The Story Behind the Story of Ron Paul's Raw-Milk Proposal; Article in The Nation on Farm Problems
Sunday, November 18, 2007 at 10:28PM The speech in Congress and introduction of legislation permitting interstate shipments of raw milk by Rep. Ron Paul didn't just happen in a vacuum.
According to an email account from Aajonus Vonderplanitz, the California raw food expert, the move by the dark-horse presidential candidate grew out of a concerted two-month campaign last summer by Aajonus and two other raw-milk advocates, Jeff Slay of St. Louis, MO, and Leslie Jacob of Appleton, WI. Here is how he describes the effort:
"Even though we were there two months, we were able to meet with 76 legislative representatives only. Personally, we met with three legislators. Probably 72 of the 76 believed that raw milk carried disease. When we left the meetings, all but four of them believed that raw milk was advantageous to health and bacteria in it was not a problem. Three of them were uncertain and one was outright negative and refused to help use at all--that was Diane Feinstein's office. Looking over all of the legislation where her votes were pivotal, she voted for the present administration's depriving us of civil rights and continued war in Iraq. Why did Californians vote for her?
"Many of you helped by faxing Agricultural Committee members and your senators and representatives. Your faxes and calls helped us secure meetings and support. We had 1,100 copies of the Report In Favor Of Natural Milk printed. We visited all 537 offices and gave each legislator a 5-15-minutes pitch with the Report. Representative Dr. Ron Paul's top assistant, Norman Singleton, agreed to submit a bill to Congress for raw milk. Did you get that, a medical doctor to submit the raw milk bill? I had to write the bill and submit it for several rewrites; to make it as saccharine as possible so that it at least will have a chance to pass. Ron Paul did the final version (HR 4077) in mid-October. Dr. Paul introduced the bill less than two weeks ago on November 5, 2007. On Thursday, 11/15/07, representatives Dennis Kucinich (OH) and Peter Welch (VT) joined as cosponsors. We have 70 more representatives who said that if we got someone to submit the bill, they would join as cosponsors."
It certainly sounds as if legislators are open to hearing about raw milk. Sure, this is before they hear hysterical rebuttals from the dairy industry, Food and Drug Administration, and U.S. Department of Agriculture. But we begin to at least to see some possibilities here. (By the way, Steve Bemis provides a brief and enlightening history of how the federal government came to prohibit interstate shipment of raw milk, and the role of Ralph Nader in the matter, in a comment on my post of a few days ago about lobbying for raw milk.)
Aajonus advises calling Rep Ron Paul's office (202) 225-2831 along with cosponsors Rep Dennis Kucinich (202) 225-5871 and Rep Peter Welch (202) 225-4115 to thank them for their efforts.
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I just wrote an article published in The Nation (online) about farmers being harassed by regulators, based on a number of the cases I've described on this blog. In the article, I speculate about why the issue has become so pronounced over the last year or so. Take a look and see if you agree. Feel free to email the article from The Nation's site to friends you think might be interested. Visiting the site and emailing also helps convince the magazine's editors that there is interest in this topic.
Reader Comments (20)
Currently the only segment of society having to file movement reports and register where they live are convicted sex offenders.
http://nonais.org/index.php/2006/09/29/henshaw-incident/
A few minutes and bucks invested in calling your elected offal will go a long way to stop NAIS. Even if you do not own animals you will be affected by NAIS because the local organic movement will be severely curtailed by NAIS regulations. The choices of meat will be limited to buying factory farmed animals because under NAIS, only big ag will have the meat animals.
Will this be a new start in people raising thier own produce/animals for consumption?
We need to stop Monsanto and our Present Government from using Terminator Seeds that make us slaves to the cooperate.
I read Monsanto has patented a 'breeding' techinque for swine. Thus they own all that breed of swine. Just like the soybean and corn contamination from THIER GMO crops pollen drift.
Sadly, no. NAIS targets small farmers and people with backyard animals specifically. I mean, an underground is likely to start up, but that will be under deep cover, somewhat like what goes on with raw milk in some states now.
It is time for a revolution. Ron Paul is leading the way.
I know, if it is "organic" it must be good for you, even if it has deadly bacteria in it.
I am in favor of small farms and the farmer. I am not in favor of defiance of tests to find harmful bacteria in our food from whatever source. Upton Sinclair wrote "The Jungle" about the unsanitary slaughter house industry. The government role in food inspection resulted from this exposure. Now you want to reverse this trend. If a small, squeaky clean farmer can break the law, so can a megacorporation. If one million goat cheeses are free from listeria, the next one may not be.
