I didn’t realize it till Thanksgiving was over, but one of the things I am thankful for is that I still have access to locally produced nutrient-dense foods.
Yesterday, family and friends indulged in a 19.5-pound turkey I had bought from a nearby farm that also sells raw milk. I took some razzing from family members that I had traveled an hour round trip to buy the turkey, paying $4.50 a pound for the privilege, and that it still had some feathers and other incidentals you don’t ever see in the factory produced variety.
But then there was marveling at how wonderfully tasty the meat was. Someone commented, correctly, I think, that the dark meat was much darker and more succulent than what you find in the mass produced birds.
The turkey was in addition to the artisanal raw-milk cheeses, butter, and cream we were able to serve. I felt especially thankful when I realized how close we are to losing these foods, especially if S 510 passes the U.S. Senate on Monday. Already, such foods are difficult to access in many parts of the country, as I was reminded while reading an article at the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund site about how there are no locally-produced turkeys in San Diego County.
Then I spoke with a relative who is using raw milk to gain relief from chronic fatigue syndrome. She lives in a state where the raw milk supply is uncertain, and she was worrying about whether it will be available on Monday, when she will need to replenish her supply. I won’t name the state or locale, because I know the authorities monitor the Internet, and look for “intelligence” to help them interfere with availability of raw milk.
Sometimes I can’t help but think that in their obsessiveness to “protect” us, and especially our children, they try intentionally to deprive people benefiting from nutrient-dense foods of their supplies. They hate it when people gain benefits, and then tell friends and relatives about their health improvements. Such tales drive up demand.
We also spent some time yesterday listening to the classic Arlo Guthrie Thanksgiving song, “Alice’s Restaurant”. If you haven’t heard it in a while, take a listen. (It’s a long song, make sure you have 20 minutes–but the “I want to kill” line near the end of the tale is worth the price of admission, as is the surprise ending.)
I realize now that this Vietnam-War-era song helps explain why we no longer have a military draft in the U.S.–there’d be revolt in the streets. Instead, we let our poorest and least educated do the fighting. After all, they are the ones who can still be suckered into believing the government’s propaganda about the need to fight wars like in Vietnam or Iraq. And in a sense, it helps explain why increasing numbers of people are resisting the government’s efforts to deny us basic food, and why the government finds this so dangerous. Too many people becoming knowledgeable about government lies is a dangerous thing.
***
For a cogent explanation of why the government is so worried about rising raw milk consumption, take a look at Steve Bemis’ article at the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. It has a lot to do with cheese, he explains, which has a lot to do with the fractionalizing of milk. And like a lot of other things affecting food, that all has to do with money, lots of money.
It seems to me that you are more concerned that any food is going unregulated and uninspected directly from the farm to the consumer than you are about the safety of our food supply.Farmers are just people, to be sure ,so sometimes they will be unscrupulous or sloppy.But then aren't government regulators just people and so is it unusual to find some that are unscrupulous or sloppy?Two heads are better than one and two inspectors are better than one.In the case of food that goes directly from the farm to the consumer,what is wrong with the consumer being the second inspector?They certainly have a stake in the quality of the food.The government regulator does not seem to consider quality.
I am familiar with Fiscalini.
I do think that open-air aging of cheese at cellar/cave temperatues (as opposed to cryo-vac aging in a walk-in cooler) makes a big difference in food safety. It certainly makes a huge difference in flavor.
Remember that raw milk contains much more than just lactic-acid producing bacteria (who are anaerobic). Raw milk also contains yeasts, molds, and bacteria that are aerobic, and which consume lactic acid, proteins, and fats, turning them into complex flavor and aromatic compounds.
The types of aerobic yeasts, bacterias, and molds that grow on your cheese is very dependent on the pH, moisture, and salt content of the cheese, as well as the temperatue, humidity, and other factors in your aging enviroment. There are a number of different communities of aerobic organisms which ripen cheese — the red "schmear" you find on cheeses like Limburger, Gruyere, or (real) French Munster; the white geotrichum and penecilium "bloom" you find on a soft ripened cheese like brie, camembert, chaource, and soft-ripened goat cheeses (crottin, valencay, etc…); the multicolored molds which grow on traditional English territorial cheeses (cheddar, caerphilly, cheshire, lancashire etc…); to name a few.
All of these organisms have a competative streak against bad guys like listeria and E. Coli.
