Todd Moore (second from left) and family being recognized at a livestock show. On the face of it, the case against Lavon Farms looks open and shut. Milk from the Plano, TX, raw dairy, the largest in the state, has been genetically linked to four illnesses from salmonella–three of them involving children–over the last few months, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
But even if you’re inclined to accept such seemingly irrefutable evidence, there are a number of elements to this situation that just don’t feel right. For example:
* The news about the linkage was made public yesterday, just hours before the Public Health Committee of the Texas House of Representatives was due to hold hearings on controversial legislation that would allow the state’s 44 permitted raw dairies to sell milk at farmers markets and county fairs. The hearing was held last evening, and at least one legislator expressed amazement at the timing of the release of information.
* The news was made public by the Texas Medical Association and the Dallas County Health and Human Services department; the Texas Department of State Health Services, which conducted the testing, says it didn’t deem the information about the linkage important enough to publicize beyond the customers of Lavon Farms, and local public health departments. The dairy alerted its 450 or so customers by email last week that milk sales were suspended because salmonella had been found in the dairy’s milk.
* Dairy owner Moore says the state refuses to provide him with details of its findings so he can have additional testing done. He says he went to an independent lab after learning about the state discovery of salmonella. “The food lab I took the milk to asked what the strain (of salmonella) is. I didn’t know, and they won’t tell me the strain because they say it’s under investigation.”
* Even after the email to his customers, not a single one has come forward to Lavon Farms to say he or she was sickened by raw milk, according to Moore. The state won’t reveal the identities of any of those sickened, but a 57-year-old woman has been quoted in several local publications as saying she was one of those affected. Here’s what the Dallas Morning News said: “Mary Chiles, 57, of Dallas said she tried raw milk for the first time at the urging of a friend in February. Soon she had a high fever and was hospitalized. She later learned that she had multiple sclerosis, which likely contributed to her salmonella illness because of a weakened immune system.”
* Moore says tests he conducts (for salmonella, E.coli 0157:H7, and listeria in his own state certified laboratory) of every batch of raw milk offered for sale, have failed to provide any indication of salmonella (or any other pathogen). “I sell over 800 gallons (of raw milk) a week,” he says. “We have tested every load, without a single indication of salmonella.” Moreover, state tests of his milk have consistently shown his milk to be well under the state-mandated 10-coliforms-per-milliliter level (in the bottle). Public health professionals consider high coliform readings to be a precursor of pathogens.
* As the previous suggests, Moore is a stickler for safety and for herd health. He says the walls of his milk parlor are scrubbed daily, and he has a strict protocol for cleaning the milking equipment. “My milk facility is spotless,” he says. “You walk into my barn, and you would not hesitate to drink my milk…We wear hair nets, we wear rubber globes.” For details on Moore’s approach to safety, take a look at the first of a three-part video on his home page. And by the way, there’s no talk of raw milk curing illnesses, or advice to avoid pasteurized milk.
Moore, who is a third-generation dairyman, says that when he first learned two weeks ago about the test showing salmonella in his milk, “I was devastated.” But the more he’s learned, and not learned, he’s changed his attitude. “Two weeks ago, the state had me doubting myself,” he says. But he’s since had “all this positive feedback” from his customers. “I had a doctor call me and he said he has it and he feeds it to his four children…My customers are ready to go to the mat. They want the phone numbers of legislators. They want their milk back.”
I spoke with Judith McGeary, head of the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance and a major proponent of the proposed Texas legislation on extending raw milk sales, and she, too, was taken aback by the timing of disclosures. She pointed out that a representative of the Texas Department of State Health Services testified at last evening’s committee hearing that there have been two illnesses attributed to raw milk over the previous twenty years. “Even if these illnesses turn out to be tied to Lavon Farms, that’s six illnesses in twenty years.”
Politics and public health–they just don’t mix. ?
My point exactly in my previous comment: "Considering the abysmal immune health of American people, someone, somewhere, can and probably will become ill from anything… luck of their draw." I didn't know the woman had MS, but I suspected she wasn't very healthy at all.
This ties into a Univ of Colo lecture by Dr. Albert Bartlett that I just watched on Youtube, called "Arithmetic, Population, and Energy."
