Last week, following my July 15 posting, Barney Google addressed a sharp complaint my way about the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.
“You keep promoting a legal team that has yet to show a victory in the raw milk battle…They keep promoting these herdshare/cowshare/farmshare programs, but everyone that has come under fire is still under fire or tied up in court…We farmers are in worse shape now than we were before because of the legal advice the FTCLDF is giving. Look at the cease-and-desist orders, look at the warrants and confiscations. In Wisconsin, Ohio and New York it’s all the same. Meadowsweet has been tied up in court for three years…If this is a valid business model, where are the victories?”
Before I provide my response, let me say that Barney Google isn’t alone. Complaints about FTCLDF seem to crop up every so often from various people.
One of latest objectors is Aajonus Vonderplanitz, the raw food advocate who runs a nonprofit organization, Right to Choose Healthy Food. One of the organization’s food distribution sites, Rawesome Foods in Venice, CA, was the site of a multi-agency raid three weeks ago.
Vonderplanitz and his RTCHF push a different “business model” than FTCLDF–a lease-based model. Quite simply, RTCHF leases the land and/or animals of about 40 farms around the country, which provide products, including raw dairy, to many hundreds of RTCHF members.
As I understand it, the lease-based model differs in a number of ways from the herdshare/cowshare model. A lease is akin to rental, while a herdshare/cowshare is akin to ownership, which would seem to be an advantage for the herdshare/cowshare. But leases have a lot more solid legal standing in business than herdshares/cowshares.
Land and buildings, not to mention cars, trucks, and machinery, are commonly leased every day around the country, and have a long history in agriculture, going back to sharecropping, which became common in the days following the U.S. Civil War. Herdshares and cowshares? The main court test in this country has been in Ohio, where a state court upheld the concept in 2006, and the state decided not to appeal the case. I explore the distinctions in my latest article on Grist.
For these reasons, Vonderplanitz is frustrated that the FTCLDF has shied away from the lease concept, especially given that he’s now taking considerable official heat. “I’ve shown Sally Fallon and the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund people the lease agreements,” he says. They’ve declined to embrace the idea and the result, in his view, has been something akin to what Barney Google described.
The lawyers at FTCLDF said they didn’t want to comment publicly about the Vonderplanitz assessment, in the interests of not sowing divisions in the food rights movement. But they have made clear previously that they think the ownership privileges conferred by herdshares and cowshares are preferable to the more limited privileges of leases.
Since I’m not a lawyer, I can’t say which approach is best. I do find the long history and strong standing of leases in our legal system to be reassuring. RTCHF has been using the lease model for eight years and, as far as I know, its farmers haven’t been legally challenged by authorities. Yes, there have been raids. Aajonus’ Rawesome foods endured one in 2005 in Venice, and no charges resulted from it.
As one farmer has pointed out to me, Wisconsin dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger, who has embraced the lease model, is producing raw dairy products for consumption, while the Zinnickers are dumping their milk and trying to get Wisconsin courts to sign on to the couple’s hershare model, with backing from FTCLDF.
If it’s results you want, then you have to say RTCHF is getting the better results…up to now.
Now, no one can say what might result out of the recent raids of Rawesome Foods and Sharon Palmer’s farm (she has a RTCHF lease). There could be indictments and long court battles, forcing them to fight the feds for years.
Then again, the feds may well confine themselves to harassment, perhaps working with local officials seeking the less risky tack of trying to force RTCHF outlets to obtain health and retail licenses. But even here, a loss could encourage private groups to widely expand their distribution of nutrient-dense foods–something Big Ag would definitely not approve of. And a direct government challenge to the leasing model–for example, challenging RTCHF on the basis of the ban on interstate commerce in raw milk–could be more risky than the feds will tolerate, since they could well lose. Then, the raw milk spigots everywhere would be opened wide.
Now, some individuals in the food rights movement don’t like me doing such public analysis and assessment. But I’ve come to realize that one of the big advantages we have over the government overlords is our transparency. They work in secret, trying to figure out ways to stymie the public will. We are upfront about what we want, and gain ever more supporters.
