Amidst Split in Raw Milk Movement, RAWMI Struggles for Voice to Serve All--Is That Realistic? Sheriff Project Gains
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 10:11PM The Raw Milk Institute has already in its young life raised a number of provocative questions.
Should it be about lobbying or not? How will its standards be developed? Is it about publicly or privately available milk...or both? 
It is the last question that is perhaps the most tantalizing, since it affects other key aspects of RAWMI's future.
Mark McAfee makes reference to that question in his comment following my previous post, when he says:
"It is our observation, that there are two camps (at least) in the raw milk movement. Those that appear to want legalized access to raw milk and change of laws, and those that want decriminalization of raw milk with no government regulation or intrusion what so ever.
"It appears that the loudest voices among these two groups is the decriminalization group. RAWMI is a grass roots organization and is responsive to all in the movement. Our primary objective is building access to safe raw milk. That means cows shares or legalized raw milk."
But then Deborah Stockton corrects McAfee:
"What we want is decriminalization of raw milk with no government regulation or intrusion what so ever IN DIRECT FARMER TO CUSTOMER TRANSACTIONS. None of us is advocating getting rid of Claravale or OPDC or any other 'public' raw milk dairy. Just no regs or interference in direct farmer to customer trade. A restoration of a million tiny totally unregulated farms providing raw milk to their communities. That has been normal human practice for millennia."
I believe McAfee is being sincere when he talks about "building access to safe raw milk (for) cow shares or legalized raw milk." But more and more people are wondering whether those twin goals--publicly and privately available raw dairy--are truly compatible.
The problem is less about regulation than it is about priorities, in my view.
The first camp that McAfee describes, which wants "legalized access to raw milk and change of laws," seems to place its emphasis on expanding the market for raw milk any which way it can. I know some people believe that goal is financially driven, and certainly there has to be a financial component, but I think it's more about getting the milk out there. It doesn't matter to these proponents if it is two large dairies in each state, like in California presently, or 1,000 smaller dairies in each state. Just get the milk to as many people as possible, so they can experience the wonderful health benefits of raw milk, goes the thinking.
The second camp, which Stockton described, places its priority on "the direct farmer transactions"--in other words, on the sanctity of the private contractual relationship between consumer and farmer. The priority is much less on spreading raw milk consumption as widely as possible than it is on ensuring that those individuals who value access to nutrient-dense food can have it directly from the farmer of their choosing. The consumers choose the farmers who produce the best food, and the farmers benefit economically by selling direct, enough that more and more individuals take up farming...and maybe some day we have "the million tiny unregulated farms providing raw milk..." that Stockton longs for.
Which of these models is the most appropriate for RAWMI? I'd say the private model. For small dairies that are supplying products privately, without government regulation, there is a monitoring void of sorts. Thus, a voluntary set of standards and a testing protocol could be the perfect means of communicating quality to consumers who haven't spent a lot of time around farms, and aren't expert enough to measure husbandry and sanitation.
As anyone who has spent much time in the farming community knows, many dairies providing raw milk focus heavily on quality. But there are some, and I don't pretend to know the percentage, that aren't well run, and provide milk that isn't of the highest quality. Their milk may taste "barn-yardy" and/or start souring in five days. As Violet Willis says in a comment following my previous post, "sometimes a small farmer may have an operation that is comparable to a CAFO or factory farm . . . but on a smaller scale...I have seen some seriously bad husbandry over the last month . . . from local farms out there."
Yes, it can be argued that consumers are equipped to make the final decision, by virtue if what their noses and taste buds are telling them. But I know that many consumers would be reassured to know that the farm they are contracting with via a herdshare or buying club is following a realistic set of husbandry and sanitation standards that are being monitored by an organization like RAWMI.
Still unanswered is the question of whether so-called public raw milk can co-exist with privately available raw milk. The problem seems to be that once raw milk is placed under regulation of some type, the regulators want to have control of privately distributed raw milk. The notion of private raw milk, though, is that it is outside the public realm.
The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund puts it well in a recent appeal of the case involving dairy farmers Wayne Craig and Mark Zinniker in Wisconsin. The appeal for the Zinnikers, who make their milk available to herdshare owners, states, "Private contracts and private property are beyond the reach of the State’s police powers when such contracts and property interests are private in nature and do not impact the public’s health, safety or welfare. Thus, a private contract between private parties involving private property (such as the private use of a herd of cows) that does not impact the public’s health, safety or welfare is beyond the reach of the State’s police power."
