Why Are Regulators & Prosecutors Trying to Run San Jose's Last Farm Out of Town? The Raw Milk Obsession, Of Course; Further Thoughts on RAWMI
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 10:58AM 
Demonstrators yesterday in support of Evergreen Acres Goat Farm herdshare in San Jose.Herdshares have been sprouting like grass in a well-watered pasture out in California. No one knows exactly how many there are, but by some estimates, there are 65, or possibly even 100 or more.
As in many states, California has no explicit rules regarding herdshares--in other words, they're not illegal. Because the herdshares have been allowed to sprout unimpeded, it was thought California's Department of Food and Agriculture was taking a hands-off approach...until now.
Yesterday, law enforcement and regulatory representatives met with two herdshare operators in San Jose, owners of the last remaining farm in San Jose city limits, and gave them a heavy dose of intimidation. Down in the lobby of the office of the Santa Clara County District Attorney, at least 20 herdshare members and supporters demonstrated, waving placards in support of their raw milk producer (see photo above).
The herdshare operators, Mike and Jane Hulme, owners of Evergreen Acres Goat Farm, have been running their herdshare for six years, during which time it's grown to nearly 200 full and partial participants. "It was finally at break-even," Mike Hulme told me. He and his wife tend to about 50 goats, with as many as 30 currently milking. They also breed goats, and have in the past run the farm as a petting zoo.
In late May, the Hulmes received a cease-and-desist letter from the Santa Clara County district attorney's office. Yesterday, they met with an assistant district attorny, Nahal Irwani-Sani, and via conference call with a representative of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Scarlett Treviso, of the Milk and Dairy Food Safety division.
There were the threats--talk of a possible fine of $10,000 and a year in jail for violating California's dairy laws. They said the herdshare wouldn't be allowed even if the shareholders milked the goats themselves. They refused to allow Pete Kennedy of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund to participate via conference call because he isn't licensed to practice in California.
Yeah, what a bunch of tough guys with a couple of struggling farmers unable to hire the $500-an-hour lawyers places like Kellogg and Dole bring to the table. "They basically said, 'You need to get a dairy license or go to jail," Mike Hulmes said afterwards. In the meantime, the couple is abiding by the cease-and-desist, and unable to provide herdshare members, who come from around the Bay Area, with milk at the height of milk production.
Mike Hulme said the couple isn't interested in having a full-scale dairy production business, and making the investment of many thousands of dollars in equipment and buildings that would be necessary (and likely wouldn't even get city approval) to obtain a license. "Milk is part of what we do, breeding is part of what we do."
But boarding and milking the goats for herdshare owners provides the ongoing cash flow essential for maintaining the farm.
Mike Hulme expects to legally challenge the cease-and-desist, but isn't sure exactly what form the challenge will take. A lot depends on the support he receives from the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which is still to be determined.
He feels the herdshare was discovered by authorities because it was listed on the Real Milk web site. Since the farm's problems with state authorities became known, he says he's received about 100 emails from people around the state who say they are obtaining milk via herdshares or running herdshares themselves.
It's easy for me to say, but I hope the Hulmes stand up to the authoritarian busybodies at CDFA (and their public prosecutor friends). If they do, they will need lots of support from California consumers who value food rights--support in the form of demonstrations and donations.
It may be difficult to appreciate, but the persistent warfare being waged against food producers serving private organizations of consumers is actually a sign of desperation by the authorities. The fact that California has many dozens of herdshares is just one indication of the surging demand for nutrient-dense food. The success being achieved by producers in Washington and producers in Idaho is further evidence.
Consumers are voting with their pocket books. But they must continue to fight tooth-and-nail in other ways to ward off the forces of control and repression. The prosecutors and regulators want to make examples of people like the Hulmes in San Jose, and try scare off other producers and consumers.
But a surge of public support could keep that from happening. The Santa Clara County District Attorney is an elected office. Residents might want to let Jeffrey Rosen, the DA, know this case isn't "the breath of fresh air" he promised in his campaign last year. His office's phone is (408) 299-7400.
***
I, for one, think the discussion about the Raw Milk Institute, accusations and invective included, has been healthy. Get everything out on the table.
