The five members of the board of the Alachua County Farmers Market in Gainesville, FL, all love to drink the raw goat’s milk sold at the market by one of the farmers, Joe Pietrangelo of Glades Ridge farm.
But now that same board has banned Glades Ridge from the farmers market, at least temporarily.
The problem, Helen Emery, one of the farmers market board members, tells me, is plain old fear—fear by the board of legal problems should a consumer become ill from the milk. The board has already been told by its insurance company that if the market is sued for any reason, the insurer will pull coverage in the future, she says.
There’s been no problem at the market with the Glades Ridge milk or cheese since the farm began selling its products at the market last May. Indeed, the milk and cheese have become popular items at the market, and helpful money makers for Joe Pietrangelo.
But a farmers market customer, who also happens to be a lawyer and pathologist, planted the seeds of doubt and fear in the board when he pointed out that the market could be liable for damages if someone became ill. In Florida, it’s legal to sell raw milk only as pet food, and indeed, it is sold via retail stores like Whole Foods clearly labeled as such. The Glades Ridge stand at the farmers market similarly has labels posted on the milk and on its stand re-affirming the point.
But, says Helen Emery, “We all know people are buying it for themselves. One of our customers said everyone is drinking it.”
So the board made the decision a few days ago to temporarily suspend Glades Ridge from selling. In the meantime, the board members have been doing research about raw milk—speaking with medical people, lawyers and (uh-oh) the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “It’s a huge issue for us,” says Emery.
She even went out to the Glades Ridge farm to do an inspection. “The place is gorgeous,” she tells me. “the goats are clean, the facilities are clean.”
The problem? “It’s illegal to sell dairy products for human consumption in Florida.”
“If Joe were to get sued, we (the market) would get sued. That would force us to close, which would close out 30 other farmers. It doesn’t just affect him. It affects another 30 farmers, plus 30 additional farmers that come in on a daily basis.”
As for Joe Pietrangelo, he says he could sell his milk via retail store channels, but would rather not. “I don’t want to do store retail sales, because you don’t know your customers. They don’t know you.”
In the meantime, the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund has become involved, with its director, Pete Kennedy, trying to convince the market to restore Glades Ridge’s place in the market.
So you have this crazy situation where the directors of the market, raw milk drinkers, are in the ironic position of being pressured to ban from sale the product they personally consume…and depriving themselves of the freedom to access a nutritious food product. All in hopes of holding the lawyers (and eventually the regulators) at bay to “protect” the other farmers at the market.
That never works. The lawyers (and eventually the regulators) won’t be satisfied with just banning one farmer. They’ll want more farmers banned from other markets. They’ll put the farmers markets associations on notice to warn their members.
Helen Emery is right, this is a huge issue, for all of us. Selling raw milk as pet food is legal in Florida, and to my knowledge, no one has outlawed the human consumption of pet food. (Poor people eat canned pet food all the time.) If the Alachua County Farmers Market gives in on this, I guarantee the FDA and state ag officials around the country will get the idea of using the cave-in to go after the overseers of farmers markets in other places with the same scam: Get rid of the raw milk, raw apple cider, locally slaughtered beef, and maybe eventually, non-irradiated veggies and meats. To their way of thinking, if one consumer can intimidate a farmers market, think what an army of regulators can do.
The board of the farmers market hopes to make its decision in the next few days. What will it decide? “Right now, it’s fifty-fifty,” says Helen Emery.
They’d be liable if anyone became ill from any of the foods or if someone trips and falls, etc.
The gestapo is alive and well…
Those who are far-sighted, determined, and willing to venture into the legislative process of changing laws (and budgets) will be granted those arms.
It’s not easy, but it’s that simple.
-Blair
Talk about an inflated view of themselves. What is a farmers market? A bunch of people getting together in one place. So what if the ‘organization’ is sued and closes. Just start a new one in the same or a different place. Maybe dispense with the bureaucratic/dictatorial overhead this time and do without the ‘organization’ part.
Why is it that farmers market managers always seem to believe anything lawyers or bureaucrats tell them even if it goes completely against the plain reading of the law?
You all saw it first right here.
Even though Claravale dropped its case against CDFA in CA forcing OPDC to follow suit….the appeals court held that the court wanted to pursue the appeal arguements even though the case had been dropped. The appeals court stated that they felt compelled to hear the arguments because the nature of the dispute was likely to have broad implications for the public in the future. Gary Cox and I were quite surprised and impressed by the appeals court statements.
