The Entrepreneurial Spirit at Farmers Markets; Why Good Food Costs More; Confronting the Regulators
Monday, July 19, 2010 at 10:07AM 
It's that special time of year in the Northeast, when the corn, tomatoes, beets, Swiss chard, blueberries, raspberries, and even peaches are resplendent in their ripeness. For a couple months now, we'll have an assortment of locally produced delicacies.
But this year, I've noticed some new products showing up at farmers markets in Vermont and New Hampshire. Lots more sellers of chicken, for example. And more fresh chicken, in addition to the flash-frozen variety.
Also, more sellers of eggs. And not just chicken eggs, but duck eggs as well. I sampled some duck eggs, and they sure are voluptuous (see my attached photo showing a chicken and duck egg frying side by side, though granted, the chicken egg isn't as orange as some are). The chicken eggs still strike me as tastier, though it could be I'm just more used to them.
And last but not least, I'm seeing more sellers of raw milk at farmers markets, at least in New Hampshire, where it is legal to sell raw milk at such outlets. One farmer, in his first year selling at a farmers market, told me he milks two cows, and works a full-time job as a kitchen aid at a local college; the other milks five cows and is in his second year selling at the farmers market. I like to see entrepreneurs of all types, but it's especially encouraging to see raw milk entrepreneurs. You gotta be gutsy to push ahead in the current political environment. 
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Further on the business considerations, Tim Wightman makes an important point in the numbers he presents on farmer costs following my previous post--"Bulk buying can not be utilized, and you pay through the nose for everything." This is a truism for pretty much any artisinal food product, or any artisinal product of any type.
Because artisinal producers are committed to producing top-quality products, they use top quality ingredients, and avoid cutting corners like the big-volume producers.
In the end, consumers receive a product impossible to purchase via the factory system-- milk from a particular cow or group of cows that have been fed real food and treat respectfully, or even lovingly. The result nearly inevitably has to be a more nutritious product. As Alice Riccabona captured so well in her comment about the doctors following my previous post, some people care a lot about such differences, and others don't.
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I gave a presentation Sunday about my favorite subject at the SolarFest gathering in Tinmouth, Vermont.
A highly energetic crowd of more than 50 people showed up at 9 a.m. on Sunday, which I thought was pretty impressive (since I'd be hard pressed to be at many presentations at such an hour on Sunday). Lots of questions and comments about such things as the safety of pasteurized milk, A1/A2 milk, the future of food sterilization efforts.
When I talked about the harassment of New York raw dairy farmers like Chuck Phippen, who's been shut down nine times for listeria contamination (even though no illnesses), a man interjected that he was a customer of Phippen's dairy who happened to be at the farm one of those times when two inspectors from the N.Y. Department of Agriculture and Markets showed up with their listeria findings. "They warned me that I might not want to take the milk I had bought. I told them I wanted the milk and would take my chances."
In that vein (sensitivity to the regulators) my Grist article about the quickening pace of farm and food club raids remains the site's most viewed post, five days after it went up.
In new media coverage, there's this from NPR--educational, I suppose, for the total newbie, but disappointing journalistically. Interestingly, though, the anti-raw-milk "expert" quoted, David Acheson, was someone I quoted extensively in a post last month, seemingly offering an olive branch. The raw milk consumer, Liz Reitzig of Food Network fame, does a great job once again of explaining her reasons for consuming raw milk and feeding it to her family.
Reader Comments (29)
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http://www.farmanddairy.com/news/research-shows-eggs-from-pastured-chickens-may-be-more-nutritious/15362.html
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A study conducted by researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has shown that eggs produced by chickens allowed to forage in pastures are higher in some beneficial nutrients.
In the research, titled “Vitamins A, E and fatty acid composition of the eggs of caged hens and pastured hens,” which was published online this year in the January issue of Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, researchers examined how moving pastured hens to forage legumes or mixed grasses influenced hen egg omega-3 fatty acids and concentrations of vitamins A and E.
The study also compared the eggs of the pastured hens to those of hens fed a commercial diet.
The differences were striking, according to lead investigator Heather Karsten, associate professor of crop production\ecology. “Compared to eggs of the commercial hens, eggs from pastured hens eggs had twice as much vitamin E and long-chain omega-3 fats, more than double the total omega-3 fatty acids and less than half the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids,” she said.