Mark McAfee captured my motivation for becoming involved: "What I saw time and time again was scattered tattered rules and regulations or no regulations at all. I saw consumers begging for delicious safe raw milk. I saw farmers doing a great job of producing raw milk and I saw farmers doing a horrible job of producing raw milk. I also saw that the FDA PMO NCIMS and CAFO FOOD Inc forces absolutley rejoicing in tne raw milk mess and lack of cohesion. I even saw Whole Foods Stores betray OPDC and Claravale and the Family Cow in Pennsylvania kicking us out of the store (with Marler's help I might add) becuase there were no national standards for raw milk and two kids had gotten sick from Retail Raw Milk in Conneticut."
He is correct that the authorities have been "rejoicing" in the lack of organization from supporters of raw milk and other nutrient-dense foods. That lack of organization makes the natural-born bullies who govern us ever more inclined to take out their anger and hostility on defenseless people like Mike and Jane Hulme and the many others I have written about here.
I agree that there is a danger RAWMI could become another Big-Ag-government-sanctioned enforcer. I'm hoping that RAWMI will be a different kind of organization than we have seen up till now in the world of sustainable farming. One that finds ways to take account of all the different forms of production and distribution that have come into play as the raw dairy market has taken shape.
As milk farmer suggests, I think we should put our visions of demons aside for the time being, and let this thing take shape. Sylvia makes an excellent point: "It is ok for there to be disagreements, it is not ok when people are put down for not agreeing. That puts you in the same category as the one who said it was russian roulette to drink raw milk."
Reader Comments (60)
Thank you for writing about the California raw milk cow share and goat share situation. In my opinion, this should be a FTCLDF line in the sand for constitutional rights. Ownership is being threatened and that is something we owe to ourselves as Americans to defend.
I have had several long talks with Mike Hulme. They are great people and I want very much for them to find a way forward. I have met with at least 20 other cow share operators near Chico CA 8 weeks ago. Cow share Goat shares are a big movement in CA and CDFA is being downright belligerent. Scarlet Traveso is nothing short of a NAZI and I would say that to her face. She is a police loving policy robot and has no capacity to think or feel as a human.
Someday someplace....she will meet the Ghosts of Raw Milk past-present & future and she will come to Jesus on her knees. She refuses to become educated about the subject that she oppresses and judges. She refuses to hear the begging blight of those that she crushes. She refuses to listen to why people need raw milk!!! She refuses to look at the data and see that people are not getting sick from these small cow and goat share operations.
I stand with all of the Cow Share and Goat Share operators in CA and would strongly suggest that they unify politically and go to Sacramento and get one of their representatives to hold hearings on CDFA and this subject. The last time this happend, CDFA refused to attend the hearings ( Dean Florez ) and the people spoke in a profound vacume. RAW MILK won that round for sure and politically the CA RAW MILK terrain changed.
On the Nevada Raw Milk issue. There are some very good well connected people there that have identified two excellent green pasture based ( with plenty of water ) locations for a small raw milk dairy ( less than 30 cows to start ). I am assisting in this effort and spent 3 hours on a radio talk show last week answering questions from callers and making the case for the "raw milk desert" in Nevada and its 3 million parched citizens.
Nevada has a full set of old AAMMC Certified Raw Milk Laws still on the books. The group I am working with has the political connections and commitments to establish a local county medical milk commission and thereby access those certified raw milk laws etc....
We are working hard to get this done...it is just a matter of time. AND....NO,... OPDC is not involved in the Nevada venture...I was asked to assist and I am working as a consultant to assist and shorten the learning curve on the million details of a raw milk dairy startup.
All the best,
Mark
Not so! Regulators may find temporary satisfaction in pushing around little guys when the opportunity arises, but they know they can’t get to the vast majority of them, and to an authoritarian bully that is just plain maddening. The strength of raw milk supporters comes really from their disorganization.
Many, many raw milk drinkers (perhaps even a substantial majority) exist in decentralized cells, taking orders from nobody, working out their food supplies under the radar in countless, scattered, personal arrangements. That fact is nothing but frightening to the pushers of central-control. Regulation is, remember, a big-army force, and as any general knows who is embroiled in any one of America’s endless impossible-to-win wars, big armies cannot defeat a decentralized enemy. Only when the rabbit leaves the briars does he become a viable target.