Starting at the 7:40 minute mark of the second part I had a brain flash, a sudden realization for the FDA's terrible record in tolerating and approving dangerous and/or health-degrading drugs, as well as our government's indirect abetting of the astounding growth rates of diabetes and cancer and heart disease in this country, as well as its strong promotion poisonous chemicals and push for consumption of dead foods, not to mention the thousands of JUNK FOOD items that provide no nutrition whatsoever.
They want us sick enough to provide growth to the medical/pharmacy industry, but well enough to continuing working until about retirement age when we will die early of complications from cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. That's zero population growth. The boomer generation is the first one that will die earlier than their parents.
The following link plays the eight lecture parts sequentially, about 70 minutes total. I strongly recommend watching them all. I'm not math-oriented in any way… took me until college to learn 9×9, but Dr. Bartlett is mesmerizing, discussing population growth, energy usage, coal and gas production, among other issues:
Great quotes: "Modern agriculture is the use of land to convert petroleum into food" and "We cannot let others do our thinking for us."
Please watch…. it explains so much of what's currently happening.
I wouldn't limit it to just politics, David! Government secrecy and public health don't mix!!!! Unfortunately, the whole war over raw milk is frought with government secrecy and deception.
Big Texas hat….no raw milk cows…the FDA cronnies and the Big Texas Dairy Money are so jealous. Lavon has the truth and the moms ( and growing market demand and consumer relationships etc…) Big Texas Dairy has dirty milk, CAFO's, lactose intolerance, allergies and big problems.
My hat is off to Lavon Farms and their volentary food safety program, consumers going to the mat for them and their cleaniless.
This is how the raw milk fight always looks….last minute release of bad scary data to scare the legislature. ( this happened with Alta Dena years ago and even OPDC five years ago )Last minute surprises to scare the consumers. Last minute drama. Lavon is doing the right thing. Lots of independent investigation. Make sure you tell your consumers the truth about what you find. This will inspire the movement to change. Moms lead the charge with committed raw milk dairymen behind them. You have entered the grand stage of drama…this is politics. It is not fair. It is time to seize the day and teach.
My personal bet…the more that Lavon digs, the uglier it gets for the Big Texas and the better it gets for little raw milk.
Lets see…. what would Ghandi say or do….?
Maybe give the FDA and Big Texas Ag a hug and a kiss and forgive them for being fascist Texas sized idiots. That is both loving and forgiving….that works.
In my Karma point calcualtion, any group of people or agency or organization that are dishonest ( tell one side of any story and has an corporate profit agenda ) and do not support moms and their kids health through nutrition…completetly suck.
As a raw milk dairyman…you support your moms and the kids all the way to the mat. That is where the fight is and that is what matters. Lavon is getting tons of calls right now from moms that want their trusted raw milk. I know, I have been there. The Salmonella may or may not be associated with illness. That does not matter very much. Illness is undefined. A complaint of diarrhea can be considered an illness. What matters is the political smoke screen being created to change political will at a critical time. It is time to speak loud and clear. This is unjust. Call a press conference and tell the whole rest of the story.
Good work David for exposing so much of the rest of the untold story of this Texas raw milk saga.
When will the benefits of all the clean, safe, delicious raw milk that was provided for the last unknown number of years to be given credit??
Remember Rahm Immanuel…."do not let any good crisis go to waste" if you have created a fire then you are also given an opportunity to tell your story. It is stressful, but it also a gift as well. Get the media to tell your part of the story. Get your consumers together for a rally on the capital steps. Drink some raw milk in defiance. Share the Cornell University Raw Milk Data and expose the truth of deaths from pasteurized milk and none from raw milk. The 11,405 illnesses per year from pasteurized milk and the 50 from raw milk. It is time to be more like the French and protest. Get stage center. As Jamie Oliver says…"you Americans do not know how to get pissed off".
Take it to the mat. This is when you grab the microphone and start citing consumers stories of raw milk healing, immune repair, asthma relief, and how pasteurized milk causes lactose intolerance and is the most allergenic food in America ( at least for kids ). Trust me, Big Dairy love the heat as long as the raw milk dairyman is quiet. They will beg you to stop if you start speaking and teaching. They can not refute their sins. They are huge and Google can not be silenced.
Do not be quiet. Teach someone!! They just handed you the microphone and it is hot.
