I’m beginning to wonder if the Almond Board of California may be regreting its decision to require pasteurization of almonds (discussed in a previous posting).

There has been lots of zigging and zagging going on in the almond world in anticipation of the pasteurization requirement taking effect September 1. It turns out that there’s an exception in the pasteurization rule, which allows growers to sell unpasteurized almonds from farm stores. So any number, including Organic Pastures, have been gearing up to not just sell to farm visitors, but to take Internet orders and ship unpasteurized almonds from their stores. I’ve even seen discussion of "tree shares" as a way to skirt the almond pasteurization regulation.

In today’s Internet age, I’d say the farm store loophole is big enough to drive lots of big almond-filled trucks through. Unlike raw milk, raw almonds can be cheaply and easily shipped, without risk of spoilage.

So today I see a little notice buried on the Almond Board’s site—that implementation of the pasteurization rule has been put off six months, till March 1, supposedly to allow the U.S. Department of Agriculture time to approve the change. Don’t be surprised if, come next March 1, there is further delay. And even if the rule is approved and implemented, it’s beginning to look as if market forces could punch major holes in the edict.

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Here’s a study you probably won’t see mentioned in the television ads for air purifiers and cleaning fluids. Turns out if you’re a poor housekeeper or have an old house with lots of cracks and crevices that allow dust in, you’re probably doing your children a favor in enabling them to build up resistance to allergies and chronic conditions. An interesting study from ScienceDaily providing further evidence that having contact with bacteria helps protect against pathogens…and that avoiding contact reduces immunity.

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The points made by Don Neeper and Steve Bemis about public relations (following my previous posting) are well taken. Having been involved on both sides of the public relations fence, I can attest to their points that being in the media’s face can make a difference. Corporations hire public relations firms and government agencies employ “public information” professionals for a simple reason: they help get the organizations’ views into the media.

So here’s something else raw milk producers accused of wrongdoing by state regulators can do: in addition to having their own independent testing completed, they can call their local media and request the opportunity to comment on state press releases.

Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures understood this point very well when his dairy was shut down last September. He called a press conference. I’m not sure how much it helped him, but he was allowed to re-open shortly afterwards.