“If the people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson
Kelli and Anthony Estrella of Estella Family CreameryThe writer of the Declaration of Independence and our third president was certainly a prescient man. His dark vision has pretty much come to fruition. And the irony is that most of the millions who suffer the consequences through degraded health haven’t a clue as to what has happened. Our government may be incompetent in many ways, but it is highly skilled at propaganda. Just as most people think the trillions in bailouts to our banks “saved us” from a depression, most also think we have the best health care in the world. And they think that “food safety” is about giving the government more power to limit the foods we have access to–really what we might refer to as food tyranny (and today, the U.S. Senate moved closer to approving S 510 by invoking cloture and thus limiting debate).
This all has become ever more clear to me as a result of participating in a debate about S 510 sponsored by the online publication, Grist.org. Maybe I just hang around in the wrong circles, but it’s astounding to me that a number of smart people have so much faith in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to fairly enforce a wide range of new laws, including the power to quarantine parts of the U.S., the power to search food producers at will, the power to implement so-called Good Agricultural Practices, and the power to require and approve HACCP plans guiding every step of production. There is finagling over exempting small enterprises, but the way that’s headed, much of it could be left to FDA discretion. The FDA feasts on small enterprises, since it is so afraid of confronting big ones.
The discussion following my previous post about various aspects of food safety points up how much confusion, and disagreement, there is about the subject. Take Ron Klein’s link to the FDA memo about alleged violations of food safety practices at the Estrella Family Creamery in Washington.
Reading through that list of ten “observations”, I had the distinct impression that all were pretty easily correctible. (#10: “Failure to wear hair restraints where appropriate. Specifically, the owner was observed on 9/1/10 not wearing hair restraint while carrying cheese wheels from the three storage caves and staging them on a work table in the main processing room.”)
Yet the FDA seems to have used the list and evidence of listeria contamination to obtain a court order essentially shutting Estrella down, rather than seeking to work with Estrella to correct problems. Why wouldn’t it encourage the Estrellas to make changes? There was no rush, as in people getting sick. Not a single person has been reported ill.
But, of course, the FDA doesn’t care as much about people getting sick as it does about pursuing its political goals. And right now, its political agenda seems to be to get rid of the 60-day aging requirement for raw cheese, and in the process eliminate raw cheese. So it goes after outfits like Estrella to accumulate “evidence” for its agenda.
I had a chance to spend some time with Kelly and Anthony Estella, the founders of the company, at the Weston A. Price Foundation meeting last weekend (photo above). They asked me not to quote them at any length, on the advice of their attorney, since the case is still open. But suffice it to say that the couple had been cooperative with the Washington Department of Agriculture in cleaning up its operation and significantly reducing the presence of listeria. They had installed new equipment and made any number of recommended changes.
Once the FDA took over the case, though, any chances for cooperation seemed to evaporate. I’ve heard this before. Once the FDA comes in to a small producer, it’s about penalties and enforcement, not about cooperation and changes.
What’s wrong with the FDA’s heavy boot for small producers? There is all kinds of evidence that listeria is ubiquitous, and that the FDA’s zero-tolerance policy is inappropriate. There is also evidence that not all listeria monocytogenes is dangerous–hundreds of subtypes exist, and many of these are harmless.
There’s also the matter of what’s appropriate from a regulatory and business approach. A cheese maker that has been in business eight years, has won major awards for its cheese, and provides employment in a very down economy isn’t an enterprise you just flush down the toilet on a whim. Yet that seems to be the FDA’s approach. And now FDA is on the brink of broadly expanded power via the food safety legislation. A new and dark era may be upon us.
***
Back from the dead: Traditional Foods Minnesota, the Minneapolis food club that was shuttered by state and city authorities last June, has just reopened. According to a Minnesota listserve the state lifted its prohibition. But there’s no news of it on the buying club’s Facebook page.
The buying club was caught in the dragnet that resulted from the illnesses attributed to the Hartmann Farm last May. ?
"of course, the FDA doesn't care as much about people getting sick as it does about pursuing its political goals. "
They have proved this time and again.
"A new and dark era may be upon us."
Preserving our rights is done how? Will tptb attack private farms next? When will the masses stand up?
there is something else to consider. Again this is just an observation of the basis claimed for the Complaint filed against Estrellaand not a legal opinion or assessment (Ill leave that to others). Looking at the complaint for forfeiture filed by the FDA. Link provided below. It is in Federal Court and filed by the FDA. How did we get into Federal Court via the FDA-how did the FDA "take over"? Look at point number 2 under Nature of the Action.