We'll see if the appeals court is more inclined to agree than the lower court that ruled against the Zinnikers and Craigs. We'll also see if situations develop where the state comes to respect private contracts. Such an opportunity exists in California, where herd share owners are negotiating with the California Department of Food and Agriculture over achieving some sort of co-existence between the two permitted raw dairies, and some hundreds of herdsahre situations.
So I'm increasingly thinking that RAWMI has a role, it just may not be the original role its founders had in mind. That's not unusual in the world of new and innovative ideas.
***
Raw dairy supporters are beginning to back a campaign to support their local sheriffs attending the Constitutional Sheriffs Convention in Las Vegas Jan. 29-31. Some are contributing to the County Sheriff Project, which will pay for some local sheriffs to attend the conference.
Plus, a number of raw milk supporters are expecting to attend; more on this last item upcoming.
Reader Comments (66)
I would expect the farmer to know his/her jobs.
" that are being monitored by an organization like RAWMI. "
Sounds like more govt BS and $$$ from the farmers, not something that has proven to look out for the masses.
If the people expect any entity to "monitor" for them, they will never take responsibility for their own choices nor learn what they should know about their foods.
As the founder, I did not know what I know now. I did not know about the two camps that sit mostly opposing one another and sharing little. I did not know about the vocal minority and the mostly quiet majority. I did not know about farmers that absolutely want no help or assistance to develop consumer friendly programs to show the work they do for safety. I did not know that many Cow Share operators reject any kind of exposure and demand absolute secrecy.
Perhaps my view is biased, because I founded RAWMI to be a tool of total transparency and open communications to all. A serious wake up call to my utopia of an America that was open to raw milk.
Now I know all about who likes these ideas and who hates them. This has been a very worthy probe into the deep mind and soul of raw milk in America. RAWMI will take what it has learned and move forward.
To learn from adventure is the gift of life.To teach from this experience is a gift to humanity.
Raw milk standards and regulations…food safety…farming practices… private vs. public… this will all be moot if as a society we don’t wake up and fight to hold onto our fundamental rights to own property, conduct business and choose the food we eat. We need to organize and educate within our communities about the far reaching dangers of highly processed mass produced food and the benefits of sustainably produced nutrient dense food. And not waste our energy arguing over who is more right…that is exactly what the opposition is hoping for.
As the progression of raw milk distribution becomes evident in North America, it would do us good to remember a few things.
If we have an over site organization that promotes or certifies certain practices and meet the “value parameters” of the current consumer and their food, we are not allowing that consumer an engagement opportunity with a producer or a valuable learning experience that comes from learning about the product, its producer or the added value of building a relationship, not only with the producer but with another who has had the experience and has come to value the product.
We have to remember that California raw milk distribution in time and breadth is an anomaly not the norm. The raw milk movement east of the Rockies has grown through word of mouth, always has, most likely always will. As we watch the local food movement grow you will see what is being promoted as local in the Far west with its vast interrelated distribution system has no relation to what happens in the rest of the country, except in regions whom may or may not make that model work. That is where we will see certification work well given the relative distance food travels. Yes its local as far as the west is concerned but very large distances compared to the east coast.
Mark has much to be proud of in his raw milk promotion program but developing an organization around that success, and only that success does not allow for the realizations of the diversity we value in the products that are subject to the organization.
I also have to add that being an arm chair consultant or arm chair over site organization has severe limitations and can only go so far and respond to very basic problems and practices. Farms are holistic organisms and don’t respond well to flow charts and unless one can ask a myriad of questions on a regular basis, even then defining a situation and its remedy is near impossible no matter how much data one has about a farm, short of being on that farm and evaluate all actions by everyone and everything involved from kids to cats, puddles to pipeline.
Is that possible, with the right amount of zeros yes, but any organization should teach the farmer to observe, asked questions evaluate through some testing. If a producer ignores information available to improve or correct a situation they do so at the risk of losing the consumer. The organization doing the teaching should teach themselves out of existence given the wisdom has been revived on each farm and then passed on through the traditional channels of daily routine and generational transfer.
