It’s lonely standing up to the might of the State. So Brigitte Ruthman was understandably buoyed today by a letter of sharp protest sent today by the Massachusetts chapter of the Northeast Organic Farming Association to the state’s agriculture commissioner, Scott Soares.
The letter takes the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources to task on the cease-and-desist sent to Ruthman last week over her milking of one cow for three herdshare members. NOFA-MA challenges MDAR on the legality of herdshares, and calls on the agency to reverse itself. It says NOFA-MA is “opposed to any actions taken against herdshare operations. The law simply does not support the actions MDAR has taken. A herdshare arrangement, as Ms. Ruthman has constructed hers, is a private contract between a farmer and shareholders that allows for private, shared ownership of a dairy animal or herd of dairy animals. Milk produced by those animals belongs to the shareholders not via a commercial transaction, but by right of ownership. There are no laws in Massachusetts, or anywhere else, that prevent someone from drinking milk from their own animal.”
It added: “Efforts to prevent herdshares from operating represents a troubling breach of individuals’ rights and threatens the survival of dairy farms in Massachusetts. We urge MDAR to reconsider the action against Ms. Ruthman’s farm and take steps instead to assist small dairies like hers in their efforts to enable those who wish to consume safe, clean, healthy raw milk to come together to produce it.”
NOFA-MA has been involved in supporting raw dairies in Massachusetts for narly a decade now, so it has clout not only with MDAR, as I noted previously, but with dairy farmers. The NOFA-MA move is also welcome as a first step toward hopefully healing divisions among supporters of raw milk in Massachusetts. MDAR officials likely enjoyed the arguments that have been going on here over the last few days.
It’s tough when like-minded people go at each other, as Tricia Smith suggests in her comments following my previous post, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad. Israeli politicians debating in the parliament call each other cowards and traitors, and those are sometimes the nicer things they say. Yet when the nation is under attack, they come together. I think as well about the old Oakland Athletics baseball teams of the 1970s–they would brawl among themselves, and yet won several world championships during those years.
The key to countering the MDAR assault is not only united resistance, but keeping in mind the big picture. MDAR wants people to be confused about the regulations so that, depending on its mood and the political pressures of the time, it can interpret the regs as it wants. It’s important to remember that the campaign against raw milk has been going on for 100 years, and gradually the government has gotten its way.
So for a time, this state or that one may have a peaceful situation. Massachusetts had a peaceful situation since the early 1990s, when the current permitting system for raw dairies was instituted. But then, at the beginning of this year, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, likely at the urging of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, pressured the MDAR to crack down on raw milk distribution. Quick as a wink, MDAR went after four buying clubs. Emboldened by that success and dissension among raw milk proponents, MDAR moved on to the Ruthman herdshare last week.
MDAR will keep moving forward in its assault until enough people stand up and, very loudly, say, No More.
Speaking of the assault, some people dislike me using warfare terminology to describe what’s going on. Bill Marler, the food poisoning lawyer, put out a Tweet on Saturday directed to me: “Your use of language is borderline inciting violence. You should be ashamed of yourself. This is not a WAR.”
When I answered that the violent behavior was all coming from his side, he responded, “Change the law, work within the system. You are provoking violence for what, the right to drink raw milk?
Raw milk remains a highly volatile subject, not only for those who want it, but for those like Marler who want to be rid of it. They fail to appreciate that it’s not just about raw milk, but about free access to the foods of our choice. I don’t like being involved in a war, especially when the enemy has huge advantages in the form of endless money to finance all aspects of its campaign–the propaganda machine to influence what the media write, the research funds to incentivize budget-starved states, and an army of regulators to do its bidding. No, I’m not advocating violence to stop the onslaught. Just people power.
***
A couple weeks ago I came across an inviting spot in Vermont known as Billings Farm and Museum, on the outskirts of the charming town of Woodstock.
It’s a working farm that’s been turned into a museum. There are all kinds of demonstrations of cows being milked and fed and calves being cared for and sheep being sheared. I didn’t have the time or inclination to take the tour, and it wasn’t just about the $12 admission fee. Maybe I’ve just been writing too much about confrontation over farm and food rights, but there was something sad to me about a farm museum.
I wound up getting into a discussion with a couple of retired Vermont farm guys who act as tour guides, which turned into a debate about raw milk. (Just can’t get away from it!) I didn’t say much about what I do, preferring to let them talk. One of the guides was a big advocate of locally-grown foods, proud of how he goes to the Woodstock farmers market each week to buy most of his family’s food. The other man wondered, with animosity in his voice, why farmers producing raw milk charge $7 or $8 a gallon. I explained that one of the reasons we’re at the stage of having to show farming life via museums is because dairy farmers have been unable to make a living in the conventional system…and that raw milk provides economic hope to dairy farmers. He raised his eyebrows a bit, impressed this one visitor knew a little something about the dairy business, but who knows if I changed a mind.
