I was curious what all this commotion about the California Girl Scouts and Organic Pastures was all about, so I asked Mark McAfee to send me some background info. As soon as I saw the illustration for the Girl Scout “Raw Milk Badge”, all I could do was smile. What a neat idea.
What makes me feel warm and fuzzy about this particular initiative (aside from the clever marketing tactic by OPDC in becoming a Girl Scout sponsor) is that it is educational, and educational about food and health. I have become ever more convinced as I’ve observed from close up the increasingly hostile debate over food rights that one of the big gaps in our educational system is a failure to familiarize children with basic concepts around health and food. They don’t seem to learn much about different approaches to growing food and maintaining good health. As someone once said to me, “Too many kids think that milk comes from plastic jugs.” (Another big educational gap is a failure to teach kids about money and finances, but that’s a subject for another time.)
To get their Raw Milk Badge, the Girl Scouts must visit Organic Pastures and see how cows are raised and produce milk. They also get to hear an important viewpoint about the role of milk’s nutrients in immune function and good health. They’ve all no doubt seen enough television commercials and medical dramas to know there’s another view of immune function and good health, and that has to do with pills and hospitals and doctors in white jackets.
There is something else the Girl Scouts adult advisers are already learning as well, and that’s that there are a lot of busy-bodies out there like Michael Payne of the University of California at Davis, who don’t want young people to be exposed to different views of health and food. They anoint themselves protectors of the children, and go around in obsessive self pretentiousness butting into other people’s business and trying to impose their narrow view on everyone.
Payne is the guy who’s been writing the Girl Scouts, trying to “save” these vulnerable young people from raw milk. His self righteousness is enough to make my stomach churn and interfere with digestion of the raw milk kefir and cream I had with breakfast.
In a letter to the leader of the regional Girl Scouts group (Girl Scouts of Central California South, serving Kern, Tulare, Fresno, Kings and Madera Counties). Payne stated, “As a dairy veterinarian and researcher at the University of California (Davis)…I was concerned to learn that a girl scout council was partnering in a ‘fun badge’ which would involve consuming raw dairy products.”
Concern may be one thing, but then he gets threatening, when he states, “Besides my fear for your charges, I am very concerned that when one of your scouts becomes ill consuming raw dairy products, your council will be named in the subsequent personal injury legal action.”
He then goes on to provide a litany of illnesses and problems supposedly affecting raw milk, including the gibberish about two deaths from raw milk between 1993 and 2006.
Payne appeared previously on this blog, most notably when he testified in 2008 before a California State Senate hearing on coliform counts for raw milk. He said at one point that there had been 11 deaths from raw milk in California, and under questioning had to amend his count and state that, maybe, one person had died in the 1980s.
Michael Payne of the University of California, Davis.In July 2009 I met Payne at the Raw Milk Symposium sponsored by the American Veterinary Medical Association. We debated some studies on raw milk, but it was all civil and he seemed a reasonable individual. I’m not sure what got into him that he would try to use his academic position to try to undermine a private relationship between a nonprofit organization and a private company sponsor.
It would be nice if we could just shake our heads and ignore diversions like Payne, and likely OPDC will be able to do that. Unfortunately, though, he’s symbolic of the darkness that is enveloping this country in the form of the so-called food safety legislation completing its journey through Congress. It will anoint thousands more busy bodies like Payne to look over the shoulders of food producers. Perhaps there will be some exemptions for small producers, but they will have to “qualify” and, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in its infinite wisdom, will ultimately be able to use its discretion to target those it wants to be rid of. It may well have the power to make pasteurization the law of the land (along with irradiation, GMOs, and cloning).
It’s all in line with the FDA’s pronouncement last spring, in response to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund suit challenging the ban on interstate raw milk shipments, that Americans “do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish.”
So my advice to Michael Payne is to go enjoy a Whopper or Big Mac. Nobody denies you the right to screw up your health.
Kudos to Mark McAfee for teaching the Girl Scouts about an authentic food and its authentic origin, and the authentic products that can be produced from healthy milk.
Its time to post Dave M.s reformation thesis on the front door of every Capitol Building of each of these 50 States! GMO food, feedlots, food sterilization, manufactured food, centralized food production, transition from saturated fats to seed oils, intensive medical management of food-related diseasesenforced (and soon to be more enforced by S510) by legions of bureaucratic warriors. Miguel, Silvia, and others who so thoughtfully contribute substantive content on this blog could, no doubt, add to Dave M.s list. Im torn between reformation or revolution, but I go with whatever it takes to secure our fundamental liberties.