We are in a time where wisdom has been ignored and we are paying for it with our health, and that trend is being reversed. To supplant wisdom with testing is not the answer and is the very reason we got in this mess in the first place. Balance is the key, in our soils, in our understanding and in our approach to the forces we must align ourselves with. To relegate that balance to testing alone is to ignore the other 75% of what it takes to create a quality product, and takes responsibility away to gaining wisdom and the relationships it forges.
Tim Wightman
I think a bunch of us would really appreciate you clarifying your comments below. Taken at face value, they seem to show a real disdain and mean spirited treatment of those who disagree with you and your views (which are hard to discern and pin down at times, to put it mildly) and the things RAWMI was doing over the past few months.
---
RAWMI made some assumptions when it's mission was established and it was founded just a few months ago.
---
No debate here.
---
As the founder, I did not know what I know now. I did not know about the two camps that sit mostly opposing one another and sharing little.
---
How are they sharing little? Most of the various people chat quite a bit about various facets of the raw milk/food freedom issue. The camps in my experience never engaged in any opposition to each other until the actions of RAWMI made a large number of farmers feel threatened by its actions against them.
It was a RAWMI board member who sent a public email about divisions in the raw milk movement, only to later trash one of the leaders of the movement in a private email.
---
I did not know about the vocal minority and the mostly quiet majority.
---
This is a bit of a twist... Mark, you know it isn't a vocal minority. At the least it is a 50/50 split on these issues.
---
I did not know about farmers that absolutely want no help or assistance to develop consumer friendly programs to show the work they do for safety. I did not know that many Cow Share operators reject any kind of exposure and demand absolute secrecy.
---
Again Mark, purposeful twisting. It is not that they we want NO HELP... we do not want YOUR/RAWMI's HELP, especially forced on them via the long arm of the state.
And Mark, share operators by nature don't have absolute secrecy... because they have MEMBERS. GASP! FAINT!
Yes, people come and see... their farms. And know... their names! Of course, most of us are running around with masks on and using aliases... trying to avoid the black helicopters...
And you wonder why so many no longer trust you and why you are such a force of division at this point.
---
Perhaps my view is biased, because I founded RAWMI to be a tool of total transparency and open communications to all.
---
Then why have you and RAWMI been so not transparent?
---
A serious wake up call to my utopia of an America that was open to raw milk.
---
Again Mark, just because people do not agree with YOUR vision for raw milk in America, does not mean they don't want raw milk for amerca. Again, you wonder why people are so ticked, but you just continue going on and on and further reinforce what many have already figured out.
---
Now I know all about who likes these ideas and who hates them. This has been a very worthy probe into the deep mind and soul of raw milk in America. RAWMI will take what it has learned and move forward.
---
Again, a comment that is loaded, purposefully denigrating those who don't see things your way. What do they "hate," Mark? What ideas? Again, most love the ideas, not the way RAWMI sought to strong arm implement them, the lack of transparency on RAWMI's part, and more.
Most don't feel that a farm/farmer with the husbandry, outsourcing, and others issues OPDC has should be setting the bar and leading the way for RM in America.
---
To learn from adventure is the gift of life.To teach from this experience is a gift to humanity.
---
Vomit. Twice. Mark, you would do well to spend some time with some old books that describe pride/hubris and its various ends, before you become a modern tale for the ages.
Oh good grief, Mark!! You are making the classic mistake of confusing the internet world with the real one. The number of fresh-milk farmers pro or con Rawmi who write here is tiny compared to the THOUSANDS out there who aren't even on the internet, let alone know about this blog... like the Amish for example. To say you know how the silent majority thinks is ridiculous. But yeah, they probably DON'T want your help because they've been doing it for decades before you decided your way was the only way; and no one has become ill or dead on their milk.
"Now I know all about who likes these ideas and who hates them. This has been a very worthy probe into the deep mind and soul of raw milk in America."
Oh for pete's sake... get over yourself. Once again, you are associating those who write here with every fresh milk dairyman in the US, on or off the Net.
Deb Stockton and Farmer John have it right about direct farmer transactions and that East of the Rockies is NOT the same as West of the Rockies.
