James Stewart surveys scene at Rawesome Food Club. (Photo by Jennifer Sharpe)I was in Los Angeles over the weekend, so naturally I paid a visit to Rawesome Food Club in the Venice area, not far from the beach.
I was struck with how small and unassuming the place is–certainly no match for the giant Whole Foods store just a few hundred yards up the street. There is an open area of a few hundred square feet with fruits and vegetables, and a couple of checkout clerks. Then there are two shipping containers–one with assorted packaged goods like dried fruits and nuts and coconut oil, along with a small cooler containing kombucha and ceviche seafood; and then a second refrigerated trailer full of raw dairy and meat products.
Maybe I was struck because, in the video of the federal, state, and local agents coming in June 30 with guns drawn, the place appears larger. Hard to imagine all the special agents crowding in, and what they possibly could have been afraid of in such a small area.
Probably it’s because Rawesome is so close to Hollywood, the drama capital of the world, that the Rawesome drama keeps taking new twists and turns. In the latest bizarre twist, there’s been a falling out between the two men credited with founding Rawesome in 2005–James Stewart and Aajonus Vonderplanitz. I described some of the tension in my Oct. 12 post about quality and outsourcing issues.
It seems like the matter reached the boiling point last week when Vonderplanitz came to shop at Rawesome and began telling other members that they should stay away from the eggs, because of his concerns over their quality.
That was the last straw for Stewart, who was already upset over the Vonderplanitz charges over the egg and chicken quality. Stewart sent an email to Vonderplanitz and three other long-time members who have backed his charges, and suspended their membership privileges.
At a pot luck dinner on Sunday near San Diego, Vonderplanitz told a group of Rawesome members, “I’m not allowed to go to Rawesome.” He was upfront that he had discouraged other members from buying the eggs while at Rawesome the previous Wednesday, but said that shouldn’t be a reason to be banned from the club.
“I wrote him (Stewart) that you have no authority. I am the one who runs Rawesome under the Right to Choose Healthy Food organization.”
He noted that because Stewart is a part owner of the land on which Rawesome is located, he can restrict access to the site. “But he cannot revoke their membership. He has to deliver to them.”
In response to the entire mess, Vonderplanitz says he is working with friends to open two new members-only food outlets in the Los Angeles area, and hopes to have them opened in the next few weeks.
I must say I found the whole chain of events pretty upsetting. After standing off the full force of The State for four months, it seems sad that the key Rawesome people are fighting among themselves.
But the fact that the whole mess may spawn two new Rawesome-style outlets is heartening. There certainly seems to be significant demand; since the June 30 raid, Rawesome’s membership has climbed more than a third, from 1,500 members to more than 2,000. “The raid was great publicity,” says Stewart.
It all brings to mind the thesis of the renowned economist Joseph Schumpeter, who described entrepreneurship as a process of “creative destruction.” You’ll be hard pressed to come up with a clearer example of creative destruction.
***
The Estrella Family Creamery cheese situation seems to have gone from bad to worse, with U.S. marshalls having been called in to seize cheese supposedly made dangerous by listeria monocytogenes. I’d like to think that, for the authorities to go to so much trouble, they must have realistic concerns. But as far as I’m concerned, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration long ago exhausted its credibility, and just made matters worse with the Morningland Dairy situation. (For the latest developments in the Missouri and FDA efforts to deny due process and run roughshod over Morningland, see Doreen Hanes’ latest report.)
Unfortunately, the judges don’t understand that FDA spends a lot of time crying “wolf,” so as to destroy family farms and small food producers, and actually believes the agency’s warnings. But if FDA can shut down these dairies so easily, why do they need S 510, the so-called food safety bill pending in the Senate?
http://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/should-estrella-family-creamery-be-treated-differently-than-sangar-when-it-comes-to-listeria/
This is absolutely ridiculous and untrue, Bill Marler. The Estrella family is in the process of writing a detailed rebuttal of FDA's false claims. And they should be suing you for libel, as far as I am concerned.
It is true that there was a single batch of cheese from earlier this year which was contaminated with Listeria, and was subsequently quarantined. All the positive listeria tests came from this single batch. The Estrellas were hoping that the listeria would die off as the cheese aged, but it did not unfortunately. They have not sold any of the contaminated batch, and they did not intend to unless it was proven safe.
