Back in October 2006, the Michigan Department of Agriculture launched a “sting” operation against farmer Richard Hebron, seizing thousands of dollars worth of raw dairy products destined for delivery to members of a herdshare in Ann Arbor.
That well planned police action was prompted by several cases of food-borne illness among members of an Ann Arbor family the previous Easter-cases that turned out were likely caused by pasteurized milk.
The case against Richard Hebron took six months to unravel, with a county prosecutor finally deciding not to file charges against the farmer, and instead pushing for a settlement between Hebron and the MDA whereby the herdshare arrangement was allowed and he paid a $1,000 fine and agreed to abide by some structural changes on his farm requested by the agency.
What was still left hanging after the settlement, though, was the exact status of herdshares in Michigan. Since Michigan bans the sale of unpasteurized milk to consumers, herdshares are the only legitimate means for consumers to obtain raw milk.
Rather than continue down a path of uncertainty and confrontation, though, like any number of other states, Michigan has chosen a much different approach. Encouraged by members of the herdshare in Ann Arbor, Michigan established a working group of representatives from the government, academic, dairy, and raw milk communities to consider ways of fostering education and milk availability. The group has been quietly meeting on a monthly basis for about a year-and-a-half, and has finally gone public, via a website, with its progress thus far.
Probably the most interesting aspect of the Michigan Fresh Unprocessed Whole Milk Workgroup is the series of questions it has posed for itself to answer over the next twelve to eighteen months. These questions are separated into ten areas, and thus far, the group has answered just one-the one about the history of raw milk.
Still to come are thorny matters of benefits, risks, liability, and consumer choice–for example, “What are the risks for fresh unprocessed whole milk, including all types of risks, such as adverse consequences, intolerance and allergens?” That could occupy ten or fifteen minutes of discussion, I suppose.
I asked Katherine Fedder, the head of the MDA’s dairy division, about the group, and while she obviously didn’t want to stake out any positions on the questions to be considered, she expressed satisfaction with the process as it has unfolded thus far. “I have certainly learned a lot sitting at the table. Everybody has been respectful and open minded. We listen, we question, we debate.”
It sounds like it has the makings of a positive process. Certainly it could degeneate into something much less, once the group begins assessing the real questions, and people are called on to take positions at odds with existing government and academic thinking. In the meantime, the Michigan Fresh Unprocessed Whole Milk Workgroup has the distinction of being the most positive effort in the entire country to confront the divisiveness raw milk has provoked, and that’s saying a lot.
It’s hopeful.
These cowshares work fine without governmental interference, I find it hard to believe they will work ‘better’ with more red tape. While many are ‘hopeful’, this is just a different tact taken by the powers that be to co-opt and control the raw milk delivery system which has flourished without them…. What price will be paid for legitimization? You can bet your bippy there will be one.
As seen in Ca, NY, Pa and elsewhere…’government’ cannot be trusted….and if you ever get the feeling that they are on ‘our’ side…be wary, for that’s’ when they’ll get you…..
I cant recall the exact quote or who said it but it gos something like this.
SILENCE IS THE DEATH OF LIBERTY
There’s always the opportunity that nothing will come from discussion but more fear-mongering and blind rhetoric, but as long as this group is committed to discussing both sides and attempting to discern fact from emotion-driven fiction, I think good things will result.
I’ve got another quote for you, it’s featured at the beginning of a video by the band Rise Against, the song is called Reeducation Through Labor. (We young people, while emotional and sometimes erratic, see our future is bleak and are trying to discern fact just like everyone else.)
THOSE WHO MAKE PEACEFUL REVOLUTION IMPOSSIBLE WILL MAKE VIOLENT REVOLUTION INEVITABLE – JFK
Now, I know that raw milk probably isn’t something that is going to bestir people from their beds in the middle of the night clutching tightly to plastickey bricks of ‘civil disobedience’, but the over-heavy hand of government interference IS.
Knowledge is power, and in the spirit of our venerated forefathers I believe that every single citizen of this country has a duty to help give that type of power back to the people. Education and the knowledge to make correct decisions will go a long way to righting some long-perpetrated wrongs. So far, it looks to me that this group is striving to do just that without any personal agenda, which is something that I can respect.
I don’t hate the FDA so much as I pity them. Perhaps that opinion would change if I had been the object of their heavy-handed ways, and the cynical zeal of Milk Farmer can certainly be understood. In my mind the FDA is simply a child who one day had the misfortune to find an angry raccoon in its closet. Now it must ensure the closet holds nothing so that raccoons cannot hide inside. It’s the public’s responsibility now to convince the government, like a concientious parent, that all the doors are locked, the family dog is on guard, and it’s safe to put clothing in the closet, and drink our milk raw.
On a lateral subject, I’m elated to report that I’ve personally found a source for locally and sustainably farmed dairy! Said dairy is actually a state away, a state in which the sale of raw milk is legal so they have become my source for aged raw cheeses as well.
I bought a container of eggnog the other night, and I haven’t tasted eggnog so good since I was a child. And it contained NO high fructose corn syrup! 😀
Last week we opened a jar that was over a year old it was yummy and had never even been in the fridge just sat on the basement floor.
This is the stuff that TPTB intend to deny us access to, this is the stuff IMHO that saved my life. So I say again when I hear their manta "no child nor the eldery should ever consume any raw dairy for any reason" I have to conclude they are lying or deceived. Lying and deception are so rampt in our society that truth is almost no where to be found.