“Vitamin A concentration was 38 percent higher in the pastured hens’ eggs than in the commercial hens’ eggs, but total vitamin A per egg did not differ.”
The Penn State researchers used a “cross-over design” in the study to compare the influence of different pasture plant species.
Seventy-five sister hens were assigned to one of three pasture treatment groups — alfalfa, red and white clover or mixed cool-season grasses. Groups of hens were rotated to all three pasture treatments, each for two weeks, and their diets were supplemented with commercial hen mash chicken feed.
Pasture botanical composition, forage mass, leaf-to-total ratio and plant fatty-acid composition were compared among pasture treatments. Eggs of the pastured hens were compared to eggs of 50 sister hens that were fed only commercial hen mash in cages for the entire six weeks.
“The chicken has a short digestive tract and can rapidly assimilate dietary nutrients,” said Paul Patterson, professor of poultry science, who was a co-investigator in the project. “Fat-soluble vitamins in the diet are readily transferred to the liver and then the egg yolk. Egg-nutrient levels are responsive to dietary change.
“Other research has demonstrated that all the fat-soluble vitamins, including A and E, and the unsaturated fats, linoleic and linolenic acids, are egg responsive, and that hen diet has a marked influence on the egg concentration.”
Forage parameters in the study varied somewhat, Karsten conceded, but did not explain plant linolenic acid variation.
Seventeen of the 18 quantified egg fatty acids and vitamin A concentrations did not differ among the three pasture treatment groups.
Eggs of the hens that foraged grasses had 23 percent more vitamin E than eggs of hens that foraged clover.
“Results suggest that grass pastures may enhance vitamin E in eggs of pastured hens more than clover,” she said. The researchers noted that the hens did not forage to the degree necessary to meet their requirements for energy and protein, when compared to the commercial birds.
At the end of the experiment, pastured hens weighed 14 percent less and averaged 15 percent lower egg production than commercial birds.
“Pastured hens were lacking dietary protein and energy to match the intake of the commercial hens,” Patterson explained. “We have since estimated that, at the level of voluntary forage consumption of hens in this study, pastured hens would require additional mash feed to sustain body weight and egg production equal to that of the commercial hens.
“Supplementing the birds with additional mash, however, would likely result in reduced omega-3 fatty acid and vitamin A and E concentrations in their eggs,” he added. “Further research is needed to identify how to optimize pastured poultry feed supplementation for optimum egg production, hen welfare and egg nutritional quality.”
Producing poultry on pasture or cover crops is becoming a popular way for livestock and crop farmers to diversify their operations in the U.S., especially in the northeast. Poultry are often rotated onto pastures after cattle or sheep, where they forage on regrowth and scavenge for invertebrates in manure deposits, often helping to distribute manure nutrients.
Recent research indicates that livestock products from animals that forage grasslands have a higher concentration of omega-3 fatty acids and fat-soluble vitamins than livestock products from animals that are fed grain and stored-feed diets, Karsten pointed out. But studies of pastured poultry are limited.
The experiment was conducted at Penn State’s Dairy Cattle Research and Education Center. Prior to the experiment, the field was rotationally grazed with dairy heifers and dry cows, with excess forage harvested. Pastures were mowed occasionally to maintain them in similar vegetative stages of development.
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"Chad Dechow, associate professor of dairy cattle genetics at Penn State, the face of dairying in Pennsylvania may face rapid change, as a long period of low milk prices could accelerate dairy-farm consolidation."
"A sizable contingent of small farms that can produce milk cheaply, rely on nonfarm income sources, or incorporate a niche market will remain. The majority of milk, however, will be produced by a limited number of very large operations with several thousand or more cows spread across 'satellite dairies.'"
"'Pennsylvania dairies have the potential to be shielded from the national trend to some extent,' said Dechow. 'Consumers want to support family dairy farmers who take care of their cows, and nobody produces milk closer to the way consumers would like it to be produced than Pennsylvania’s dairy farmers.'
'For Pennsylvania’s dairy industry to thrive and remain one of the largest in the country, the industry must do a better job of connecting with consumers and return a larger proportion of the retail milk price to the types of farms consumers want to support.'"
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I can certainly think of one niche market that provides adequate income to farmers and engenders strong farm loyalty among consumers!
http://www.farmanddairy.com/news/low-milk-prices-may-spur-moreconsolidation-of-pa-dairy-farms/15359.html
I am moving to Ohio in 3 weeks. I just accepted a job as the cheesemaker at Snowville Creamery near Athens. They currently bottle minimally pastuerized cream-line milk from three local herds that are rotationally grazed and heritage breeds (higher levels of A2 beta casein, lower A1, higher protien & butterfat, etc...)