"...the sanctity of the private contractual relationship between consumer and farmer. The priority is much less on spreading raw milk consumption as widely as possible than it is on ensuring that those individuals who value access to nutrient-dense food can have it directly from the farmer of their choosing.
What's so terrible about people coming directly to the farmer of their choice to get their milk?? Yes, it's limiting the number of people who can get fresh milk to those who are willing to come to the farm to get it. Almost every one I know who has fresh milk does NOT really want to grow any bigger.
Something Mark absolutely refuses to believe, it seems.
Your LLC and organization sound wonderful. I support what you are doing 100% and I hope you win your appeal!
I want to congratulate RAWMI and its success with its focus on safety. I don't know about east of the Rockies or even east of the Sierra, but here in California before November we had a line of colostrum products available at retail that were entirely unregulated and it appears that has changed.
As background, there was a colostrum pint, half gallon, and a kefir quart sold in many of the 300 retail stores. The half gallon and kefir products both looked and tasted like milk but they apparently had colostrum sprinkled in them. Because it is illegal to sell colostrum as a dairy product in California, it was sold under a license from the Department of Health and unregulated by the CDFA. On the OPDC website where it made claims about state testing, those claims did not apply to colostrum. It was legal to outsource colostrum as well.
This was the product line with the infamous 140 million fecal coliform count per ml in the 2006 state outbreak report and that became a popular choice for moms to use in their homemade infant formula.
Only months after the launch of RAWMI with its focus on food safety, it appears that since the e coli recall this product is now being regulated. Mark did say that if more regulation came out of the recall, he would send his band of hungry mama lions after the CDFA. Since the lions have not been released, I can only assume that this colostrum move has come right from RAWMI itself. It would be interesting to hear the back story.
Amanda
aka "Foxy"
-That young, idealistic and sincere mothers are being courted by reps of a system who want to bottle this spirit and idealism, present a convincing zero-sum game and exploit them because of it.
Kind of sounds like human pasteurization to me.
-That people I wouldn't expect it of lie or remain ignorant to protect their cause/case/ass
-That the word "passion" is overused, few people know what it really means and now when I
hear it I want to run in the other direction.
-That friendships end because of this as any questioning means your're the bad guy/girl. This
is insanity.
-Quality and accountability are becoming second to building a market through social media
-That when I think that the depths of hubris can go no deeper, they do.
-That people think they are smarter than bacteria
-That magicians are good at pulling the marks focus so the trick can work
-That people take themselves way too seriously
-That all the apologies in the world mean nothing if there isn't any sincerity behind it.
-That transparency stops when it comes to opening the books
-That paranoia and conflict are used as rocket fuel
-That many business people in the raw milk and whole food movement self-establish
groups for the benefit of marketing. This marketing is projected onto consumers as
signs of quality and approval.
-That educations of customers stops at a certain point as the educators have little to no
farming experience, their knowledge is based on hearsay and they seem to or choose to
be kept out in the cold regarding actual information.
How about everyone milking the cows twice a day, keeping your numbers down, taking care of your customers and starting an association based on a 4-H model where info about research, technology and practices are shared. The bison farmers have been doing this for years.
I predict a split is going to happen. For some people and farms too much is at stake as the cart is before the horse. And my experience is that when the cart leads a lot of wreckage is left behind.
what you monomaniacal individualists don't appreciate is how determinedly evil Big Government is. They are out to get you ... and it's not about health
I use the Freedom of Information protocol to extract from the govt. Bunker, hard copy proofs of their mentality. In 2008, in British Columbia, our cowshare came to the attention of the so-called "health Authorities". Internal emails show that within the ranks of their own experts, there was disagreement about the risk of harm from REAL MILK. Didn't matter = they immediately set out to put us out of operation, as an example so they could go after the smaller ones easily. To each other, they admitted that they needed a real complaint as a premise. Problem - for them - was that no-one was getting sick from the milk. So they just went ahead anyway ; breaking the law doesn't matter. The hallmark of the tyrant is that he feels that he IS the law.
These commisars of the USSA have nothing better to do than to come on to the tiniest little homestead, and ruin what they define as domestic terrorists' ... what their pals in Red Russia called 'their class enemies'.. because you dissent from the central party policy
If you believe that you-all can survive by hiding out / staying under the radar, while the dark night of fascism descends on Ham-merica ... educate you-self = go read what happened in Russia. Especially, Alexandr Solzenhitzen's famous quote, "how our hearts burned, as we sat in the camps, thinking about what should have been our response to the knock on the door in the middle of the night..."