All the best,
Mark
http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/how-mushrooms-can-clean-radioactive-contamination-8-step-plan
Also, on part 3 of the video that is posted on their website, Todd talks about the testing. He tests for Listeria, E.coli 0157:H7 and coliforms. He did not mention Salmonella and Campylobacter. Does he even test for Salmonella which is the bacteria that made the 4 people ill?
Todd has been selling raw milk since 2009, when he started in response to consumer requests. (Number of raw dairies in Texas has increased from less than five in 2007 to 44 today,in line with the national boom.) He also runs a conventional dairy, separately, which he's been in charge of since 1990. He's third-generation in that business.
He tests for salmonella. Only one of the main pathogens he doesn't test for is campylobacter.
David
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/science/21gut.html?src=me&ref=general
An article from the NYT suggesting that different types of gut bacteria colonize people differentially.
[Researcher Peer Bork] speculated [that] doctors might be able to use enterotypes to find alternatives to antibiotics, which are becoming increasingly ineffective. Instead of trying to wipe out disease-causing bacteria that have disrupted the ecological balance of the gut, they could try to provide reinforcements for the good bacteria.
Hmmm is this sounding like a familiar health strategy? Obviously the idea is new only to doctors and public health officials, most of whom would like to make the natural way of reinforcing good bacteria illegal.
And, from the April 5 TCP post by Ben Hewitt:
One of the top predictors for salmonella poisoning is antibiotic use within the past 30 days, Justin Sonnenburg told me. Sonnenburg is an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University
Well, that certainly could explain why no one else got salmonella and only a few did. Sure would be interesting to find out if they did get antibiotics.
http://thepaleodiet.com/download/46/
That being said, MS is not characterized as a "weakened immune system" and is in fact just the opposite – an over-active and mis-functioning immune system. Patients experiencing extreme MS flare-ups are given oral or intravenous prednisone – a steroid that actually suppresses the immune system to stop the flare-up. So, indicating that a woman was predisposed to salmonella because she later was found to have MS is completely inane and no responsible editor should have allowed that to be published. However, given my understanding of MS and auto-immune disorders I would say that her MS is most-definitely due to a poor SAD diet and dysfunctional gut flora, which would definitely have made her more susceptible to salmonella.
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/sweet-misery-a-poisoned-world/
Watch it for free and then tell your friends. Many of the common side affects of aspartame are MS like symptoms. Watch the movie though, very informative. I would imagine that most on this blog have seen it though. It goes right along with pretty much everything that is said here.
Brandon
"Neotame, simply a modified version of aspartame, contains all the same elements found in aspartame and more:"
Oh I feel comforted, do you? … and more…
Brandon
Were do you get this feed….have you enrolled in a service to get the best gut stuff hot off the press? That is a great piece you brought forward.
More and more the pieces are falling into place.
Bugs and the gut are the great vast new fronteir in medicine. We know so little.
I like the comparison to the Gut as a Rainforest and Biodiversity. I have been using that analogy for years in our raw milk presentations. Abuse of Antibiotics is just like Rain Forest "slash and burn" leaving nothing to hold the dirt or water and nothing to carbon sequestor or form habitat…now we can compare that same effect with Salmonella illness suseptibility and other immune compromise and autoimmune issues. I feel more and more vindicated as science catches up to what we all know and experience with healthy gut conditions and restoring our internal rain forests and seeding and feeding our missing internal biodiversity. The idea that human internal ecosystems fall into three distinct classifications is fascinating. Wow.
Perhaps really soon, we can test for those ecosystems that are prone to ecoli 0157 or salmomella risk and maybe even have a method to understand lactose intolerance persistance in some raw milk drinkers when most people have no problem with raw milk digestion and serious issues with drinking pasteurized milk.
Yes…the bugs are checking out the humans…they rule. We just do not get it yet.
Thanks Steve..keep it coming.
Mark
Makes me wonder if there is any correlation between the recent discovery of three entero-bacterial body types, and the the traditional ayurvedic three body types?
Given the new information shared by Steve Bemis and the three classes of bacteria that classify all humans and their internal ecosystems, and given that new science now shows that the bacteria in our gut directs how our brains function ( or not )….then it is true that a fecal analysis will soon be part of a psych profile.
I bet that certain fecal types work at the FDA…
Mark
Hopefully this describes the fecal staff at FDA and TDSHS 🙂
But until then, we have a lot of work to do.
http://www.marlerblog.com/lawyer-oped/kcts—how-safe-is-your-burger-nominated-for-emmy/
The above article you referenced was very interesting.