Moreover, they are cowardly. All you have to do is view the video from Rawesome Foods of the agents entering the premises in Venice three weeks ago, with guns drawn, to get an idea of how pathetic they are. Guns drawn coming into a food outlet? Maybe they worry about getting too many fumes from healthy food. No, they are so distant from their subjects that they are afraid of ordinary unarmed citizens.
I see the division between RTCHF and FTCLDF as healthy. Just as we are entitled to choices in our food, we should also have choices about which legal course to choose and support. I support both RTCHF and FTCLDF, and whomever else comes forward to lend a hand to farmers and consumers in this ever expanding struggle. It’s going to be a long and tough battle, and the enemy has become increasingly aggressive.
?
When I hear the stories, and see the videos like that of the agents at Rawesome Foods, I find myself thinking about Winston Churchill’s eloquent and, ultimately electifying, rallying cries to his countrymen during 1940, following the worst defeats against the Nazis. Do yourself a favor, listen to this recording. If you don’t have time for the whole ten minutes, listen to the last 70 seconds, beginning at the 8-minute-50-second point, where he concludes, “We will fight in France…” Our situation isn’t nearly so desperate…yet.
http://www.juicymaters.com/nationalpolitics/2010/07/23/two-parties-four-philosophies-a-tiger-by-the-tail/
Bob Hayles
There are a myriad of ways to get raw milk to the people. Having different people with different resources take different tacts is healthy….and increases the chances of us being successful collectively. As long as we understand the difference approaches, and keep criticism to a civil minimum, it furthers our cause. AV might have the best angle on this, but if he doesn’t, than it is good that SF and the LDF have taken a different one.
Desperation is a state of mind…and we won’t be there unless we choose to fall into the fear that many in this country use for control. Doing the right thing, no matter what the consequences, is good enough for some.
There is a bright side to this, however, and milk farmer got to it. In a classic, diversified, decentralized, human-centered way, different people with different resources are taking different approaches to getting the food they want. That is extremely healthy, and not incidentally, extremely difficult for system-types, with their big-army approach, to fight against. They squeeze the balloon, and it bulges somewhere else. Correction, as always, is a bottom-up process.
THE AMERICAN DREAM or NIGHTMARE if you provide real food to those that REJECT slow poison from the regulators table!
Video of "peace officers" [now called law enforcement] with WEAPONS drawn to ensure that the SAD is our menu! Any outrage anywhere?
At the point of a gun we are educated medicated and forced fed. Was the American Dream just a mere fairy tale?
There’s an easy explanation for this. It’s called Controlled Opposition. (See my comment about 3 articles back for a more in-depth explanation.)
at the outset of the Home on the Range herdshare, 3 years ago, we dismissed the idea of selling raw milk for pet food, even though we knew it was legal to do that in BC.
When I get a farm completely separate from the herdhsare, I’ll be selling raw milk as ‘human grade pet food’ = there’s more than one avenue for keeping the REAL MILK flowing
the health bureaucrats have made lots of stupid noises in the media, and slapped some officious-looking paper on us, but their ultimate authority is equivalent to a traffic ticket. The amusing thing about Canada – compared to the united States of Ham-merica – is, up here, the petty tyrants aren’t even good at doing bad
lola…I’ve got an extra tinfoil hat you can borrow. You need to either do that or pick up some foil at the grocery and make one for yourself.
Bob Hayles
http://tinyurl.com/2ftuvng
" "This is about control and profit, not our health," said Aajonus Vonderplanitz, co-founder of Rawesome Foods. "How can we not have the freedom to choose what we eat?"
Scientists and regulators point to epidemiological evidence linking disease outbreaks to raw milk: The milk can transmit bacteria such as E. coli O157:H7, salmonella, campylobacter and listeria, which can result in diarrhea, kidney failure or death.""
And what of the "other" foods that transmit more often than raw milk?
>"This is not about restricting the public’s rights," said Nicole Neeser, program manager for dairy, meat and poultry inspection at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. "This is about making sure people are safe.""
I beg to differ, by raiding my cowshare you are very much so restricting MY right to consume what I choose. If it were truely about "making sure people are safe" then the processed/chemically adulterated foods would not exist, there are numerous studies proving how they make people ill.
""Demand for all manner of raw foods including honey, nuts and meat has been growing, spurred by heightened interest in the way food is produced.""
