At OPDC and Claravale, It’s the Drip, Drip, Drip of CA Raw Milk Torture—The Destructiveness of “Degrades”
Sunday, October 12, 2008 at 11:40AM
You’ve heard of Chinese water torture. Interrogators determined to obtain cooperation from a prisoner subject him or her to the drip, drip, drip of water on the forehead…until it drives the prisoner crazy.
That’s sort of what’s been happening to Organic Pastures Dairy Co. and Claravale Farm, the state’s two raw milk producers. Once again, there have been “degrades”—situations where the dairies are found by California's Department of Food and Agriculture to exceed the ten-coliform-per-milliliter standard of AB 1735, which remains as the law in California, following the veto of SB 201 last month.
The two dairies just put out a joint press release stating, “ This year the two CA raw milk dairies have been shut down several times by what is a called a ‘CDFA degrade.’ During a degrade, a product is cut off from retail sale and cannot be sold until it passes certain coliform test standards. This is not the same as a ‘product recall,’ where an unsafe product is removed from sale for safety reasons. ‘Degrades’ do not remove product from shelves, instead they “prohibit the delivery of new fresh product to the stores”. This amounts to a financially crushing blow to the dairy and eliminates consumer choice in fresh raw milk for many days at a time even though no pathogens are present in the perfectly good raw milk. During the week of October 6-10, no fresh dated Claravale raw skim or OPDC raw cream was sold to stores. They were degraded by CDFA even though perfectly safe.
“The veto of SB 201 by the governor has reduced the ability of Claravale and OPDC to produce raw milk and have it available on a routine basis in California for consumers wishing to drink raw milk.”
I’ve been aware of several of these degrades, and generally have avoided writing about them, since they have always been just for a few days, and I’ve learned about them after the fact. Minor stuff individually, except that, taken together, the two dairies really do face a serious business problem. Few small businesses can afford to be shut down unpredictably by government authorities, and thrive over the long term.
I think that what we’re witnessing is something akin to the electricity situation in New Delhi. Without warning, you won’t have it for an afternoon, or a day or two. And then, suddenly, it is back.
While electric companies don’t have to worry about lost revenue from such episodes, since they are usually owned by the government or large corporations, small raw milk dairies do.
Aside from the debilitating impact, there are indications that the testing for coliforms is far from precise and accurate. Diane Reifschneider, a raw milk advocate who has posted comments on this site, has written Mark McAfee urging him to do a study comparing a private lab’s coliform measurements with CDFA’s.
She bases her suggestion on a posting I did last January pointing out that a CDFA coliform measurement showed 28 coliforms per milliliter, versus Mark’s measurement of 12 coliforms from the same batch of raw milk. She argues that because such discrepances are larger than the maximum value allowed under law (10 coliforms per milliliter), they are inherently invalid.
“ It is scientifically illogical to use a measurement method where the numerical error associated with that measurement is larger than the total numerical value of the target measurement itself,” she said in a note to Mark that she shared with me.
She says an associate of hers, who is a Ph.D. in chemistry, challenged a CDFA official about the discrepancies last January, but was told, essentially, that the only measurement that counts is the CDFAs.
Mark has expressed upset about the test discrepancies in the past, noting that sometimes they work for him, and sometimes against him. He doesn’t want to speculate on where he might go legally with the problem.
In the meantime, it’s drip, drip, drip. If you’re a California raw milk shopper, you may want to buy a quart or two beyond your usual purchase, just to have a little extra on hand for the next degrade. It’s not a matter of if, but when.
Reader Comments (20)
As pointed out numerous times on this blog, of all the foods that sicken people, raw dairy is a tiny slice of that pie. Other foods are more common with contamination and sicken many more people as do vaccinations, etc. than raw dairy does. I would expect the govt to go after those that are more prevailant.
Don, it is questionable if those in "power" know what either constitution says.
For the naysayers I have suffered no ill effects consuming raw dairy for the last 40 months and being in the elderly group "they" say I am the most at risk to become ill. Life is full of risks sure I could get sick but I dont live my life in missguided fear from the fearmongers.
Again RAW DAIRY is a very special food product like none other but that is just my opinion.
CHOISE is the mantra of those in favor of RAW DAIRY. CHOISE is freedom for all . The inverse of CHOISE is TYRANNY.
I find it hard to understand why the govt allows toxins/chemicals added to or on "foods" yet there is such negativity against foods in the natural state.
Are the spinach farmers/producers still in business? Who paid for thier mistakes?
Was the outcome in the media? I don't recall seeing it. When I lived in FL, there was many boil water alerts, there was warnings about fish or shellfish. I don't recall any producers being shut down. Only "warnings" on the news.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html?th&emc=th
FOX NEWS LA was at the dairy today for a raw milk story. CDFA and the FDA refuse to speak with them. That lack of responsiveness declares them guilty as hell.
The story will be nationally broadcast next weekend.
Only living foods bring life!!
Mark McAfee
CA standards test bottled milk. Coliforms (good and bad) multiply over time. Colorado has a coliform standard of 50, but it can jump a lot higher than that and still have no pathogens - most likely it is simply more of the good lactobacillus strains. But you'd have to test for specific strains to see what kind they are - which is why SB201 was a better
idea.
The 10 coliform standard makes no sense at all - but it's really hard to get that through the thick skulls of state and federal regulators trained that all bacteria is bad and them germs are gonna get you. One has to explain about bacteria, which is beyond their ken, and the 'germ theory of disease' vs the "host theory of disease", which really hurts their brain/belief system, and turns our whole "healthcare" system (and the whole premise behind their job) on it's head.
