Be Careful When You Start Messing with Family--The Farmer-vs-Farmer Side of the Raw Milk Controversy
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 09:18PM 
Tim WightmanHere's the message I get from Tim Wightman's comment following my criticism of Organic Valley Family of Farms: Don't be so quick to criticize this large farm co-op. There are some delicate political and economic issues involved here. Many dairy farmers have a big stake in the conventional co-op/processor distribution sytem, and at Organic Valley, farmers are being pinched financially because of a decline in consumption of pasteurized organic milk...and are resentful because some of their farmer brothers are making up for the financial challenge by selling raw milk. Besides, regulators and processors regularly communicate about routine issues, and may say a few things that sound conspiratorial. Cut us some slack.
It's an intriguing message, coming as it does from a founder of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, and I can appreciate that there are business sensitivities. I actually think some of these sensitivities signify quite important issues, though. (By the way, if this is just a little internal misunderstanding, you might think that someone from Organic Valley might have at least had the courtesy to answer my email or phone call--there's been only silence.)
I say all this while acknowledging that I don't necessarily have special insights into farm economics and pscychology, having spent practically my entire life in the city, with little or no contact with farmers until the last three years.
But I'd like to throw something out that may shed light on what's really happening here. I think many Wisconsin dairy farmers, indeed, dairy farmers everywhere, are more upset about the raw milk controversy than has been generally appreciated. I remember when the Ohio Department of Agriculture began cracking down on raw dairy producers back in 2006, being told by regulators there that some of the cases the agency was pursuing originated with complaints by conventional dairy farmers.
I've heard similar rumblings in other states--that it's dairy farmers who are concerned because some of their brethren are challenging regulatory limitations on raw milk...and earning nice money in the process.
Now, I think it's safe to say many of these upset dairy farmers are being urged on by processors, who have absolutely nothing to gain and lots to lose when dairy farmers transition to raw milk.
There's a larger issue involved, though--a business issue--which has to do with the different mentalities involved when you're doing business as part of a government-business cartel and doing business in the real marketplace. Conventional dairy farmers don't experience all opportunities afforded by our capitalist system because they are dealing in a highly controlled marketplace, a marketplace where prices are fixed by a few processors with government approval, and those prices are too low for the suppliers to make a regular profit.
There are few incentives for doing a great job because pasteurization levels the quality playing field. There's little economic opportunity. It's very difficult to be anything other than a commodity. In fact, over the long term, the deck is stacked against you, much as it would be if you lived in a company town.
It's much different if you are in a market economy, out there selling directly to consumers, or via retail establishments. All you have to do is observe many Amish dairy farmers, or Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures, who aggressively sell a wide variety of products, to appreciate the demands of the real economy.
So when we talk about conventional vs raw milk, we're not just talking two different supply sources, we're talking two entirely different business models.
Organic Valley may be an upstanding organization much of the time, but at its heart, it's a processor that is part of a government-industry dairy cartel. Tim Wightman strongly suggests in his comment that we'll see a much more positive side of Organic Valley before long. Certainly it could be a force to help dairies diversify by providing outlets for their raw milk. That would require innovative thinking within an industry where there's little room for competition, for segmentation, for niche marketing, for growth.
Think back to the old Soviet style farm collectives, and you won't be that far off in thinking about the dairy co-ops. Some farmers who value that way of doing business are resentful of the Scott Trautmans of the world, who are out there hustling and seeking out new opportunities. The controversy over our right to access raw milk happens to be the trigger for bringing out into the open the farmer-on-farmer divisions.
Reader Comments (36)
Yes, they do. And why is that? Could it be because the food system infrastructure built by processors and supported by government effectively forces dairy farmers to either go along or risk financial death? Because the now ubiquitous notion that processed commodities and food are the same thing has relieved us of misgivings about transforming good farmland (especially farmland within reasonable distance to population centers) into residential and commercial centers? Because our medical system and its preference for disease management over disease prevention has made us forget what health is, and blinded us to the fact that food can be either medicine or poison? Because a culture that values short-term gain over long-term sustainability has disconnected us from the reality that we are dependent on a clean planet and healthy, living soil for our very lives? Because an enforced nanny state tempts us to turn to government bureaucracies before loving families, friends, and neighbors? Because an expanding ethos of centralized government and business systems has desensitized us to the crime of substituting government-bestowed “legal rights” for natural human rights? Because any attempt to break from the going model is met with a fighting army of power-hungry legislators, money-hungry businessmen, nay-saying regulators, code-enforcers, and even police?