Now we see a business model (predictably) pushing its way forward to become the presumed face of the “raw milk movement” (whatever you may think that is), all the while of course urging the rabbits to come out and join them. That’s the way of America, and if history repeats itself (it always does) raw milk “business” will expand, significant distribution channels (and profit streams) will be created, and the regulators will jump on them like wild dogs. But big business is like the Platte river—a mile wide and an inch deep, and no matter what its superficial successes, the movement’s life force will live not out front in the business world, but quietly in the bushes, in countless individuals, families, neighbors, and loose community affiliations (represented nicely by the photo accompanying David’s post), rarely or never bubbling to the surface. While business interests rock and roll, battle the regulators, and dance for the media, it will be the rabbits who quietly enjoy constancy and stability, and more important, the beautiful fruits of human relationship, and thus truly sustain the movement.
Business may be the face of this movement, but it will never be the heart.
Your comments resonate with all the herdshare supporters--and SMALL dairy customers-- out here. Thank you. It is always good to read your excellent posts.
Those are Davids words not mine. I said something a little different.
"What I saw time and time again was scattered tattered rules and regulations or no regulations at all. I saw consumers begging for delicious safe raw milk. I saw farmers doing a great job of producing raw milk and I saw farmers doing a horrible job of producing raw milk. I also saw that the FDA PMO NCIMS and CAFO FOOD Inc forces absolutley rejoicing in tne raw milk mess and lack of cohesion. I even saw Whole Foods Stores betray OPDC and Claravale and the Family Cow in Pennsylvania kicking us out of the store (with Marler's help I might add) becuase there were no national standards for raw milk and two kids had gotten sick from Retail Raw Milk in Conneticut."
I have seen time and time again, FOOD Inc and the FDA PMO CAFO market supporters "rejoicing and celebrating" in the scattered national dissarray of the current paradigm of raw milk. I also have seen the FDA and FOOD INC scared half insane by raw milk moms that are aligned against the FOOD Inc Lies and dead foods.
The anti raw milk forces fear any alliances, cooperation, standards, truth telling, hearings, positive media coverage, between the raw milk producers and consumers. To have coordinated alliances, standards, truth telling, hearings, positive media coverage with raw milk equals a loss of market share for their Dead PMO milk and its failing market.
This dialogue has been reduced to those that want to change America for all Americans.....and those that want to stay status quo and only feed their few local friends.
America can not be great if it is malnourished obese, diabetic, asthmatic with Crohns,IBS, Lactose intolerance, Autism, ADHD, weak bones and teeth. People that live in the cities far removed from a 6 cow share raw milk connection must be able to feed their children. Raw Milk is not an elitist connection for a priviledged few that know someone and know where to connect at midnight on some back street. Or know the password to whisper at some unknown rendezvous place.
How about this....
We all work togther to feed all Americans. We need all the delicious safe raw milk we can get. Local with three cows and regional sources with hundreds of cows...all raw, all pastured, all safe, all delicious.
We must all be at the raw milk table. We are all part of the Platte RAW MILK River....
This blog makes people brave and loose with words...if we all sat down for dinner we would never speak this way to each other.
Please....we must feed America...we are the nutritious truth and the wholesome way. Lets positively join ranks in this mission. We each have our essential role to play in the strength of this nutritional civil rights uprising.
Mark
Must you continue to deride the majority of raw milk producers in this country. No one I know is 'connecting on a back street at midnight" Your bullshit shovel is large. And I know I can speak for most small raw milk producers when I say they aren't feeding only their 'friends'...although after the connection is made friendship is inevitable (and what you belittle is actually the strength of the direct to consumer marketing relationship). Must you really stretch the truth, and paint a false picture, to justify your misguided efforts to 'organize'?
Dave is right on the money....and all of your 'business trips' and jaunts around the country still haven't clued you into what the raw milk community is all about. You are the one that is out of touch. Most raw milk producers don't have any desire to change the entire world...but feel strongly that by changing their own community and allowing the next community over to change on it's own, is a more prudent way to create significant and meaningful change...without the restrictions of government or regulatory agencies (public OR private). It's more stable and secure and FREE. Most raw milk producers are content with just enough, and aren't trying to fill their fathers shoes by trying to do more.
The scattered raw milk delivery system is better. It creates a web that is not easily broken, deciphered or eliminated. What you propose can be swiftly quashed, if the government gets a hold of your list of members (remember the NAIS database). Your syndicate (if even slightly successful) is a tremendous threat to the conventional milk system because it's goal is it's elimination. The way it stands now raw milk is a 'inconvenience' to big Dairy, as it allows for both milks to exist...and gives the consumer a CHOICE. Trying to take the ball away from them is a STUPID idea.....allowing them to play with their ball, while you play with yours is smarter. Coexistence. It's about survival...and if your efforts to organize raw milk producers under your umbrella is successful I feel it will lead to even MORE persecution from the Big Dairy controlled authorities.
