I know this probably sounds weird, but I had a bout of guilt and paranoia after I wrote a comment in response to Amanda Roses description of how she feels her hen house is clean enough for her two kids (following my August 12 post about the NY Ag & Markets hearing). I suggested that, given what the California Department of Food and Agriculture is doing to the private petting zoo/ag project in Napa, she might want to keep an eye out for CDFA agents. Then I found myself wondering if I was actually putting Amanda at risk (though I also have a good sense that Amanda knows how to protect herself).
I havent had such intense feelings since late October 2006, when I was nervous about reporting on Richard Hebrons alternative delivery arrangements for the Family Farms Cooperative in Ann Arbor, in the wake of the Michigan Department of Agricultures huge sting and confiscation of Richards raw milk products a few weeks earlier. Then I thought to myself, maybe Ive been writing this blog for too long.
Any concerns that I might be getting carried away went by the board after I spoke with Mark Nolt earlier today in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has made Mark its poster boy for the down side of operating without a raw milk permiteven though dozens of Pennsylvania dairy farmers are known to do soby twice raiding his farm and confiscating expensive dairy equipment.
Such raids are usually preceded by visits from ag department goons, and it turns out Mark has had two such visits in just the last few weeks. Three weeks ago a man Mark didnt recognize came in looking for milk. I asked him, Did Bill send you? Bill, of course, is Bill Chirdon, director of the PDA’s Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services. The man turned beet red and left.
That screwup must have stirred lots of high-level late-night strategizing at PDA, because last week, a PDA agent tried again. Actually, it was a plainclothes Pennsylvania State Police agent, Kirk Perkins. But this time, instead of confronting Mark, the cop waited till Mark wasnt minding the farms dairy store, and entered while one of Marks sons was waiting on customers.
Perkins told Marks son that Jonas Stoltzfus, a nearby dairy farmer and friend of Mark, had recommended Mark as a source of raw milk. Believing the agent, Marks son sold Perkins two gallons of raw milk. Not surprisingly, Jonas is hopping mad about having his name used to deceive.
PDA actually described the Perkins milk buy as part of a motion it filed last week in Pennsylvania state court, seeking a permanent injunction against Mark to bar him from selling raw dairy products. It was under a temporary injunction in force through June, along with citations it issued against Mark, that PDA raided Marks dairy last summer, and again this past spring. Except this time, says Mark, the word around is that the PDA plans to arrest and jail him.
Now that the word is out that a raid and arrest are likely, Chirdon and the gang that couldnt shoot straight will no doubt be forced into even more heavy-duty strategizing. How are they going to get around all the friends of Mark who will now be posted to keep an eye out for the PDA caravan?
You can be sure the PDA will be burning the midnight oil on this one. But heres one idea for Chirdon: dress your guys up as storm troopers, with extra heavy boots, and take some videos you can use to impress new recruits about PDAs professionalism. Oh yes, and dont forget to return the expensive cheese-making equipment and Joel Salatin book (“Everything I Want to Do Is Illegal”) your guys stole from Mark last time around.
Amanda
Mark and his family have been the victims of state torture for about 2 years and now his son feels awful that he was tricked by LIES into jeopardizing his fathers freedom.
The "CRIME" real milk, real butter. real cream, how much lower can we sink into the cesspool and insanity before the nation completely collaspes?
Is it about food safety, and bad germs or ensuring that we all bow on bended knees before TPTB?
Chirdon is a dirtbag….it’s hard to give any respect to an authority who is lying bully……
More martyrs for the cause.
Unfortunately, because there is so much inertia in the system, the monster is not likely to die soon. In our day it has matured to the point that the government folks START from the premise that control is their right, so spend their energies only devising tactics to better exercise their powers. Hardly an official anywhere endures even a momentarily flickering thought that their very presence damages freedom.
Personally, I dont believe that we will achieve freedom from regulatory oppression until the average American seriously reassesses the meaning of responsibility and liberty. Food freedomalong with property ownership one of our most basic freedomsmay just be the trigger we need to accomplish that. Regulations have become so ubiquitous that they now stamp down simple folks engaging in nothing more dangerous than fundamental activities of daily life. Those regulations will more and more be seen not as just, but cruel, and then more people will speak up, and stand up, against them.
We can rejoice when the desire for basic liberty reaches critical mass.
The Milkweed, a alternative dairy industry paper, reports that the Federal Milk Marketing Orders (please don’t ask me to explain how all of this federal mumbo-jumbo works) has dropped the price of raw farm milk paid to dairy farmers, as of September 1. Surging fuel/grain/hay/trucking prices, and a drop in milk price, will surely see many farmers calling it quits.
In another article, The Milkweed reports that many beef, chicken and pork producers are losing money left and right, and that right now, all around the country, bull calves are being shot in the head and buried (sorry it’s graphic, but it’s true) because no one can afford to buy them and raise them up as beef. It is predicted that many beef, chicken and pork producers will also call it quits this fall.
Where does this leave us? The conventional farmers are teetering on the brink – in the meantime, the government is cracking down on the farmers doing it themselves. Where is our food going to come from this winter? China? Get real!
Mark’s case is a human rights case, a Constitutional rights case, an individual liberty case, a government gone tyrannical on its own power case, and…an eat or starve case.
