Boston Common, which will be the site of a rally at 8:45 a.m. Monday, in advance of a hearing at 10 on banning raw milk buying clubs. It’s taken a while, but his Big Dairy handlers seem finally to have gotten Scott Soares, the Massachusetts commissioner of the Department of Agricultural Resources, on message.
In an interview broadcast today on the Cape Cod National Public Radio station, concerning his effort to make raw milk buying clubs illegal, he clearly articulated the argument the dairy industry most frequently makes to oppose raw milk.
When the NPR reporter noted that there hasn’t been an illness from raw milk in Massachusetts for well over a decade, here’s what Soares said: “Our primary concern with this is to protect the milk market itself. There have also been some claims relative to our taking an action relative to public health issues, and although we are certainly concerned, as anyone would be about people becoming ill, our primary charge is protection of the milk market here in Massachusetts and with the status of the dairy industry here in Massachusetts. We cannot afford to have people stop drinking milk for fear of the perception of it being an unhealthy or unsafe product.”
What he’s saying, in dairy industry business-speak, is “My job is to protect the dairy industry brand.” Soares’ problem is that there is no threat to the conventional dairy industry brand. There isn’t a shred of evidence to suggest anyone has ever discontinued pasteurized milk consumption because of worry about illnesses from raw milk. The threat is to the survival of the state’s raw milk farmers and buying clubs, and the jobs and food production they represent.
You can kind of appreciate it when dairy industry pitchmen make the “brand” argument, but not when a public official makes it. Soares’ job isn’t to protect the dairy processors and distributors (even aside from the fact they don’t need protecting). According to the MDAR’s own mission statement, “The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources’ (MDAR) mission is to ensure the long-term viability of local agriculture in Massachusetts.”
Two years ago, Soares told me for a Boston Globe Magazine article that he saw raw milk as “an important opportunity” for raw dairies to increase revenues and profits, and he thought the number of raw dairies could increase to 35 from 24.
Then, in late January, after issuing the first three cease-and-desist orders to Massachusetts buying clubs, he was talking about safety worries, about “a loss of control when (raw milk) leaves the farm. There is no guarantee the milk will be held at the proper temperature.”
And now, finally, he’s got his lines straight–he wants to protect the dairy industry. I don’t know if he’s looking ahead to a plumb job in the dairy industry, or if he’s angling for a U.S. Food and Drug Administration research grant for a Massachusetts university, or what.
What makes all this disturbing is that Soares is “the decider” about the proposed regulation to ban the buying clubs. After the hearing is completed Monday, he decides whether to implement the new reg. Think he’s tipped his hand? The good news is that his decision can be challenged in state or federal court if it appears to be arbitrary. So far, pretty much everything associated with this business has been arbitrary, to put it politely. And I suspect lots of people on Monday are going to give him a lot of reasons as to why such a decision would be arbitrary. Moreover, there are people there prepared to challenge him in court.
Hopefully Soares’ boss, Gov Duval Patrick, will be looking out his window Monday morning around 8:45. That’s when a raw milk “drink-in” is scheduled adjoining Park St. subway station, featuring raw milk celebrities Max Kane from Wisconsin and Mark McAfeee from California, along with a number of local food experts. There may even be a cow grazing on Boston Common, which was the green area’s original purpose in the 1700s, and is still officially sanctioned for grazing.
These festivities will be in advance of the hearing at 10 a few blocks away, at 100 Cambridge St. Gov. Patrick is a close confidant of President Obama. Maybe the guv will read the Boston Globe article just out about the entire mess his commissioner has created. And maybe he’ll decide he needs to do something about the situation.
***
The wheels of justice turn slowly, but sometimes they produce a measure of justice. Meadowsweet Dairy, the New York raw dairy that’s been battling the N.Y. Department of Agriculture and Markets to provide raw dairy products to 120 consumer members of a limited liability corporation, finally won a couple of battles.