Bet this is a major key…a group that is growing and it is strong.
"" But raw milk in particular has drawn a lot of regulatory scrutiny, largely because the politically powerful dairy industry has pressed the government to act""
Hmmm the dairy industry is pressing the govt…..he who has the gold makes the rules.
Will they come on my farm and take my cows if I consume the milk and/or meat? Will they say I can’t eat my produce unless I use their poisons on them? Will monsonto say I stole their seeds when the wind or bugs bring poisoned pollen onto my property and contaminate my farm?
So it’s not okay when Marler lobs insults at you but it’s okay when you lob insults at me? What a hypocrite. How you have any credibility is beyond me.
Just for the record…there are some highly intelligent people out there who know exactly what I’m talking about. If you’d like to refute my statement, or my previous comment, go ahead. The fact that you chose to insult me instead shows how ignorant you are of how the world really works.
Those in the "natural foods crowd" do more research on their household cleaner than on the law and their lawyer. What a joke.
Agenda 21; Codex Alimentarius; MK Ultra; Monarch Programming; Hollie Grieg and the Scottish Pedophile Ring; Bilderberg; CFR; Trilateral Commissioin; Chemtrails; Fluoride; Tesla Free Energy; Maritime Law/The Strawman/U.S. Corporation;; Who Shot: JFK, RFK, MLK, John Lennon, Ronald Reagan; False Flag Terror: Gulf of Tonkin, 9/11, Oaklahoma City, Ruby Ridge, 7/7 Bombings, Pearl Harbor; Area 51; Problem-Reaction-Solution; Controlled Opposition; Operation Paperclip; Operation Northwoods; Federal Reserve; Fiat Notes are Debt Notes; How Money is Created; Rothschild Zionism; NEW WORLD ORDER
Good luck and God bless.
OT maybe not. Massive tax change inserted into health bill. I don’t begin to understand it. But it appears from what is reported if a business spends over $600 on any goods or services transacted in taxable year a 1099 must be filed. Another very grievous burden placed upon the small dairy farmer??? In 2012 buy a TV a computer or replace a condenser fan in your A/C or repair you car but first provide you SSN???
Anyone knowledge care to comment?
"33 Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out To Be True"
http://utahwearechange.org/2010/06/33-conspiracy-theories-that-turned-out-to-be-true-what-every-person-should-know/
I think you are correct about the importance of "control" to the bureaucrats, but I’ll take issue on this thought: "Does anyone really believe that our regulatory apparatus is attacking us because of an uncrossed t or an undotted i in our private arrangements?" For better or worse, we are a nation of laws, not men (or women). Remember, this nation was founded by a bunch of lawyers. (May help explain why today’s llawyers stick together so well, and tend to be arrogant about the opinions of non-lawyers, but that’s another debate.) It was that underlying principle that forced Richard Nixon to become the first president to resign (rather than be impeached). Granted, big business has been much more adept (and well funded) at changing the laws and regulations to suit its needs, such as using the "commerce" clause to give the federal government ever more control. But the U.S. constitution and the laws around it are still not a finished product, and are open to new interpretations (or reenforcement of old interpretations). I like to think that that’s where Aajonus Vonderplanitz is headed in his use of the legally well-established leasing concept.
That’s definitely what Gordon Watson is getting at when he says in his comment, "When I get a farm completely separate from the herdhsare, I’ll be selling raw milk as ‘human grade pet food’ = there’s more than one avenue for keeping the REAL MILK flowing." Yes, there’s more than one way to skin the regulatory cat we’re dealing with here, and much will depend on our innovativeness in using the law against those who would control us.
David
http://www.marlerblog.com/2010/07/articles/case-news/outbreaks-illnesses-and-recalls-linked-to-raw-unpasteurized-dairy-products-united-states-2010-through-july-23-2010/
Is grass fed beef really safer?
http://www.marlerblog.com/2010/07/articles/lawyer-oped/has-the-nail-been-driven-into-the-coffin-of-the-conventional-wisdom-that-grassfed-beef-is-safer-than-grainfed-beef/
cp
We shouldn’t put too much faith in, nor expect justice from the courts. The more legal theories, approaches and suits we can bring on the matter the better. But in the end the courts are not God nor our King and we must be prepared to fight for our right to healthy food regardless of how they rule in any given case.