Alyssa
Based on the exemption and remarks attributed to him, they complain that Senator Tester and his supporters are waging an "ideological war against the vast majority of American farmers that seeks to feed 300 million Americans." http://tinyurl.com/28pj8uy
Apparently the vote has been delayed until the 29th.
It only highlights the need for us to continue the pressure.
No one ought to expect business interests to do anything but look out for, well, business interests. Obviously government officials know that as well as the CEOs. So why is big business given so much power in government, which is supposedly there to watch out for the little guy? (This is a rhetorical question, for anyone who has wished to have more money in his pocket knows the answer.) Ultimately for The People, the problem is that their government has the power to control what it ought not.
Its a very bad situation, but hey, at least today we finally heard a tidbit of unvarnished truth from Big Ag. This is indeed an ideological war. (Notably they incorrectly identified the combatants as Tester vs. Farmers. The war is actually between Short-term Profit vs. Sustainability, Health vs. Disease, and Man vs. Monopoly.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/business/20artisan.html?hp=&pagewanted=all
With respect to Silvias question from the previous post, Will tptb attack private farms next? There is no doubt in my mind that they will.
The state has demonstrated time and again that it is more then willing to usurp fundamental human rights. Past and current vaccination policies are a case in point. Their glaring abuse of vulnerable individuals in society is a reflection of their true nature and this has not gone unnoticed.
There is no greater threat to individual freedom and well being then self righteous bureaucrats and politicians.
Ken Conrad
Amen.
MW
Children have been given drugs over the counter and by prescription that have been deemed dangerous to children.
It's probably only surprising to those who are oblivious to how badly the government
has eroded it's own credibility/reputation.
The more that people wake up and don't feel the need for the government to be responsible for them, the better off we will be. After all, Gandhi did say, "Good government is the most dangerous government, because it deprives people of the need to look after themselves." Sadly, I don't even think we have good government at this point. We just have intrusive government.
The govt labels salt as dangerous-too much causes illness/disease….yet the govt encourages people to consume fast foods/processed foods that have a deathly amount in each portion. Not to forget about the added chemicals that cause disease/illnesses. Girl scout cookies have an unhealthy amount of salt/chemicals; where has the govnt encouraged avoidance?
This statement is nearly as radical as the USDA " Get to Know Your Farmer and Get to Know Your Food Initiative".
I think we can thank Michele Obama for the USDA "Get to Know Your Farmer" Initiative….I am absolutely sure that Monsanto and Cargill and ADM and Tyson hate this initiative….really hate it.
All the more reason to love it.
I hear that SB 510 has stalled and has been changed considerably….
What sickens me most is that as a nation…the populace is "FOOD Inc" dumbed down so far that no one questions the real source of killer super-bugs.
It is the PMO CAFO system with its filth excusing failed CCP HACCP "Kill Steps" ( the bacteria have them figuered out already ).
Back to the sundrenched pastures, throw out the antibiotics, connect the farmers to their consumers and nourish both of them….!!
One side effect of this will be Anti-biotics will start to work again for the humans that may need them to save real lives. Now that is food safety.
Mark
The Girls that drink raw milk…report all sorts of wonderful things. Things that they never said or experienced before.
The Tipping Point Guys….the Tipping Point!!!
One thing about the truth…..it happens to be true. Cows on Pastures are the Real Happy California Cows. Cows in PMO CAFO's …enough said. The Girls Scouts saw and smelled this for themselves.
The Girls Scouts logo is green for a reason.
Mark
http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/is-raw-milk-in-canada-headed-towards-disaster-michael-schmidt/
http://thebovine.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/michael-schmidt-on-the-role-of-cow-share-canada-in-setting-raw-milk-standards/
Heres a link to a study documenting the long term medical consequences that are associated with developing an E.coli 0157:H7 infection, but not developing HUS. It is titled, Long term risk for hypertension, renal impairment, and cardiovascular disease after gastroenteritis from drinking water contaminated with Escherichia coli O157:H7: a prospective cohort study.
http://www.marlerblog.com/uploads/image/bmj.c6020.full.pdf
Mark McAfee will make it very easy for public health to figure out the source of contaminated food if girl scouts in the Fresno area all of a sudden start becoming ill.
cp
"did you ever notice that anyone who drives slower than you is an idiot… and anyone who drives faster than you is a maniac?"