Further, of over 180 environmental samples taken by FDA, only 3 came up positive for Listeria. This is hardly cause to shut them down and put them out of business.
As for some of the other points, they are absolutely absurd and ridiculous. Point #11, for example, talks about grading cheese. FOR YOUR INFORMATION, THIS IS THE WAY THAT PROFESSIONAL CHEESE GRADERS AND JUDGES GRADE CHEESE!!! Yes, you take a plug using a cheese iron, you remove a sample for tasting, and you put the rest of the cheese back into the wheel/block to close it up and prevent oxidation on the inside of the cheese. That is the way that cheese is judged at prestigious competitions such as the American Cheese Society and the Wisconsin Cheesemaker's Association World Cheese Championship.
It speaks volumes about your fascist/corporatist agenda, how you simply parrot the FDA propoganda, Bill Marler. Your "food safety" ideology is nothing more than a cover for totalitarian corporate dominance of our food system, and the destruction local food sovereignty, to enrich yourself and your corporate friends.
Please retract this disgusting and untrue article, Bill Marler. You should be ashamed of yourself for your continued efforts to shut down small scale farmers and food processors.
http://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/should-estrella-family-creamery-be-treated-differently-than-sangar-when-it-comes-to-listeria/#comments
What's most disturbing about the whole Estrella fiasco is why the family and their supporters would wait for someone to get sick before addressing the Listeria contamination of the cheese and the processing area.
#1…All us producers must learn to take-a-hint early on and change things when they appear to be not quite right. Getting radical internally is the first step.
#2….Getting radical externally ( media, press releases, battling in the courts ) would not be needed if #1 is done early. We must do all we can to stop wearing targets if we do not want to get shot at by the FDA.
Food Safety programs and risk analysis partnered with understanding the conditions
( chemistry and biology, competitive organizisms, cheeses that invite bad bugs, temperatures, moisture levels etc….) that allow the growth of pathogens is critical.
I support Estrella 100%…but the hints came months ago….it is hard for me to be 100% on board with radical activism after the fact when there are issues that should have and could have been completely avoided.
The question is now about fair treatment. How do the Estellas get back into business? What is the route back to the good graces of the FDA. A clear and fair route back to production should be shown to the Estellas. A shut down must be coupled with a timely reinspection with expectations of that reinspection. Long delays are just unfair and unjust.
It is so hard for me to just say go radical and gather the mother lions for a good food fight….when it is something much more than that. Regulation must be balanced between producer concern and regulatory fairness. It is a two way street.
I just know that if the FDA had shown OPDC a weakness in my program months ago….I would have torn OPDC apart to change what ever it was that was the origin of the problem. I absolutely refuse to wear a target and have them to shoot at it.
The first part of activism is preventative activism….this is something the farmer does to avoid the issue to begin with. Sorry I could not be more cheerleading.
I have spoken with Kelli and I think she has the right ideas to get things back on track and I support her in this effort. Kelli also shared with me that the FDA facts are not at all as they have said that they are…this is so FDA>>>>
We should all support Estrella as they get back on track. This incident is a very good lesson for all. Take -a-hint early on ….and go radical to attack and change things early…way before the FDA Marshals-up. Prevention is the name of the game guys!!
Mark
This post has information on the prior FDA actions and Estrella's reaction:
http://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/what-the-hell-does-listeria-in-cheese-have-to-do-with-god-guns-and-slavery-at-the-estrella-family-cr/
Here is an update that includes the documents that the FDA used to get a Court to approve the seizure;
http://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/should-estrella-family-creamery-be-treated-differently-than-sangar-when-it-comes-to-listeria/
Specifically, here is the Affidavit:
AFFIDAVIT OF LISA ELRAND
IN SUPPORT OF VERIFIED COMPLAINT FOR FORFEITURE IN REM
I, Lisa Elrand, hereby verify and declare under penalty of perjury that the following is true and correct to the best of my knowledge.
1. I am a Compliance Officer with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), United States Department of Health and Human Services.
2. I have read the foregoing verified Complaint for Forfeiture In Rem and know the contents thereof; the information contained in the Complaint has been furnished by official government sources; and, based on information and belief, the allegations contained in the Complaint are true.
3. The sources of my knowledge and information and the grounds of my belief are the official files and records of the United States, as well as my investigation of this case, together with others, as a Compliance Officer with FDA.
