The Complete Patient

If the New York Ag & Markets decision about herdshares described in my previous post has you worried about the growing intrusiveness of regulators into our private lives, then you may want to read about Robin Countryman-Velk and her Kiddin’ Korral Animal and Activities project in the Napa, California, area.

Kiddin’ Korral is part of a 1,400-acre dude ranch that is owned and operated by some 1,400 owners (the acreage is not divided). The owners have an association with a board of directors that oversees the operations. The owners can use the place any time they want—it has 100 cabins, 200 campsites, a couple of large pools and, for the last two years, the Kiddin’ Korral agriculture project, which is a combination petting zoo/demo ag project. The facility even has its own pasteurizer—the kid goats are supposed to drink pasteurized milk, says Robin--so the milk the goats produce is pasteurized before animals or people consume it. (The photo above shows some of the milk fed to the goats.)

The program seems to have become a wonderful source of inspiration for about 70 children, and up to 300 adults—or, it was until Tuesday, when a group of regulators headed by an agent of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, showed up.

I’ll let Robin explain further:

“I’m a teacher and active community volunteer. Nothing made more sense to me than to open a Children’s Ag Program on the ranch. We started with one purebred LaMancha Dairy Goat kid and soon added a Saanen to the mix. The project began as my daughter’s FFA Dairy breeding project, but she turned it over to me because of all the hoops the board of directors required we jump through. We got permission to build an animal enclosure, and then breed them for kids and milk. We were allowed to expand and include a couple of rabbits, ducks and a few chickens too. We started a committee to oversee the program and I began volunteering seven days a week 365 days a year to care for the animals and teach the children.

“Our kids start by learning to care for the small animals, and then the adult goats, then to care for pregnant goats, deliver the goat kids, then to raise those kids. These children (and some adults) learn to properly feed, milk, trim hooves, groom, etc. It is a very extensive hands-on learning experience for them, but they love to learn. (See photo below.)

“Learn they did, they raised two kidding season’s kids and this past June took the two adult does and this year’s five goat kids to the American Goat Society National Dairy Goat Show. Now remember, these city kids had never shown an animal before and walked into a national show! With the seven goats that went to nationals, we came home with seven national titles! What pride we all shared in this amazing accomplishment. All of the staff and participants were so smitten with our children and their enthusiasm. I could not have been prouder of their accomplishments if I’d been their own mother.

“These animals are registered to the committee, therefore all owners and associates of the association have legal rights and ownership of these animals. This is proven by the fact these children could show them and legally sign for their national titles won at show.”

This matter of ownership becomes very important, because it seems the CDFA agent (who was accompanied by a local public health agent and building code inspector) told Robin she’d need a dairy permit to make milk available. Buying all the equipment necessary to qualify for a dairy permit, would be many thousands of dollars over and above the $50,000 Robin says she has already put into the project. She says that when she protested that no milk was sold, that the people who consumed the milk owned the goats, she was told that that didn’t matter.

I contacted the CDFA, and a public information official declined to provide the agency's version of the situation or what it wants to accomplish. “All we can tell you at the moment is that we are reviewing the situation there -along with Napa County Code Enforcement and the Napa County Public Health Department.”

According to Robin, this all came about because one of the ranch’s directors who has opposed the project from the beginning decided to try to sabotage it by contacting the local health department. According to the CDFA official, “We were initially contacted by the health department.”

Robin has been in touch with the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, and says one of its lawyers has told her there is no legal basis for California officials to try to prevent goat owners from consuming their animals’ milk.

As Robin puts it, “I’m now confused as to how it is illegal for the ‘owners’ of these animals to not be allowed to consume the milk or cheese from these same animals…Where will the regulation stop? Will it be illegal to own your own cow, chicken, or goat in the next decade? Shall we all be dammed to consume only chemically altered or radiated foods in the next generation? How can you expect to have sustainable agriculture if the small farms, ranches and dairies are asked to comply with regulations that make it impossible to maintain a viable income or lifestyle?”

Good questions, I’d say.