So it seems to go with the raw milk drama –
anyone who is a bigger producer than you is a pathogen soup, anyone smaller than you is irrelevant.
anyone who wants more (or less) freedom than you is ignorant…
anyone who wants more (or less) government intervention than you is a nut job…
now we add the allegations of everyone who is newer to raising animals is inept and in it for the quick buck….
great.
I think I'll go home, milk my cow, drink my milk, and watch the rest of the world stress out about it all.
A toast to all of you who can watch this unfold and still give a sh.. about the human race.
You're better humanitarians than me. today I don't love people. today I don't care if they eat
government sanctioned caca poo or a filthy farm's poo caca.
It is very convenient that johns disease is not being researched. This FDA lack of attention is intensional. CP look at your own beliefs before judging a whole food rawmilk drinkers beliefs.
We are not the asthmatic, obese, diabetic, cancer, IBS suffering Americans. Raw milk has not killed in 37 years your blessed dead milk has killed many
Mark
Why do you wish sickness on innocent children?
You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
CP said: "Mark McAfee will make it very easy for public health to figure out the source of contaminated food if girl scouts in the Fresno area all of a sudden start becoming ill."
But why should anyone suddenly start becoming ill? Mark sells thousands of gallons of raw milk every week and no one has become ill, before or since the Girl Scout visit. CP, you sound like you really can't WAIT for one or more girls to become ill. How disappointing for you that no one has.
CP, MW and Payne all sound like Marler cronies and flunkies.
The following news release was sent out by the Ontario Landowners Association and is entitled, Do We Have the Right to Consume Food of Our Choosing?
On Tuesday November 23, 2010 at 1:30 PM, Mark Tijssen will be back in an Ottawa courtroom at Provincial Court of Justice, 100 Constellation Crescent in Ottawa accompanied again by Michael Schmidt. Tijssen is the Carlsbad Springs man charged with four counts under the Ontario Food Safety and Quality Act for slaughtering a pig and sharing the meat with a friend in November of 2009. Schmidt is the Durham, Ontario dairy farmer, famous for having defeated 19 counts relating to the sale of raw milk last January. The common goals of food choice and freedom from oppressive laws that limit that choice have brought these two men together. Both are members of the Ontario Landowners Association which has a history of defending fundamental and property rights.
This Tuesdays hearing will air two motions. The first will be for the return of Tijssens home meat handling equipment ranging from Ziploc bags to a 65 year old fridge that belonged to his grandparents, seized without warrant in an after-dark armed raid last November. The second motion will request that, due to the complexity of this case, Tijssens trial scheduled for 14 to 17 February of next year be presided over by a Provincial Court judge. In addition to these motions, Tijssen has filed a Notice of Constitutional Question noting transgressions to multiple Sections of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Tijssen, a single father of two sons, notes that accepting an offer from the Crown to settle for a guilty plea and a $1000 fine would have been far less stressful for himself and the boys; however, even at their young ages, they support their fathers decision to fight injustice. My boys realize that this affects things as simple as taking a home-made pepperoni stick to school in their lunches. To make matters worse, the Ontario Food Safety and Quality Act under which I am charged, he says is a draconian piece of legislation that threatens the safety of all Ontarians. If food choice ceases to exist in this province, there will be no alternative but to consume meat put on Styrofoam platters by a very few huge commercial meat packers and recent history has shown that this can be a fatal choice.
Schmidt has been fighting for more than a decade, to get provincial regulators to acknowledge the right of his cow-share owners to consume raw milk that is readily available in Europe the United Kingdom and the United States. The legal resources of the Province of Ontario are effectively unlimited says Michael; however, to the great credit of our judicial system, justice can prevail, even for a farmer armed solely with the truth. At some point in time, bureaucrats running our government departments will have to acknowledge that the residents of this province, and in fact this country, have the right to consume the food of their choosing.
Ken Conrad
MW
"SENATORS GOT PAID OFF TO SUPPORT S.510 – THE 'FOOD SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT'"
I even recall some emails that were posted on this blog. These emails from state health regulators expressed disapointment that there was no illness due to raw milk.