4. Estrella Family Creamery, LLC (Estrella) is a small family dairy that manufactures and sells specialty aged cheeses made from raw cow and goat milk.
5. On February 1, 9, and March 1, 2010, the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WADA) collected finished cheese products, salt brine solution, rennet and environmental samples at Estrella. FDA has since determined that Estrella purchases rennet, which is a component of all Estrella cheese products, from a company located in Madison, Wisconsin. The states laboratory analyses of the samples collected from Estrella revealed the presence of Listeria monocytogenes (L. mono) in the finished cheese, in the salt brine solution, and throughout the production and storage areas. L. mono is an opportunistic pathogen capable of causing the illness listeriosis, which can result in death, especially in aged, infirm, very young, or immunocompromised individuals. As a result of the WADAs discovery of L. mono, Estrella initiated recalls of several cheese products on February 10, February 15, and March 5, 2010.
6. On August 2, 2010, FDA initiated an inspection of Estrella and collected several environmental samples and finished cheese products. FDA laboratory analyses of these samples revealed the presence of L. mono in the processing areas and aging rooms, particularly Cave 3. Investigators observed finished product being cut and wrapped in the cheese room where L. mono had been detected.
7. During this inspection, the firm disclosed that it tested its products for Listeria between March 2010 and May 2010, and that a sample collected on March 2010 tested positive for L. mono.
8. During an August 16, 2010, visit, an FDA investigator collected a sample of Caldwell Crik Chevrette cheese that was made on April 27, 2010. One of the owners of Estrella told the FDA investigator that the product was part of Estrellas commercial inventory of product, ready to be distributed. FDA laboratory analysis revealed that the sample tested positive for L. mono.
9. FDA analysis using Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) revealed that L. mono isolates obtained from FDA environmental samples collected on August 2-3, 2010, an FDA finished product sample collected on August 16, 2010, and finished product samples collected by the WADA in February 20 I0 were indistinguishable both by a primary and secondary enzyme. When a PFGE pattern of an isolate is indistinguishable from the pattern of another isolate from a common source (i.e., from the facility and the products therein), it is highly likely that the two isolates are the same strain of L. mono, and that L. mono may have been transported throughout the facility and established niche areas. The presence of a persistent strain of L. mono in the facility over time is significant in that it demonstrates that sanitation efforts were inadequate to remove this pathogenic organism.
10. On September 1, 2010, the FDA and the WADA initiated the most recent inspection of Estrella. During this inspection, Estrella provided laboratory reports that revealed product it sampled on May 28, June 15, June 26, June 29, July 8, and August 30, 2010, had tested positive for L. mono. Investigators also found three paper-wrapped cheeses labeled FDA sample, do not sell stacked together on an aging shelf that appeared to be the three remaining cheeses from the lot that was sampled by FDA on August 16, 2010 and tested positive for L. mono. Estrella had previously informed FDA that cheese had been destroyed. The presence of the contaminated cheese presents an additional potential source of contamination.
11. Also during the September 1, 2010, inspection, FDA investigators observed that employees did not take necessary precautions to protect against contamination of food contact surfaces. Most significantly, the owner was observed tasting the cheese and placing the uneaten portion back into the cheese wheel. Conditions similar to those observed during the previous August 2010 inspections were also observed during this inspection.
12. On September 3, 2010, the agency requested that Estrella recall all cheese products. The firm declined.
13. On September 4, 2010, FDA issued an FDA News Release advising consumers that consumption of all Estrella Creamery cheeses put them at risk for L. mono related illnesses.
14. During FDAs inspections of Estrella, FDA investigators also observed insanitary
conditions in the production areas including tape and peeling paint on cheese press handles; flying insects and spiders on the walls and ceiling of the milk room vestibule and in the cheese processing room; and uncovered whey collection tank located against the exterior wall of the processing facility; milk residue build-up on the whey discharge sink, and rough bare wood shelving covered with cheese product residue in the cheese aging areas.
15. In short, the persistent presence of L. mono in both product and environmental samples from Estrella and the insanitary conditions repeatedly observed by FDA investigators causes all food articles held at Estrella to be adulterated.
You say: "What's most disturbing about the whole Estrella fiasco is why the family and their supporters would wait for someone to get sick before addressing the Listeria contamination of the cheese and the processing area."