A state judge at long last agreed with the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund and invalidated a search warrant obtained by Ag and Markets in December 2007. The warrant had been issued on a “continuing” basis, and the judge seems to have realized that’s not the intent of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment. The judge also dismissed contempt of court charges Ag and Markets had brought against the dairy owners, Barb and Steve Smith–charges that could have landed them in jail–for failing to go along with the search warrant. The judge agreed with the argument presented by FTCLDF lawyer Gary Cox that the Smiths had no obligation to do anything other than let the officials conduct their search, which the Smiths were always prepared to do.
The victories have no bearing on Meadowsweet’s pending appeal of their losses in court to operate the LLC free of Ag and Markets regulation. But at least they won’t have to put up with an endless search warrant, or the threat of being jailed in connection with the warrant. For background on this complex case, search “Meadowsweet”.
Will there ever be a point where this issue of raw milk is approached rationally?
No…your disdain for any and all pro-raw-milk folks makes it plain your clowns comment was directed at all of us, not just me. Your elitist, self-important crap shines through loud and clear. After all, wasn’t it you calling for "tough rules…really tough rules" when folks disagreed with you? Your superior attitude is quite clear.
Put me down all you want…at least I’m not a sniveling coward afraid to put my real name to my opinions.
BH
http://www.JuicyMaters.com
No trip to Boston? Since we are on the merry-go-round…would you also describe WI Raw Milk Consumer or milk farmer or any others who don’t use real names here "sniveling cowards" afraid to put their real name to their opinions?
Personally, if I hear "this isn’t about food safety" one more time, and see one more video of condoned filthy raw milk operations, I’ll jump to the camp of harsh rules. Or, maybe I already heard and saw it one too many times – the raw milk movement cannot (or will not) embrace basic sanitation and food safety standards on their own, thus the need for strict regulation (not bans, but definitely not exemptions): there is no constituional right to sell food with manure in it to consumers.
David
You are right about the circus analogy.
If the conventional milk folks don’t watch out, the word is going to really get out what a farce pasteurization really is (especially the dead stuff that is refrigerated for looks).
These Big Dairy bastards need to be hit hard, where it hurts.
And Soares needs to be investigated, for he is obviously on the take…you don’t change your mind like this by being presented with scientific reports…
Government of the corporation, by the corporation, FOR the corporation. It’s so fitting that this fight can really get amped up in the place where the original Revolution began. Take it to em boys.
BH
Folks are missing one of the more subtle points Lykke was making with the reference to Send in the Clowns. Towards the end of that song the singer reveals her identity with the phrase "We are the clowns". I think Lykke is admitting that she’s as entertaining as the rest of us.
Submitted by one of the bozos on this bus:
Don’t eat lettuce while in Massachusetts. We don’t want barfing bozos.
cp
Lettuce hits hard again….this time it is Ecoli 0145….another strain brought to you by big ag and antibiotics.
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm211145.htm
Lykke and CP….the real enemy of health is not immune building raw milk….it is the CAFO medical alliance that creates superbugs.
Please comment.
There is no great move to pasteurize lettuce ( at least pubically ). We all know that the FDA has authorized secret irridation with out labeling for vegetables.
Lykke, CP ….Where is your outcry about veges????
At a rodeo…the Clowns save the cowboys from the bulls….
Clowns are a matter of context. In this world I would rather be a clown that sees the naked emperor for what he is than the lemming that jumps off cliffs with out thinking.
Clowns play the crowd….not vice versa.
Mark
I like it.
Bob "Bubba Bozo" Hayles
http://www.JuicyMaters.com
You took the words right out of my mouth 🙂
Congrats on the victories, Steve! I hope the NY judges are reading the news and asking themselves how closely allied they want to be with state regulators, at the expense of their integrity.
Mark – Sincere (and belated) thanks for the doing the interviews on Mercola’s website. Great education!
Milk Farmer is right; there’s crooked money coming in from somewhere to reward arbitrary regulations in MA. I hope they find out where.
Soares is going to be a crispy clown.
-Blair
I respect Bill Marler for this. He uses his real name and says what he means. I know where he comes from and he makes his case. He believes in what he does and why he does it…even though I disagree with the long term effects of his efforts.
CP and Lykke….if you want any one of us to take you seriously….come out and use your real names. It is a sham that you hide and yet you make such great commentary.