I believe that in one state they were hoping for illness so they could shut down raw milk providers. David you may have that info.
MW:
What made you think that the warning was ignored? It was most likely read and then disregarded as erroneous and useless. Why would anyone follow a warning that has no basis in science?
MW I believe that you meant to say that you were suprised that no one did what the government told them to do. Why should they do it? It is all about politics and not about food safety.
In fact I view it as patriotic to ingore "government warnings."
It is the American thing to do not to swallow any old crap the government throws your way.
You might take a closer look at the reprehensible behavior of the regulators. Look in the mirror. You might not like what you see.
It illustrates vividly that we cannot separate the tyranny of big government from the tyranny of big business, as much as some would like us to.
At last count more than 20 people died last year from the flu shot. I do not know anyone to have been sickened by the flu that drinks raw milk
Do the math!!!
Idiots participate in gov rat experiments designed by Pharma to scare people and make $$$$$$$
Mark
I don't think that you are hoping that someone gets sick. But you probably are the type that really believes that a food supply can be 100% totally risk free. Not in the real world.
I think your response does show something that is very significant…and also shows just how out of touch with reality you are. You obviously work for government…why else would you subscribe to the mindless following of government statements. You seriously have a hard time seeing that indeed the government is no friend of the people (unless of course you classify corporations, or the money lavishing business owners as people). They have essentially have purchased our legislators, and have coopted the system for THEIR benefit.
The raw milk struggle PROVES that government, and the agencies it uses to control the population, cannot be trusted. Citizens, at least those with a brain that's not dulled by the crap food, drugs or alcohol, or the mainstream media (all which are supported by tptb) understand fully that those in power cannot be trusted. The government of this country has become a mouthpiece for the corporate special interests…and all too often lies are disseminated, and false information is given, just to insure that large corporate campaign contributors can maintain their profit margins at the expense of the population. The System is vile and corrupt.
Mindless capitulation is what you expect…and it's what those in power expect also. Having difficulty with resistance is quite robotic…and I agree with the 'look in the mirror' suggestion.
Interesting link but I'm not so sure about the accuracy –
for instance, if you scroll down to the list of industries that supported or opposed and how much they contributed –
notice
Milk & dairy producers $1,717,687
shows up in both categories. ?
Did anyone read this NY Times article about listeria and cheese?
cp
Freedom requires an educated alert citizenry. What we have in north America is a public that is mindless, and is trained and conditioned to find some one to blame for everything.
This is why we have 19% of GNP being spent on sickness care and bottom feeding lawyers that sue for drug side effects, food illness and immune depression related issues.
Standards for raw milk are essential. Because many farmers do not get it either. Survival does strange things to supposedly normal good people.
Mark
You never will be able to understand that constant use of ever stronger sanitizers is exactly the problem ,not the solution.
Why is it safer to have your children born at home?Because they are not exposed to the intensive sanitizing in the hospital,which creates a completely unnatural community of bacteria.Listeria is an unavoidable part of our world.If we don't destroy the bacterial communities in our environment that are protective,we have nothing to fear from exposure to listeria.The idea that a few cells of listeria can grow to a dangerous dose is only true in very special circumstances.The real cause of diseases known as "bacterial infections" are environmental factors.Poor quality milk,poor quality cheese starter cultures and equipment that is contaminated with sanitizers can be a problem.The wrong community of bacteria in the cheese is the result.The solution is not more and stronger sanitizers in cheese making.The solution is better quality milk and starters and a clean but not sterile environment to make cheese in,and an end to the zero tolerance standard for bacteria of any sort. It an impossible and counterproductive policy.
Anyone read this NY Times article about another incompetent FDA inspector/trainer?
Have you read "Animal Pharm" by Mark Purdy.
I think he tells us why so many people have trouble thinking logically these days.
"Lunch meat is the main carrier of Listeria monocytogenes infections, jeopardizing food safety in the United States year after year. " "Of all food borne pathogens, Listeria produces some of the most deadly consequences. It is the leading cause of death among all food borne bacterial pathogens, with 20 to 30 percent of infections resulting in death. "
And just what is the reason the govt focuses on raw dairy and NOT lunch-meat?
http://www.grist.org/article/food-walmart-tyson-recall-380000-pounds-of-tainted-deli-meat
I've never heard of any one cooking lunch meat other than rarely frying baloney.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09372.html
http://www.aces.edu/dept/extcomm/newspaper/feb11a04.html
Sounds more pathogenic than E Coli….Why hasn't the dangers of this been in the media?