After nearly 4 years consuming raw dairy I am as excited and amazed at this natural product as when I drank my first glass.
A 76 year old woman was convicted of selling unlicensed raw goat cheese, fined $375 dollars to pay court costs and will serve 20 hours community service. Of course no sickness involve.
Kind of leaves one UTTERLY lost for words except ,Melamine, E coli in hamburg, E coli in spinach, E coli in tomatos and on and on and on!!!
Honestly though, I’d rather drink their milk pasteurized than some big brand jug of true russian roulette where I don’t know where the cows are and how they’re treated.
Baby steps. I have every confidence they’ll get me where I need to go.
My husband dried up our milkers a few weeks ago. Several coworkers at the hospital practically begged me to bring in some homemade chevre for them to try. I had been packing sandwitches for lunches for myself, and nurses tend to be very curious about what other nurses eat. After so many times seeing the creamy white goat cheese that I MADE and watching me eat and enjoy it, they were drooling a little about it. When I explained why I couldn’t, they were flabbergasted. They asked me to do it secretly anyway. They didn’t believe I could be arrested or fined for a little cheese! It is sort of convenient that Bruce dried up the goats, because now I can say that I CAN’T. People – even nurses inserviced to death on pathogens – want raw milk and raw milk products. Sensitization to MRSA and VRE can, over time, cause a healthcare worker to believe strongly in probiotics and laugh off somewhat minor possibilities of "being exposed." After all, we are potentially exposed to hepatitis, aids, TB, and God knows what all else. There seems to be an adventurous sparkle in the eyes of my coworkers at the thought of exposing themselves to campylobactor, or e-coli 0157:H7 via a bite of contraband goat cheese!
I broke down and got a flu vaccine this year. It was my very first flu shot ever, at 44. I’ve been an RN for 11 years now, and each year they recommend that healthcare workers have one, and offer it for free. That is so we don’t get the flu and give it to all our patients. I didn’t get "sick," but I did get the bad cold that has been going around. Even the people who didn’t get the flu shot got the cold. So obviously, it didn’t protect me from the first flu of the season! Maybe if we’d still been milking, we wouldn’t have gotten the flu at all here at home. I feel a little disappointed in myself that I didn’t hold out one more year. But really, I was thinking of a very bad flu last year, and of my patients.
I’m glad people in Michigan are talking. I hope something productive comes out of it!
"said that the eggs contained twice the legal limit of melamine"
Why would there be any "legal limit" of an industrial chemical in or on food? I would hope that with the contamination of imported food and nonfood items, that more American’s eyes are opened and push more for local production and consumption. I believe that educating people on eating healthy seasonal foods would be an encouragement.
When my husband was in the army, it was mandatory that he recieve a flu shot, he would be sick for about 2 weeks after the shot. I assume that it was something in the shot that made him ill. Did it prevent him from getting the flu? We’ll never know. Our kids and I didn’t get the flu and we never got the shot.
Gwen, I had read years ago that about 60% of healthcare workers have MRSA colonized in the nares, The drug of choice I think was Mupirocin. ( Bactroban Oint–I prefer the cream over the oint, less oily) I don’t know if it still is used or not. Having a Doc tell you that you have MRSA in your nose, doesn’t leave you feeling warm and fuzzy.
To my knowledge, healthcare workers are not routinely tested for MRSA. Universal precautions are supposed to protect patients from becoming infected, when used properly. Nurses pretty much know we’re screwed. The ill have to be cared for though. Amazingly for those of us who have had surgeries whom I know personally, infection has not been an issue. I’ve never looked up statistics on it however. Some of us wear face masks when WE have a common cold – I did last night.
There is a pilot program in many hospitals testing patients who come from certain populations both upon admission and discharge, for MRSA with a nasal swab. I haven’t done a lot of reading about it, but if memory serves me, it is only the beginning of a big huge study to try and figure out various data, like how many people are infected during their hospital stay vs. from the community. I work on a unit where this is required for all patients.
Maybe they’ve done enough studies to already know how many healthcare workers are affected.
The Kaiser facilities here in Sacramento, culture both nares and anal areas of every one who comes through the ED. I believe the VA facility cultures the nares. I don’t recall what the other 3 facilities do.
I agree that this workgroup sounds positive, and I like the way they articulated the issues. There are some highly respected members on that team. They may bring Michigan’s regulators out of the cave, which would be refreshing – and amazing.
But I also found some of the questions specious – how will they determine the facts about raw milk when most of the scientific literature about raw milk is based on factory farm milk? Do they have a budget that will pay for comparative production processes? Satisfy the scientific community? These guys will be documenting and sifting information for 3-5 years about the right raw milk policy, while the sale of raw milk is still banned, and Pasteurized, Homogenized, hormone-laden milk from sick cows is promoted, making more people sick, allergic, and immune-compromised.
I recognize this is an important effort and I’d like to see definitive answers, but I am impatient for change. I think Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund is the way to make change happen. I don’t need government’s blessing, I just need freedom of choice.
Unintended but delightful results of herdshare contracts are the connection established between farmers and consumers, an increased number in the supply of local food sources, education and awareness of farming, and money that goes to the local economy. Seems a better way to implement change.
Our leaders regulate drug prices and dicker about HMO plans, which tax deductions will be allowable for medical expenses. They assume we will be sick. DOH!! It’s the food!!!
-Blair
p.s. My Dad gets a flu shot every year, and every year he gets the flu.
5. Is there something uniquely hazardous about milk?