Read this abstract carefully:
The authors: Linnan MJ, Mascola L, Lou XD, Goulet V, May S, Salminen C, Hird DW, Yonekura ML, Hayes P, Weaver R, et al.
Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA 30333.
In Los Angeles County, California, 142 cases of human listeriosis were reported from January 1 through August 15, 1985. Ninety-three cases (65.5 percent) occurred in pregnant women or their offspring, and 49 (34.5 percent) in nonpregnant adults. There were 48 deaths: 20 fetuses, 10 neonates, and 18 nonpregnant adults. Of the nonpregnant adults, 98 percent (48 of 49) had a known predisposing condition. Eighty-seven percent (81 of 93) of the maternal/neonatal cases were Hispanic. Of the Listeria monocytogenes isolates available for study, 82 percent (86 of 105) were serotype 4b, of which 63 of 86 (73 percent) were the same phage type. A case-control study implicated Mexican-style soft cheese (odds ratio, 5.5; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.2 to 24.8) as the vehicle of infection; a second case-control study showed an association with one brand (Brand A) of Mexican-style soft cheese (odds ratio, 8.5; 95 percent confidence interval, 2.4 to 26.2). Laboratory study confirmed the presence of L. monocytogenes serogroup 4b of the epidemic phage type in Brand A Mexican-style cheese. In mid-June, all Brand A cheese was recalled and the factory was closed. An investigation of the cheese plant suggested that the cheese was commonly contaminated with unpasteurized milk. We conclude that the epidemic of listeriosis was caused by ingestion of Brand A cheese contaminated by one phage type of L. monocytogenes serotype 4b.
Or read this article:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1370/is_v20/ai_4226847
I'm so happy you want to give me a home in raw milk. My favorite targets are the weak and infirm, like cancer patients, babies and old folks. Read all about my exploits here:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1370/is_v20/ai_4226847
This is a 1986 article that refers to illnesses from soft cheeses made in Mexico, under who knows what kind of conditions, then smuggled across the US border in suitcases (aka "suitcase cheese"), in almost certainly unfavorable temperatures and extended time frames.
Not ideal eating, even if the cheeses were pasteurized to begin with. Considering those conditions, I certainly wouldn't eat them, pasteurized or not.
Sorry, all this article does is point out that we shouldn't eat suitcase cheese made in Mexico and brought over illegally in the trunk of someone's car in hot conditions for hours (if not days).
Sheesh, no kidding.
I strongly suggest we do not feed these trolls!
David,
Congrats on your article being published in The Nation. It was picked up by the progressive site Common Dreams at http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/17/5301/
and that is where I found it. There is some discussion there, with the usual "Why didn't he just let them test for TB?" statements concerning Greg Niewendorp’s refusal to let the MDA on his property without a search warrant. I directed those people to this blog. Hopefully, they aren't our new trolls. But overall, the tone on Common Dreams is that we're entering a new era of fascism in this country.
Henwhisperer; You mean that the big factory farms are not to be required to have the NAIS?
What is the reason for this NAIS? Why would the animals need to be tracked?
David, I think Kucinich's mind will not be changed. He's a small farm supporter through and through. I also received a very positive email back from OH representative/former newscaster John Dominick after writing him an email a little over a year ago. With the current governor, I think OH is sitting well for now, and I hope the sale of raw milk from Grade A dairies makes some headway. After the herdshare success, I've heard rumors of others thinking of starting some on the side.
Some farmers are choosing irradiation instead of pasteurization for cider, but I sure do miss the unpasteurized stuff.
Great article, and great blog.
Gwen
Ohio is a model for how to go about it. The most KGB-like state in regards to raw milk just a year or two ago, they have really been turned around. This, thanks to the ‘education’ of the then candidate for governor by raw milk proponents (and the Gestapo tactics of the ODA). Much can be learned from the actions taken there, and the progress they have made is encouraging for those in other backward states.
The ignorance exhibited by these trolls is comical. While they shouldn’t be encouraged, I think they are quite entertaining….especially given the miracle that we know raw milk is. Evolution isn’t for everyone. Compassion and understanding, as you giggle to yourself.
Kucinichs' agricultural stance made me a supporter in 2004….
The bill proposal was a big deal - to ask that Grade A dairies be permitted to sell raw milk. After the raids, the bill was a direct challange to the ODA. It still has not passed. But a bunch of people did their homework, and showed up at the bill hearings, took notes, and posted who said what on the wantmilk blog. The ODA was hard put to contest factual information such as the kind David posts here. They looked bad. They now have a new director.