Cryo-vac only encourages the growth of listeria. Listeria grows best under conditions of reduced oxygen, and it can grow well at very cold near-freezing temperatures (aka a walk-in cooler) while other organisms are inhibited in these conditions.
Open-air curing cheese causes a drying down of the cheese as it ages. This moisture loss also enhances food safety, and concentrates the flavors of the cheese.
The draw back of cave aging cheese is that it is more labor intensive and requires a certain expertise about the enviroment, the different organisms, curing techniques, and varieties of cheese. But it is well worth it, IMO. It improves both flavor and food safety.
Mark
Child poisoners donchaknow…. LOL.
I have come to recognize a series of near laws governing bureaucracy. This one is, as far as I can see, unbreakable, comparable to the law of gravity.
Some bureaucrat will enforce a written rule in such a way as to make the rule and the bureaucracy seem either ridiculous, tyrannical, or both.
There is no way to write the rules so that some bonehead in the system will not find a way to become a thorn in someone's side — a thorn that cries out for removal.
There are corollaries to this iron law of bureaucracy.
1. The bureaucrat in question will not back down unless forced to from above.
2. His superiors will regard any public resistance to the interpretation as an attack on the bureaucracy's legitimate turf.
3. The bureaucracy's senior spokesman will defend the policy as both legitimate and necessary.
4. Politicians will be pressured by voters to have the policy changed.
5. The bureaucracy will tell the politicians that disaster will follow any such modification of the policy.
6. The public will finally get used to it. 7. The politicians will switch to some other national crisis.
8. The internal manual will then be rewritten by the senior bureaucrats to make the goof- ball application mandatory.
9. Senior management will increase the budget so as to enforce the new policy.
10. Politicians will acquiesce to this increased budget.
This leads me to North's law of bureaucratic expansion:
Any outrageous interpretation of a bureaucratic rule, if widely resisted by the public, will lead to an increased appropriation for the bureaucracy within two fiscal years.
If it passes then it will be the heated needed to forge change and unify the raw milk producers and consumers. Things are not ugly enough for serious change.
We need 1 in 30 kids born autistic and the gambit of immune disasters along with infertility etc. Then the science experiment rats may awaken.
Mark
Shouldn't lunch meats be banned from feeding to children? They cause more illnesses than raw dairy.
Apparently God screwed-up again. What could he have been thinking?
You are one of the things that I (and others, I suspect) have to be thankful for.
According to my way of thinking, feeding any of God's creatures is one of the noblest, purist activities to which a human being can aspire. You, and others, who risk their own well-being so that persons unknown to you can eat are an undeserved and remarkable gift to those of us that you have fed. At a time when I could find no other way to get raw milk, you were there for me; willing to ship it half-way across the country. For all that I know, you may well have saved my life.
So, even if they eventually shut you down, even if you never make any money, even if they destroy you, you should rest assured that you have managed to do something worthwhile with your life, and that is a rare thing.
See this article, about sister Noella Marcellino, aka "the cheese nun", who makes her raw milk cheese in a sawed off whisky barrel. She has a doctorate in microbiology and studied extensively the bio-diversity and role of native geotrichum candidum ripening organisms in traditional French Saint Nectaire cheese.
http://www.seattlepi.com/food/315783_cheesenun16.html
Thank you for posting the article about sister Noella Marcellino-excellent—-and we have followed her work on geotrichum…….
I was wondering if you have recommendations on books or references for identifying, and culturing microbial flora for making age ripened cheeses. For example do you recomend any of the books edited by Patrick Fox—thinking here about the series "Fundamentals of Cheese Science" such as the texts on chemistry and microbiology? Or anyone else?
Thanks
I too enjoyed another very local Thanksgiving with a delicious pastured turkey and am grateful for the farmers that grow my nutrient dense foods.
It becomes clearer each day that the anti-raw milk fervor is simply about greed, control, and dominance on the part of the revolving door crowd (those in the upper echelons of Monsanto, Dean, ConAgra, etc. who get government appointments who then go on to the boards of those companies and then back into government appointments, lather, rinse, repeat). You have to admit, food safety is a brilliant pretense.
I'd like to think the administration has some positive influence on food policy, but so far they have been a huge disappointment. For example, the first place to begin the fight against childhood obesity would be to end corn subsidies. It's an idea that makes me giddy yet I've never heard a peep.
You have justed paid me the highest honor.
If you really think about what you have said about our relationship, you can come up with the powerful reasons that drive the raw milk movement.
