Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures Dairy Co. with actor and comedian George Lopez, sponsor of the George Lopez National Kidney Foundation Celebrity Golf Classic in Toluca Lake, CA, in May.I’ve wanted to write a followup to a posting I did a couple months back on the tremendous business opportunity represented by raw dairy, and nutrient-dense foods in general. Each time I started writing, though, there seemed to be yet another government raid on a dairy or a food club.
Just today, agents from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection, accompanied by eight police officers, executed a search warrant on Vernon Hershberger, a dairy producer who’s been resisting government efforts to shut down his farm store. According to one witness, the police surrounded the store and warned off anyone who tried to approach. They had previously been frustrated in trying to enter the store because the warrant didn’t give them authorization to use force, and the store had been locked. But this time, they used the element of surprise to accomplish their goal. They confiscated a computer and several boxes of business records, but took no food. Presumably DATCP wants to make a case that Hershberger violated the ban on sales of raw dairy by breaking the seals on his coolers applied by DATCP agents.
In recent weeks, we’ve seen raids on food clubs in Minneapolis and Venice, CA, and on farms related to these clubs in Minnesota and California. Kind of makes you wonder–why are judges issuing search warrants as if they are grocery store discount coupons?
Clearly, the authorities are trying to scare producers and distributors away from producing raw milk and from organizing private groups seeking to guarantee themselves a supply of food unavailable in supermarkets. What to do?
It’s certainly easy for me sitting at my computer to exhort others to continue the fight. Yet, as Milk Farmer points out in a comment following my previous post, there are multiple ways to fight the fight. “Yes, the authorities are waging a more intense campaign against small farmers. Those that are plucked up in the storm must need to fight the gale, but it seems wise for many others to hunker down and weather the onslaught….after all as long as people are getting their food, that is what it’s all about.”
To the extent Milk Farmer is encouraging people to not be scared off, to fight the fight by pushing good food into the system partly as an act of defiance, and liberation, and partly as an act of economic independence, I’m with him. And if more people can make a decent living and keep money in their local communities, why, it’s even more of a bonus.
A woman on a foodie listserve wrote this comment recently from a state where Whole Foods pulled out of the raw milk market: “I have been selling raw milk for about four years, minimally. It has now shot up enormously since Whole Foods stopped selling here. I can’t keep milk in the fridge. Years past I had a freezer full of it by this time of the lactation. I’m kind of stuck between trying to accommodate (more milkers) to turning people away (staying small).”
I was one of those that was very pissed at Whole Foods for pulling out of the raw milk business, but when I read the preceding testimonial, it occurred to me that, from a business perspective, the grocery chain has helped create a major business opportunity for dairies producing raw milk. As I wrote in May, primary demand for healthful food is exploding. Rapidly increasing numbers of people are coming to understand both the problems of the factory food system, and the health benefits of locally produced nutritionally dense food. All this is happening at a time when corporate behemoths like Whole Foods and Organic Valley are pushing back from raw milk. (And Whole Foods is pushing back in general from living foods, with its ban on kombucha sales.)
In business terms, the Whole Foods and Organic Valleys of the world are creating a huge vacuum. Organic Pastures Dairy Co. in California has been masterful, from a business perspective, of “branding” raw milk, even going so far as making it a major cache’ item at a celebrity golf tournament. Above, you see Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures with actor and comedian George Lopez, sponsor of the George Lopez National Kidney Foundation Celebrity Golf Classic in Toluca Lake, CA, in May. I mean, did you ever think you’d see a raw milk brand prominent at a golf tournament?
While Mark McAfee has paved the way via aggressive marketing of raw milk as a healthy food, smart farmers like the one I quoted earlier in this post are moving in and filling the vacuum.
There are a couple of special wrinkles about the nature of the business opportunity being created by raw milk.
On the positive side, it is feeding off a major reorientation of the food distribution system. Gwen Elderberry put it well in a comment following my post in May about the business aspects of the raw milk market: “I discovered that the local community was much more tenuous and interconnected than I had realized. There are more people than I ever imagined who are interested in co-op’ing local food; people I didn’t think would be remotely interested. I worked in this area as a home care nurse for several years. I picked the brains of the elderly, the infirm, and those who cared for them. Even if the government raided any one person’s farm, the rest would quietly pitch in and replace them. Gosh, in some ways not even dealing with food, but with home care, they already have! It is a huge discovery for me. I don’t NEED to think of it as a black market.”