Americans are now so cowed that you won't do what the Founders of the Republic did = take up arms against the tyrant. We have to hang together. Or we shall all hang separately
"the sanctity of private contract" you say? you're 2 generations behind the pace : that one was lost when FDR stole the gold of America
Stop trying to teach grandmother to suck eggs.
you're new here, aren't you?
from my decade in the Campaign for REAL MILK, and paying close attention to the last couple of years' postings on this forum, and also on the RawDairy Forum on Yahoo (before I got kicked off for saying things they weren't able to grasp) ... I know that the root of the raw milk controversy is that Americans are sound asleep to the fact that = we are ruled by people who hate us =
Educate you-self ...so as to grasp my reference, before you display such ignorance.
We do not, in general impugn the production from the public dairies, but now we find the term “black market milk” being used by members of RAWMI’s leadership to describe milk from non-regulated producers. Hard not to interpret that as a deliberate effort at fearmongering, slander, divisiveness, and so on.
What’s the intent? Do you who use that term believe that raw milk from non-regulated production is unfit to consume????? If so, say so. If not, why use that term or words like it?
Those who are small and unregulated and have chose the LLC model are vulnerable, because the corporation is an entity of the state.
Millions of tiny unregulated small farms providing raw milk to their communities has been normal practice since the advent of agriculture. The restoration of this system will restore health and well-distributed prosperity. As Tim Wightman said, the generational wisdom of that system is still with us. Tremendous knowledge is available from many diverse sources.
We will all, I hope, work to further the County Sheriff Project. The county sheriff is the firewall between us and any government agent or agency that would injure our rights. In my county, we met with our county sheriff before Christmas to tell him about the January convention in Nevada and to talk to him about being a Constitutional protector. It was a good meeting and we remain in contact. Please begin to grow a relationship with your county sheriff. If you need support or help in that effort, please contact us through the email form on this website (log in, click on my name and fill in the email form) or email me through the NICFA website, http://www.nicfa.us .
Yours for real food freedom.
Certified Organic.
Is it perfect? No. Has it been abused and misused for corporate profit? Yes. But on the flip side, there has been concerted efforts to reform the organic standards and hold big business accountable for their abuse of the standards, by such upstanding groups as the Cornucopia Institute and Family Farm Defenders.
All in all, has the development of "certified organic" been beneficial?
Absolutely, yes. There is no question about it.
In a state like Wisconsin, organic certification (and the premiums it provides to small farmers) has been a godsend, and has helped to keep many more small farmers on the land than if organic certification had never been developed.
The RawMI naysayers are making the perfect the enemy of the good.
You don't have to agree with my political beliefs, but you have to recognize that regulated raw milk is better than no raw milk. In a state like Wisconsin, with a $26 Billion dairy industry (that's billion with a "B") an organization like RawMI is absolutely essential to increasing consumers access to raw milk. It is unfortunate that the RawMI efforts were intentionally sabotaged by our supposed allies, over their narrow ideological dogmas.
I guess raw milk will remain illegal in Wisconsin. Oh well... I tried my damnedest to make it legal, but one person can only do so much. Its time for me to focus on what's important to me: artisan raw milk cheese. Good luck guys. You are going to need it.
And stating that "the perfect is the enemy of the good" is a false dichotomy.
It does not need to be this way.
What I see in the raw milk movement is a lot of ideological fundamentalism. Its like trying to argue with a militant vegan over the environmental value of small-scale pasture-based animal agriculture.
Until the raw milk activists are willing to open up their minds and consider other viewpoints, and let go of their narrow "libertarian" dogmas, progress will never be made on this issue. Raw milk will continue to be criminalized and oppressed by the government.
I am not interested in being another victim of this misguided cult. I intend to operate in a legal and regulated public market, providing the best quality raw milk cheese I can to local consumers. If you want to take your chances on the black market, be my guest. But don't come complaining to me when you find yourself being prosecuted over it. I tried my best to help change the law, but all I received in return is scorn and hatred.
Good luck guys. You are going to need it.