1. When the FDA denies vehemently that there is no medical value to raw milk…yet the raw milk consumer knows intimiately that the oposite is true…..then that makes the FDA a bunch of lying FOOD INC traitors to all Americans. This is why there is an inverse relationship between FDA condemnation and harrassment of raw milk consumption and its ever increasing consumption. The more the FDA says that drinking raw milk is like playing Russian Roulette with your health….the more people really want to play some Roullette. They already know the certainty of the toxic deadly American Pharma crap shoot.
2. When the farmer is paid in compliments ( as well as fair cash payment )….I mean…real heart felt sincere compliments that say "thank you for my life"….that farmer is changed forever. I have been changed forever!! Multiply this compliment times thousands of consumers and you have a passionate grass roots movement that is not stoppable. You also find farmers that have found their passion and their purpose in life!!
3. No science experiments ( or $2 billion dollar 7 year drug approval projects ) are needed to verify the fact that each individual experiences dramatic changes in immune status when drinking raw milk. Living foods bring life. You can follow the money right to the devil at the FDA, Monsanto, Cargill, Tyson, Bayer, and every other drug company in the USA. There is something about the truth….it happens to be true.
4. Consumers of raw milk will tell others about their healing experience and beg more farmers to provide them raw milk. That is what happened when the FDA shut down the OPDC pet food raw milk business 2 years ago. The fire starts slowly but then it burns wildly. By cutting off OPDC pet food sales ordering, the FDA forced consumers to find other local sources of raw milk and nationally raw milk sales expanded dramatically… when the FDA intent was to stop it at all costs. The FDA just can not win for losing. SB 510 will have the same effect if it passes. SB 510 is just fake lipstick on the uglyest CAFO pig we have ever seen.
POOP AND UDDER LOCATIONS…..
As far as the distance between the udder and the booper…that was no miss- engineering or mistake or fluke of nature. There is a very good reason that cows have their boopers located exactly above their udders. 80% of the immune sytem of the calf is transfered after delivery, where in humans and other meat eaters the oposite is true and 80% of the immune system is transfered prior to or during delivery or immediately after delivery. Baby calves need the innoculum that comes only from fresh manure to gain the digestive bacteria and immune system factors in order to thrive and survive ( this basic information comes from Dr. Cat Berg DVM PhD at UC Davis and other Vets I work with ).
We, as modern brain washed humans, are bacteria paranoid and have become weak. We have become weak because we are missing our good bacteria and whole foods that nourish them. This does not mean that we should live in filth….to the contrary, there is a balance between sanitation and connection to our ecosystems.
The secret to the good bacteria connection is to find sources of sundrenched vibrant clean and green ecosystems that bring forth good bacteria and avoid ( like the plague ) the filthy dead antibiotic abused PMO CAFO sewer sources of bad bacteria.
There are "Two Raw Milks in America".
Michael….Blessings to you….thank you for bringing purpose and passion to my life and the lives of others.
This is the fifth week in a row that OPDC has set all time high sales records and we are not even selling butter and cheese ( cause we ran out and do not have enough milk ).
In CA…The fire is raging!!!
Mark
cp
Not familair with Patrick Fox. Sorry.
I am somewhat familiar with Frank Kosikowski. He was a founder of the American Cheese Society, and wrote the famous "Cheese and fermented milk foods"
Here is the link, please share this!
Now is the time to mobilize in defense of our food. Monday the Senate will move on S 510. This blog explains what is at stake and what action we, as raw dairy supporters can take.
http://hartkeisonline.com/food-politics/how-the-fda-can-use-s-510-to-close-down-raw-milk-dairies/
Kimberly Hartke
Reston, VA
We have produced cheese and butter for several years with out the need of buying from outside of our internal production. The availability of raw butter and raw cheese has fluxuated as a direct result and supplies have been up and down.
How did we do this?….we bought more organic cows. Remember the "cow rescue" effort in April and May….remember OPDC buying more cows???
I serve people just like Michael….negative people are to be ignorred.
Mark
By the way…I really do not think that SB 510 is dooms day for raw milk at least in CA. The FDA can not overturn CA state law. If the FDA wants to regulate CA raw milk they will have to first set achievable standards for raw milk. They will not do this, because this simple act would then open up the interstate commerce ban on raw milk, and the CFR 1240.61 flood gates would open. SB 510 is a two edged sword. I have been sharping the other side of SB 510 for quite some time. remember…as a raw milk dairymen, you must also be a professional organic lemonade maker. SB 510 may be lemons to us all…but everything negative has a very serious good side to it. Implimentation of SB 510 will spell terror to the FDA. Hearings will expose all sorts of PMO weaknesses.