At least, that’s how it would be in a traditional courtroom. Nowadays we have more efficient methods, in the form of agents who are somehow empowered to do whatever they want without laboring under such inconveniences as warrants, or real plaintiffs who have suffered actual injuries.
http://www.plentymag.com/blogs/ecoeats/2008/08/is_less_sometimes_more.php
Which article was that about the bull calves? I take it that is dairy calves and not beef?
Pete
I recently read that the Roman Senate also destroyed the small family farms just prior to the fall of their Republic ushering in the dictatorship of Julius Caesar.
Agrabusiness has never worked. Its to bad the USDA, PDA, CDFA, FDA and all the other alphabet soups are so utterly clueless to the screaming historical failures of the past.
Sorry I digressed Lisa. Mark could have joined CARE but TPTB has attacked CARE members aswell. If one is producing raw milk you are not completely safe anywhere at this time.
The article is entitled "Protein Scarcity: Serious Future Meat Shortages Ahead!", page 11. And yes, it is regarding dairy bull calves, not beef calves.
Why is it ok to feed this crap to babies and not raw dairy?
http://www.nutricia-na.com/pages/neocate_inf_formula.htm
Ingredients
Corn Syrup Solids, High Oleic Safflower Oil, Refined Vegetable Oil (Coconut, Soy), Calcium Phosphate Dibasic, L-Arginine, L-Aspartate, Tripotassium Citrate, L-Leucine, L-Lysine Acetate, L-Glutamine, L-Proline, L-Valine, L-Isoleucine, Glycine, CAEM (An Emulsifier), L-Threonine, L-Tyrosine, L-Phenylalanine, L-Serine, L-Histidine, L-Alanine, Sodium Chloride, L-Cystine, L-Tryptophan, L-Methionine, Magnesium Acetate, Magnesium L-Aspartate, Potassium Chloride, Choline Bitartrate, M-Inositol, L-Ascorbic Acid, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Sulfate, Taurine, L-Carnitine, Niacinamide, DL-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate, Calcium D-Pantothenate, Cupric Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Vitamin A Acetate, Thiamine Chloride Hydrochloride, Potassium Iodide, Chromium Sulfate , Phylloquinone, Sodium Molybdate, Folic Acid, Sodium Hydrogen Selenite, D-Biotin, Vitamin D3, Cyanocobalamin.
And don’t forget – those corn syrup solids and soy oils are undoubtedly GMO.
It just struck me as strange that many feel it is ok to feed chemicals to babies/children yet they scream when "natural" foods are consumed. I guess I just don’t get it.
http://americasfuture.org/doublethink/2008/08/some-like-it-raw/
http://www.daileyforcongress.com/
I think I’ll write a letter to the editor.
Gwen
Gwen
So where in Ohio are you located, Elderberry?
http://www.ohiochamber.com/governmental/pdfs/110congress.pdf
I like your dinky little district up in Cuyahoga County, and I like Kucinich too.
Gwen
I looked back at an earlier set of comments and found more than "unboiled milk" behind the concern:
More Anti-Raw Milk Propaganda?
http://www.courant.com/news/local/fv/hc-simdairy0809.artaug09,0,2888400.story
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/287005_milk29.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002685611_webecoli15.html
http://ozarksfirst.com/content/fulltext/?cid=42231
http://www.triplicate.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=9851
Trying to be unbiased:
http://www.marlerblog.com/2008/06/articles/lawyer-oped/raw-milk-pros-review-of-the-peerreviewed-literature/
http://www.marlerblog.com/2008/06/articles/lawyer-oped/raw-milk-cons-review-of-the-peerreviewed-literature/
Just as those who wish to consume processed foods are willing to take the risks that go along with that.
And with the continued contaminations with massed produced/proccessed foods: meats, poultry,produce, etc. society shows they are willing to take the risks and NOT sterilize their foods.
Over the last 50 years, it appears that pasteurized dairy has caused more illnesses than raw dairy in the US. I’ll not bother to re-site the links that have already been posted here numerous times.
The propaganda sites appear to not have proof; "probably" "linked to" "possibly from" is speculation.
The Dee Creek farm in 2005; I didn’t follow that story but understand that it was not sanitary, just as the factory dairies aren’t. Yet the factory dairies continue to operate.
Monett,MO mother: she was told the raw milk was better than breast milk? And she believed it and gave it to her baby? She bought illegally sold milk? If you purchase something illegally you increase your risk of complications.
The 2 kids in Olympia- "Testing confirmed both cases were caused by the same strain of the bacteria, E.coli O157:H7 — also the strain at issue in the recent spinach recall." "He said he has not yet seen "an absolute test on our milk that shows it is the same E. coli,"
Do you think it may be from the spinach? Or passed by someone who carried the strain from the spinach? What a concept.
The MO case is nuts. It’s crazy that anyone would suggest that milk from another species is more healthy than mother’s milk under just about *any* circumstance. Then again, I can see how that shopkeeper became confused:
http://westonaprice.org/children/breastfeed.html
The article is from the August 2008 issue of "The Milkweed", an alternative dairy industry paper. They only have a print newspaper, they do not publish their articles online. Their website is http://www.milkweed.com if you’re interested in subscribing. Do you perhaps know someone who gets the paper so you can read the article?