If we do not have the resolution to keep making raw milk available even when all legal options and theories have been exhausted then we can not expect to win this battle.
The same goes for political options as well.
http://www.sicklycat.com/2010/07/18/baby-i-like-it-raw-video/
Can anyone separate out fact from fiction, especially when he continues to talk about raw milks capacity to kill pathogens (46 minute into the video)? Why does he continue to tell these lies about raw milk especially in light of all the raw milk outbreaks this year?
At around 43 minutes he makes fun of the warning labels and encourages people with compromised immune systems to drink raw milk. This is a completely irresponsible message.
Yes there are two types of raw milkone for pasteurization and one for human consumption. The one for human consumption is getting people ill. Notice how he failed to mention that little fact in his interview.
And this is one of the respected leaders in the raw milk movement? Very sad!
cp
I’ll admit it hasn’t been a great year in terms of illnesses from raw milk. Just keep in mind we are talking about part of one year here. In 33 years between 1973 and 2005, the average number of reported illnesses was 54. The Marler compilation shows 97, and the reports are based on preliminary conclusions, which nearly always finger raw milk. Let’s see what the final reports show. In the meantime, there is at least one case on that list showing an illness from "bathtub" cheese, which informed raw milk drinkers disavow. Plus, there is at least one recall (no illnesses, as usual) listed from NY Ag & Markets, whose motto is, "How many raw dairies did we harass this week?"
As for the study on grass-fed beef, not sure many serious foodies worry about safety differences, but rather about nutritional differences between grass-fed and grain-fed beef.
David
Im not an expert on the history of mandated reporting and foodborne pathogens, but I dont think mandated reporting for all states for E.coli 0157:H7 and HUS began until the mid 1990s. The data for reporting is dependent on doctors culturing the test for a pathogen. There are many people who become ill from a foodborne pathogen, but it is not severe enough to warrant testing for it; only the severe cases end up with cultures being run.
For example, I work with someone who became quite ill. She kept going back to the doctor saying something is wrong. After a month, he finally ran a culture. She had E.coli 0157:H7 which didnt turn into HUS, but she then ended up suffering from gallbladder issues for a year.
Another example is another person I work with. She was severely ill for a week. She finally went to the doctor; the doctor asked her a list of question about what she at, pork was on the list so she tested her for parasites. She never tested her for a foodborne pathogen. She came back negative for parasites, so she never knew what pathogen made her sick. She was given antibiotics and responded favorably. This is an example of someone that fell through the cracks. She went to the doctor but was never tested for a pathogen. The whole data collection system for foodborne pathogens is hardly perfect.
The data you refer to ended in 2005. The Dee Creek Outbreak was in December of 2005 and marked the beginning of many raw milk outbreaks from 2006 and on. It would be interesting to count the number of illnesses from 2005 to the present linked to raw milk. I think everyone would be quite surprised by this number.
cp
A nation of laws, sure. But not a nation of regulations. Laws codify (granted imperfectly) constant principles, and are therefore compatible with natural rights. Regulations impose process control, and are therefore often (always?) in violation of natural rights. Nixon, remember, was not forced into impeachment because he deviated from processes invented by agency bureaucrats.
Notably, regulations apply control without legislative authorization. Legislators give tacit approval to bureaucrats to do their work for them—a dramatic flight from responsibility and a shameful way to treat our Constitution. If our legislators are not directly responsible for every word of law they create, then how on earth are we the people to challenge them? That gets, in my opinion, to the FTCLDF’s problem. Full disclosure: I support the FTCLDF financially and philosophically. Nevertheless I feel they are in a terribly tight bind, having to utilize legal means to battle extra-legal forces. It is a loser’s game, at least until the battle reaches the constitutional level. There, justice may be argued sanely, unless of course we decide that the Constitution is a fluid document, open to interpretation by progressive ideas.
Didn’t know what was causing him to be so very ill and he was on the road when the symptoms first struck him down like a ton of bricks. When he returned home he was sick for a few more days when I finally insisted he go to the doctor. It was the doctor who diagnosed the e-coli. What was his solution? He prescribed Cipro. I was pretty angry about that let me tell you.