I guess this means I am now blowing my cover with my anonymous screen name, but it doesn't matter anymore because I am leaving Wisconsin. For those interested I am Bill Anderson.
Here is the website of Snowville creamery -- http://www.snowvillecreamery.com/
Warren Taylor, the owner, is the Mark McAfee of the east. His background is in dairy processing technology, and the farmers (Bill Dix and Stacey Hall) are leaders in the graziers movement. Snowville's milk is now at Whole Foods in the D.C. area, and Warren has been a proponent of legalizing certified raw milk. We will be making raw milk cheeses very soon at Snowville. Part of my goal is to also get rid of the arbitrary 60-day rule for cheese, in favor of a more science-based approach to food safety in raw milk cheese.
I am very aware of Snowville Creamery and I actually met Warren Taylor a few years ago at an OEFFA conference in Granville. (He certainly does talk fast!) Snowville's milk is carried at the Mustard Seed Markets near Akron and Cleveland, and I have overheard customers there praising the milk. Unfortunately I haven't tried it, because nothing is superior to the raw milk from pastured cows that my farmer provides to his shareholders - imho. :-)
Even the minimal pastuerization of Snowville's milk only gives us about 10 days to sell it on the grocery store shelf. It is dated for 14 days from the day of bottling (and all milk being bottled is less than 24 hours old). Like Mark McAfee, Snowville guarentees the sale of the milk to the grocery stores, so any milk that isn't sold they are refunded for. We also monitor the temperature of the case, because anything over 40F greatly increases the rate of spoilage.
This is unlike the UHT milks of Organic Valley, Horizon, etc... which are practically steralized and have much longer shelf life.
And you can bet that when retail sales of certified raw milk are legalized, Snowville will be the first one available in that region.
One of the nice things about making artisinal cheese with raw milk is that cheese is much more durable and has a longer shelf life. But its also more labor, equipment, and curing/aging space. More prestigious too.... we're hoping to win some awards at the American Cheese Society by next year.
Bob BUBBABOZO Hayles
I had a very nice long talk with him today. Even though Dr. Acheson is no advocate for raw milk, he does not want an underground system that is a food safey hazard. He sees the stark contrast of our California raw milk standards and systems as opposed to families going to the local conventional dairy and begging for raw milk that is being produced as intended for pasteurization.
I really do think that there is hope. There is much work to be done. Our continued efforts have started to resonate with our best doctors....even retired FDA doctors.
Dr. Acheson has my deepest regards and respect. I look forward to progress as time passes and baby steps of dialogue are started between the arch rivals of biodiversity and advocates of commercial food sterility.
An essential precept of the best food safety system is a functioning immune system inside of every American.
http://www.fda.gov/Food/NewsEvents/ConstituentUpdates/UCM053812
Mark
"Anarchist" was coined by the right-wing monarchists during and leading upto the French revolution of 1789. It was a perjorative they used against the left-wing Jacobins. The term was first adopted as a self-description by Proudhon, a French libertarian socialist in the 1840's.
Personally, I prefer not to let 18th century French monarchists define what I call myself. Or conservative Americans for that matter... Bob.
I am a radical (small-d) democrat in the tradition of Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Eugne Debs, Saul Alinksy, etc... Call me an Anarchist if you will. How is this any different than calling people like Ronald Reagan, Pat Buchanan, GW Bush, etc... a "fascist"? What does that accomplish except shock value?
Don't get me wrong, there are real American fascists. Henry Ford and Prescott Bush (the grandfather of GW) were both well-known American fascists, and financial and political supporters of Nazi Germany. Walt Disney was also a notorious anti-semite and racist, and bordered on fascism in his politics. But the political class is above things like fascism. Fascism is an insurgent anti-establishment movement, which is why I personally find the "tea-party" somewhat scary, because of its ultra-nationalist and nativist overtones.
The reason I am leaving Wisconsin is because I am a pariah within the dairy industry here. There is no way they are going to let me have a successful career as an artisan cheesemaker in Wisconsin, or at least until I start winning awards and turning some heads.