Indeed the “highly controlled marketplace” David speaks of is deep and powerful. Perhaps enough so to prevent that “entirely different business model” (you might call it the “human” or “constitutional” model) from ever regaining its footing.
Food, that most basic of all biological needs, may very well be the trigger to ignite the healing spark of loving humanity latent in us all, and turn the mess upside down. Tomorrow at Thanksgiving I will be thanking God for implanting that spark in us all.
http://www.alternet.org/food/144173/don%27t_be_scared_of_food%3A_are_we_being_needlessly_hysterical_about_food_safety?page=entire
Don't Be Scared of Food: Are We Being Needlessly Hysterical About Food Safety?
by DAVID GUMPERT
Great article David.
Dave M., your words couldn’t hit the mind and heart any more succinctly as my family and I took the exit from Highway 99 out the 10 miles to Mark’s farm. We past many acres of grapes which were beautiful; but, we drove past a typical dairy farm of today where many cows were congregated under a long roofed building without a blade of green grass anywhere to be seen around them. Then a few miles past that we drove onto the McAfee’s farm and many cows were grazing on large green pastures. What a contrast…not to mention the contrast in end products from these two very different agricultural paradigms. Now I have been told time and again that “sustainable organics” can’t feed the population of CA, leave alone the USA. And this is true as long as strip malls and sea’s of little boxes (housing developments) cover the landscape up and down this great valley. TPTB see development one way, and our “raw milk revolution” would definitely step on some powerful toes if Americans collectively started to demand healthier fare, and took back responsibility for their own health. If we can grow enough grapes for eating and wine right here in CA for our country then the farmers on US soil could feed us healthier dairy also.
Sometimes our national nutritional status is depressing to think about; nevertheless, this Thanksgiving I am thankful for not only OPDC and Claravale, but for the farmers near me that supply many nutrient dense whole foods including goat milk, meat, and vegetables. Yes, we are being fed almost exclusively by local and regional farmers. With just a little planning it isn’t inconvenient and far healthier. In fact, a typical supermarket is becoming to look more and more alien when we’re in one from time to time. I am also thankful for the author’s of the many books I have read on agriculture, soil, grass, ect., from ACRES USA, Mother Earth magazine, and the WAPF. And last, but not least, I am thankful for my copy of The Raw Milk Revolution which was waiting in my mailbox for me Monday evening coming home from our OPDC visit! Thank You David G.! We haven’t finished it yet, but so far it is excellent reading.
Happy Thanks Giving to ALL here on Mr. Gumpert’s blog! Alyssa
NOT SO says author Marti Oakley at FARM WARS
http://farmwars.info/?p=1991#more-1991
Wisconsin:Heroes Will Just Set Things Back
The bill will run small producers out of business and allow Organic Valley to establish a full monopoly.
HMMM It is becoming more and more difficult these days to know who to trust and what to believe it would seem we must question everyones motives. And that is a very sad state of affairs.
As for Organic Valley - the headline in the NODPA (Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Assoc.) newsletter states, "Organic Valley takes over procurement for Stonyfield milk brand". Cartel? Let's not forget, no matter how slick the marketing, no matter how it tugs on your heartstrings ("but it's for family farmers!"), a CORPORATION is still a CORPORATION, and Organic Valley is a corporation (albeit with a different ownership structure than an S or C Corp.). Strategic alliances, monopolization and squashing the competition is what corporations do.
http://www.wicfa.org/wicfa_opposition_to_LRB3242-3.html
http://wicfa.org/
Here at the McAfee Clan we are all truly blessed with access to good whole food, a new grandson born Nov 24th ( Daniel Lapsley McAfee...he is the 5th First son with the clan name Lapsley and makes me a grandpa) and loving friends and family today. I dream and work for a for a future when all Americans can choose the same if they wish. Not so today.....at least not easily.