Not surprisingly, our government would prefer that museums are the closest we get to familiarizing ourselves with how our food is produced. The government pushes us away from knowing too much about factory food producers, as I learned when I researched new regulations limiting public access to egg farms that just went into effect, for an article on Grist. The dubious excuse of food safety is being used to keep people out of our factory egg producers–probably a relief for many of the producers.
***
Speaking of seeing real working farms, there are still a few spots open for a coveted tour of Polyface Farm in Virginia by none other than the man himself, Joel Salatin. He doesn’t do many tours any more, since he’s become a film star in the documentaries, Food Inc. and Fresh! and gets invited to speak around the country. But he’s doing one on September 11, as part of a fundraiser for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. I’ll be there, and I hope some of you will, as well.
Seems like some raw milk opponents are trying to create a mindset where violence against raw milk producers can be justified…
Raw milk producers that are doing it for all the right reasons will continue to make the stuff…for they know people depend on it for their health. Threat of lawsuits, financial ruin, fines, jail are insignificant. How silly will the State look when they eventually put a farmer in jail for milking a cow….and make no mistake about it, if they continue in this vain, they will eventually come up against someone with the courage and conviction to force their hand. They have really no inkling about what they are up against (as they sip their diet coke and eat their donuts)
In the end…all will see…that the milk bucket has more power than any firearm.
David…keep the piling the wood on this fire…someday, many will bask in it's warmth.
http://www.westonaprice.org/farming/history-organic-farming.html
Heckman, J.R. 2006. A History of Organic Farming: Transitions from Sir Albert Howards War in the Soil to USDA National Organic Program. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. 21:143-150.
We live under a greater slavery than that which moved our forefathers to live by the motto 'give me Liberty or give me Death!"
As promised. I hope you are Mooooved….our Mobile Milk Barn, our cows and our consumers sure are.
Enjoy our little educational piece about the OPDC Mobile Milk Barn….on Moooooving day!!
Mark
I believe collaboration, cooperation, communication, and avove all, respect, are the keys to problem solving. Per previous post, based on some personal experience, I think "assault" isn't an appropriate word to use in the context of the raw milk debate. This debate seems to be mostly a struggle between differnt interpretations of scientific data, and how to reconcile these variable analyses when making health and agriculture policy or enforcement decisions (relating to raw milk sales and distribution). Admittedly, I don't understand how herdshares are different from on-farm sales…and my background is science, not law or policy…was exploring that question in the last few comments.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
MW
The term assault is appropriate and I share Davids sentiment when he suggested in his reply to you in the previous post that the term may be too weak.
When one considers the aggressive intimidation, theft and/or extortion tactics used by agents of the state against raw milk proponents then clearly there is a lack of resolve by the above agents to collaborate, cooperate, communicate, and above all, show respect with and for those who wish to preserve their inherent right to consume real foods.
The scientific data is important yet as you suggest open to interpretation and therefore aught not be used as a tool by those who think they are in the know in order to usurp our basic rights.
Ken Conrad
It's obvious that your background is in reductionist science…and also obvious that you have totally failed in seeing this 'debate' from the raw milk side. Assault is quite appropriate.
Raw milk farmers, and those that depend on them for their food, ARE under assault across the country…just look at the recent history. There is a constant threat of State harassment in many states of this proud Union….all for just supplying what the people want (and need). There is little collaboration and cooperation….mainly because those that have the political power are using deceptive communication, and have no respect for the raw milk producers. With every 'warning' that goes out, (and they never miss an opportunity to tell that lie), or every raw milk farmer that is accosted or harassed, the gap between the two sides is widened.
Raw milk is not a dangerous food….especially if it is created correctly….in fact it is just the opposite…and I bet we could get a million raw milk drinkers in this country to attest to that fact…but then, I imagine, you would just write that off as 'anecdotal', since it didn't appear in a peer reviewed scientific journal (as so many of your peers do).
There is no 'misinterpretation' of scientific data here….and you don't have a clue how many thousands of gallons of unboiled, pure, farm fresh milk are produced (and consumed) safely every day.
Those that 'worship' the pure white stuff are tired of the lies, the twisting of truth, and the threats and intimidation from those who tread in the darkness. Make no mistake about it, those that oppose raw milk, are truly evil (just look at who they 'serve' and their tactics).
PS Thank you for sharing your thoughts too….
By the way, by 'some personal experience' do you mean you got mugged by farmer?