I was fired from a job as the head cheesemonger and cheese buyer at a high-end cheese store on the capital square in Madison, over my raw milk activism. I kid you not. People at DATCP and the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board were pressuring my boss to shut me up about raw milk and the role the dairy industry had in the crackdown. I was also a strong advocate for the Trautmans when they had the failing farm inspection in March. A letter I wrote to my state senator about the inspection got into the hands of a DATCP employee & cheese marketing person, who is friends with my (then) employer. He fired me over that letter.
I feel fortunate that all those CIO and IWW organizers, communists, and labor radicals back in the early 20th century fought for unemployment insurance. The only reason I have been able to find this job at Snowville creamery is because of the unemployement insurance I am collecting since being fired for my raw milk activism.
I really find it quite ironic how many people at DATCP are consumers of raw milk, or if not currently consumers, grew up on it. Yet the official line against raw milk remains. It is an incredible contradiction that will be their undoing, and the undoing of the Wisconsin dairy industry, if they cannot deal with the issue in a constructive manner.
In the meantime, I am high-tailing it out of this messed up state, and plan to make world class artisan raw milk cheese at Snowville. It should be a few months before you start to see the first cheeses in local markets, but we will be continously expanding our market. We are starting with a fresh mozz and ricotta (which will be pastuerized because they are fresh), but quickly moving onto cave-aged surface-ripened artisinal raw milk cheeses, which express the "terrior" or taste of place. (Snowville is in the foothills of the Appalachians) I plan to make a caerphilly-style cheese encrusted with sasophras leaves (ala Cornish Yarg from Wales), a semi-soft schmear-ripened cheese (ala limburger, or French munster) washed in the local microbrewery's paw-paw beer. If I can get a hold of an old copper kettle I will be making a swiss-alpine style cheese like a gruyere or appenzaller with the warm-season milk.
The ultimate cheese to make, though, is going to be a raw milk triple-creme, with a bloomy rind. I am thinking of calling it "Delice de Appalachia." That is going to be a very tricky one, though, to get out to 60 days, but I believe it is possible. First, I have to very closely monitor the acidification curve and the coagulation of the milk, to make a slightly drier cheese, without comprimising the high acidity (low pH) of the cheese at 24 hours after moulding and draining the curd. Then it is going to be aged at very cold temps (~38F, rather than the typical 55 of a cheese cave) and only inoculated with a tiny amount of penecilium and geotrichum molds, so that it blooms and ripens very slowly over the course of two months, rather than just a few weeks. I'm also going to have to carefully choose the shape of the cheese, because that also affects the way it breaks down as it ripens.
Anyways, that is more about me. Looking forward to the move to Ohio!
http://hartkeisonline.com/2010/06/14/old-world-traditions-in-raw-milk-cheese/
http://hartkeisonline.com/2010/06/15/switzerland-gruyere-and-other-alpine-cheeses/
http://hartkeisonline.com/2010/06/16/french-soft-ripened-cheese/
http://hartkeisonline.com/2010/06/17/english-territorial-cheeses/
We'll contact you through Snowville-
Best wishes,
Ron
"Fascism is an insurgent anti-establishment movement, which is why I personally find the "tea-party" somewhat scary, because of its ultra-nationalist and nativist overtones."
I thought that fascism is pro-establishment. For example, Nazi: National Socialist. I also see the tea partiers being very anti-establishment.
But I hear you on the Wisconsin mess. I live near Milwaukee, and all this recent garbage is making me wish I was in another state. However, because much of this seems to be traced back to the federal level, I wonder how long it will be before the Ohios of this country end up with the same problems.
Hitler was imprisoned for his attempt to overthrow the German government in the 1920's. The Nazi's were formed out of the freikorps, which were groups of ultra-nationalist German soldiers returning from WWI, and organized as vigilantes to put down the "reds" (strikes and worker's rebellions organized by genuine socialists) not much unlike the American Legion formed in the U.S. at the same time.
Granted, the tea party hasn't gotten to the point of nationalist vigilante-ism.... maybe it never will. It may be too conflicted within itself, I don't know. I just find it ironic how much press it has gotten, when the anti-war movement in 2002-2003 (the largest grassroots political movement in world history) which dwarfs the tea party in size and scale, was marginalized, relatively speaking, by the media.
But we do see modern groups like the "minute men", nationalist vigilantes on the U.S.-Mexican border, which would clearly qualify for the label Fascist. The tea party is a little more innocuous than that, but I fear it has the potential to morf into something worse. I could be wrong... maybe it will just fizzle out after the next election cycle. Who knows?