On the negative side, raw milk has a safety problem. People can debate all they want about how dangerous raw milk really is, and about what the data do or don’t show, and about whether raw milk is to blame in certain incidents, but the fact is that raw milk is under the microscope, as it were. And what has happened over the last year is that there have been some notable outbreaks attributed to raw milk affecting sizable groups of people. Most recently, there have been outbreaks very likely attributable to raw milk contamination in Minnesota and Colorado. Once again from a business perspective, the regulators, dairy industry, product liability lawyers, and others who oppose raw milk are using the outbreaks to lift the pasteurized milk brand, and denigrate the raw milk brand.
The practical problem raw dairy producers face is this: How do you deal with legitimate safety issues while under a state of siege? The regulator/public health communities may carp about safety, but these people really don’t want raw dairy producers to succeed. If they do, these regulators know they’ll find other excuses to come down on the producers.
All this doesn’t mean producers shouldn’t pay attention to safety; they should, but it should be because they care about their customers and don’t want to get sued, not because they expect anything in return from the authorities.
My sense is that everyone involved in the production and distribution of nutrient-dense foods will need to become ever more conniving to survive. As Gwen Elderberry suggests, this isn’t unlike fighting a guerrilla war. Fighting a guerrilla war requires more than business smarts. More on that upcoming.
http://greenwoodfarms.wordpress.com/
I think you have far too much faith in the SCOTUS, and the government & constitution in general.
We are witnessing today in our modern age of globalization, a phenomenon which Michael Schmidt refered to recently as the "hollowing out of the nation-state." The alternative to organizations like the WTO and World Bank (which are, btw, monsters of U.S. imperial capitalism) is to build local democracy and permaculture. Raw dairy is a part of this equation. I do not think that the SCOTUS is, however.
Do not think for one minute that the appearance of smooth sailing in the OPDC markets in CA are not filled with a tremendous amount of Guerilla Educational tacticts….Call me the "Che Guevara" of raw milk if you want….but we use Guerilla marketing constantly so we can keep things smooth on the surface. As Mike Schmidt said…this is war! The body count is real and we are fighting for our lives. The establishment likes to have us all think things are cool….things are not cool…..they are hotter than hell and it takes a fighting spirit using Guerilla tactics to grow and survive.
I live by this….being legally compliant is my cover story. Behind the scenes we are educating and using our first amendment rights to the fullest exent we can.
Mike is right and those fighting with police surrounding their businesses must learn to use the power of the video camera and You Tube to exploit the oppression that has been set upon them. People must become outraged….no outrage…no change. People are followers and we have few leaders. In this world leaders are conveniently put on no fly lists and labeled as activsists and terrorists.
We must all be smarter than this….In a Guerilla war….the enemy has no clue who you are or what you are doing!!
Mark
The problem I see with defining this as simple math is that our public "servants" fancy themselves as more qualified to assess the numbers than individuals.
People out there want raw milk. Public officials are determined to stop them. Why? Again, we are back to the heroin comparisons. This is food that sustained our ancestors. It’s not a drug. The rational choice to use it is not hindered by addiction or altered mental state – both fair arguments against controlling heroin…
I kind of like the government data collection systems.
I have recently read that the government surveys in the early 2000’s deduced and thought that 3% of the CA population drank raw milk.
Thats 1.05 million people just in CA. Thats my wildest wettest dream. Just goes to show you how really screwed up the government data systems and collection theories are.
Our grass roots real world data says that about 4% of that amount drink raw milk in CA. When people are asked what raw milk is at a farmers market….most have no clue. Some think that UHT organic Horizon milk is raw milk.
Mark
If we want to see more truely healthy food like raw milk we need more and more people buying their food directly from farmers at prices that allow them to earn a fair living while producing safe, nutrient dense foods.
So many variables — raw milk vs dead, A1 casein vs A2, grassfed vs grains — it would certainly be nice to have "proper scientific studies". But with or without official approval and recognition, nothing beats real world proof — and no privilege of any kind trumps inalienable rights exercised by a belligerent claimant in person.
Video and news article of Vernon Hershberger and club member after the latest raid. AND THEY NEEDED 8 ARMED POLICE OFFICERS TO FACE DOWN THESE FOLKS???
Any outrage anywhere???
I’m really trying to figure out how come health officials are working with law enforcement. Is it strictly because a search warrant is issued? I’m confused about which cases are chasing pathogens vs which cases are challenging the distribution of milk.
I thought I recently read that there was at least one dairy that was raided, with officers, for pathogens, even though they had not been notified about it ahead of time.
Is that a standard practice in every industry – hence my earlier question about Wendy’s.
Also, for comparison – notice how they put a clear end to this incident. Do officials give a similar all-clear when an incident at a dairy is over?