That's too many paradigms to bust all at once. So regulators hold on tight to the senseless coliform standard, refuse to give up their raw milk trophies, and refuse to see that they're just protecting their jobs, not the public. Like Don and Sylvia say, small dairies are easy targets, spinach is too hard to trace, and they " protect the public" over our dead bodies. This system is vastly irritating - hats off to OPDC and Claravale for hanging in there. You are truly heroic - thank you!!
Mark, please let us know how we can watch the FOX story.
Gary I hope you're right about the tipping point. It depends on consumers.
-Blair
Thats according to the producer.
As far as coliforms are concerned. This test was designed to test for effective pasteurization back in the 1930s. The goal was zero coliforms. 10 was the relative error becuase the test is so pitiful so when milk is properly pasteurized their should be zero living coliforms but the standard allows ten becuase the lab test has such a large relative error.
When the goal is not zero ( like in raw milk ) and instead the goal is less than 10....the error creates a failure a high percentage of the time.
In WA state 75% of the raw milk dairies are goat dairies. Goats are much easier to keep very clean because of their type of pebbly dry manure. Cows make wet slop manure which is harder to clean off the udders perfectly. That is why WA State can do the less than 10 coliforms on goats. The cows dairies have struggled with this standard.
Also, WA state allows hand capping directly from the bulk tank. CA requires a test on final products. This added manipulation ( pipes, pumps, air, water, etc ) adds lots of harmless coliforms to the very low counts. This brings the counts to more than 10.
Campylobacter is not a coliform. So a zero coliform can have huge loads of campylobacter. The standard of less than 10 is meaningless and useless except if your goal is to destroy raw milk sales in CA...then it is very effective.
During this economic downturn....CDFA and the FDA should be cut back to skeletons....Starting with John Sheehan at the FDA and Dr. Stephen Beam at CDFA....and his merry band of cloned food nazis.
Mark McAfee
Is there anything you can do to fight this? It seems the harassment around the country hs intensified and I fear for the loss of many brave dairy farmers.
I know that you can't broadcast your strategy , the enemy is watching and reading.
Any thoughts?
My first job on my family's dairy farm was when I was six years old letting cows into the milking barn to be milked by my sisters. In the wintertime (these animals weren't pastured) the dirt corrals were 2 feet deep with wet manure and dirt. Also, running by me was the gutter that took urine, manure and the water the cows were washed with out to the ponds in back. I can not tell you how many times I was splashed and inadvertently ate cow manure. I ate pathogens!. I was fecally contaminated! Oh, my God! Didn't think that at the time. Too naive and young to know and care. All I got were colds 2x a year...in August and January. The same happened with cows blood assisting surgeries, calves having scours, cat scratches, dog bites, etc.
Contribute something worthwhile please. Or at least learn to sing a new song.
OPDC and Claravale would at least statistically pass most of our coliform tests if we were allowed to do what is permissible in WA state.
Instead here in CA we must use pumps and hoses and lots of pipes and machinery including rubber hose parts and valves to mechanically bottle and then cap the containers. This changes everything. We can not touch the bottle or the cap by hand when they are filled. This is a huge difference from WA state.
The numbers tell this story. When CDFA first released its press release to defend its corrupt acts of AB 1735...what they reported was that bulk tank tests that they had taken ( with out the dairies knowledge by the way ) showed that both OPDC and Claravale could and did pass the tests when taken from bulk tanks.
After AB1735 passage CDFA then started testing finished products. This was in complete contradiction with the data they had collected and the story that they had told the legislature.
CDFA has with in it a core of lying raw milk haters....short and simple. They have been arround for many years. That is precisely why they refuse to come before the CA state senate food safety committee and be flogged by Senator Dean Florez and others for their corrupt actions against raw milk and the people of California. When Judge Tobias suggested that we change the AB 1735 laws...we did just that... we developed SB 201 to answer AB 1735. Being sued...CDFA refused to attend any hearings or help with the design of SB 201. Instead they waited until the end and killed it with the executive pen by veto. This are the actions of a sick pathetic core group of people that hate what America means and what we all love....freedom and our right to representation.
Legislative oversight will prevail and legal subpeonas will "bring the truth". If not...then we are living in a totalitarian fascist country where commercial interests (got dead milk ) are protected by the government and its powers ....if so other actions will be needed.
November 4th 2008 is the dawn of a new America. We will have a new president and whoever that is....he will not tolerate corruption. Green and local are in....our rights are in....buying American is in and.... corruption is out. We can no longer afford this costs nutritionally, on mainstreet or wallstreet.
Only living foods bring life!!
Mark McAfee
I’m sure the ink wasn’t dry on the constitution before men envisioned means to extract undue power from it, but now, over 200 years of power-grabbing later, we’ve traveled so far down the river it’s hard to imagine finding our way back. Today Mr. and Mrs. America EXPECT to have minor activities of daily life controlled by government, and often even demand to be regulated, screaming, “Something must be done!” at every perceived slight. (Then like spoiled children, we squawk when it’s OUR toes that get stepped on).
I would caution us to be wary of all rules, not just the ones we don’t like. A million miles stand between reasonable rules and the dense, freedom-stealing tangle of bureaucratic controls we have today.
the question is, who decides? what if i want to have feces in my food? i have the right to demand that. what if i want to buy directly from the farmer? i have the right to demand that too. there's no "public" interest involved in these instances and that's why, as dave milano says, we are struggling to overthrow the regulator's yoke of oppression.
I'll be more careful - I trusted info from a chatboard...(blush)
It's nice to see the required login!
-Blair