Having recieved this new information, the FTCLDF, Claravale and OPDC have all agreed to go forward with the appeal and see what happens. It appears that there may be some real potential for our appeal given the facts and the nature of the dispute with CDFA and the way SB 1735 was passed with out so much as one hearing and no scientific debate. A sneak attack on CA Raw Milk has been the most appropriate charactarization of CDFA’s conduct, given that total coliform counts do not reflect fecal coliforms or the presence of pathogens. Experts on both sides agreed on this and it is not disputed. Sounds like CDFA may not be free from the judicial branches grasp just yet. The court grabbed this issue and recognized its innate and essential importance. Congrats to Gary Cox on his brilliant writing of the appeals arguments and pleadings….they were that compelling. Nice job Gary.
Additional breaking news!!
USA Today is featuring a Raw Milk Story in the next few weeks. It appears that the author of the story feels that whole food nutrition is missing in the national health care discussion and Raw Milk is the pent-ultimate subject to spir the debate and discussion about health, immunity and prevention through food. One of the things that I was asked by the USA Today writer was why Oprah had not picked up this story….well….maybe now she will.
Lots of great things happening with raw milk and health.
All the best,
Mark McAfee
@Pete: I agree w/you
Your point on the liability is well taken, but the difference with raw milk vs. other foods at the farmers market…raw milk is the only item being sold where there are over a dozen medical and public health position statements against consuming it; for good or bad, there isn’t another food with such an overwhelming opposition in the medical, public health, and legal communities.
Blair,
You probably didn’t mean it this way with the statement, "But until the laws change.." The comment begs the question: why not change the law in Florida and make raw milk for human consumption legal, rather than doing a wink wink pet food label.
Ken K, Dave M, miguel, and pete,
You are articulate, thoughtful, and always have good points that transcend the insults on this blog, and some of the inane discussions in my world; we disagree, but thanks for keeping my thinking in line, and always challenging the thought process, even when we disagree. I have a lot of respect for your point of view, and it makes it harder to take a hard line on this issue.
Mark,
You repeatedly cite Dr. Don Fields, Chief of Medicine at Valley Childrens Hospital and professor of medicine at UCSF, as a supporter of the benefits of raw milk. I cannot find any public statements or publications on raw milk from him. Any chance you could use your potent influence and get him to post a comment on this blog? Or do you have a link that shows he’s making a counterpoint to CDC, CMA, and AMA?
Please do show links for this "overwhelming" opposition against raw milk, especially since raw milk causes so little of the vast food borne illnesses.
We all know pasteurization isn’t reliable and consuming sterilized foods kills nutrients. Again it is freedom of choice.
Lykke, that’s what we’ve been trying to point out on this blog for years now. We don’t agree with this dogma nor the deceitful and unscientific policies behind it. "Bacteria is bad; Only drugs can treat disease; Only the FDA can dictate your healthcare; The government knows best…"
There are MDs. NDs, ODs, etc that are strong advocates of raw milk consumption. Last weekend I went to a conference sponsored by Standard Process West. Mark Anderson made several points about the protective benefits of raw milk, including how calcium lactate marks weak/dying cells for apoptosis (cell death) – important for the prevention of cancer – otherwise these mutant cells grow into tumors. There were over 300 healthcare practitioners attending, and I watched as they all reached for the raw dairy brochure at the same time. Consumer requests for raw milk have tripled this week.
"…You probably didn’t mean it this way with the statement, "But until the laws change.." The comment begs the question: why not change the law in Florida and make raw milk for human consumption legal, rather than doing a wink wink pet food label."
Yes – this is exactly what I meant. If this is still a country of laws, we need good laws that protect our freedom.
I find deceptive labeling disturbing. I find U.S. food policy particularly disturbing. And a government that starves it’s people, then forces them into Big Pharma’s care is downright criminal.
-Blair
Dr. Fields is a very hard woking pediatrian. He does not blog.
His comments were made very public on NPR channel 88.1 KFCF Fresno radio the "Progressive Parenting Show" with Gena Kirby on Thursday August 27th. His resume and work using Raw Milk was very much the topic.
He is also a smart doctor and treats and heals patients using the best least invasive most natural methods possible. Raw milk is one of his tools that he prefers to use.
He would also prefer not to be in front of an "FDA Abrams tank barrel" like me.
Mark
See Dr. Fields website where he speaks of raw milk in his blog and links.
http://www.yosemitepediatrics.com/
His view of and care for kids is awesome…got to visit this website and look arround.
Mark