FDA has lost much credibility, and as Bill Anderson suggests, it's far from clear Estrella is refusing to correct its problem. As for FDA/state public health credibility on listeria contamination of dairy…
There have been about 15 shutdowns of NY State raw dairy farms for presence of listeria over the last four-plus years…and we're still waiting for illnesses. There have been several more in PA in which we're waiting. And Morningland Dairy–refused a hearing by the MO Milk Board…while we wait for an illness.
The only illnesses I know of involving dairy in recent years came from the four pasteurized-milk deaths in MA in 2007, when FDA never even found a problem that had apparently been lurking for many months.
It's difficult to be trusting of people who are out to get you…with a vengeance.
David
Most of you probably watched the video from Mercolas website on Clay Dyer — the Most Inspirational Fisherman Ever http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/10/26/clay-dyer-the-most-inspirational-fisherman-ever.aspx.
I can only imagine what the germaphobes were thinking in watching this individual bait his hook with his teeth.
I think Ill try that when I am out with the boys fishing and encourage them to do it as well just to create some practical perspective in our life.
Ken Conrad
Ken Conrad
The government lab tests at other farms in Washington producing raw milk cheese are not coming up positive. Why would Estrella be singled out unless they actually have a contamination problem?
Estrella is being singled out because they decided to do an experiment — they held onto a bad batch (IN QUARANTINE) for a number of months, to see what would happen to it. Their hope was that the Listeria would die off, but it did not, unfortunately.
In essence, they are being punished for conducting their own research on how Listeria behaves in one of their cheeses, and for repeatedly conducting tests on the bad batch.
Perhaps they should have just played dumb, and should have never tested their cheeses for Listeria? These problems would have never happened, and they would still be in business.
It seems FDA is intent on punishing raw milk cheese producers for being responsible about food safety.
I have said it before, and it rings true here as well.
The "food safety" establishment WANTS people to get sick from raw milk. They want raw milk to be as dangerous as possible, so they can continue their punitive, authoritarian, food fascism, and consolidation of total corporate-state control of our food system, eliminating any semblance of choice in locally produced whole foods.
I personally witnessed firsthand how the raw milk crackdown in Wisconsin changed the patterns of raw milk distribution. It went from farmers cleaning and filling every jug of raw milk (before the crackdown) to anonymous consumers "stealing" raw milk and "donating" money, filling their own containers and the containers of many other consumers, under questionable conditions.
In essence, the purpose of the raw milk crackdown (besides hurting the farmers financially and otherwise) was to INCREASE the risk of raw milk.
That's right, our friends at FDA, DATCP, etc… are making raw milk products MORE risky by their behavior, and that is precisely their intention.
This is plain wrong and un-just. There should be a list of violations and a suggestion on how to correct them and then "a timely reinspection". If this is not going on this is the premise of a real uprising.
If this was happening at our creamery that would be something I would insist upon!!
Any time that the FDA is continually finding things to visit you about…it is time to get off their radar screen. Take the hint early and change your methods. This is how longer term ill fated relationships with the FDA turn out. It is not good or pretty.
I treat FDA like Cops…the less contact the better ( most are great people but some are horrible and you do not know which is which until too late ). Do not give them any reason to pay you any attention. Take the hint early!!
Mark
David, correct me if Im wrong on any of the facts, but the state of Washington had a large raw milk black market. This state made a decision to embrace the sale of raw milk so that it could be regulated with the goal of making it safer. Here are their rules: http://wifss.ucdavis.edu/pdf/AVMA_claudiacoles.pdf http://wifss.ucdavis.edu/pdf/AVMA_claudiacoles.pdf
As of the summer of 2009, they had 75 families/companies licensed to sell raw milk (this number included cow share programs). 25 are also licensed to sell retail. http://wifss.ucdavis.edu/pdf/AVMA_claudiacoles.pdf
Bill Anderson, I dont think you can compare the raw milk political climate in Wisconsin to the political climate in the state of Washington. Claudia was very proud as she spoke about the history of regulating raw milk in her state. They also had an educational program called The Abuela Project to address the contamination problems leading to illness in queso fresco cheese made from raw milk. http://www.fsis.usda.gov/orlando2002/presentations/vhillers/vhillers.pdf
Why would a state that has embraced the sales of raw milk be out to get only one of their producers? The documentation that has been produced and posted seems to reveal an ongoing issue with listeria and a refusal to on the part of the family to follow orders that were given.