I wrote a formal letter to George Siemon ( CEO at CROPP and Organic Valley ) years ago. In that letter I spelled out a possible and highly workable proposal to provide local raw milk to areas that allow raw milk to be sold. I explained the crushing economic and nutritional relaities of lactose intolerance and how pastuerization creates commodity markets. How processing destroys the nutrients and probiotic living qualites of RAW MILK. I explained that Rodale stated once that producing organic raw milk and then pastuerizing it was not organic. I shared details of the OPDC experience and how OV could dominate the national organic raw milk market.
The steps I suggested included having OV do what they do best...provide branding and distribution and doing the billing and collections. Let the farmer do what they do best....high quality raw milk bottled at his micro creamery. This product would be tested using OV lab technology to assure quality ( there are instant 5 minute pathogen test systems available...they are not cheap ). OV would supply the bottles, caps and labels. Each OV label would boast of the local dairymans name and his story address and identity. That farmer would have a OV webpage so he could connect to his consumers. He would be required to cheer lead and participate in OV organized Raw Milk promotion and education. The finished product would be picked up by a OV truck for distribution to local markets. OV would do the billing and pay the farmer a high value added price. The balance of the unbottled raw milk would be picked up by OV tankers and sent to be commingled with other farmers milk to make cheese and butter etc. On the OV pick-up truck ( that picks up finished raw milk bottles ) there may be several farmers raw milk all in their own OV cobranded bottles. All of this raw milk would go directly to stores and would be very fresh. The hybrid model would allow sales of pastuerized OV products to be tolerated by those with Lactose Intolerance...because the raw milk sales would fix lactose intolerance and OV cooked products could be consumed by those consumers. A symbiotic relationship . This would rocket OV sales and allow market dominance and pioneering. What a great move. Being pasture grazed would matter and the farmer would get true value added.
This business model could work....it would need investment from the dairymen and from OV...but it could work.
The only problem with this model is that it requires OV to admit to the science of raw milk and that there are benefits to raw milk over dead milk. The president of Horizon years ago in 2003 told me at an IDFA meeting that he loved the idea of organic raw milk but it would destroy everything that Horizon had built....long shelf life and the idea that UHT and HTST pastuerized milk was a good thing. It would "undo the brand".
Well....when something does not work...you need to revisit the plan and make adjustments. Continuing the same thing with the same bad lactose intolerance and immune disturbing results is what most scholars call...not intellegent....and us conscious raw milk people call it....stupid. When people are screaming for raw milk...smart market savvy farmers take serious notice and act.....now!! The smartest do it quickly and do it best. In fact a farmer that ignores the request of a hungry mother with sick kids pleading for raw milk at the steps of this organic milk barn...is heartless or worse. Listening to consumers and connecting to them is the most sustainable thing OV and its dairymen can do.
I was an OV dairymen for one year when we first started OPDC in 2001 and 2002. When movie stars and consumers started arriving and wanting raw organic grass fed milk....I listened and responded immediately...for that OV kicked me out of the coop. It hurt deeply....but the pain was soon healed by the consumers their raw milk passion and their real and human connection. When farmers connect to consumers...the farmer is energized with relevance and the love of his products by his consumers. In this world most commodity farmers do not even know what being loved is like...they are filled with depression and despare most of the time. They struggle to survive and feed the bank. Their true boss.
I sense a softening at OV....the very Amishmen that voted to kick me out of the coop are now selling raw milk. They told me of this some years ago. Lloyd Steuve ( the Alta Dena Family ) told me that there are ongoing discussions with the producers and the management at OV to change policy on raw milk...because people want this food. How times change.
The get together at OPDC with Sally was awesome. The walk to see the cows and share the stories of healing with raw milk were warming and confirming.
Next weekend I speak at the ACRES conference and my speech is named "Taking Back the American Food Chain". If you think about this....it is the best American stimulus plan possible.
It is good for global warming ( pastures are carbon sinks ) it heals illness ( health care??!!?? ) and prevents and reverses disease trends, it puts money to the bottom and starting point of the economy. The only losers are the FOOD INC...food poisoning and processing mafias and they deserve to be denied existence. The dollar voting consumer is slowly doing just that.