Sometimes even read it in certain gov't publications.
My dad still eats it, as he does spam (shudder), he cooks everything in bacon grease or real lard (from rendered pork fat). He was exposed to God only knows what chemicals in 3 wars. He's 84 and not on any meds…go figure. Still plows the garden with the tiller, just takes him longer. Even he says it's all about your immune system and the need to keep building on it so that it stays strong.
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/11/fda_announces_recall_of_mexica.html
http://www.foodpoisonjournal.com/2010/02/articles/foodborne-illness-outbreaks/queseria-bendita-listeriacontaminated-cheese-recall/
So what happens when none of the Girl Scouts get sick? Can we lay off raw milk and OPDC for a day? Maybe 2?
Our family farm was profiled today in our local newspaper after we had people come out and participate in processing their own Thanksgiving turkeys.
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/turkey-101356-killing-pound.html
And people complained that kids shouldn't see such things. I guess they think we should give 'em an un-Happy Meal, it comes in such a neat package and doesn't look like an animal. So much nicer that way for some folks.
I wish there were more programs for kids to learn where their food comes from. How many times do we hear people complain that there isn't anything for young people to do? How about encouraging them to work on a farm? Nah, just set 'em in front of a computer with a bag of chips and a gallon of soda.
This is a raw milk blog site yet nobody has said anything about the fact that ORGANIC VALLEY has forbidden its farmer/producers from selling raw milk out of their bulk tanks. I think I know the reason, it wouldn't be the 1 million dollar grant it received from th US government would it? I GUESS THATS NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO MENTION!
http://douglassreport.com/2010/11/15/raw-milk-in-jeopardy/
OV is based on UHT….not anything raw. Their raw cheese is not even raw. It is thermalized yet marketed as raw. The OV dairymen have been hurt by OV…their prices are not good enough to support their farmers.
The freefall when kicked out of the conventional organic or commodity markets is caught by the consumer….farmers by and large have few skills to nurture this new consumer relationship. I was so excited to see Ed Shank with his huge smile and energetic communications going full blast with his consumers in PA ( at WAP )….this is the energy and enthusiasm that has been nearly drained from American agriculture….
It is critical to survival in the new future…if a farmer is going to have a new future.
As far as hoping disaster on OPDC so CP, Lykke, and Payne can point their fingers at OPDC….I can not promise anything to anyone….all I can say is that we are trying our very best to work with and understand nature. So far our RAMP program has shown us stellar results. We can only know what our track record shows us. We can try and project from our track record what the future MAY bring…but nothing is 100%. To claim perfection as a future glass ball prediction is foolhardy and is a false promise just like pasteurization is a false promise.
We do know that if we maintain certain coniditions that bad bugs will not grow….there are very few alligators in dry swamps.
The FDA has some real challenges. They will soon need to change…the bugs are changing and they need to change as well or be made complete fools of or worse.
Mark
There was a lot of talk on this blog about OV's decision earlier this year, just not much lately. Is it a decision that OV is considering revisiting? DO you know of any farmers who have a story to tell about how it is going to affect them?
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/11/22/what-food-says-about-class-in-america.html
I particularily enjoyed this quote:
"Claude Fischler, a French sociologist, believes that Americans can fight both obesity and food insecurity by being more, well, like the French.
[…]
Even more idiosyncratic than our obsession with nutrition, says Fischler, is that Americans see food choice as a matter of personal freedom, an inalienable right. Americans want to eat what they want: morels or Big Macs. They want to eat where they want, in the car or alfresco. And they want to eat when they want. With the exception of Thanksgiving, when most of us dine off the same turkey menu, we are food libertarians. In surveys, Fischler has found no single time of day (or night) when Americans predictably sit together and eat. By contrast, 54 percent of the French dine at 12:30 each day. Only 9.5 percent of the French are obese."
The Organic Valley discussion:
http://www.thecompletepatient.com/journal/2010/5/25/its-farmer-vs-farmer-as-organic-valley-and-other-co-ops-bar.html
Bill Anderson, don't believe the French require aging of soft cheeses, either.
David