Use of your real identities will be a liberating democratic experience. How are any of us supposed to know what the dialogue really means. If you have had a child injured by raw milk then we will know why you are so passionate. If you are an FDA person we will know that your paycheck depends on your negative position.
I tell you what….if you do work for the FDA or other government agency….I will give you a pass….. at least tell us all that you do so that we can understand the dialogue. Shooting from the shadows is so cowardly and unAmerican. It is very much like a terrorist that kills and then skips back into the night. Except that at The Complete Patient we will not hunt you down and place you into GitMo forever.
Stand and be counted.
Mark
http://www.marlerblog.com/2010/05/articles/legal-cases/hey-our-petition-on-e-coli-adulterants-including-o145-made-the-fsis-website/
cp, cloak hiding clown
Why doesn’t it bother you that milk farmer, WI raw milk consumer, Truly Concerned, Miguel, Pete, and so on do not proudly display their real names? What is your reasoning for the double standard?
In the court of public oppinion I guess from all indications that all bets are off.
Simple enough. I could not sleep at night if I did not stand up for what I believe. It is something that my upbringing taught me to do.
Thanks Dad!
Mark
Some of us on the raw milk side have been visited by regulators, sometimes with guns drawn, because of the side of the issue we are on. I personally have had an FDA AGENT COME ON MY LAND…MY posted land…without a warrant, and threaten me with arrest and jail because he had heard gossip that I sold raw dairy across state lines. He had no evidence, he had no warrant, he was trespassing…but he thought he could ramrod me into letting him look around because he thought the fact he was a federal agent would scare me into compliance.
I have had state agriculture officials do the same thing…break the law coming on my land without permission or warrant, counting…wrongly…on my being intimidated by his government position. Bad move…I don’t intimidate easily.
Farmers all over the country can tell the same stories…stories of intimidation, raids without warrant, sometimes in the dark of night…farmers shackled in front of their families, their children, for…being farmers. Property and equipment taken…stolen…without warrant.
For this, I give those on the pro-raw dairy side that don’t want their identity known a pass, and I don’t give a damn what you think of it.
On the other side, I have never heard of a regulators house being raided in the dead of night by a band of crazed raw milk types. I’ve never heard of any threats…none…toward regulators at any of the many public hearings all over this country regarding raw milk.
Yet the folks on your side…with rare exception…hide behind pseudonyms. lykke, cp, et al…you people are cowards. Sorry, worthless cowards. Your only purpose in life is to remind decent people what true garbage looks like, and what tactics your kind uses.
Bob "Bubba Bozo" Hayles
http://www.JuicyMaters.com
I hide behind a pseudonym because it could cost me my career if people knew who I was. The Wisconsin dairy industry is incredibly corrupt and politicized, and the powers that be are VERY upset that raw milk is about to be legalized in America’s Dairyland.
There are alot of people in the dairy industry in Wisconsin who drink raw milk, but it is a "don’t ask, don’t tell" type of thing. The higher-ups in the big milk processors, and DATCP "Food Safety", wanted to keep raw milk as underground, dirty, and black market as possible, so people would keep getting sick.
Now they are going to have to regulate it (which they are already proving they are going to do a hack-job of) as a legal market. This does not make them happy, and (as has been shown in Scott Trautman’s case) they have a way of getting REVENGE on those who upset them.
Welcome to the WI Dairy industry, Lykke. Where politics trumps food safety, ALWAYS. (Tell me again why raw butter, cream, buttermilk, and cheese under 60 days were taken out of the legislation at the behest of DATCP? Not for food safety reasons, that is for sure!! No, it is to protect the butter maker’s and cheese maker’s monopoly.)
I don’t judge the opinions of those who give real names, supposedly real names, or fake names differently, the value of their opinions only depends on what they say.
Are you telling me that you would lose your job because of your communications/arguments with raw milk consumers?
Doesn’t this just you tell how fascist this system is?
http://www.marlerblog.com/2010/05/articles/legal-cases/listeria-lawsuit-filed-in-milk-post-pasteurization-contamination/
cp
It is not how things are done. Only designated people (like Soares level) can represent an agency publicly. This is not specific to raw milk – any public exchange relating to policy must go through a chain of command and then a uniform message is given to the public (which generally isn’t shared by blogging!).