Studied for arthritis over 50 years, Isle Royale moose show poor nutrition is a cause, with human similarities: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/health/research/17moose.html?th&emc=th
"For people, several historical cases may suggest a nutritional link. Bones of 16th-century American Indians in Florida and Georgia showed significant increases in osteoarthritis after Spanish missionaries arrived and tribes adopted farming, increasing their workload but also shifting their diet from fish and wild plants to corn, which lacks a couple of essential amino acids and is iron deficient, said Clark Larsen, an Ohio State University anthropologist collaborating with Dr. Peterson. Many children and young adults were smaller and died earlier, Dr. Larsen said, and similar patterns occurred when an earlier American Indian population in the Midwest began farming maize."
Raw Milk Treated Worse Than Pot
Be sure to read the last few statements at the end of this article and say it isn't so.
I agree that the war terminology is apropos – David. I will only tell someone to get off my toes once or twice at most. If they don't step off, I' will forcibly push them off. How could someone be surprised at that?
Salatin claims single-crop growers with oil intensive practices make about $500/acre while he says his pastures produce roughly $5000/acre.
HMMM making 10x what the other folks make sounds like a great business plan! But its to bad that Everything Joe Ever Wanted To Do Was ILLEGAL! And why is doing it the right way SO CALLED ILLEGAL?
Enjoy your tour of Polyface . . . . . Joel has a great farm and gave me advice many years ago (when we lived in Virginia, were looking for decently priced farmland and only sold our surplus vegetables back then the the famous Inn at Little Washington) with a phone call that led us to find our farm here in Maine:)
You are always welcome to tour our farm as well . . . . we would love to host you here with a Icelandic Lamb dinner from one of our own lambs as well as produce from our farm.
We are blessed with lots of quality raw milk dairies around us.
With very best wishes,
Violet
http://www.kilbyridgefarmmaine.blogspot.com
In CA we got our respect when Senator Dean Flores called open public hearings during Sb 201 in spring of 2008. 1400 people showed up to support raw milk and the CDFA and Feds refused to show up.
After those hearings…CDFA and the FDA has treated the legal raw milk producers in CA with respect.
They got their asses and heads handed to them. Some narrowly kept their jobs and some lost their jobs as a result of this inquiry into the miss treatment of raw milk in general.
Remember this… you will get respect when you kick their asses. What does that mean. That means you need to call hearings and have 1400 pissed off moms and scientists, and retailers show up and make a stand. The other will not dare to stand against you. They haev nio science to back them up….all the newist and greatest stuff supports rawmilk, breast milk and immune related NIH discoveries.
It is time to take a stand and draw a crowd and stop staying on the farm. We must get some hearings at the state government houses. We must demand fair treatment. When we show them that dollar voting moms will close them down…. they will start to respect us.
I will always remember my Political Sci teacher when he said…change will occur when the pain of change is less than that pain being applied to the current set of conditions. This is about the application of severe pain….do not forget it.
Mark
Mark
Your invitation making my mouth water. Then I looked up your farm, and you are really off the beaten path, practically a third the way to Europe! But I'm due to speak in Unity, Maine, in September, so will see what I can do. Thanks so much.
Mark,
One of my political science profs made similar observation. I think we're going to see more hearings and more outrage upcoming.
David
This is what the oppressors what the debate to be about because it is the only one they can win. They have no leg to stand on if it is properly framed as an issue of natural born rights. So they constantly harp on food safety in an attempt to shift the matter to a playing field where they have some credibility and are able to conjure up 'science' to back their position and explain away the truth.
violence: 1) swift or great force that causes damage or injury. 2) great force, as of feeling. 3) damage or injury 4) rough, brutal force.
assault: 1) violent attack. 2) (Law) a threat or attempt to do violence to another. 3) rape. 4) to make an assault (upon).
Violence is not just physical. It is emotional, political, psychological and financial. I think it is fair and accurate to say that raw milk farmers have been assaulted by government officials. Who has the guns?
Let's make one thing crystal clear. It is the peacemakers, NOT the war makers who are standing at the other end of them.
A bunch of bikers had been told to show up at OPDC for a drag race….this was a weird thing that happened because in front of OPDC there is a road that bikers often race on.
400 bikers showed up on Harleys and wanted to have a street race demostration. We started to sell hotdogs and our raw milk to all that would buy it. The street race was being held on public property so I did not really care…
When CHP showed up..they did not even get close to the race…they stood back a mile and called me on my cell phone. The officer that responded knew me from my days as a paramedic. I went to meet with the CHP officer a mile away where he was using a set of binoculars to observe what was happening.