Can someone please answer this question, would the FDA be addressing this issue if the cheese was only sold to people who lived in the state of Washington?
http://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/should-estrella-family-creamery-be-treated-differently-than-sangar-when-it-comes-to-listeria/
It is still there. You have to look at the 3 pictures. His website has this new format for past posts.
cp
http://www.marlerblog.com/case-news/what-the-hell-does-listeria-in-cheese-have-to-do-with-god-guns-and-slavery-at-the-estrella-family-cr/
http://www.marlerblog.com/legal-cases/wright-county-egg-sued-by-three-year-old-hospitalized-by-salmonella-enteritidis/
DeCoster Egg "taken down"? Maybe you can clarify…Has DeCoster ever been shut down by the FDA (despite having likely sickened many hundreds of people)? You seem to be suggesting that because you are filing suit against DeCoster, something bad will happen ("taken down"). But doesn't the suit simply pertain to obtaining potential financial damages (for one victim, and your law firm)?
Guess what I'm suggesting is that DeCoster, which has made many people ill, is treated with kid gloves, while Morningland and Estrella, which haven't made a single person ill, are shut down tight by the feds (truly "taken down"), and placed on the verge of bankruptcy.
I don't get why you, Lykke, Concern Person can't/won't acknowledge that this is a political problem, not a safety problem. FDA is out to get producers of raw dairy products, and singles them out for harsher punishment than Big Ag factory producers like DeCoster. If there was any semblance of due process and fair treatment, DeCoster would have been shut down and its owners charged with felonies.
David
I haven't followed Washington's treatment of raw milk producers in detail since the AVMA conference we attended. It certainly has to be better than Wisconsin ("…couldn't be much worse"). But what I remember most prominently about Claudia Coles' presentation was that her department's educational efforts included, as a first step, an effort to convince raw dairy farmers to go the pasteurization route. I believe the department even endorsed, or sold, a small pasteurizer for dairies. If the dairies insisted on rejecting such "education," then they were allowed to pursue the raw milk licensing route.
David
http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm229805.htm
Letter to Estrella dated March 26, 2010:
http://www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm213416.htm
http://www.marlerblog.com/lawyer-oped/is-raw-milk-treated-unfairly/
It does not mean it should get a free pass. I agree with Mark on that.
You are right, my bad. And guilty as charged for posting it quickly with the Wright Egg letter (as you can see, I don't work for the FDA and don't have enough time to properly blog). But, this mistake brings up a good question: what generates a warning letter with details for correction? Did FDA fail to outline steps needed to correct the problems at Estrella creamery as they do routinely for other companies with violations?
OPDC recieved its first public spanking from the FDA in 2004 ( if I can remember that far back ). They came to the creamery with all the alphabet soup people….DHS, CDFA, FDA you name it.
The spent three days going through everything until I caught one of their spies in violation of their search authority taking pictures of billing files. This was a breach of their authority and outside of their juristiction. After giving Ms. Jennifer King ( FDA specialist ) a serious toe to toe dress down and threatened her with citizens arrest and criminal chanrges….the FDA camp out at OPDC was over. The next day they came back with our lawyer in attendance. The search was supposed to be all about our raw cheese…..it was actually all about our Pet Food interstate shipping program.
At the end of the debacle…we recieved very important information from the FDA inspection and immediately Took-The-Hint and made the few corrections that they suggested.
Since that time…no problems with the FDA ( at least no problems with them during inspections I should say ). But OPDC took the comments and advice very seriously and made adjustments.
As a raw milk producer we must all be very vigilant to assure that we are beyond reproach and clean to the obvious visitor and clean to the inspector as well. This is not easy…but it must become part of your production culture. No birds in the cheese cutting rooms…no pigeon crap on surfaces….no rats. No spider webs.
If this is done in conjunction with a food safety program or strategy….their should be few problems of this type with the FDA or any of the inspection organizations.
As a side note…we always try to include the inspectors in our plans to be better in the future and ask their advice so they are included. Each and every time, this has made our plan better and makes it go smoother.