Wendy’s is finally named as source of E. coli
Snipped
"Gwen Hadley with the Weber Morgan Health Department told ABC 4 News one of the victims became so ill she couldn’t speak. However, officials say the illnesses and infections have run their course and there is no risk of further infection."
http://www.ecoliblog.com/2006/08/articles/e-coli-outbreaks/wendys-is-finally-named-as-source-of-e-coli/
I’m just trying to understand if the techniques being used in these cases could be called "industry standard" for food? Or is it just milk that gets this treatment? anyone know?
Bottom line, SCOTUS should decide if something is constitutional or not, with no other factors. That is their job and anything else is legislating from the bench.
As the court is currently composed, and even assuming a Kagan approval, the majority of the court is more likely to come close to strict constitutional decisions than any court in recent history.
It is my personal opinion that the FTCLDF suit will wind up before SCOTUS. and I personally believe that if it is argued strongly on the issue of rights, the FTCLDF will win. There is simply nothing in the constitution that gives the government the power to tell us what we can and cannot eat, and the constitution is as clear as possible that if the constitution doesn’t give the federal government a power, it doesn’t have it…period.
Some iterations of the court would have ignored that, even as plain as it is, but I don’t think this court will.
Bob BUBBABOZO Hayles
If the Wendy’s owner or manager refused to get a license, or wouldn’t allow inspectors onto the property during an outbreak investigation, then there would probably be a search warrant. This rarely occurs since most business owners are cooperative. Also note that there has been heightened concern since these investigators were murdered by a food producer who had a long history of problems with the government:
USDA To Honor Slain Food Safety Compliance Officers And Investigator
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/NR_061810_01/index.asp
___________________________
Colorado Update: State confirms raw milk from Longmont dairy responsible for illnesses
http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_15469283
MW
With that said, I must take issue with one carachterization of the US that yo have repeated often…that the US is imperialistic. The following is a generally accepted definition of imperialism:
"Imperialism, as defined by The Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." .
Throughout history empires have done just that…England planted its flag on, and dominated to the point of its citizens being serfs to England, India for over 80 years. Rwanda was also a victim of British Imperialism, resulting in the Tutsi’s being almost wiped out when the British abandoned Rwanda.
Similarily, the imperialistic Dutch, through the use of the Dutch West Indies Co took over what is now South Africa, a situation still being rectified.
In every instance you can find through history, imperialism results in a foreign flag being planted and a population being subjugated.
Without twisting actions and imperial definitions, you can not name a single case of US imperialism.
Have we acted improperly in foreign affairs sometimes? Of course, but far more often to the benefit of other countries than to their detriment. An old anonymous quote says, "If your country is is deep trouble, be it financial, social, or otherwise, the best thing you can do is declare war on the United States and make damn sure you lose." Just look at Germany and Japan at the end of WWII. The USSR would have taken over Germany had we not stood in the way. Anyone besides us would have subjugated Japan. Anyone but us would have planted their flag on France after saving them.
We didn’t.
Of all the conflicts we have been in…the right ones and the wrong, the only tiny piece of land we have ASKED, not demanded, of another country at the end of hostilities is a plot to bury our dead that died to save their ass.
An imperial USA? Only in the eyes of an anarchist seeking an excuse.
Bob BUBBABOZO Hayles
"The Hartmann farm has been selling raw milk to hundreds if not thousands of
people for at least a decade and yet there have been no reports of illness until
recently. I have been on the farm many times, and, in contrast to the reports,
found it to be far closer to a pastoral utopia than a filth pit. The Hartmann
cows are truly loved and babied. This is a farm family that have devoted their
lives towards making the best milk humanly possible. Likewise, if problems
exist, they will do whatever necessary to correct the problems. The article
states that responsible dairy farmers would blanch if they saw the Hartmann
farm. In actuality, I have been on dozens of commercial dairy farms in my work,
farms that sell milk that could only be sold as pasteurized milk. Milk that
would definitely sicken you if you tried it raw. These farms made me sick. I
cant even describe here the cruelty and shortcuts taken in the corporate desire
to manufacture massive quantities of a super cheap white liquid that vaguely
resembles milk." William G. Winter, DVM, Minneapolis, retired holistic veterinarian
Bob BUBBABOZO Hayles
Regarding the California estimate of the number of raw milk drinkers, there’s another study published by CDC in 2002 that I refer to in my book, "The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America’s Emerging Struggle Over Food Rights". This is what I say:
"According to a 2002 survey of consumers in nine states (California, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, Connecticut, Oregon, Tennessee, and Colorado) by a CDC-led consortium, the percentage of raw milk drinkers varies between 2.5 and 4. Extrapolating nationally, this translates into an impressive seven million to twelve million raw milk consumers. Interestingly, the percentage is about the same in California and Connecticut, where raw milk is sold in retail outlets, as it is in Maryland, where it is illegal (many raw milk drinkers travel to neighboring Pennsylvania for their milk). Even more interesting, consumption increases as incomes and education levels decrease, possibly reflecting the fact that farm workers tend to be heavy consumers of raw milk, and also produce soft raw milk cheeses. And consumption is highest among Asians, Hispanics, and Other racial groupslikely reflecting cultural traditionsversus whites."
