It looks as if Mary McGonigle-Martin has done the first serious “review” of this blog (in her comment to my previous posting). She actually read through the months of postings and comments—something I haven’t had the stomach to undertake in large doses.
In the process, Mary, you’ve gotten me to do some reflecting. I tend not to like to do a lot of public self analysis. But hey, it’s a stormy Sunday (here in the Northeast), with the forces of nature very much at work and not a good day to be outdoors, so I’ll give it a go.
I appreciate your portrayal of me as “patient.” Actually, there were times last spring and summer when I was tempted to just shut this blog down. It felt often as if I was talking pretty much to myself…which is fine in the shower and the car, but not such a great feeling for a writer seeking to inform and provoke readers.
I have to take issue with you about the Organic Pastures shutdown having “put this website on the map.” I actually think it was the Michigan sting operation against Richard Hebron and the Family Farms Cooperative that brought attention to this blog. If you look at the comments on my BusinessWeek.com articles, you’ll see that the column I did about Organic Pastures attracted about half a dozen comments, while the first one about Hebron stimulated 50 comments and a followup article examining the Michigan raid’s impact on retailers drew another 25 comments. There were dozens more comments on this site, nearly all expressing outrage at the state government’s arrogance. And with so many people engaged, it seemed natural to continue following this situation on this blog as it unfolded.
Aside from what happened on this site, that event was transformative for me, personally, and I suspect, based on all the comments, for many other people as well. It was kind of my adult coming of age in this new Post-9-11 period, just as the police riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago represented a coming of age for many young people, including myself, back then. The Michigan sting changed how I view everything from the so-called “war on terror” to gun control. If police and other government authorities could detain a law-abiding farmer on his way to deliver milk, butter, and kefir, and then search his home and confiscate his computer and other possessions…well, then anything was (is) possible and our rights really were (are) in jeopardy.
Now that you’ve got me going, Mary, I’ll do a little back patting. I feel personally gratified that I was the first journalist to fully expose what happened to Hebron last October 13. I feel reasonably certain that had this story not been told when it was, and had so many individuals not expressed so much outrage when they did, and had the followup not occurred here, the Michigan authorities would have followed through on their original intent: to throw the book at Hebron and use his destruction as an example to any farmer who may have gotten the crazy idea that he or she could distribute raw milk directly to consumers, and actually make out much better financially than going through the existing exploitative channels. And I think my subsequent articles and commentary here on abuses of raw-milk farmers in Ohio, along with the expressions of outrage from readers, helped accomplish a similar outcome there, where herd sharing was just recently sanctioned by the governor and a state appeal of a court case won by a farmer withdrawn.
I take further satisfaction in knowing that my coverage, along with the followup comments by so many people about those articles and on this blog, helped stimulate other media to cover raw milk, including Time, CBS News, the Los Angeles Times magazine, and Salon. I am aware of at least a couple of other major media projects currently in the works as well.
I’ve also come to realize something very important about the issue of raw milk: It is a symbol for many other health-related issues. It symbolizes the power of diet, which our medical system has long tried to downplay, mostly in a positive sense but also, occasionally, as you have experienced, in a negative sense. It symbolizes the huge economic role of the food processing industry in this country. If the processors (and their supporters, including the FDA) are so opposed to even exploring the benefits of raw milk, you know there is something to hide, and profits to protect. It symbolizes the power of the entrenched interests. It symbolizes the efforts to reduce choice throughout our healthcare system—be it to consume certain foods or supplements or to obtain particular treatments. It symbolizes the resistance of the media to covering important stories that may be outside their sphere of long-time conditioning; while several media have covered it, the majority of business publications and women’s and personal interest publications won’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.
I’m amazed at how much I have learned personally about food, nutrition, medicine, and related topics from the many highly knowledgeable and articulate people who take the time to share their thinking on this blog. It has the feeling of a caring community, which you have experienced first-hand.
So thank you again, Mary, for sharing your experiences, and also for encouraging me to do some reflection…And that’s probably enough self congratulation for one day.
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