In the midst of regulator crackdowns on raw milk in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, there are some intriguing signs of accommodation emerging from the smoke and fire.
Wisconsin may well be on a path to permit raw milk production after all. Following all the ups and downs over whether legislation allowing raw milk in Wisconsin would be allowed–culminating in Gov. Jim Doyle’s veto last spring–it now seems as the whole matter could be resuscitated. And from no stranger a source than the Special Raw Milk Policy Working Group set up by the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection early this year, and seen by many raw milk advocates as a charade to perpetuate the state’s anti-raw-milk agenda.
Moreover, the few raw milk proponents on the working group haven’t been as involved as expected and one, Mark Zinniker, actually resigned recently because the meetings have taken so much time. The last meeting, in which raw milk standards were discussed in great detail, lasted an excruciating seven hours–tough for farmer volunteers for whom seven hours may be half a work day.
And in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) voted to reject proposed regulations that would have placed additional burdensome regulations on raw milk producers–prohibiting most hand bottling and requiring that bottles be washed in separate facilities from where bottling takes place. The IRRC sent the proposals back to the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) with a request that raw milk producers be considered separately from processors. The IRRC also advised the PDA to take the radical step of consulting with raw milk producers before submitting new regs.
We know from extensive experience that most consumers are apathetic on the raw milk issue–they don’t share the passion against raw milk of their regulator overseers. So when regulators try to crack down, and raw milk proponents speak up, there is no opposition from other consumers.
In Wisconsin, the push for the raw milk legislation last spring, combined with the civil disobedience of Vernon Hershberger, who continues to sell raw milk, may have sent a message to DATCP that trying to outlaw raw milk is a losing proposition. Similar situation in Pennsylvania. That’s why it’s so essential that people continue to speak up and be heard. There is no popular opposition to food rights.
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Rebecca Thistlethwaite of Honest Meat
There’s a sad farming story out of California. The producers of the popular Honest Meat are giving up on farming in northern California. One of the owners, Rebecca Thistlethwaite, attributes their problems to a variety of issues, including high land prices, difficulties with commercial slaughtering, and finicky consumers. She is very articulate, and her account is worth reading.
Follow the money.
Bill, you took the words right out of my mouth.
Ken Conrad
One of the Natural food stores in Humboldt has heard enough of their consumers pitch a real bitch about not having state tested and inspected organic raw milk and are doing something about it.
It appears that this store has a branch in Crescent City and one also in Humbodlt County ( I am not going to name the store yet ). All consumer pick ups in Humboldt will be accounted for as sales in Del Norte County although they are picked up in Humboldt. OPDC does exactly the same thing right now with sales at the dairy in Fresno and Delivery to Humboldt homes by UPS next day….the BOS knows all about this and so does the Health Department and they have said nothing of this.
This store has also taken the bold step of simply posting the #35928 ( F ) Food and Ag code that says that all Californians have the right ( as voted by the legislature ) to access Grade A Market Milk or Raw Milk for human consumption. This store is calling the bluff of the Board of Supervisors and the Unresponsive Health Department Sheehan FDA Clones and this store is acting to feed their people. This will be a great activist step. Win or lose it is a win.
The media will run with this story and the Health Department will be forced to do something. Not sure what…but it will be all by themselves and with out the CDFA inspectors or FDA behind them. Wow! you can buy a kilo of legal marijuana in Humboldt but not a drop of raw milk!!! This is soon to change….this store has already made arrangements with OPDC and a distributor to deliver the OPDC raw milk and consumers are already lining up to clear the shelf. This is "feed the people and starve the FDA clone politics time".
What a great day for the people of Humboldt.
More to come!! Stay Tuned!!
Mark
If you drink raw milk please take 1 minute to fill out this survey. Your name is not required or requested. Some gaps in the Lactose Intolerance data and understanding is missing and we would like to see if we can fill in these voids with further targeted research. Please send this survey to everyone you know that drinks raw milk. We will be sending out to thousands of raw milk consumers in CA.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PFS9JHL
Thanks everyone,
Mark
David
The people who are writing the regulations to legalize raw milk are many of the same people who opposed the raw milk bill earlier this year. I could start naming names, because of all my insider knowledge of the WI dairy industry, but I'll refrain from that game for now.
They are only writing these regulations so they can avoid the bad PR they received after the veto and subsequent raid of Vernon Hershberger's farm.
Essentially, they are writing regulations which would normally be suited for retail-level sales of raw milk (like in California) but they are only going to allow on-farm sales.
I wouldn't get too optimistic about the situation in Wisconsin just yet.
I am impressed with what has been negotiated. It seems fair, doable and it seems safe.
I would embrace it and make it work. It is progress and a concensus…that is for sure. It is definitely an open door and that is more than you have now….which is a war and no raw milk!!
Mark
The war in WI has been at armistice since the Vernon Hershberger raids. All the bad publicity and public outrage from that forced then-chief of DATCP food safety (Steven Ingham) to resign. I suspect that DATCP is waiting until after the election to start making more moves. When they do, they certainly are going to tread with care, because they know that public opinion is against them and they don't want to get burned again.
