The Complete Patient

A July 4 Message About Rights: It’s Easy to Talk About Freedom, Making Things Happen Is More Difficult

2009-07-03T16:49:48Z

Why do I have this uneasy feeling of being a participant in “Survivor”, and that I’m about to be voted off the island? Seriously, it’s curious how a discussion about raw milk research priorities turns into a rap about freedom and rights. I think everyone knows I view the raw milk “problem” as...

For Better or for Worse, We’re All Going to Have to Let Go of Sacred Cows If There’s Going to Be Progress on Raw Milk

2009-07-01T01:26:36Z

I’m one of these people who believe that seemingly intractable divisions can be resolved by people with good intentions. In other words, when both sides of a political issue truly want a resolution, then they make it happen through compromise. We’ve seen it happen in Northern Ireland and in the U.S. over civil rights. Not to say the problems go away, but major components are resolved enough that significant progress can be made. The raw milk issue is a political problem, one with heavily ideological components...

Chip, Chip, Chip—The More Small Studies We Get Supporting Raw Milk, the Sooner We’ll Put the Lies to Pasture

2009-06-28T00:31:19Z

The more data there is suggesting that raw milk is not only safe, but also healthy and popular, the more difficult it is for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, and the various professional medical associations to argue otherwise. Or let me put it this way: the more shrill and hollow their arguments sound. We’ve seen at least three small studies of raw milk undertaken in recent years...

A New Survey Helps Us Understand Why Raw Milk Is the New “Go-To” Product for More Dairies

2009-06-24T00:30:15Z

In our debates about the economic impact of raw dairies, we’ve had to speculate, use our personal experiences. There’s been a lot of that going on over the last few days, along with intense debate over safety and Big Ag’s products versus those of smaller farms. Conveniently, a new study has just come out...

How Now Brown Cow--Fast-Growing Demand Drives Raw Milk Prices to Lofty Levels; Fights in the Supermarket Aisle

2009-06-19T20:30:57Z

There’s an interesting survey going on from the Raw Dairy listserve about how much people are paying for raw milk. When I filled it out last evening, here were the results, based on 39 responses...

When Politics Are Allowed to Interfere with Professionals' Judgment and the Growing Move to Local Foods, Watch Out

2009-06-16T20:51:48Z

I’ve run a few companies over the years, and one lesson I've learned well is that most employees want to do a good job, do the best they can. Indeed, I’ve come to believe this about people in general, whether they work for private companies or the government. I thought about this life lesson...

Is NY the FDA’s Last Stand on Raw Milk? Here’s a Suggestion: Get Rid of NY Ag & Markets

2009-06-12T15:54:19Z

I keep trying to figure out what’s really going on with New York’s Department of Agriculture and Markets, and I’m having trouble. A few people have written me to suggest possible motivations. A couple have suggested that the regulators in New York are just doing their job. They’re enforcing the law and using U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines that provide for zero tolerance of listeria in dairy products. They point out that the regulators are actually involved in a dialogue. Sure, there was that unfortunate timing...

What Do We Call NY Ag & Markets’ New Version of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”? Here’s a Suggestion

2009-06-08T22:41:16Z

We all know the story of the shepherd boy who found entertainment in telling villagers his flock of sheep was being attacked by a wolf. The first time the boy sought help, the villagers came running, only to find the boy was joking. The same thing happened a second time. Then, when a wolf finally did attack, the villagers ignored the shepherd, and he lost his entire flock to the wolf. Is a modern-day version of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” unfolding in New York? You decide.

NY Ag Officials Make Clear Their Position on Listeria; Is USDA Really “Listening” on NAIS

2009-06-06T18:04:48Z

Chuck Phippen seems to have received an answer from New York’s Department of Agriculture and Markets over his challenge to the agency’s approach to dealing with listeria in raw milk. I reported in February about Chuck and his campaign to convince Ag & Markets to adopt a more reasonable approach to dealing with findings of listeria monocytogenes in raw milk. He has argued...

The Growing Dairy Industry Calamity May Be Making Raw Milk a More Digestible Alternative; Dumping on Oprah

2009-06-05T13:32:00Z

It’s a funny thing about this country. Sometimes the most seemingly intractable rights and ethical dilemmas have a way of being trumped by economics.

It was actually a boycott by blacks in 1955 of the public bus system in Montgomery, AL, that accelerated the push for an end to racial segregation.

For many years, Nevada was the only place gambling was legal, until states began to see the possibilities for new revenues from state lotteries and casinos run by Native Americans. Suddenly gambling wasn’t nearly as morally reprehensible as it once was.

The gradual acceptance of medical marijuana in California is being moved forward by the lure of new tax revenues. Maybe officials can begin to believe that a long-illegal drug can ease the burden of chronic pain.

Might the same thing be happening to begin resolving the raw milk standoff? The disastrous market for conventional milk—driven by a combination of lower milk prices and reduced demand for organic pasteurized milk—seems to be stimulating new-found flexibility on raw milk in a number of states that had been ardent foes. The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund put out a newsletter Wednesday about recent pro-raw-milk initiatives in New Jersey, Tennessee, Vermont, and Connecticut, and stated: “The decline in pay prices for conventional dairies and the forced cutback in organic milk production by cooperatives like Organic Valley and Hood have made State legislatures more receptive to the sale and distribution of raw milk.”

There have been a spate of reports, from California to Vermont, of dairy farms facing financial crisis. In some cases, the problems are so serious, farmers are committing suicide. One of the few beneficiaries seems to be Dean Foods, the nation’s largest seller of conventional milk, which doubled its profits during the first quarter of 2009.

I’ve suggested a number of times that state departments of agriculture and cattle associations could perform a real service by informing their dairies about the raw-milk and sell-direct options. Mark McAfee of Organic Dairy Pasture Co. at the National Conference for Interstate Milk Shipments (NCIMS) meeting in April made a similar suggestion. The regulators and processors have opposed any such consideration, supposedly based on high-minded concerns about protecting children.

But now that many parts of the farm economy are collapsing, well, there are a few signs of, what shall we call it, pragmatism? I can rail all I want, as I did in the previous post, about how cool it would be if people with different views about food safety and food rights got together. But I have to say, in the final analysis, economics and finances will likely do more to force political changes than anyone’s good will. There’s nothing like the vision of hordes of angry voters to get legislators to re-think old thinking.

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Newsweek doesn’t seem to approve of the fact that Oprah Winfrey is open to hearing about bio-identical hormones and mothers’ concerns about vaccines producing autism. In a seemingly endless article (an unheard-of eight pages in the magazine), Newsweek can’t understand why “She believes doctors, scientists and the media are all in the pocket of the pharmaceutical industry.” Where on earth could she get such crazy ideas? The only credible guest on health has been an M.D., if you believe Newsweek. Better watch out, Newsweek editors, the old thinking about political and medical correctness may be crumbling around you.