As Mark suggests, these numbers seem awfully high.
David
I can name many examples of U.S. imperialism, the most recent being Afghanistan and Iraq. You conviently ignore so much of U.S. history. There are still U.S. colonies to this day, which fit the traditional definintion of imperialism you cite. Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. both come to mind.
Regardless, modern imperialism is not the same as the imperialism of eras past. Modern imperialism is more subtle and more fluid. Mark McAfee makes the analogy of calling himself a modern Che Guevera. Che fought against U.S. imperialism in Cuba, imposed by a local military dictator. Chile saw a similair form of imperialism in the 1970’s, when the democratically elected government of the socialist Allende was replaced by the fascist neo-liberal military government of U.S. backed General Pinochet.
The World Trade Organization, World Bank, IMF, and U.N. are other agents of U.S. imperialism. Just look at what the US and UN have been doing to Haiti for the last decade.
I am by no means an expert on U.S. imperialism, but it is an excersise in blind nationalism for you to say that the U.S. is not an imperial power when we spend more on the military than the next 8 nations combined.
I think you put far too much faith in the U.S. government and Supreme Court, Bob. The first amendment did not stop the supreme court from ruling that Eugene Deb could be jailed for his calls for resisting the draft during WWI.
If I’m an Anarchist, then why do I keep emphasizing that we need to have hygene & microbiological standards for raw milk production, like they do in Europe? Can you imagine the outcry if the French government tried to ban raw milk? Jose Bove and his posse would certainly have a field day raising hell there!!!
As for the current SCOTUS, I wouldn’t put too much faith in them, them being true believers in corporate personhood. This SCOTUS expanded the rights of corporations to influence elections. So much for strict constitutional interpretation, except where it comes to the rights of actual citizens. This SCOTUS is not the SCOTUS that’s going to give people the right to choose their own nutrition, not when corporations are vying for that right–even with Kagan.
A certain ideology has made many points with the general population by pretending to be anti-big-and-imposing-government and pro-business. People just assumed that less power for the government meant more power for the people. People just assumed that pro-business included small business. But as the past three decades have shown, they were never about power for the people or small businesses–they are about power for large corporations (and the richest 1%).
WI-RMC, It’s very gentle of you to say "Allende was replaced."
But I was asking about a farm that had not been informed they were the target of an investigation until officers showed up.
No wonder there is little support for this issue. You ask a simple question and all these folks want to talk about is politics.
Wanna know something, people? I can’t control whether or not the US is imperialist, and I think the fools on the court are too insulated from real life to read the constitution with the same understanding as the rest of us.
I will feed myself and my family in spite of all of that. I don’t care if raw milk is "legal" or not, I’m still going to consume it, and so will anyone else who is hungry.
If 98% of the population depends upon 2% to feed them, (the currently accepted statistic) there are going to be abuses. It’s inevitable. You can’t give that much power to so few and expect otherwise.
All regulation of raw milk for non-public consumption is an attempt to enforce the power of the 2%. Non-public includes owing a share of cow, leasing a cow, drinking raw milk that was labeled as pet food in the privacy of your own home, private coops and buying clubs etc.
MW misses an important difference. The regulators haven’t repeatedly and loudly expressed the opinion that all Wendy’s food is dangerous and really ought to be banned. Nor are they apparently motivated by a concern that Wendy’s is cutting into the market share of McDonald’s.
MW,
Wny should he have to get a license? Article 13 Section 7 of the MN constitution reaffirms his common law right to sell milk without getting a license. That the state is arguing otherwise just proves they are tyrants and have ZERO credibility.
MODERN DAY AND MAN MADE TERMINAL CANCER OF THE LAND?
I agree with Bob that we need the constitutional issue decided by the courts to get out of the quagmire. The regulatory agencies have interpreted the licensing laws (and interstate shipment) as applying to farms, direct sales and buying clubs. This interpretation is being challenged by those involved in these "raids." Ideally, the courts would make a decision on who’s right, and then everyone would accept that decision and move on (I’m sure that’s a naive thought on my part). The situation with raw milk sales is even more complex since it’s legality varies from state-to-state, whereas Wendy’s stores – and the foods they sell – are regulated mostly the same across the country.
