizable, yet still touted as “100% something”. Geezalou. It makes about as much sense as the Smart Balance products. The industry (mostly the phood industry) is never going to outgrow the fun of scaring the pants off people about what goes into their mouths. You know the old saying what goes around comes around? Not always.
Not if it’s pre-paid, Sylvia, and not if only members can purchase. If you have a store front and anyone can walk through that door at any time, then you are retail. That’s not true for buying clubs.
You may only have ever shopped at retail stores, but buying clubs are as American as apple pie. I worked for seven years for a natural foods distributor when I lived back east. My company had $130+ million in annual sales of which about half, $65 million, were just from buying clubs. Our territory covered 22 states and we serviced buying clubs in every one of them. They were the backbone of our business and so important to us that we provided trainings on how to start one.
We didn’t sell raw milk, but we did sell a full range of refrigerated and frozen product. I don’t once ever recall hearing about any of our clubs ever being hassled by their local health department.
This country has a long history of families coming together to make joint purchases help cut the cost of food by going direct to either the farmer or the distributor. To this day, United Naturals, the largest natural foods distributor in the US, services buying clubs all over the country, including CA, where I live now.
My concern is, if the government can succeed in demonizing raw milk and/or buying clubs, then I suspect next on the agenda will be CSA’s and farmers’ markets – anything to insert a food regulatory agent in between the farmer and his/her customer.
Mark, I agree that RAWMI can be an important force for ensuring access to liability insurance for farmers. And I’m glad to it’s made some adjustments to its mission. Dairies involved in raw milk need all the help they can get–RAWMI is one of several emerging resources deserving of support.
David