The Complete Patient

I was in a hurry last evening to get the news posted about the California and New York raw milk developments, so I didn’t attempt much in the way of analysis.

But Robin Anderson's comments on that posting raise some important questions that I’d like to address, because these two situations illustrate key issues swirling around raw milk, and food issues in general.

First off, it’s difficult to know in California what’s really going on in the little interplay between Aajonus Vonderplanitz and Mark McAfee. It could be a good-cop-bad-cop routine. There could be some bad blood between the two over business dealings. Or it could be a genuine ideological type of split that is, unfortunately, not uncommon in political movements. We saw one such split vividly in the Civil Rights movement during the 1960s and 1970s between those advocating violence (Black Panthers) and those advocating non-violent protests (led by Dr. Martin Luther King).

Such splits—among individuals or groups that are in general agreement—can become even more bitter than the larger issues they are supposedly fighting to resolve, and thus very distracting. Hopefully that's not what's going on here.

Second, and probably more significant, is the issue Robin raises about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. She wonders why, as a body builder, his natural tendency wouldn’t be with natural food. He probably has such sympathies, but what is likely going on behind the scenes involves a struggle between the bureaucrats and the politicians.

If the legislature reverses AB 1735, it would be a huge blow to both the prestige and power of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which by all accounts was the primary force behind the stealth legislation to begin with. The CDFA is pushing the governor hard, real hard, not to give in to the changes now being considered by the legislature.

The CDFA could probably come away with a change in the coliform standard to 50 coliforms per milliliter and still save face. But a complete reversal? That would be hard to live down. And Mark McAfee, among others, would probably have some fun reminding CDFA about its failure.

The Meadowsweet Dairy situation in New York can be viewed similarly, but here as a test of the struggle between the bureaucrats and the judiciary. The NY Department of Agriculture and Markets desperately wants to avoid having the Meadowsweet case go to trial. Once again, if the judges decide to get seriously involved, then you could have a situation like what occurred in Ohio in December 2006, when a state court ruled against the Ohio Department of Agriculture and for the herdshare concept.

No, I think we’re viewing first-hand a key test in the struggle between the regulators and the politicians/judges who oversee the bureaucrats.

The bureaucrats understandably want to keep these issues out of the public arena, since the public is becoming ever more aware of the problems with our food system, and the opportunities for good health in whole foods. The politicians tend to go along with the regulators because the politicians don't want to take strong stands on much of anything these days, for fear of the gotcha approach to campaign contests these days.

But the politicians need to at least give the appearance of listening, and sometimes responding. You know that in California, the politicians have heard a great deal from the public about raw milk and AB 1735, and want the emails and calls to stop. Over the next few weeks, we should begin to get some interesting insights into how tight the bureaucratic grip on our food really is.   

I agree with Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures and Barbara and Stevel Smith of Meadowsweet Dairy, who are all urging raw milk supporters to attend the legislative, regulatory, and judicial hearings upcoming over the next couple weeks. It can only help for the people in authority to see that there are significant numbers of people who really care.