Beware of those in power that use bacteria paranoia and food safety as a scare tactic to protect their erroding market base. I have read so much written by so many that are ignorant and simply restate the dogma and have done no research to follow the best new science or what has been shown to be possible in CA. 65,000 people drinking raw milk from 17 farmers markets, 375 stores and coops. Everyone is thriving.
Happy thanks giving. Raw Milk takes back the American Food chain.
David....your message in this post is dead on target. OV is a family of farmers but as more and more of them are visited by consumers this band of brothers will need to resort their policies. At the Steuve Dairy in Oakdale CA...there is a sign that says... "The Milk of Human KIndness is NOT PASTUERIZED".
I could not agree more.
Mark McAfee
( Grandpa )
"The biggest word we have for all the aspects of food production is not agri-method or agri-technique or even (though becoming so) agri-business but agri-culture. And the Latin roots of agriculture come from words which refer to field cultivation. The words “cultivate,” “culture,” and “cult” are all related and they reflect, sequentially, the practical methodologies, the social relations, and the spiritual or religious significance of how we grow, share, and are grateful for the Earth products which enable us to live, individually and collectively.
A good part of the Green criticism of and even anger toward agribusiness lies in the recognition that agribusiness represents a kind of how-to, chemically-reductionist tunnel vision—concerned only with maximized yields and maximized profits. (“Get big or get out,” as former Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz proclaimed.) Agribusiness does not care about and is not interested in the cultural meaning and spiritual content of non?market food production.
The word “market” is a kind of cultural gate between agriculture and agribusiness. That is, if you believe that the only real way to understand food production is in terms of the market, you are by definition in the camp of agribusiness."
http://wholeearth.com/issue/2051/article/409/home.economics.-.analysis.of.us.agricultural.policy
"If in agriculture we replace the standard of productivity with that of constant supply, and think of the farm land and the farm people as resources in the sense of their ability to rise and replenish themselves again and again, then a number of dangerous and widely credited fallacies become apparent. I want to talk now about six of these:
1. That agriculture may be understood and dealt with as an industry."
2. That a sound agricultural economy can be based on an export market.
3. That the "free market" can preserve agriculture.
The "free market"--the unbridled play of economic forces--is bad for agriculture because it is unable to assign a value to things that are necessary to agriculture. It gives a value to agricultural products, but it cannot give a value to the sources of those products in the topsoil or the ecosystem or the farm or the farm family or the farm community. Indeed, people who look at farming from the standpoint of the "free market" do not understand the relation of product to source. They believe that the relation is merely mechanical, because they believe that agriculture is or can be an industry. And the "free market" is helpless to suggest otherwise.
The "free market" values production alone. And this exclusive emphasis on production, in agriculture, inevitably causes overproduction. In agriculture, both high prices and low prices cause overproduction. But overproduction leads only to low prices, never to high prices. It could perhaps be said, then, that on the "free market' agricultural productivity has no direct or stable relation to value."
4. That productivity is the only necessary standard of production.
5. That there are too many farmers.
6. That hand labor is bad.
"we can say that probably any farm work is miserable, whether done by hand or by machine, if it is economically desperate--if it does not secure the worker in some stable, decent, rewarding connection to the land worked. We can say that hand work in a small field owned by the worker, with the expectation of a decent economic return, is probably less miserable than mechanized work in somebody else's large field. We can suppose with some confidence, moreover, that hand work in the company of family and neighbors might be less miserable than work done alone in the unrelieved noise of a machine."
It's a model that threatens the current raw milk delivery system. I guess now that there are more people wanting it, the most important thing becomes the supply, not the creation. Anything...anything...to get more raw milk in refrigerators. This end justifies the means sucks...and it reflects the shortsightedness of those with positions of authority in this movement. Even worse that David eggs it on.
Those that do both...raw and boiled...those that are low balling inputs so they can profit when the tanker leaves them farm, have no place in the raw milk movement. Playing both sides of the fence isn't right...it's morally wrong...but I guess the almighty dollar can make good folks put their blinders on and focus on their wallets.