My point is that fascism always starts as an sort of vigilante insurgant anti-establishment para-military type movement. The professional political class usually does not openly embrace those kinds of politics or policies, with a few exceptions.
Fascism usually happens in times of economic distress and social turmoil. Essentially, the ruling class loses their faith in the ability of the liberal-democratic state to manage the society, and so they finance the kinds of nationalist para-military groups talked about above to seize power and establish a military dictatorship. Hitler was financed by some of the major industrialists both in the Germany and in this country (as I mentioned before Prescott Bush the great-grandfather of GW, and Henry Ford, were both financial backers of Hitler)
I'm not saying the tea party is such a para-military group, it just has elements of that within it. It also has more democratically spirited elements, such as the raw milk movement. In any case, I don't really think the tea party is going to last beyond the next election cycle. The Republicans are going to milk it for all its worth (just like the Democrats did to the anti-war movement in 2003-2004) and then it will probably fizzle out.
At least for now the federal officials are constrained by the laws of each individual state, as long as the milk is not crossing state lines and falling into the realm of inter-state commerce. That could change if SB 501 is ever passed into law, but at least that bill is also stalled in the senate.
We had a lot of activity in 2005/2006 with undercover operatives being sent onto farms to buy raw milk, dairy licenses being revoked and an aborted push to try to legalize raw milk sales in the legislature. After Judge Hein's decision put herdshare on a legal footing the major players involved decided to centralize on a standard herdshare contract and abandoned new legislation after the state health department attempted to attach onerous restrictions including demanding buyer's names and addresses. (Sound familiar?)
I'd also like to mention that our current governor played a big role in the process, by instructing the Department of Agriculture to drop its appeal of Judge Hein's decision soon after taking office in 2006. Governor Strickland grew up drinking raw milk from his own family cow, and went on record stating that he personally didn't see any problem with herdshares and wanted raw milk to be available in the state, but rare. We've followed his direction and have a number of herdshares in operation around the state, but few if any advertise, there aren't any "buying clubs" and you need to do a little leg work to find them.
There isn't much that the Department of Agriculture can do as long as our current governor is in office, although he is up for re-election this year and things could change under a new administration. A new ODA director could start re-harassing farmers, although the ODA is also suffering from the state's budget crisis, is cutting personnel and previously had to pay court costs in its loss to Gary Cox.
You can have militarism and nationalism without fascism (such as in a monarchy), those aren't its defining characteristics. Its defining characteristics are found in its cradle to grave complete control of every aspect of life, including prominently the economic realm. We just tend not to recognize it in ourselves because it became associated with dictatorships. But neither is that its defining characteristic. We have fascism but it comes by way of a Congress and a million bureaucrats.
To the extent the tea party movement sticks to its libertarian constitutionalst roots it is in keeping with our founding fathers outlook. But to the extent it is co-opted by the establishment GOP, nationalist, approach it is fascist. A good measure will be how well its candidates hue to the constitution reject the establishment GOP approach on things like wars of empire and control of the people through regulation, financial control and other aspects of fascism.
But once it becomes apparent to them that raw milk is a forgone conclusion they will change their tune. Because it is about control they are just as happy with raw milk produced through PMO type regulation such as in California. For a system where the regulators require licensor and control every aspect of milk production from how you milk it to the price you charge is a fascist system.
And the crucial step in that process is the first step: getting a license. I don't care if you get to set your own price, you still operate at the state's good pleasure. For a license is something that is given to allow an activity that would otherwise be illegal. When you get a license you are asking the state for permission and everything you do will always ever be at their whim. Even if you secure distribution or access to raw milk that way it will be a simple matter for the state to clamp down at some point in the future.
You have to take the long view. Unregulated farmer to consumer sales of raw milk is freedom and defensible. But licensed raw milk production is a trojan horse. You have no ground to stand on because inherently it is a state privilege.
Here is a good video that explains how diversity of plants and plant families work together to create a healthy community.Of course different bacteria are associated with different plants so this type of farming naturally will give us the most diverse population of microbes in the soil to create a healthy environment for the plants, animals and people.The principles are the same whether you are talking about healthy plant families and communities or healthy microbial families and communities.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6355321270394162023#docid=727825431796194016
Bob BUBBABOZO Hayles