At this point in the knowledge game the current antagonistic approach to bacteria is simplistic at best. Perhaps those who are engage in such an approach will come to realize that they partake in nothing more then a foolish cat and mouse game.
Wikipedia defines a cat and mouse game as, an English-language idiom dating back to 1675 that means "a contrived action involving constant pursuit, near captures, and repeated escapes. The "cat" is unable to secure a definitive victory over the "mouse", who despite not being able to defeat the cat, is able to avoid capture. In extreme cases, the idiom may imply that the contest is never-ending.
Considering that the encoded information governing the survival process of bacteria was established long ago by intelligence far superior to current human knowledge I would suggest the extreme case is at play.
Ken Conrad
On the serial testing of the milk, my radar went up on this report. Consumers need to understand that there are no really accurate pathogen tests that allow for a test-and-hold strategy. The on-farm tests aren't that accurate to start with and then there are sampling issues that come into play. There are no on-farm tests approved for O157:H7 and raw milk. It also seems strikingly unprofitable to me to send "every batch" for all those tests to an actual lab when you're only selling 800 gallons a week. All that is to say, it sounds to me like the testing claims statements in this case need a lot of clarification.
Amanda
My understanding is that they have a state-certified lab on the premises because they test not only their raw milk, but all of their dairy products (they also sell pasteurized milk and value-added products).
The tests use a state-approved method and are done by a certified technician.
Judith
You obviously are not reading any of my arguments or claims Bill.
As the New York Times article makes clear, science is only begining to understand the immense complexity of the human relationship with the microbial world. There is FAR more that we don't understand than there is that we do understand.
This is not "anti-science."
It is people like you who attempt to claim the mantle of science to blatantly promote a political agenda (in this case, an agenda of relentless war against the microbial world) who are anti-science.
Good science begins from a place of curiosity and awe at the immense complexity of nature. Bad "science" begins from a place of hubris and pre-concieved narrow-minded notions about what path human society should pursue.
I am completely in favor of the former, as I have clearly demonstrated by linking to the NYT article above. But I recognize the latter when I see it. This does not make me "anti-science", as much as you would like to believe it.
However, the debate about raw milk is not really about science, health, or about food safety. This debate is about civil rights, consumer choice, and government policies.
Perhaps you care to address my question, since you have failed to thus far.
I can order a rare hamburger at a restaurant. (I should add raw oysters on the half shell to this.)
I can purchase unpasteurized apple cider at a farmer's market in the city, with nothing more than a warning label (no testing required, at all).
I can buy sushi-grade raw tuna at the local grocery store, shipped in fresh several times a week, even though I live a thousand miles from any ocean.
Yet, if I drive to a dairy farm 20 minutes from my house and purchase raw milk, I am committing a criminal act.
Dr. Ted Beals did a risk analysis of drinking raw milk based on CDC data, in which he showed that it was more risky actually driving in my car to the farm, than it is to drink the raw milk which I will be purchasing.
So why is raw milk singled out for special treatment? I don't know perhaps you should tell me, Bill?
Are you denying that there is a conspiracy of big business to keep raw milk illegal? I can show you the campaign contributions and the letters to the governor from the dairy business lobbys.
Or perhaps you could talk to this editor of the Wisconsin State Journal, who is NOT a consumer of raw milk, but agrees with me that big dairy is conspiring to take away consumer choice on the issue.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/column/phil_hands/article_c7d2db84-6a91-11df-bb7e-001cc4c03286.html
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/column/phil_hands/article_588b5780-7656-11df-b115-001cc4c03286.html
The Wisconsin State Journal is the official state newspaper of record for America's Dairyland.
Do you like being a shill for big business and against civil liberties, Bill?
Heres the difference. Is there an organization that is systematically targeting infants and children to consume the foods you mention (rare hamburgers, raw oysters, raw apple cider, & raw tuna) claiming it as a healthy immune boosting food and cure for many illnesses? And when outbreaks occur with these foods, is anyone denying the outbreaks claiming a government conspiracy?
Also explain to me why a parent couldnt add pasteurized, non-homogenized yogurt, kefir, cultured butter and cheese, (from grass fed cows), along with a high grade probiotic to obtain the healthy bacteria needed to maintain a healthy gut.