The devil is in the implimentation and the details. Judges can block all sorts of SB 510 implimentation elements. We have State Laws…..and the people in CA voted long ago to protect raw milk as a sacred food for its citizens Food & Ag Code #35928 ( f ).
The FDA wants nothing to do with more market growth based on exposure of their PMO weaknesses and trying to stop raw milk. Remember there is an inverse relationship between FDA oppression and market excitement and growth.
It can be argued that Raw Milk is SB 510 exempt becuase it does not go across state lines. I have not heard one little word about raw milk being regulated by SB 510. Not one peep.
Also…the FDA would never require their Mega Dairy NCIMS bed buddies to have HACCP plans. That is not workable and NCIMS would never require it. The conventional dairymen of this country do not have the money or the brain power or desire to put into place any FDA mandated HACCP programs. That was dead before it was discussed or even thought of.
Mark
I think you're being overly optimistic about S 510. The so-called food safety legislation will give the FDA vastly expanded power over intrastate food activities. Even food facilities that sell only within a particular state, and have no interstate commerce, will fall under FDA jurisdiction. Moreover, depending on which version of the legislation is finally passed (House or Senate), the FDA will have powers to set "scientific standards." In the House version, this power is very broad, and could thus include requiring pasteurization of ALL milk, interstate or intrastate. The Senate version limits the imposition of scientific standards to fruits and vegetables, so presumably the FDA could require all our fruits and veggies be irradiated.
Bottom line, FDA will have vast powers most people don't fully appreciate. And as we know, FDA isn't afraid to throw its weight around, even when its authority is questionable. All the foodies supporting this thing are in for a very unpleasant dose of regulatory reality if it passes, I'm afraid.
David
Webb's Contact Info:
(202)-224-4024
http://webb.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Thank you!
Alice
Raw milk cheese can still cross state lines. We have already seen what FDA is trying to do to raw milk cheese makers. I can't imagine what will happen if SB510 passes.
I do not fear the bull in the china shop. The FDA knows there are limits to their bulldozer. The citizens of CA will stop them cold. Federal judges trump FDA asses.
Mark
Mark
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333432/Humiliated-Female-passenger-subjected-patdown-sanitary-towel-showed-body-scanner.html
"The CDC have said that passengers should request the TSA agent use fresh gloves before conducting their body search."
"Dr Thomas Warner from Wisconsin told WND: 'There is no doubt that bacteria (staph, strep, v.cholerae etc.) and viruses (noro, enteroviruses, herpes, hepatitis A and papilloma viruses) can be spread by contaminated vinyl or latex gloves'.
'If a traveller has diarrhea and is soiled, as can and does happen, the causative agent can be spread by this method since bacteria and viruses in moist environments have greater viability', he added.
'The traveler readjusting clothes can easily get the infectious agents on their hands and therefore into their mouth, nose and eyes.'
'How come if we as doctors have guidelines, we must wear gloves and have oversight, it's very different [for the TSA]'."
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/6031282/ucsf_scientists_question_safety_of.html
Indeed, if the govt was really concerned with the health of the population, this would not be an issue of any kind. Health care workers are required to change gloves between each patient. AND wash hands numerous times.
Enough . . . . .
Hope other small farmers out there are willing to join me.
BTW . . . . the invite still stands to all who want to see how farming truly should be done on a small scale . . . .
Kind regards,
Violet
http://www.kilbyridgefarmmaine.blogspot.com
That is easy for you to say, being the largest raw milk bottler in North America.
But can you think how many small farms we will lose if SB510 passes? It may be an opportunity to embarass the FDA (just as DATCP's crackdown on raw milk became a golden opportunity to embaress them and the WI dairy processing industry), but there are trade-offs.
Just sayin… let's keep the pressure on against SB510.
Two years later, we still have two raw milk dairies in California and Mark McAfee claims his business have never been better. SB 201 forced OPDC to create RAMP, a raw milk safety plan, which Mark is quite proud of and even spoke about it at the WAPF conference this year.
Some raw milk advocates are so paranoid it is difficult to know what the truth is about SB 510.