Mark
http://www.sage-hindawi.com/journals/iji/2010/704321.html
"7. Listeria monocytogenes L-Forms
L-forms are protoplast-like variants of bacteria that lost their ability to maintain a rigid cell wall. They have been first described at the beginning of the last century and were reported for many bacterial species. After their discovery, they have been intensively studied using numerous approaches [108]. However, due to the fastidious nature of L-form bacteria and experimental difficulties using old-fashioned techniques, these studies mainly focused on morphology and physiology of L-form cells and often led to inconclusive data. This was also the case for L-forms of L. monocytogenes [109]. It was only recently that L-form research experienced a renaissance, due to new experimental systems and the application of molecular biology and state-of-the-art imaging techniques [110112]. In a recent study, it was demonstrated that stable L-forms of L. monocytogenes are viable bacteria that are not only able to survive, but also able to replicate and multiply using a unique, previously unknown mechanism [110]. Thus, L-forms are unlikely to be just artifacts found under laboratory conditions, but seem to represent a pre-programmed, alternative phenotype of bacterial life. Of particular interest is the observation that L. monocytogenes L-forms are able to persist within macrophages, suggesting that they retain at least a part of their pathogenetic traits (Schnell et al., unpublished data). Previous results from tissue culture studies already suggested that L-forms may be able to persist within eukaryotic cells for various time periods [113, 114]. Clinical case reports about the isolation of cell wall-deficient variants in cases of persistent and recurrent bacterial infection also suggested that L-forms may serve as cryptic agents of disease in a variety of human infectious diseases [114118]. Subsequent reversion to parental forms may lead to a damage of the host cells. In the case of L-forms, when the bacteria have completely shed their cell walls, several proteins that represent important markers for the human immune system are also lost. Therefore, the immune system may no longer be able to discern and recognize these bacteria cells. Lack of the cell wall as an important target for antibiotic treatment represents a further threat, due to the ineffectiveness of cell-wall active drugs such as ?-lactams and cephalosporins on L-form cells [110, 119]."
My question for Lykke or anyone else is: If pasteurization cannot eliminate listeria,what can we do to make food safe from this bacteria? If pasteurization cannot eliminate listeria and cooking does not eliminate listeria,what should our approach to food safety be?
Appreciate acknowledgment of the error. We all make them. You are inadvertently helping peel away the onion ever further. There are any number of questions to ask in comparing DeCoster and Estrella. As you suggest, why has Estrella been penalized without apparently having been sent a warning letter? But also, why wasn't DeCoster sent a warning letter much earlier? Why has DeCoster never been shuttered? If DeCoster wouldn't shut down to clean up its operations, why didn't FDA go to court to get a shutdown order, and bring in U.S. Marshals, as it did with Estrella?
I also appreciate Bill Marler's acknowledgment that raw milk producers get tougher treatment than other food producers, but I should clarify that I am not suggesting that raw dairy producers get "a free ride." I've said any number of times that they should be held to reasonable safety standards.
But as we are seeing, FDA is being totally inconsistent in its enforcement efforts–criminally so, I would suggest, if misusing government authority to favor some producers over others is a criminal act. (I think it is–maybe the lawyers out there can advise.).
The questions just keep coming. We know the FDA despises raw milk producers–it has said so in so many words. But what about raw milk cheese producers that abide by the FDA's own standard of 60-day aging? Does the FDA despise them as well? Does it want to change the 60-day minimum aging requirement? (At least one official has been quoted saying FDA does want a change.) Is it trying to send a signal by going after Estrella and Morningland, which have been in business many years? We don't know, because the FDA doesn't say. It operates according to its own rules, which mostly involve stomping on small producers and favoring big ones.
David
First experience with with county inspector at Hollywood Farmer's Market. Filled with righteous attitude I ripped into him. Big mistake. Caused more problems than was needed.
Next visit. I let him do his job, received citation, took care of the problem and called him back to thank him for "helping me do my job better." He was very appreciative. Did not have a visit again on my watch.
My response to inspectors, authorities, alphabet soupers, etc. is to treat them as "good enemies" They make me smarter, sharper, quicker and more conscious. To me this is tactically smart with everyone serving a purpose in the game.