BTW, you never answered the question I posed to you over on Bill Marlers blog?
Mary
I don't know what the big fuss is all about… oh wait, yes I do.
The Wisconsin dairy processing industry is a 26 BILLION DOLLAR industry. That is what the big fuss is about!!
We don't want to jepordize our corporate monopolists, now do we? Back to the age of robber barons again… thank you Bill Marler for doing your part to help the cause of corporate monopoly!!
Pejorative drivel is not helpful to a clear-eyed analysis of what is at stake here.
Does Marler get paid? Then Marler does it for the money. Mark gets paid too, No?
How useless.
Bill show me the literature that claims raw apple cider has immune boosting properties and should be consumed by all infants and children? Find me the organization that is pushing this agenda.
I know full well what the commercial beef industry does, and is up to. That is why I also have a beef herd….and can't keep hamburger in the freezer at 3 to 4 times the price of the conventional commodity crap. People seem to always be waiting for me to harvest another one.
If I had to eat the stuff you'd buy at the supermarket…I'd be a vegetarian (this line always goes over well while talking to vegetarians at my farmers markets….). You know you are producing good beef when even even veggies buy it (a number of veggie moms do purchase my meat to feed to their kids) Animals raised with respect, and harvested in a humane and low stress environment, create a product that bears little resemblance to what they package for the Piggly Wiggly. Spoiled cows don't just make better milk.
So let me get this straight Mary….the reason that raw milk is dangerous is because the Foundation is promoting it?. …..You are even more foolish than your words….and your spitefulness and anger will rust your soul from the inside out.
Mary, your histeria about WAPF is one thing. I do not speak for the WAPF, I speak for myself. And I'm telling you that yes, the government policy about raw milk is because of big dairy. This is not a conspiracy, it is a fact. If you give me your email address, I can send you all of the letters which the various dairy business lobbys sent to the governor here last year.
Also, did you miss these?
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/column/phil_hands/article_c7d2db84-6a91-11df-bb7e-001cc4c03286.html
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/opinion/column/phil_hands/article_588b5780-7656-11df-b115-001cc4c03286.html
Take note: The cartoonist who made these illustrations is NOT a consumer or producer of raw milk, just an objective outside observer of the political conflict.
If a thousand people with the same starting conditions are left to their own choices for thirty years I expect the results to be a bell curve with great successes and great failures at the extremes. All of it deserved. How can we not accept those outcomes?
If either civil law or the government is the handmaiden of fraud then you have a horror. In such case to whom is the appeal made when combating fraud elsewhere?
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
SDI has FDA apporved rapid tests for several of the pathogens we are concerned with in raw dairy. Why do you say that there are no approved tests for on farm use? SDI and the FDA make no designation where the tests can be used….the same rapid test can be used in a lab as well.
The SDI test identifies ecoli 0157H7 ….but requires a lab test to confirm. This is an excellent on-farm tool to screen and provide surveilance.
Mary,
I know that your mom radar has been forever adjusted by your very intimate experience with raw milk.
That does not mean that a mom should not take certain extremely small risks to build strong immune systems in her children. The examples are nearly endless. The FDA, CDC and medical policies of nearly all doctors push vacination on all kids….sickening thousands per year and killing many. The argument here is the benefit out weighs the risks….
You need to sober up and recognize your irrational obsession with raw milk. We all recognize and very much respect your decision not to feed your child raw milk. All legal raw milk in the USA has a warning statement…no raw milk has killed anyone in 37 years ( or more ) in the USA. 50 illnesses per year and no deaths is a very tolerable risk, considering the tens of thousands of annaul deaths from MSRA, immune depression, and all the serious food allergies associated with pasteurized milk.
Lastly….this is a free country and moms have a right to feed their familes whole foods of their choosing regardless of what the FDA says.
Mary, remember this. I respect you and I especially care that your choices are protected. I also care that other moms choices are protected. There are moms out there that are deeply passionate about raw milk and how it has saved their kids from ICU time and in some cases helped them get out of an ICU.
Please Mary…your passion and energies are needed on the raw milk standards bandwagon so we can have better standards across our great nation instead of this scatteres mess of confusion that prevails ( intentionally ). Please spend some time exposing the tragedies of pasteurized milk and the real deaths and 11,405 serious illnesses it causes each year.
Christ drank raw milk…
Happy Easter….
Mark