We will be making real progress in Wisconsin when they decide to allow cultured raw dairy, raw butter, and soft raw milk cheese under 60 days old. But that's probably going to take yet more heat and bad PR for the regulators and dairy industry…
You are smoking your cheese….you will not get less than 60 day aged cheese anytime soon. That is the fortified sand-bagged position hold-out for the FDA. The 60 day aged policy is a federal policy and the state ( any state ) would have a very hard time changing that.
That is not going to happen.
Now….raw milk that can happen…but younger than 60 aged cheese….no whey.
Mark
If food safety is really their concern, then under-60-day raw milk cheese should be legalized BEFORE fluid raw milk is.
High-end cheese importers on the east coast have been sneaking young European raw milk cheeses in through customs for decades. Its only since 9-11 that FDA has tried to really crack down on that practice.
The pH changes, moisture loss, salt, and competition from starter cultures which accompany the cheese making process all make it an inherintly safer product than fluid raw milk.
Let's hold them to their word here — if food safety is really their concern, then why are they allowing an un-acidified extremely high-moisture raw dairy product to be legalized, while an acidified, salted, and lower-moisture raw dairy product is still banned?
Food safety? What?
You are bright and educated…..the FDA is neither of these things. This is not about what makes sense or what is safe…
The FDA has been trying to extend the 60 rule to longer and or also eliminate raw cheeses all together for many years. We know this will not happen because of the "raw-milk uprising". But changing the 60 rule on raw cheese….that is a wet dream inspite of your correct assessment of comparative safety.This must go by the NCIMS to get into a rule making process.
Since when does science determine the correct decisions at the FDA. The FDA is the Wolf inside the NCIMS sheeps clothing….big processors want nothing to do with raw cheeses. Some of the big processors like Alta Dena and even Organic Valley make fake raw cheeses with their deceptive heating of the milk to just below 160 degrees but still labeling it and calling it raw.
The FDA is so very corrupt. They still have not responded to my Citizens Petition for amending CFR 1240.61. In fact if the FDA ever tries anything stupid with me in the future that will be the very first thing I will remind the judge….the FDA has not complied with the Law and HAS NOT responded as required to a legally filed Citizens Petition.
They are greedy death dealing drug pushing creeps,
Mark
FDA is against fluid raw milk, but this doesn't stop individual states from allowing its sale.
Wisconsin, being famous for its cheese, I think would be a good place to push hard on the issue of soft raw milk cheese under 60 days.
Also, lets not forget that it is possible to ship unpastuerized dairy products across state lines so long as they are "not in their final packaged form for the consumer."
How else do CAFO's in the Southwest ship tanker trucks full of raw milk (for pasteurization) to Wisconsin so that they can call it "Wisconsin butter" and "Wisconsin cheese"? Yes, they actually do this… I used to live down the street from a huge Land O'Lakes butter plant that did just this.
Some raw milk cheeses will be produced in one state, but sent to another state to be aged as a full wheel or block, before being cut up into consumer-size pieces.
I'm sure this principle could be applied to other things too, Mark… wink, wink.
This thought came to mind….
Class 4 milk is the dirtiest and lowest quality raw milk on the market, at least that is how class 4 milk is sold and used. This raw milk, altough it is "intended to be pasteurized" can be sold to made into legal raw milk cheeses. There is no special Raw Milk Cheese raw milk quality standards in fact these class 4 products have the lowest quality requirements.
In my dream world….the FDA would allow the producers of high quality zero pathogen grade A raw milk for human consumption to make fresh raw milk cheeses from this same high quality raw milk. Why not???? it is the same pathogen free raw milk of the highest quality??? not the lowest quality dirty milk intended for pasteurization.
This makes sense 100%. High quality zero pathogen raw milk would make high quality zero pathogen raw milk cheeses and the more than 60 rule would have no apparent need.
But because raw cheese can be made from the worse raw milk on the open market…that is why I say that the FDA will be very against this change…not to mention the NCIMS Milk Mafia regime that loves its mislabeling tactics ( selling thermalized raw milk that makes fake raw milk cheeses as real "truly raw" raw cheese ) and other consumer deceptions.
But again…making sense is making stupid. The FDA does not follow making sense….they follow making cents.
Mark
This appears to be another instance where consumers and producers coming together to express their views at these kinds of regulatory hearings can at least temporarily sidetrack onerous regulations.
http://www.lancasterfarming.com/1016-Milk-hearing
When will the regulators learn that public meetings go so much better when the various parties have been included prior to the public meetings.
The reason there are so many problems with public meetings is that the public is ambushed by the behind the scenes wizard of oz deals that happen with out their knowledge. Then the public hearing or meeting is the place that the surprises get announced.
No wonder people get pissed off. That is exactly what happened in CA with AB 1735 and its ambush effect and aftermath.
Send a message and make it sting….perhaps our public servants will get the message….the public and the raw producers need to be invited to be involved in the process early on….not shocked into revolt later. This is the democratic process…NO….it is not as easy as a FDA Fascist dictatorship with all the right corporate cronies getting the favors but this is our country and we must fight to keep it ours.
Go Amish!!!
Mark
Mark
Doesn't matter though, we don't need to convince FDA or NCIMS. We just need to convince individual states that it will be good for their rural economy.