Mark....if you haven't noticed we ARE feeding America. Even in states where raw milk is illegal those that WANT it can get it. Most of us ARE joined together....we reject your attempt to dictate the future of raw milk, and do not share your vision of a single unifying certification agency.
"Raw Milk is not an elitist connection for a priviledged few that know someone and know where to connect at midnight on some back street."
WTF? Yeah, Mark, the privileged few who bothered to read and research and learn. The few elitist folks who didn't make a face at the word "unpasteurized" and call the people drinking it fools before they'd done their homework.
I have long admired you but lately you are really pushing me away. I think reading "Poisoned" poisoned you. Over these last few weeks you're sounding like the authoritarian, overbearing, never-wrong, bully lawyer I don't care for. If you win by being just like him, you don't win at all.
How about this: how about you stop the negative propaganda against the very people who made real milk the desirable beverage it is? How about recognizing these unsung heroes for their role in getting you where you are today? Perhaps in your travels you have also seen small farms doing raw milk right for no other reason than it was the right thing to do? Hardly "status quo" and hardly just feeding "their few local friends." Where do you think those raw milk moms came from? Those folks are feeding their communities and there is nothing wrong, shameful, or elitist about that. Please stop it with the "black market" and "back alley" rhetoric. Please stop the smear campaign against the grass-roots people who brought us all raw milk to begin with, "romantic" as it is (that unhelpful comment was John M.). Try to say something positive about rawmi without saying something negative about everyone else who was in the business before rawmi came to save it from itself.
I have already said that I am neither for nor against rawmi--I want to know what it is before formulating an opinion one way or the other. Is that okay?
You say, we teach, teach, teach. Tell me, how do we teach the teachers?
When I read Mark's first comment, I thought, Oh good! the old Mark is back! and I was glad. Then I read his second comment and was pissed off all over again with that divisive "back alleys and midnight deliveries" crap. Anyone comes to my house for milk later than 7pm, I get downright annoyed... evenings are MINE; and I for one positively am not running around at midnight looking to unload my milk; I'd pour it out on the pastures as fertilizer first!
Stop the fear-mongering comments, Mark... you're beginning to sound like Bill A.
Dave M and milk farmer have it right with their excellent comments.
We are both making America better and feeding thankful and healthy people.
Do not shoot the soldier that stands and fights next to you.
I will TEACH TEACH TEACH and I hope you do also.
Enough said.
It is his way of coping with the FDA . . . . and he wants all raw milk producers to get behind him by being certified with RAWMI.
He wants to be as legitimate as those big CAFO "Certified Organic Dairies" in Colorado so he can get his market share back again. . . . through Whole Foods, etc.
He wants all of us small producers to get big like him (and pay all the fees to get certified, etc.) or get out.
He is just like the rest of Big Ag . . . . sorry Mark . . . .But INDEPENDENT small farmers who are into creating quality local dairy, produce, etc. . . . do not want to be certified . . . . ever.
We abide by State license rules . . . and our customers certify our products. Third parties never enter into the equation for most of us. Most of them charge over $500.00 or more per year to nose around our farms . . . .and give questionable advice (because most of these certifiers do not farm).
Kind regards,
Violet
www.kilbyridgefarmmaine.blogspot.com
This phrase:
"...and I will feed 60,000 gracious and thankful people with delicious safe raw milk each week legally from 400 stores."
tells us more about his true motivations than any of his feel-good rhetoric will.
And in regards to your soldier analogy....if you'd act like one of the troops, instead of thinking you're the General, than maybe you would be accepted as one in the army. Control your ego, and stop trying to 'save us from ourselves'.
Any raw milk farmer worth his (or her) salt teaches.....but like Sophie so astutely pointed out...how do we teach the teacher (especially one who is so arrogantly stubborn that they refuse to hear).
Violet is right...your mindset is that of Big Ag...sure you have a different product, and feed your cows differently....but when it comes down to it YOU are the threat to the small farmer, the majority of the the raw milk community in this country...at least if you continue in this vain way.
Seems as if Bill just can't keep his big mouth shut.