He told me that he was not stupid. There was no way he would approach all those bikers and ask them to do anything. He said he would need a massive show of force and he did not have that many officers available….so he would need to use politics instead to stop the racing…
he asked me to ask the bikers to move on because the authorities were asking about permits and they did not have any. I used my best diplomacy and sweet charm and the bikers left reluctantly.
The moral of the story is this….the police and generally those in power have no power when you have massive showing of force and people. In that event, they will use politics and tend to kiss your ass a little more than pulling out guns.
So let this be a lesson….we need a growing grass roots foundation with the ability to show up in mass. The other side will then realize that they do not have the power or the poitical support to do anything stupid. Guns stay in their holsters and cops behave themselves when they are massively outnumbered.
Mark
We would love to have you here for a tour (not only our farm but some others as well), and host for you a very local Kilby Ridge Farm dinner – with our special lamb as a main course. Accomodations can also be provided ~ please contact me privately about the details ~ thanks David.
Having lived in Europe for three years and eating locally raised produce and meats, raw milk and cheese there we are trying to recreate the same European style way of eating and animal husbandry on our farm. We are very, very far from everything and yes ~ some days it seems like we live in another country but that is what makes our small part of the world so very, very special.
Am so glad you discovered our website . . . . We are trying to bring back our lost local foodshed and serve one family at a time here in our tiny community in Maine. I am so happy as although it has been hard to do . . . . it is starting to be a success.
With very best wishes,
Violet
http://www.kilbyridgefarmmaine.blogspot.com
Inquiries about this particular inspection were made by other small dairies. The scuttlebutt seemed to be that since the Salmonella-in-peanut-butter debacle, they were doing more surveillance.
Does this explanation make any sense? No.
For one thing, the peanut plant was a factory processing entity, and this was a small, atisanal cheese-making facility. In addition, they were testing for Listeria, not Salmonella.
Given that their "sister" government agency, the CDC, has said that Salmonella and norovirus have caused the most episodes of food poisoning, and the foods most commonly at fault were chicken and greens, you would think the FDA inspectors would focus scarce funds and manpower on these foodstuffs/microbes.
Either they are totally out of the loop and uncoordinated, or they are deliberately harassing small producers. Which is it?
Given that there have been at least 9 outbreaks linked to raw milk during the first 6 months of 2010, and almost 100 illnesses including several hospitalizations for HUS or GBS, the spot inspections are not a surprise. However, targeting Listeria makes no sense. The raw milk problems have been related to Campylobacter, E. coli O157 and Salmonella. If your information is correct, I agree that there's a disconnect.
MW
Let's read a key paragraph from the following NYT article about salmonella in eggs:
"The salmonella outbreak began in May, when several states began seeing an increase in the number of cases of a common type of bacterial illness known as Salmonella Enteritidis, said Dr. Christopher R. Braden, acting director of food-borne diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The numbers continued to grow, and in June and July, a database used to track disease nationwide found that the number of cases had risen from a historical average of about 50 a week to about 200."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/business/19eggs.html
Now, let's strip that paragraph to relevant key phrases:
"The salmonella outbreak began in May … and in June and July…the number of cases had risen from a historical average of about 50 a week to about 200."
So, while FDA, et all, harass small raw milk dairies with no known health problems, and force involuntary recalls and shutdowns for suspected bacteria with no illnesses, they allow a HUGE egg company with many known problems to merely issue a voluntary recall??? With 200 illnesses a WEEK from ONE company…since May?? Since MAY???? Where's the concern all those months for all those real and potential illnesses from eggs (not to mention peanut butter and other non-raw-milk products)?
What hypocrisy.
Here is my little bit to support your cause….our cause.
Go Wisconsin RAW MILK!!!
I live in the United States of America where all people ( not just some people ) should have equal access to healing, safe, tested, inspected, delicious raw milk! This is a right we have somehow lost and we must fight to restore this right to all Americans.
Mark
Go get those horrible terrible CAFO eggs!!! You are going to be richer than Bill Gates and Oprah.
380 million CAFO chicken eggs and 2000 reports of sick people….Marler nirvana!
http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/food-poisoning/news/20100819/egg-recall-expands-cdc-expects-more-illnesses
Joel Salatin showed that when chickens are raised on pastures….shazzam….no salmonella. OPDC showed the same thing with pastured raw milk….
Do you think that FOOD INC conditions have something to do with this…do you think?
The answer is no….the FDA and Corporations do not think with their brains or hearts…they think with their wallets.
Mark
Must read article and a quote by Michael Badnarik.
Maybe a better title would be Had Enough Failed Regulation Yet?
Anyone disagree with what is stated in this article?