My point is that there is nothing that we eat at home – raw milk, raw butter, grass fed beef, the bacon I am smoking outside at this very moment – that has ever made us sick or scares us at the thought of eating it. Outside of here, down in the cities, being at the mercy of restaurant food or grocery store food, that is quite a different story. We just got back from 5 days in PA and I tell you I was so hesitant to eat anything.
My husband went back to the restaurant that served him up the e-coli salad and spoke with the manager who thanked him for the information but insisted that he’d heard of no other customers who complained of being sick.
I bought raw milk in PA from a Dept. of Ag licensed farm and felt happy when my body recognized real food after 5 days.
Some HMOs/PPOs give bonus’s for the least amount of tests you send your patient to, they also give $$$ for the most amount of vaccines you (your staff) give. Plus, with the high frequency of food-born illnesses; to do labs with each suspected case would be very expensive. That "stomach bug" most likely is from contaminated food/water. Most are self limiting.
http://www.wisaap.org/Resources/2010Resources/201004Resources/2009%20Oliver%20Foodborne%20Pathogens%20and%20Disease%20Food%20Safety%20Hazards%20of%20Raw%20Milk.pdf
It appears that many of these so called "outbreaks" are not tested or the current illness causing strain is not found on the farms or in the cows…or from illegal bathtub cheese…Some things just make you go Hmmmmm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foodborne_illness
estimated 76 million foodborne illnesses in the USA every year. What "food" is the most common cause? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foodborne_illness_outbreaks_in_the_United_States
http://www.foodpolitics.com/2010/07/recent-food-safety-problems-caused-by-raw-milk/
cp
I’m not aware of a single death from raw milk in at least 25 years. The CDC always tells the media there have been two deaths in the last ten years, but these two were apparently from the bathtub cheese. CDC knows that, but is intent on stirring up fear. On the other hand, pasteurized milk killed three in MA in 2007, raw spinach killed three in 2006, peanut butter killed some number, and so on.
As for those 76 million estimated annual illnesses the media refer to, I don’t believe the CDC study (published in 1999) identifies a particular food, since the study is nearly entirely based on extrapolations. The real number of reported illnesses from foodborne pathogens in each of the last five years is between 20,000 and 25,000, and has been declining. Once again, the fear mongers at CDC and FDA don’t want us to know that.
David
I carefully reviewed every word I said in the video you criticized. I stand behind every word of it.
If you noticed…the Lancet and another respected medical publication published the raw milk and breast milk safety system data. It was not my data!
I speak to a huge group of FOX studio employees next month. The people that made this video are from FOX studio and they have experienced raw milk first hand and can not drink pasteurized milk.
I am sorry that you can not digest the truth. But….I am very glad you watched the video.
I kind of liked it.
All the best,
Mark
How does CARE’s approach in PA compare to that of Rawsome and the herdshare/cowshare? They seem to have been fairly successful at preventing problems with their approach.
This debate over food safety reminds me of an old accusation: they call good evil and evil good. Health giving raw milk is denigrated and the disease causing conventional foods are defended and covered for. So many outright lies, the government cannot be trusted.
Sharon
I am a big supporter of FTCLDF but I don’t see much introspection. I see the usual lawyerly/ego thing of if I think it it is so, one dimensional approaches to multidimensional problems; egos without bounds dead set on paths that go nowhere. To a hammer, every problem is a nail.
If the movement really wants to become powerful – there needs to be more honesty and adaptation within it, instead of imposed upon it based on outside events. What’s worked. What’s not. Not who’s to blame, no bickering, but how do we fix it and grow. How do the people involved acknowledge their own limitations – and seek the help of those around them to make up for those limitations. THEN you get GREATNESS. Denying vulnerabilities, denying ego, denying other approaches that are working, digging your foot in the ground and riding a loser into the ground for our own ego – is bad news – when you are against as formidable an enemy as we face.