I have heard of the radiation and health risk (especially to those who are genetically prone to breast cancer) from the TSA backscatter full-body scanners, and the horrific human and civil rights violations of people undergoing the new TSA pat downs (aka "gate rape"). These practices are supposed to make us safer, yet what is keeping a hypothetical suicide bomber from detonating in the large queue of people awaiting these absurd practices?
The truth is, life is inherently dangerous and eventually deadly. All the safety regulations in the world will ultimately fail, but the point, as in the raw milk "debate", is not public safety.
DHS secretary Napolitano is advocating for this type of screening at train stations and subways too. This may seem like a wise precaution until you think outside the box and follow the money. It is exactly like many of the anti- raw milk lobby who have a vested interest in keeping the superior product unavailable to the public. They are just like former Homeland Security secy Chertoff – an unapologetic shill for their own private interests.
http://www.allgov.com/Where_is_the_Money_Going/ViewNews/Body_Scanners_Create_Profits_for_Chertoff_and_Others_101123
I hadn't thought of who was profiting from the x-ray machines. You'll open more eyes as I share your link. Thank you.
I was correlating for the germ-phobics, how our govt is promoting the spread of "bad germs" without informing the public. Your link only adds to their deception to the public.
Just think, if 100 people were groped before you, that is 101 peoples germs that are being rubbed on you…. I'll bet the groper scratches their head, rubs their face,etc so their germs are on the gloves too.
… the court also challenged the FDA's finding that there is "no measurable compositional difference" between milk from rbGH-treated cows and milk from untreated cows. This FDA finding has been the major roadblock to rbGH regulation, and the court struck it down.
For the past 17 years, the FDA's has held on to their initial finding that there's "no significant difference" between the milk of cows given genetically modified artificial growth hormone and those that aren't.
It's also quite clear that it's bad for the cows that are injected with this hormone. One 1998 survey by Family Farm Defenders found that mortality rates for rBGH-injected cows on factory dairy farms in Wisconsin were about 40 percent per year. In other words, after two and a half years of rBGH injections most of these drugged and supercharged cows were dead.
The typical lifespan of a happy, healthy dairy cow (read: organically-raised) is 15 to 20 years!
The federal verdict opens the door not only to use rBGH-free labels; it also opens the back door, so to speak, for consumer groups to push for labeling of NON-GM salmon, should the FDA again decide the altered salmon does not need to carry a GM label.
Above selected quotes from:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/11/25/finally-huge-victory-against-monsanto-milk.aspx
Again, Lykke, CP, Regulator, et all… do you REALLY believe that FDA knows best and has our best interests at heart?
Your assessment of SB201 is in retrospect probably mostly correct. I was outraged by the breach of democratic process when AB1735 passes with out hearing or debate. When my box of lemons arrived I was in shock.
Tenacity ingenuity and hard work has now created a protected market that keeps additional farmers from even trying to attempt raw milk in CA. SB201 failed by Arnold veto but the political battle had been won.
I agree that small farmers will likely lose with SB510. That is we must fight it hard. But SB 510 is also an opportunity for those that sharpen the other side of the sword and make lemonade
SB510 does not address raw mill anywhere by name. EU standards and international standards do not ban raw milk
How would the FDA stand in front of a federal judge in ca and ban a food that has killed no one and is protected by state law?? The court and waiting rooms would be jammed with protestors.
Not going to happen. The FDA operates well when in the dark. Inthe open they fail
I agree that we must call like crazy tomorrow. But if lemons come. Then make lemonade and stop seeing every threat as doomsday. Some threats actually become manna from heaven.
Mark
Try this….Welcome change and be the first to do it best. Commodity markets are filled with huge companies that are wasting away and being eaten alive by mundane generic mediocrity.
If SB 510 passes a whole new world of opportunity awaits for those that take a challenge and convert it into a bright new future. Innovation matters again when change comes.
The FDA is actually very weak becuase they have huge masters to serve and they serve them well. The NCIMS will not change the PMO dramatically. The FDA sleeps with Deans Foods and NCIMS CAFO buddies. They could be our biggest ally if SB 510 passes. NCIMS is hugely powerful and will not change one little bit. That means that change may not happen for others under the same cloak of control. Descrimination between two "Grade A Dairies" will not happen. The FDA wants no part of Raw Milk and the hearings adn moms with all their stories and condemnation of pasteurized CAFO PMO dead white stuff.
The FDA wants to keep the lid tightly shut on that can of worms.
Mark
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/11/28/MN6P1GGGAH.DTL
I love the fact that they left my quotes alone…that is SF for you!!
Mark