MW
As to health care costs, I don’t know about others, but I pay for my health insurance. Since I don’t get it fro free, I don’t see how any illness I incur is a strain of the health care community, mine is paid for.
It is common knowledge that eating the SAD causes horrid disease, yet they continue.
I’ve read numerous posts (on many blogs, media forms) over the years stating those who "are foolish enough to consume raw milk" shouldn’t be able to sue, should foot the total cost of any medical costs, etc. One can only assume that they would feel the same for those who become ill eating fast food/processed foods/ or any chemically injected/contaminated items for human or animal consumption…. Right? Only "fools" would consume processed/chemically injected/contaminated foods…only "fools" would feed this garbage to their children…Right?
http://jerseyknoll.com/blog/ Public meetings–not known to be public?
"Thomas Jefferson warned us; If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny."
More proof that the free-market system is anything but free — it is really a system of class domination. Let’s not fall for Milton Friedman and Ludwig von Mises style ideologies. Capitalism is the problem, it is not the solution. I don’t claim to have all the solutions, but I certainly know that neo-liberalism (what we call "Libertarianism" in America) is NOT a solution.
I apologize for letting you get me off topic here. This is not a blog about U.S. foriegn policy, it is a blog about raw milk and food rights issues in North America.
Here’s why I think your single-minded focus on a SCOTUS ruling for raw milk rights is short-sighted.
I do agree that FTCLDF could well end up before the Supreme Court at some point. Hopefully they win the case against FDA, about transporting raw milk across state lines. It still will not affect the stance of individual states (such as Wisconsin) towards raw milk, or the attitude of mainstream doctors, public health officials, or even affect the availability of raw milk to the millions of enviromental- and health-concious consumers who would buy it if only they had access to farm-fresh pasture grazed milk.
Take the example of the civil rights movement. There was a famous Supreme Court ruling there — Brown vs. The Board of Education. That was in 1954.
But it took over a decade of protests, civil disobediance, and the assasinations of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and dozens of Black Panthers including most famously Freddy Hampton, to create genuine change and the end of legalized segregation.
And in case you weren’t aware, Bob, we still live in a very segregated and racist society, even if its not as blatant as it was in the old south. Just look at the U.S. prison population, and poverty statistics by race.
I think you do not understand how deep the roots of corporate power and imperialism run in our society, Bob. It is, unfortunately, endemic to the very being of America. But this doesn’t mean that change isn’t possible. Its just going to take a hell of a lot more than a favorable SCOTUS ruling.
Among other things he was providing food to hungry people and organizing people to stop looking to the government for help and get to work solving their own problems.
You are right about the class domination in this country. However, this system is not a free market system nor anything resembling what Ludwig von Mises or his adherents advocate. We have this myth that our system is capitalism and free market but in truth we really have a form of fascism.
For a good example look at the milk market: federal price controls, licensing, regulations, corporate controlled bureaucracies. Such things violate English common law, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and are the very antithesis of the free market.
Pete
Sorry for not checking in sooner – I’ve been keeping up as best I can.
RE the Colorado outbreak, which now reporters say has sickened 30 people: I hate to say this, but RMAC’s preliminary findings back up David’s insinuations that we need more accountability, and Tim Wightman’s prediction that more outbreaks will happen unless we focus on herd health before consumer demand. It also shows that RMAC has to do more education – including consumer education.
In this case, certain standards of production were not followed.
By the same token, Neither were the health dept’s sample collections done according to standard protocol, but I’m not tossing stones this time. I could with last year’s Kinikin Dairy, and I still maintain that milk was guilty by association, but not with this current outbreak….
Interesting note – there was not so much national media attention as Colorado media attention this time. In addition to extensive local TV news and newspaper coverage, the county extension agents and health depts saturated the email network. I received lots of emails – a few of them offering to help!
We’re looking at strengthening RMAC standards and membership requirements, as well as implementing a simple HACCP process.
Mark I’d like to know more about your RAMP process please?
As a sidenote to this, the county extension office is researching optimum acreage for cows and goats in each county (25 acres per 6 goats if irrigated; 35 if not – without supplementation); and I researched alternate treatments for e.coli 0157:H7 infection (as opposed to antibiotic treatment which is contraindicated).
See this list of studies on raw milk components: http://colostrumplus.com/lactoferrin/
Lactoferrin (an enzyme present in raw milk) has shown to be effective in preventing the growth of candida, HPV, e.coli 0157:H7, as well as inhibiting shiga toxins. Lysozyme is also effective (another raw milk enzyme). You can buy lactoferrin in supplement form (of course! Not for safety they want to outlaw raw milk…there’s gold in them thar teats!).