Kucinich has been a supporter as long as I've known he's existed. People wrote letters to Strickland, and their OH congress people. The raids were highly publicized, and discussed extensively in several agricultural Yahoo groups I belonged to, such as ohiogoats. I wrote a letter to the editor for "Farm and Dairy," out of Salem, OH, that was published describing cowshares and pointing out their bias in an article concerning a raid on a dairy farm. They only published the ODA's perspective. I gave them the facts from the other side. I didn't realize how many people read "Farm and Dairy," until that issue was published.
I print out articles from the internet all the time, and take them to Farm Bureau council. When discussion comes up with individuals anywhere, if I don't know my facts, I look them up for the next time I see that person.
Communication and discussion go a long way; and it really helps if you have an organized group keeping track of what is going on and blogging about it. Even people you don't know well or like much might have something like this in common with you. Pass on information to people you think might like to have it, even if you don't know for sure, to facilitate communication and organization. And when it actually accomplishes something - even if you were a small cog, it feels really good.
Gwen
"Henwhisperer; You mean that the big factory farms are not to be required to have the NAIS?"
CAFOs need just one animal id number per in/out lot of tens of thousands of animals that move together. Small farmers, homesteaders, etc. would need to individually id each animal. There is a disconnect there, isn't there, when a meat animal on a small farm is seen a couple of times a day and one of ten thousand beeves might never be visually inspected for soundness.
"What is the reason for this NAIS? Why would the animals need to be tracked?"
The original reason was supposedly to only have a 48 hour traceback in case of disease, but it seems to have morphed into keeping track of animals, like during the CO blizzards last winter. That was about as off purpose as a program could get. In fact, USDA's draft strategic plan assured that the only use of NAIS was to traceback in the case of disease. A blizzard isn't disease and, in truth, the ranchers didn't need to find their cattle to feed them because they had already taken care of it.
If USDA has already broken their own rules then imagine what will happen when they want to break more rules and tell horse owners they will have to report trail rides.
The California dairy deejaayss references was absolved of any blame in the listeria poisonings, which caused the deaths of 48 people in 1985:
The New York Times
July 15, 1989
California Dairy Is Absolved Of Blame in Poisonings of 48
REUTERS
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5D91E31F936A25754C0A96F948260&sec=health&pagewanted=print
LEAD: A jury today absolved California's largest dairy of any blame for a batch of bacteria-contaminated cheese that killed 48 people four years ago.
A jury today absolved California's largest dairy of any blame for a batch of bacteria-contaminated cheese that killed 48 people four years ago.
The jury in Los Angeles Superior Court also rejected claims by the cheese manufacturer, Jalisco Mexican Products, now defunct, that the listeria bacteria were present in raw milk it purchased from the Alta-Dena Certified Dairy.
In a lawsuit, Jalisco's former owner argued that the dairy should share liability for an estimated $100 million in damage claims filed by victims of the listeriosis epidemic.
Federal investigators traced 142 cases of listeriosis in 1985, including 48 fatalities, to soft cheese made by Jalisco. But medical experts never determined whether the contamination resulted from Alta-Dena's raw milk or from haphazard pasteurization and dirty conditions at Jalisco's Los Angeles plant.
Listeria bacteria are common in the environment but are only lethal in concentrated amounts or to people with immature or damaged immune systems, like babies and AIDS patients.
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Upton Sinclair's expose in The Jungle resulted in the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act. The Hundred-Year Lie by Randall Fitzgerald, discloses how the government, pharmaceutical, and big business interests have perpetuated the same issues which plagued us a century ago; and we are no better off today.
The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest -- but the myth -- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.
- John F. Kennedy
A word with part of it being radiation leaves a sour taste. Food irradiation; makes potatoes sterile, they cannot sprout (I need them to sprout to plant). If it makes plants sterile, kills molds, bacteria, fungus, etc, It must do something to the human body, especially after prolonged exposure. I don't recall seeing the emblem that is supposed to be used on foods that have been irradiated. I will have to look closer.
With all the hype of "contaminated" raw milk, has either Claravale Dairy and Organic Pastures had any episodes of milk contamination that sickened anyone? I've read of the recalls, yet no media has confirmed that any sickness was from the dairies, at least I've not read of it. I've read of illness caused by pasteurized dairy and a few raw dairies, the illnesses from the raw dairies were not from the 2 mentioned raw dairies.