The components shipped in interstate commerce was rennet . Scroll down to paragraph 5 of the affidavit and youll see that the component shipped in from outside of Washington was rennet from Wisconsin. The next sentence references Listeria-of course that is not related to the rennet.
Anyone on this list still making their own rennet? Or carrying their own cultures?
http://pnwcheese.typepad.com/files/estrella-filing.pdf
David's observation is correct regarding an "agency" taking over a case.
From personal experience our state regulators have helped producers correct problems and get back into production. They regulate and enforce but do work with citizens –some times with prodding-to get operations in compliance and back on their feet. I contrast that to what I used to see from working in criminal prosecution -where special task forces, or agencies charged with enforcement were "results" oriented or better said–focused on enforcement results. And results are essentially statistics–arrests, convictions and penalties……
The error seems not sufficiently eradicated, that the operations of the mind, as well as the acts of the body, are subject to the coercion of the laws. But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. If it be said, his testimony in a court of justice cannot be relied on, reject it then, and be the stigma on him. Constraint may make him worse by making him a hypocrite, but it will never make him a truer man. It may fix him obstinately in his errors, but will not cure them. Reason and free enquiry are the only effectual agents against error. Give a loose to them, they will support the true religion, by bringing every false one to their tribunal, to the test of their investigation. They are the natural enemies of error, and of error only. Had not the Roman government permitted free enquiry, Christianity could never have been introduced. Had not free enquiry been indulged, at the aera of the reformation, the corruptions of Christianity could not have been purged away. If it be restrained now, the present corruptions will be protected, and new ones encouraged. Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potatoe as an article of food.
____________________________________
Finding excuses for more government control is easy when the governed worship science as a god, especially when government officials have no inhibition about killing freedoms, and most especially when the people submit their natural rights to that government. Jefferson himself might have been a science worshipper, but no doubt he also understood well the temptations, deceits, and mistakes that might open the door to bad science being used as a weapon by an aggressive government. If he lived today he would, Im sure, easily see what so many cannot: We are ruled by a government that is picking our pockets and breaking our legs, and rationalizing its odious actions with pseudoscientific baloney. GMO food, feedlots, food sterilization, manufactured food, centralized food production, transition from saturated fats to seed oils, intensive medical management of food-related diseases all these things are, apparently, good for us, so must be enforced by legions of bureaucratic warriors.
As the people raise up and the FDA pushes down hard against their farmers….there will be a time very soon where something will turn or break.
Perhaps if SB 510 passes it will be during the implimentation hearings that the real data and the corruption will be exposed. Perhaps it will be when Farmagedon is released and people see the Food Fascism for what it is.
Perhaps it will be when people wake up and realize that our government is protecting profits and not people. Then the moms and there farmers will "Go-Oprah on the FDA" and the Food Fascists at the FDA will be outed.
No where are the CAFO conditions and pro-Anti-biotic policies being blamed for food safety outbreaks. It is the blatant Tyson and Cargil and Monsanto protectionism. It is the failed concept that America must feed the world.
So far, we see that America has poisoned the world…bombed the world…and robbed the world….all in the name of corporate interests.
Americans are so cowardly that they deserve what they are about to get.
I am very proud to stand with the fraction of a percent that are conscious.
The good news is that the FDA followers are now becoming sterile, obese, diabetic and autistic and will not last much longer. The world will be inherited by the healthy even though their numbers are small.
I write this blistering comment…because I just dodged a bullet from an FDA hitman funded and sent to "Get CA Raw Milk". Dr. Mike Payne at UC Davis WIFS sent a baised very long email to our dear friends at Girls Scouts. The Email was pacted with bias and it was "all Marler". The girls scouts are now more than ever dedciated to OPDC and what we do….they also know that the FDA sent Dr. Paynes Western Institute for Food Safety at UC Davis more than a $1 million dollars last year to effect the Healthy Americans 2020 policy and other things. This policy is to get rid of legal CA raw milk and do everything possible to discourage its consumption.
Now where does WIFS try to reduce smoking or ETOH abuse….no, they instead attack raw milk that has zero deaths reported in the last 37 years at the CDC. Dr. Payne is the Outreach specialist and it is his job to carry out the FDA dirty work….he is a mercenary for fascism. His email to Girl Scouts even said that " raw milk contains pathogens 32% of the time" he did not mention that critical little part about that raw milk being from CAFO PMO dairies.