This is the same enzyme that the FDA has approved for use in meat processing plants to control the growth of e.coli 0157:H7 in beef.
Not to encourage drinking more tainted milk, but if you find yourself coming down with a case of the trots, maybe the (clean) hair of the dog that bit you is in order?
-Blair
p.s. You can join RMAC as a supporting contributor for $25/year. We need more testing, more administration, website function, more educational brochures, some training videos, and more part-time help – including a field-worker who can go onsite and help new producers. We got great people and a great organization – all we need is $love! ESPECIALLY if you live in Colorado, but by no means, exclusively….we also have members in NM, CA, AZ, WY, & TN…
Here’s an abstract from a study in Japan (I believe this was a meta study):
"In experimental studies, bovine lactoferrin (bLF) has been found to significantly inhibit colon, esophagus, lung, and bladder carcinogenesis in rats when administered orally in the post-initiation stage. Furthermore, concomitant administration with carcinogens resulted in inhibition of colon carcinogenesis, possibly by suppression of phase I enzymes, such as cytochrome P450 1A2 (CYP1A2), which is preferentially induced by carcinogenic heterocyclic amines. Enhancement of the activities of their phase II counterparts, such as glutathione S-transferase might have also played a critical role in post-initiation suppression in a study of tongue carcinogenesis. Anti-metastatic effects were moreover detected when bLF was given intragastrically to mice bearing highly metastatic colon carcinoma 26 cells (Co 26Lu), with apparent enhancing influence on local and systemic immunity. Marked increase in the number of cytotoxic T and NK cells in the mucosal layer of the small intestine and peripheral blood cells was thus found, this in turn enhancing the production of Interleukin 18 (IL-18) and caspase-1 in the epithelial cells of the small intestine, with possible consequent induction of interferon (IFN)-gamma positive cells. Furthermore, bLF has been found to exert anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) activity in a preliminary clinical trial in patients with chronic active hepatitis due to this virus, a main causative factor in hepatocellular carcinoma development in Japanese. More extensive clinical trials are now underway in the National Cancer Center Hospital and other institutes to further explore the preventive potential against colon carcinogenesis."
Of particular note is the line, "Marked increase in the number of cytotoxic T and NK cells in the mucosal layer of the small intestine and peripheral blood cells was thus found…"
That’s evidence of building systemic immunity. It hints that humans (and for that matter every other biological entity) enjoy optimal health when they exist as part of healthy, natural systems.
Natural systems are emphatically NOT quick actors, and moreover, do not exist in isolation. But our current ethos of health expects the opposite: Health can be achieved with limited exposure to (or active "protection" from) natural systems, followed by rapid correction of acquired illness with killing interventions.
If we could only understand that encouraging exposure to healthy, natural systems is our best chance to live a healthy life, we would turn the vast billions of dollars we now spend on allopathic medicine into understanding how to encourage those natural systems, and thus see and enjoy benefits as yet undreamed of by most. It will never happen I’m afraid, since the momentum behind bigness—centralized business and government, and consolidated population (dense here, sparse there)—is overwhelming. It’s a pleasant dream, though.
Someone recently commented something here along the line that it was unwise to expose somebody to raw milk without understanding their overall environment and health (I’m broadly paraphrasing). I think that comment was getting at it. We tend to incorrectly view raw milk as a substance we might add to our diet to notch up our health, or to improve protection from this or that problem. But that is extremely short-sighted. Raw milk is a remarkably healthful food when it is allowed to exist within its rightful context of healthy, natural systems. (For the record, that means on the production and consumption sides, and includes a loving, generous, and Godly human spirit.)
We can only hope that our allopathic mindset does not so degrade our natural systems that we collapse before we can retreat.
Lynn Margulis will be proven right by research that is taking place now.She said that bacteria do not have species.Whole genomes of several bacteria have been sequenced and they are classified by a" core genome" and a "pan genome".The core genome is a set of genes that identifies the "species" The pan genome is the set of genes that members of a group("species") can sometimes carry.As more genomes are sequenced it is becoming increasingly apparent that the "pan genome" is open.That means the variety of genes that can be included in a bacterium’s pan genome is unlimited.These same genes are also part of the open pan genome of other "species" of bacteria.In fact the number of genes in the core genome of a bacterium is tiny in comparison to the number in it’s pan genome.Two bacteria can have different core genomes which means they are part of different groups("species") while their pan genomes might be very similar.Looking at their pan genomes,you might think they are closely related.