I have found much of this is cultural. Farmers are never wrong. Lawyers make no mistakes ever. That leads to failure and waste. It seems a good example is the military – who I’m sure don’t follow this at all levels – but have some kind of culture – an ingrained method – of honest review of an event, not to blame in failure, but to learn and grow from it. Tragically that is not the norm in corporate America, really not anywhere. Huge egos that cannot accept that they are huge egos. Folks, I have a huge ego. I try to make fun of it, keep it in mind, and surround myself with true friends that aren’t afraid to tell me what an ass I am when I am, and that is plenty often.
Back to your endless discussion, I hope it goes somewhere and does something, and I will go back to doing something and really trying – not always succeeding – but trying – to be honest with myself in my failures, and attempt to surround myself with people and situations and structures that make up for my own inadequacies on the endless path of self improvement in a hope of creating the change I seek for my and your children.
STILL Proud Wisconsin Dairyman, Scott Trautman, big ego and all
I believe CARE in Pennsylvania might represent yet another model for private food distribution–a cooperative model. Consumer members purchase directly from farms that are CARE members.
CP, you wonder what the number of illnesses from raw milk from 2006-2009. I challenge you to come up with a real number, because you’d have to deal with all kinds of messy situations. There were illnesses in Ohio attributed by regulators to raw milk that several of the sickened individuals attributed to other causes. There were illnesses in Michigan, which prompted the "sting" operation against Richard Hebron, that were most likely caused by pasteurized milk. There were a good half dozen or more shutdowns of raw dairies in New York state for listeria, with no illnesses reported. I go through a number of these cases in my book, "The Raw Milk Revolution". Let’s just say that biased regulators make serious assessments difficult to carry out.
David
Anyone who truly believes in food safety (as opposed to economic protectionism) must come to the conclusion that it will never occur by way of the government regulators. Not only are they not equipped to get to the cause of outbreaks from farms the greater number of so-called outbreaks will be false positives, which will prevent them from focusing on the real outbreaks thereby preventing real progress in making raw milk safer.
Which is all fine and good if you’re trying to stamp out raw milk production, but not if you’re a mother who depends on raw milk to keep yourself or your children healthy.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foodborne_illness
Every year there are an estimated 76 million foodborne illnesses in the United States (26,000 cases for 100,000 inhabitants), 2 million in the United Kingdom (3,400 cases for 100,000 inhabitants) and 750,000 in France (1,210 cases for 100,000 inhabitants).
In the United States, using FoodNet data from 1996-1998, the CDCP estimated there were 76 million foodborne illnesses (26,000 cases for 100,000 inhabitants):[37]
* 325,000 were hospitalized (111 per 100,000 inhabitants);
* 5,000 people died (1.7 per 100,000 inhabitants.).
* Major pathogens from foodborne illness in the United
States cost upwards of US $35 billion in medical costs and lost productivity (1997)
———-
The United States has nearly EIGHT TIMES times more food poisoning than UK and over TWENTY times of France. And the FDA et al are worried about raw milk… probably because it’s the only thing they feel they can do something about, even if it isn’t really a problem compared to everything else. Gotta look like they’re at least trying to earn their salaries, eh?
been away for awhile and am just now reading your post. i applaud aajonus for what he is doing. he has his approach, we have ours. neither is wrong, neither is right. it’s all a matter of choice. both are legitimate approaches yet they have subtle differences. and i hope aajonus is successful.
as for the feds getting into the fight, don’t count on it. they lurk behind the scenes and let the states do their dirty work. that’s why it was the los angeles county prosecutor’s office that went to a los angeles county judge to issue a warrant against sharon palmer who lives in ventura county. i doubt a ventura county judge would have issued the warrant against sharon and i doubt a federal district court judge would have issued a warrant against sharon.
without the necessary resources to lobby in all 50 states or at the federal level, our resources are more wisely used litigating. it’s tough work and it’s slow and it’s not as productive of instant results (yet), but without any receptive agency on the horizon, federal, state or local, willing to come to the negotiation table it’s all we can do to protect these farmers from harassment.
choice is a good thing and you hit the nail on the head, again.
I just attended the Vermont cheesemakers festival yesterday, and spent a day at the Cellars at Jasper Hill farm today, where dozens of artisinal cheeses from various farmsteads (as well as a clothbound cheddar from one larger dairy co-op — Cabbot Co-op) are cave aged in a huge underground complex with 7 different vaults with different enviroments and micro-flora.
