The Complete Patient

I think this item about Mark McAfee's latest run-in with the federal government falls in the I-swear-I-didn't-make-this-up department. Ironically, it comes just as the controversy about Organic Pastures' latest tussle with California’s Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) had seemingly blown over.

Mark, owner of Organic Pastures, had completed his recall of raw cream the agency warned nearly two weeks ago was contaminated with listeria moncytogenes. CDFA followed up today by giving him the go-ahead to resume raw cream sales. Even on this blog, emotions had quieted down from last week’s red-hot debate.

Then, out of nowhere, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stuck its nose in and appears to have ignited an entirely new chapter in the affair, which started over a highly questionable finding by the CDFA of listeria monocytogenes in some Organic Pastures cream. The FDA yesterday informed Organic Pastures, the nation’s largest raw milk dairy, that it planned to issue a press release this week warning consumers nationwide not to consume the dairy’s raw cream or butter, since a miniscule amount was shipped outside of California.

Negotiations between Organic Pastures and the FDA over the text of the release were continuing as of this evening, but, as you might imagine, it hasn’t been a pretty process.

According to the email correspondence between Organic Pastures and the FDA, provided to me by Mark, the problems started when the FDA offered Organic Pastures a chance to put together an initial draft of a press release to be issued by the FDA alerting consumers that 21 pints of its raw cream shipped outside of California as “pet food” were part of the original recall ordered by CDFA. If I hadn't seen the email correspondence myself, I would have said that the whole idea of the FDA asking Mark McAfee to write a press release was better suited to a Saturday Night Live skit than anything that might happen in real life.

Interestingly, Mark agreed to try his hand at writing a release, and even more interesting, the release Mark put together starts out pretty reasonably (from the FDA's vantage point): “During routine OPDC product tests performed by the State of California at the CDFA lab in Los Angeles, Listeria Monocytogenes was found.” So far, so good.

He then warms up a bit when he states, “Listeria Monocytogenes generally does not cause illness in healthy people unless the consumer is very immune depressed. Common signs of illness include sepsis and meningitis. Listeria Monocytogenes is associated with miscarriage of early pregnancy. About 10% of the population carries this pathogen in their intestines and is immune to its effects.” Still passable if you're an FDAer, I’d say.

But then he gets going: “People that drink raw milk or raw cream on a regular basis have a much stronger and different immune system. This is because of the constant exposure to a broad range of good bacteria not generally found in the standard diet of Americans today.” Pow!

Believe me, I want to still be alive the day the FDA allows those two sentences to be included in one of its press releases.

Needless to say, Mark’s career as an FDA press release writer was short-lived. In an email, Jolene Hedgecock of the FDA’s “Recall Team” in San Francisco, wrote: “FDA does not feel that your suggested draft of the press release is adequate. FDA plans on issuing its own press release (see attached) warning consumers about the raw cream and the raw butter, which was made from the raw cream. This is obviously a separate action from the decisions made by the State of California. FDA will post its press release on the FDA website and issue it to the Associated Press. Therefore, FDA feels there is no longer a need for you to issue a separate press release.”

The FDA version said the FDA “is warning consumers not to drink or consume foods made from raw cream labeled as ‘Organic Pastures Grade A Raw Cream’” and, “Consumers are also warned to not consume foods made from raw butter” from Organic Pastures. And it actually notes, "No illnesses have been reported to date."

But as you might expect, Mark cared as much for the FDA’s version as that agency cared for his, except Mark was more outspoken about his dissatisfaction. “The bacterial analysis of the raw butter showed no signs of listeria,” he wrote back to Jolene. “ All tests are negative. In fact, CDFA official test reports on the raw butter were negative ( 9-18-07 ). FDA is warning people not to consume raw butter that has been cleared for sale. Your proposed FDA press release is factually incorrect and highly misleading. Adding a warning about raw butter is slanderous and baseless.” It all “proves the FDA intent to slander and express its deep anti raw milk bias.”

The latest word from Jolene to Mark this afternoon was that she “related your concerns to my agency, and this matter is currently being evaluated. The FDA press release has not been issued. I will let you know when I hear back from my management.”

I suspect someone within FDA is asking this question: “Who in hell decided to ask Mark McAfee to draft that press release?”