I had no doubt California agriculture and health regulators would bide their time in their pursuit of Organic Pastures Dairy Co., following their humiliating defeats over the last two weeks in their efforts to put the dairy out of business (see previous posts). I just didn’t think they’d bide their time for less than 24 hours!
Yet on Saturday, at the Santa Monica Farmers Market near Los Angeles, three Los Angeles County health inspectors showed up to question the dairy’s right to sell raw milk, according to Mark McAfee, the owner. The dairy markets raw milk at farmers markets around the state, typically selling 1,000 gallons at each market; this past weekend, sales approached 2,000 gallons at some markets, apparently because the dairy’s popular raw milk has been off the market for nearly three weeks.
But at the Santa Monica market, the usual homey atmosphere that prevails at such events was absent. According to McAfee, the health inspectors said they had been sent by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, even though the CDFA had publicly lifted its ban on Organic Pastures September 29. The dairy was then prevented from selling its product for another week by the Fresno County Health Department.
After a couple of hours of back-and-forth between the health inspectors and the dairy reps, the Organic Pastures people produced the reinstatement documents from California officials, and the inspectors backed off. But not before the inspectors seized several gallons of unlabeled milk one of the Organic Pastures reps uses to demonstrate cheese production, and also not before at least one consumer tried vociferously to convince the health inspectors to find more legitimate targets.
I will try to learn tomorrow what, if anything, the L.A. health inspectors have to say.
Recent Comments