California Sen. Dean Florez is beginning to sound like some of us here at this blog. Except he has a little more clout, and right now, it’s running into a brick wall known as the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

In a scathing letter to A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Sen. Florez, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Food-borne Illness, calls the agency to task for continuing to refuse to send a representative to the hearing scheduled for next Tuesday about raw milk safety.

He labels the CDFA’s refusal a “disrespectful affront to the oversight function of the Senate.” And he asks, “What does CDFA have to hide?”

In all, this issue of CDFA testimony in a public forum together with people of other views is turning into a nasty little power struggle. 

Almost overlooked in the Senator’s wrath is the fact that the California Department of Public Health has acceded to his request of last week that the two agencies send representatives to testify. Both CDFA and CDPH had initially refused to testify, citing a pending suit initiated by Organic Pastures Dairy Co. and Claravale Farm over AB 1735 and its coliform standard of 10 coliforms per milliliter for raw milk.

“Pending litigation should not impact the testimony of any CDFA official provided that they provide the same testimony before the Committees as they intend to provide in a court of law," writes Sen. Florez. "In both instances, CDFA merely has to tell the truth.” Sounds pretty straightforward, but could be a problem for CDFA.

Scheduled to appear at the hearing are food safety scientists, retailers, producers and consumers on the raw milk industry as a whole.

It seems like Sen. Florez is getting a taste of the medicine many farmers have been tasting for a long time, and not just those in California. It’s called unbridled arrogance.