I do my best to treat milk not as a raw/pasteurized conflict but as a process that has continued to evolve. There may be times where a pasteurized product with a long shelf life is needed. (Natural disasters, etc) Bucky Fuller said, "You can't learn less." I found that the best approach to possible new customers was to describe pasteurization as a process that was needed at one time and may now be becoming obsolete based on what we have learned over the past 125 years. This is an inter-accomodative approach and does not throw the babies out with the bathwater. It's something that I feel customers innately appreciate as they are not being asked to take sides. They are instead reminded that they are part of a larger evolving system that is both micro-incisive and macro-inclusive
Full disclosure,,,,I was raised on a dairy farm and worked for OPDC for 5 years. My bias is based on drinking raw milk for the first 20 years of my life and born from a mother who drank raw milk while I was in the womb. My dad sold raw milk out of the tank at the end of the evening milking for cost. (If he was getting 50 cents a gallon he would sell it for 50 cents a gallon). What I saw was that raw dairy was never an issue for anyone who would come to the farm from the Hispanic, Sikh, Indian and Filipino community. It was for the few caucasians who came. The takeaway for me from this was that for people who are predisposed for it to be a problem it will be. It won't be a problem for those who aren't.
As for how we battle listeria….Dr. Ron Hull had this to say when he co-developed our RAMP program with me in 2008.
There is a hierachy of bacteria in this world. When lactic acid producing bacteria like lactobaccillus is dominant the the precursors to listeria like pseudomonas will not tend to colonize. If you do not have conditions that favor pseudomonas…you will very likely not have listeria.
So….conditions…conditions…conditions. It is the terrian of the eco-sytem stupid.
Now that is the science of it all.
Battling listeria politically is an entirely different issue.
Miguel….keep the science coming it is awesome!!!
Mark
http://www.myfoodpoisoninglawyer.com/2010/06/hartmann-raw-milk-e-coli-outbreak-expands-to-8-victims-in-minnesota/
This outbreak, if you want to call it that, started in May….it seems that the Minnesota bacteria police are really lagging…seriously.
What would be very interesting to know is what kind of severity of illnesses are we talking about. Are we talking about reported fecal samples at doctors offices with stay at home and recover stories or are we talking about full blown hospitalizations and HUS….that part of the story never seems to get told???
I also think that with the new pediatric anti-biotic use guidelines out for the last couple of years…with the directive to not give any anti-biotics until the pathogen is cultured and known will change the illness and severity and impact recovery periods substantially.
That part of the story does not get into the news either.
The Hartman case and suspected associated illnesses could all be fully recovered by now with no hospitalizations….the state could be acting way after the fact. This alarmist bacteria-phobic media crap has got to be reigned in….the media report to all of us like we are three year olds.
People drink raw milk because they want a change to their immune systems. Changing immune status is not with out risk. Although, I do know that that risk can be reduced to nearly zero….there is still that risk. The risk of a weak immune system is far greater. Deaths from Asthma ….takes more than 5000 people per year yet asthma is healed and cured by Asthma….that does not get into the media either.
Where is the balance!!!! Really pisses me off!!!
Mark
There is much truth in Helen Kellers statement Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. That being said however I feel more secure in allowing myself and family to be exposed rather then to live a life of insecurity attempting to avoid and control that which is unavoidable and uncontrollable.
Ken Conrad
cp
Excellent point Mark, about Pseudomonas and Listeria.
I am told that a simple DIY test for pseudomonas in raw milk is to incubate your milk pipeline filter in a sterile mason jar for about a week at room temperature.
Pseudomonas growth is visible under a black light because it glows a fluorescent yellow color. All you need is one of those handheld "pet urine finder" black lights.
The milk pipeline filter will reek either way, but you'll know if you've got pseudomonas problems pretty quickly. Its hard to miss. Yeasts and other normal lactic cultures in milk show up under the black light as a dull purple glow.
Pseudomonas can be a problem in certain varieties of surface ripened cheese. Under those aerobic curing conditions, it produces bitter peptides and an aromatic compound called cadaverin which smells like a dead mouse.
In fluid raw milk, pseudomonas is also able to metabolize proteins *directly* into ammonia (normally, in the cheese curing process, proteins are first broken down into peptides, then ammino acids, and finally ammonia by proteolytic ripening cultures). Pseudomonas growth in raw milk raisies both the pH and the titratable acidity of the fresh milk, because it breaks down the natural acids in the milk (casein) and produces an alkaline compound (ammonia).
The real sticker about pseudomonas is that it is pyscrotrophic, so it is able to grow in the cold. AND Some of the proteolytic and lipolytic enzymes it produces are heat stable, and able to survive even UHT pastuerization!!! So even though the pseudomonas is killed by the pastuerizer, the enzymes it produces can still render milk rancid after the fact!!!