Massive lies….
Why did he not mention that raw milk at Claravale or OPDC has never ever had a pathogen detected in 83 years of testing…
http://wifss.ucdavis.edu/
To keep this PG 13….I will keep my explitives to my self !!!
Mark
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/17/AR2010111705529.html?hpid=sec-nation
I remember last summer when you first posted about the fun badge with the girl scouts. I thought it was a bad idea to bring children out to your farm and try raw milk. It appears that someone who is an expert in food safety also thinks it is a bad idea.
BTW, I also have a much delayed response to a comment you made earlier this month to Dr. Amanda Rose. I was surprised when you stated that you had never outsourced milk to make your raw milk cheese. I thought you had admitted to that practice before. It took me awhile, but I found it.
Heres your comment to Amanda on November 7, 2010:
.OPDC does not purchase raw milk to make cheese. That is something we do not do. As far as purchasing organic raw milk to make butter…that is something we generally do not do but can if we want to. That is because Raw Butter does not contain lactose and only contains fat. These fats are highly bacteria limiting and will not allow the growth of pathogens like cheese or milk. This is part of state law for Class 4 manufacturing products. We are not buying raw milk to make raw butter and if we did I would place a "consumer advisory sticker" on the product just as described in our FAQ at our website.
Mark
November 7, 2010 | Mark McAfee
However, on October 22, 2009, you posted this comment. Here, you admitted to outsourcing for OPDC raw cheese & colostrum, but not butter. Notice how you stated the colostrum came from organic dairies, but cheese came from grass fed raw milk dairies. What other grass fed raw milk dairies are there in California?
.In California all Grade A Raw Market milk must come from TB tested and CDFA approved cows. We do not outsource raw milk to make our Grade A products. Yes…in 2006 we did buy some colostrum (not a grade a product but rather a DHS dietary supplement) from other organic dairies to meet our demand. Yes…in the past we have bought some raw milk from other grass fed raw milk dairies to make some of our truly raw cheddar cheese (which is aged for 60 days and allowed to be sold across state lines by the FDA and not a Grade A product either). At present (and for quite some time) OPDC only makes our products from our own raw milk. This is what I have said in the past and the story is still the same.
Mark
October 22, 2009 | Mark McAfee
So Mark, do you outsource raw milk for Cheese or not?
cp
Do you really have nothing better to worry about?
Raw milk cheese is very safe, especially a high-acid, high-salt, low moisture variety like cheddar.
I will grant that fluid raw milk presents a higher risk level, thus the need for stricter hygene and testing standards.
Why do you not care about all the extremely dangerous GMO phoods and lies that corporate agribusiness tells us? Does Mark McAfee's outsourcing of milk for cheese and butter really matter that much?
In the distant past OPDC did purchase grass fed raw milk to make our Class 4 raw organic cheese. This is legal and fully shared with CDFA and others. Yes…in the past we have purchased raw organic colostrum but we have not done this for years as well. It is no secret.
However, we have not done this in a long time and we currently do not do it.
I think that our policies as posted on our FAQ area of our website are very clear.
CP….could you spend some of your time digging into the CDC data base to find the first death from raw milk….No one can find a record of one. AND…it is no fair claiming or saying that Mexican Bath Tub Cheese is a death from raw milk because that is simply not a true statement!!
The CDC has tons of deaths from pasteurized milk and dairy products. Please bring us some data that it appears only you can access.
CP….Are you Dr. Mike Payne?? or are you just a PAIN. You fill his profile perfectly and his job is "outreach and destruction of raw milk" as funded by the FDA. If your are funded by the FDA, you would have lots of negative energy and lots of time to do just what you do.
Mark
The Girls Scouts Badge is not a "FUN-BADGE" it is an "Earned Merit Badge".
It requires participation in a farm project and a series of tasks. I will agree that Earning the Badge is lots of fun. By the way, one of the lessons is all about immune systems and why kids get sick when they visit farms and what bacteria and immune systems are all about. We have smart Girls Scouts in CA and we also want them to be educated and healthy as a life skill.
Our Girls Scouts will no longer be a part of the HUMAN RAT FEEDING experiment funded and protected by the likes of Dr. Mike Payne and the FDA.
http://www.organicpastures.com/girl-scout-badge.html
Mark
You are brilliant and I thank you.
-Blair
p.s. Funny how this blog didn't get 40 replies. I think that's because you said it all already – with a little help from your friends..