Looks like those that have carried this movement...those that are milking a few cows quietly, and serving people they know, the ones that are true to their feelings and disdain the conventional milk system...the REAL raw milk farmers.....are obviously going to have get even MORE resourceful...for those that have been contributing to the dis ease of the populace are seeing gold, and they will use any means necessary to take what they feel is theirs.
,l,,
There are risks for the authorities in this approach.How will they maintain the wall between producers and consumers?If these people get to talking to each other,what might happen?What keeps many producers in line is debt.An alliance with committed supporters can easily eliminate this debt and free up another producer.Most farmers,given half a chance would be quick to take a chance at being free and independent.The Organic market was once seen as the hope for small farms to get a better price for their high quality milk.But the Organic market did not give farmers control over their own economy.
Now the real battle over food rights will begin.Does the State or Federal government really have the authority to prevent farmers and consumers from joining together to produce their own food?Show me the LAW that they derive that authority from.I have a friend who was stopped by the police while driving an unregistered,unlicensed,pickup truck.He had no state drivers license and he had an unregistered,loaded handgun on the seat next to him.Needless to say,he was arrested and put in jail.When he was brought before the judge,he challenged the jurisdiction of the court.Since there had been no one injured and no flesh and blood human being who had a complaint against him,it was a simple matter of contract law.Had a contract been violated?He had lived in a way that carefully avoided any contract with the state.They returned his gun and his truck and let him go.If he had gotten a license to drive,he would still be in prison on the gun charge.The constitution still is our protection if we have the courage to stand our ground and not be intimidated into begging the authorities for permission to live our lives as we see fit.
Do you have any web links that discuss the US Corporation and contract law that you allude to above? I'd like to read more about this but there is so much misinformation out there I don't know what to trust. Also, considering that these 'contracts' we enter into with the state (the birth certificate, SSN, drivers license, etc.) are bogus (because there was never full disclosure when they were signed - we were never told we'd become property of the state under a contractual agreement and thus the Constitution does not apply - and in the case of a birth certificate or SSN, signed by another person), could someone argue in court that the case against him/her should be thrown out because this is a case of contract law and the contract was never entered into with full disclosure?
If you disagree that the court has jurisdiction in your disagreement with the authorities,be very careful that you don't accuse yourself.Even answering questions can be taken as agreement that you recognize the court's jurisdiction in your disagreement.You should never appear in court voluntarily if you dispute the court's jurisdiction.Contracts can be implied by your action or inaction.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8577731528746978991&ei=hxIQS4CxGcKHlAfxjf22Dg&q=michael+badnarik%27s+constitution+class&hl=en#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0IM7Hobd_k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD6z11UP-c0&NR=1
There are lots more of these.
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-7040453665540929835&hl=en#
She makes a valid point that by requiring a grade A license, it not only forces farmers to contract with the state and sell to a processor, but anyone who holds a milk producer's license is required to register their farm under the Premises Registration law, effectively turning the title of their property over to the government.
http://ppjg.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/wisconsin-a-state-under-seige-by-its-own-government/#more-4974
This seems to be where most lack courage (not sure if another word would fit better), to stand up to tptb. No one should be required nor expect to have to ask or even beg for "permission" to live as they see fit.
Someone please clarify;
Why would the dairy farmers who sell to the big processors care about the small raw dairy farmers or even that some of the bigger dairy farmers are selling raw milk? What difference does it make to them?
Why is it that farmers allowed some entity(s) to dictate the prices of their products? Why don't the farmers have control over thier own economy? Why would they give such power to another?
I would be very concerned with a dairy that sells milk for raw and pasturization consumption. fears that the 2 would be mingled.
"I would be very concerned with a dairy that sells milk for raw and pasturization consumption. fears that the 2 would be mingled. "
Does outsourcing from pasteurized dairies by a raw dairy in order to meet consumer demand concern you? A recent fundraiser by WAPF clearly endorsed a dairy doing this practice.
When we expect that corporations should abide by law the same as we do ,how is that an antigovernment discussion?Before you make any more comments,please watch the whole series of videos by john harris.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0IM7Hobd_k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4b0n3W0B6E&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7jtxpp4rQo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8mExeq5Yyg&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIUMOyp-Pj4&feature=related
I would like to hear any comments you have on the content of these videos.