Tommorrow I am visiting a neighboring sheep dairy and cheesemaker. And I am hoping to visit a few other farmstead cheesemakers in Vermont while I am here. Terentaise at Spring Brook Farm in southern Vermont is especially interesting, though I am still waiting to hear back from them. Terentaise is a Beaufort/Abondance style cheese, made in a copper kettle with a natural whey starter, the way that Gruyere and other alpine cheeses were traditionally made in the mountains of central Europe.
After Vermont I am travelling to Ontario, to attend the world premier of Michael Schmidt’s raw milk trial by jury opera. Very exciting!
Had a glass of some raw Ayshire milk this morning while helping to make cheese at Jasper Hill Farm (they milk ~40 Ayshire cows on the farm and make cheese). It almost had a goat-milk like quality to it in mouthfeel and appearance. This is probably because Ayshires have the smallest sized butterfat globule of any breed of cow.
I can envision small towns dotted across the country, filled with various artisan products; cheese makers, dairy products/foods/breads, artists, carpenters, etc… What a concept. A healthier lifestyle.
When you say that raw milk that is intended for human consumption is getting people sick….I question your logic. What standards are being used by these producers???
I can say with certainty that very few producers in America have written standards or safety plans that clearly describe the standards they use for human consumption. Most of the producers that I know…are just trying their best to do well and do not have testing standards or food safety plans and many are conventional producers that are just selling on the side. when these are the standards of coarse people will get sick on occasion. Their immunity is not up to par….
On the Rawesome issue…when cops pull out their guns it is not because they have control…it is because they ( and their bosses ) have lost control and want badly to regain it. They are scared and feel threatened. They are following some sort of macho protocol to look and feel protected when they have run out of methods and abilities to communicate. After all…everyone knows what the end of a barrel means. Everyone knows that the stupid ass that points a gun at you is a little crazy and can not be trusted. FBI agents, Cops and the like are not normal people. They are paranoid, paramilitary brainwashed, rule followers that do not have a high level of independent thought and just follow orders.
What really upsets cops is a person that does not do what they say to do….just because they have a gun. They feel as if they rule the world all in the name of their personal safety. Sounds so much like what our regulators do in the name of food safety.
It is a load of crap. I used to work with cops and we used to say…."cops were all power no money". They are little people that seak out jobs with guns so they can feel important and big. When it comes to real power and real intellect….they fall far short.
I could not agree more with Aajonus and his team at Rawesome. The FDA has met their match and they can not out do him. He simply does not play by their rules or in their games. Guns are no match for tenacity, video cameras, true grit and wit.
CP….as much as you pray for a death from raw milk consumption so you can rave…you will not get one. The illnesses you see are nothing but immune adjustment as people struggle to adapt to the reconnection to bacteria that they have lost touch with. The fact is there have been zero deaths from raw milk in the last 35 years in the USA and their has been many many deaths from pasteurized dairy products. This is a fact you can not stand.
You fail to see this and this is your source of frustration. You can not stand the fact that some people actually understand ecosystems, immunity, biodiversity and biology and want strong immunity.
Change is coming and even the FDA is showing signs of change. After all they must change if they listen to their own scientists. They are on our side when it comes to understanding biodiversity and the human ecosystem.
You just go ahead and lather yourself in Tryclosan soap, pop antibiotics and rejoice in your sterility.
The rest of us will respect our ecosystems and send you flowers at the hospital when you get MRSA or C-Dif.
Please come into the light!! When you blame raw milk for illness….please also give credit for saving thousands of lives.
Mark
If anybody gets sick in my family (very rare!!)- I don’t worry – I know it means that we were slacking a little in supporting our bodies! We all pull up our socks diet-wise, get some natural homeremedies or homeopathic medicines and we are back to normal in 1 or 2 days.
And I think to my self – well, we’ve just "immunzed" ourselves from that one for awhile!
A funny thing at family camp this summer – went with the kids to sign up for a job – what do they get?? Hand-Sanitizer Pumper girls(for the cafeteria line-up) It was ALL I could do to keep my mouth shut, just fit in and say "Sure, we can do that!"
All best to Micheal schmit in the election – you’re not in my province but I’ll be cheering for you!