The real mind boggler is that bacteria can change DNA in their core genome as easily as they change DNA in their pan genome.When they do this they are now officially a member of a different group("species").In fact,both the core genome and the pan genome are open,but since the core genome is how they are classified,when that changes the bacteria are no longer recognized as related.
http://www.astrobio.net/interview/2108/bacteria-dont-have-species
"I’ll give you another example: E. coli. It’s a normal inhabitant of the human gut. If you put a particular plasmid into E. coli, all of a sudden you have Klebsiella and not E. coli. You’ve changed not only the species, but the genus. It’s like changing a person to a chimpanzee. Can you imagine doing that, putting a chimpanzee in the refrigerator, and getting him out the next morning, and now he’s a person?
Sorin Sonea, who was the chair of the microbiology department at the Universit de Montreal, in Canada, has been saying for 25 or 30 years that you either have to consider all the bacteria on Earth as one species, or you have to consider them as no species at all. The criteria we use for species, which are good ones for animals and plants and fungi, do not apply, because bacteria can change overnight. You have all sorts of gradations, where adding or removing a few genes will change an organism’s name, because those genes are what define the organism"
What are the implications of this information when we decide on what kind of testing we should do on the milk? Can anyone track bacteria from one location to another when the bacteria can change it’s identity overnight?
We do need standards for milk production,but is there any reason that our whole focus for safety should be on bacteria?I think that we need standards of management that take into account the health(stability) of the whole environment of the farm.
Ton Baars did a good job of explaining this.
http://www.farmtoconsumerfoundation.org/rawmilksymposium/presentations/Raw%20Milk%20Quality%20Preventing%20for%20Asthma%20and%20Allergies%20-%20Prof.%20Dr.%20Ton%20Baars.pdf
Start at page 42 and see milk quality comparison between Biodynamic low intensity grazing and conventional dairy farming.If we manage for the highest milk quality(not maximum production) we will have the safest milk.
It is not even just about herd health, it is about the health and bio-diversity of the entire farm eco-system.
That being said, I do think that hygene and microbiolgical standards for raw milk are neccessary, but they should be seen as only part of a holistic plan to create a robust healthy and bio-diverse farm eco-system.
You state and I fully agree that, We tend to incorrectly view raw milk as a substance we might add to our diet to notch up our health, or to improve protection from this or that problem. But that is extremely short-sighted. Raw milk is a remarkably healthful food when it is allowed to exist within its rightful context of healthy, natural systems.
I am about as close as it gets to living your pleasant dream however its an ongoing struggle to avoid from being gobbled up by a world of individuals preoccupied with control. Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Ken Conrad
We could sit here and squable about the definition of free-market capitalism, but it would be an excersise in frivolity. There has never existed, and never will exist, a truly free market as idealized by von Mises. Humans are social creatures, and as such, markets are embedded in social insitutions — collectivist entities like corporations, guilds, cooperatives, etc… — and can be no better than those institutions and the democratic traditions (or lack of democratic traditions) in those institutions.
The last 30 years we have witnessed major de-regulation of our American corporate capitalist system, starting with Reaganonomics (heavily influenced by the thinking of Milton Friedmen, et al) followed by NAFTA in the 90’s under Clinton (among other things) and carrying the neo-liberal agenda through the Bush and Obama years. This has accompanied a massive shift in wealth towards the top 1% of American society.
I would argue that this crackdown on raw milk is very much a part of the neo-liberal agenda. Unlike commercial milk, raw milk cannot easily be transported over vast distances. It is not easily commodified — a requirement of the capitalist system. Thus we see hostility to raw milk from all directions ranging from Foremost Farms and Organic Valley, to regulatory agencies, dairy industry trade groups, etc…
I do have to apologize once again for getting a little off topic here, but I can’t help but roll my eyes when people say "but America doesn’t really have a free market today." You are right, and we never did by the Misean definition either. English Common law, the constitution, and the declaration are irrevelant to this matter. The privatization of land in North and South America was forcibly imposed on the continents by European societies, in what remains the largest genocide in world history — the extermination of the native peoples of the Americas.
Let’s not forget — The natives held all land communally, collectively, IN COMMON. They did not have conceptions of private property the way we do in our Eurocentric society.
Regardless, this is the society we are living, and we ought to make the best of it. I do NOT think that advocating for the free market is the solution, however. We need to be fighting for democracy, social justice, and local control within the institutions that do exist in our society, and establishing new institutions which promote those values.
Capitalism is by nature antagonistic with a democratic society, because the accumulation of capital into fewer and fewer hands only results in uneven distribution of political and social power. The result is exactly what we see.