The following is part of an e-mail he sent out to 255 - yes, 255 - people today:
"Unfortunately, I am getting this same reaction as being the "Nazi" -- in this case from some people from Wisconsin! This "Lola Granola" character on David Gumpert's blog is some kind of nutjob black-helicopter-chaser, who opposed the raw milk bill last year, and keeps attacking me and Mark McAfee suggesting we are in some kind of conspiracy to impose Codex Alimentarius and SB510 on the raw milk movement. I think she has some paranoia issues."
Thank you so much for those kind words, Bill. I hope you are having a lovely day, too.
Maybe there are 2 raw milks, but not the common definition here. For example, in WI, there are those who sell to processors and do incidental sales on the side (is that black market?). The major distinction that is emerging relates to direct sales vs. a more expanded market for raw milk. It's not clear to me which is safer (muddied by the fact that raw milk proponents won't talk about food safety science, and almost always change the subject to politics and conspiracy theories). It seems obvious that anyone selling raw milk, even if through a herdshare, should have a food safety plan to protect their customers, or so-called owners that never touch the milking animals, aka, the people coming to the farm to pick-up their raw milk, or have it delivered.
I think this table is a bit out of date, but shows the distribution of recent reported outbreaks by farm type. As Mary Martin might say, it is critically important to study these outbreaks and learn from them:
http://www.realrawmilkfacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2011-ALL-dairy-through-May-15-4.pdf
MW
http://westonapricepasadena.blogspot.com/
https://sites.google.com/site/caltechnetimpact/
Teach Teach Teach!!!
Mark
The chart you provided is essential to appreciating the challenge at hand.
Thank you for making my case entirely.
I doubt I made your case entirely. We should talk offline with Dr. Berge about it.
MW
I was very impressed by the story of the record breaking Raw Milk Cats in their Race Across America. Sorry I did not get to Annapolis in time to see / photograph the Raw Milk Cats cross the finish line. However I did see other teams that came in later which made me appreciate all the more what the Raw Milk Cats accomplished. So today I relayed the story to a group of agronomists meeting near by in Chesapeake Beach, Maryland while delivering a presentation entitled Grass to the Glass: Raw Milk and Informed Consumer Choice.
https://www.agronomy.org/membership/branches/northeastern
"Assume you all know that the Tester amendment is a moot point unless you plan to be a subsistence farmer."
Now do you all know why I am fighting to kick all of those that voted for this bill out. They want to destroy the local food movement of which many small farms are currently just starting to make a profit and making a living at this. We are beginning to make a difference and taking away a greater portion of the food market and this scares the heck out of Big Ag who use our own elected officials to protect thier market through billis because they own K Street in DC (S510 was most definitely written with the help of professional Big Ag lobbyists) . . . . and give all those big election contributions.
The sad thing is so many of these elected officials were liberal democrats. If anyone wants the full list of Senators and Congressmen/women who voted for this bill . . . . please contact me offline at: violetjwillis@yahoo.com. Some of them have been voted out already in the 2010 election but most of them are still there. They need to go in 2012
Kind regards,
Violet
www.kilbyridgefarmmaine.blogspot.com
The USDA needs to go back to what it was originally founded to do . . . AG research . . . not funding rural libraries or firehouses . . . or going to Chile to help salmon farmers there so we can have cheaper fish at Red Lobster at the expense of our own fish farms here in the US. . . . Many of them have gone out of business here in Maine in the last decade or so.
The FDA needs to scrutinize imports from the third world more closely and look at the health problems caused by Big Ag overprocessed foods (ever wonder why when we all quit smoking . . . .everyone got fatter and sicker . . . . ) If I see anymore drug commercials on TV with all the side effects verbalized . . . . I think I will scream. The side effects for most of these drugs seem worse than the problem the drug is treating. If these side effects are real then why are these drugs being approved?
Much better to live with high blood pressure, cholesterol, erectile dysfunction and depression than to have your liver and kidneys fail, stroke, heart attack, and commit suicide among other horrible health ordeals as a side effect. But then the FDA, etc. . . says that drinking raw milk is like Russian Roulette with your health . . . . GIVE ME A BREAK! It's okay to take big Pharma drugs with all the risks but not drink raw milk. Seriously . . . . the FDA needs to have much of their funding cut off if this is the logic they have.
Kind regards,
Violet
www.kilbyridgefarmmaine.blogspot.com