One of the amazing things to me about the crackdown by New York’s Department of Agriculture and Markets has been the near-absence of concern or outrage expressed by state legislators or the media.

For legislators, I can only assume they don’t know about what’s happening. Same thing with the governor, Eliot Spitzer.

You sure don’t see NY Ag and Markets cranking out press releases about their search warrants and court actions against Barb and Steve Smith of Meadowsweet Dairy, like it does when it establishes a task force or obtains some federal handout.

And except for a few small local publications, the media hasn’t been heard from, either. Nothing really surprising there, I suppose—why should the media dynamics around raw milk suddenly change?

The situation has been somewhat better in California, or at least it was, before AB1604, which would have repealed the 10-coliform-per-milliliter standard, died in the Assembly a few weeks ago. There seemed to be a bit of legislative and media engagement-debate, and possibly there will be more upcoming (see next item).

I’ve tried to ratchet the noise level up with a new article in The Nation about the “Milk Wars” in New York and California. The article examines the situation from the viewpoint of the economic oppression that underlies the crackdowns in both states.

While the article hopefully represents the start of some media attention to the outrages in these states, it also represents an opportunity to alert the powers that be about what’s happening.

If you live in New York or California, I suggest you go to the article and email it from The Nation site to your legislator. Here’s a list of Assembly and Senate members in New York. Here’s one for California legislators.

Wherever you live, you can send it to NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer and/or California Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger.

Send it along also to friends who would be interested. By emailing it from site of The Nation, you reenforce to the editors there that there is reader interest in the problems associated with governmental interference with our rights to nutritious foods. Feel free also to leave comments on The Nation site about the article.

The time has arrived for some accountability from the politicians who employ the bureaucrats spending taxpayer money to put small dairy producers out of business.

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California has for the first time curtailed production of a raw-milk product under AB1735’s coliform limits. The state’s Department of Food and Agriculture acted after Organic Pastures Dairy Co. cream failed three tests on its cream.

Mark McAfee, owner of Organic Pastures, tells me that California’s action will lead him to request a temporary restraining order under his previously filed suit contesting AB1735. "I couldn’t go after a TRO until we had damages," he says. The ban on cream sales is costing him about $10,000 per week in lost revenues.

He points out that meeting the coliform test is more difficult with cream than milk. "Any time you do processing, you will have more coliforms," he says. "You put the product through pumps and shake it up, and you create coliforms." 

But Mark is as upbeat as ever, pointing out that continuing controversy stimulates sales. "We can’t keep product on the shelf," he says. He also says several legislative initiatives are bubbling in Sacramento to loosen the restrictions of AB1735. More on these as they take shape.