You are right, Pete, it is Fascism. What is to be done? As I said, I don’t have all the answers, but I know that "free market capitalism" (however you want to define it) is most certainly NOT the answer. It is only a formula for more problems. I would not advocate for old-fashioned Western European socialism either, because that was an industrial-revolution-era model, built around the factory system. We live in an increasingly post-industrial age, and with looming peak oil, the imperative to get "back to the land" is more pressing than ever.
Permaculture and local democracy are the best alternatives I can think of to the neo-liberalism of the modern era. More of the same, though? I’d rather not go there.
First, you advocate for true democracy…which would be fine right up until you introduce human nature. The bottom line is that a democracy is, at the core, two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner.
Also, you seem to either not know the meaning of racism, or know it, and know this country is not now or has ever been very racist, but choose to use the term in a straw man sense to generate visceral reactions.
Incidentally, the implementation of your desire for small community democracy would promote, not hurt, a bigoted attitude toward folks that are "different", be it by race, sexual orientation, or other factors. As an example, do you think small community democracy would have hurt or promoted slavery in rural, agricultural south of the latter half of the 19th century? Even if blacks had had the vote, whites of voting age had the numbers to out vote the blacks even if every black had voted to end slavery. In your small community democracy slavery would have continued indefinitely.
Bob BUBBABOZO Hayles
Human nature is highly situation dependent. Have you ever heard of the Stanley Milgram Experiment or the Stanford Prison experiment? Look them up, if you haven’t. These are both classic demonstrations of how human nature shows its ugly side given the right enviroment.
With raw milk, we are talking about the same phenomenon — we must create an enviroment favorable to the proliferation of good bacteria, in which the bad ones will not grow and are not allowed to get into the milk.
I’m suggesting we do the same thing politically, socially, and economically — we must create an enviroment in which the best characteristics of human nature thrive and the worst never have a reason to express themselves. I do not think that modern corporate capitalism is such a favorable enviroment.
And what about racism? I’m not using it to create visceral reactions. It is real — our society is incredibly racist. Its just not the blatant racism of the old south, its more subtle than that. Take a look at prison population statistics and poverty statistics. The U.S. imprisons a higher % of its population than any other nation on the planet, and the racial disparities are huge.
Acknowledging the problems we face, and actually creating solutions to them, are two entirely different affairs. Folks like Bill Marler, being the more humanitarian part of the capitalist establishment that they are, prefer dealing with these issues using government policy. I would not suggest such an approach.
What is to be done? I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I certainly can recognize what the problems are. That’s a start.
Markets and capitalism are man-made things and as such, require constant monitoring and amending. Consider a man-made lake. Left unfettered, it will return to it’s natural state as a meadow. You need to monitor it. It will require periodic draining and dredging.
In a market system, this is called regulation–a dirty word, but a requirement for any man-made system that is to be sustainable. It’s tricky because it requires honest cooperation between the wolves and the sheep for the long term benefit of both. Regulations that serve the richest 1% while providing barriers to entry for the remainder are not fair market regulations.
Typically, a national (or North American/international) quality standards and certification for an industry/product is developed by a team of experts usually under a non-profit private association. There is no reason why it could not be done for raw dairy and dairy products.
Being certified as meeting or exceeding the national standard setting bodys recognized standard sets the product/process apart from those who do not participateand offers the assurance to the end-customer of a quality product. The standards should be site-specific and offer a range of practicesperhaps from self-cert to auditing/inspection by the organizationperhaps three levelsbronze, silver and gold type thing.
I have worked in environmental, health and safety for nearly four decadesand most of that in standards setting or regulatory development/compliance and frequently see first hand how quality standards are formed and implementedI directed the creation and implementation of one of them over a 10 year period which was adopted industry-wide pretty much. All industries have them for nearly every product or process.
Marks RAMP and RMAC guidelines are a good startas is Wightmans book and video. Someone also developed a brilliant one on cheesemaking alreadya standard safety process at critical points.
But a real quality program encompasses education, training and certification for both producers and the third-party inspectors/consultants after the standards/guidelines are developed (an evolving thing). The certification is for the best practices being adhered tonot a guarantee on the safety of the product. The investment a producer would make would ideally have more than a ten-fold return or moreas he would be listed, the cert displayed etcand could get a buck or two more a gallon (or at least get a few more customers).
So a national association would have a purpose of developing the written practices/training and assuring the integrity of the programincluding enforcementsuch as termination etc. All programs have record keeping, monitoring, testing, reporting and inspection requirements. Sampling and analysis protocols can also be developed.
This is all achievable if it can be designed properly to evolve AND if there is a market/demand for it. There needs to be a region where this can be launched also to work out some bugs
I am wondering if those here would like an internet survey over at my Journal http://journal.livingfood.us to measure how strong the demand would be? I had 2000 responses on the raw milk survey before.