A consumer on a raw milk listserve last week said she was looking for a herd share in California because Claravale Farms milk sells for $4.49 a quart in one California health food store (thats $18 a gallon, if you don’t have a calculator handy).
Then today I was reading the press release from Sen. Dean Florezs office about the press conference tomorrow in Venice featuring actor Martin Sheen, and there was this statement to justify SB 201: In order to skirt state regulations without breaking the law, many raw milk enthusiasts have taken to buying into a cow share or collective program, since it is legal and unregulated to drink milk from your own cow. One such program recently shut down after more than a dozen of its consumers became seriously ill, underscoring the need for legal access to well-regulated raw milk.
Im assuming SB 201 will become law, one way or another. Many of us have seen it as the lesser of two evilsbetter to have raw milk available under very strict regulations than to not have it at all, which would have been the result of AB 1735s coliform standard.
But lets not have any illusionsthis law will come at a cost, a financial cost and, quite possibly, a regulatory cost.
Milk at $18 a gallon is better than no milk, but it is milk that only the well off can afford to feed their families. And that is part of the game being played here.
From the governments perspective, the optimal goal would be to have no raw milk available. But, if you have to have it available, then you regulate it so tightly that conforming with the regulations makes it necessary for producers to raise prices so high, few can buy it. Mission accomplished, just a little more clumsy than the other way.
Another outgrowth is that entering the raw dairy business becomes so expensivethe barriers to entry so high, in business lexiconthat no dairy person in his or her right mind will want to get involved. You need to develop a HACCP plan, which will no doubt require the involvement of expensive consultants, and you will need expensive equipment to be able to test for pathogens. You will need to have a law firm on retainer to deal with the inevitable objections from the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
That may all be fine for Organic Pastures and Claravale Farm, which are already in business, and wont be forced by competitive pressures to keep a lid on prices–not optimal, but better than the alternative.
Then there may be the regulatory effects. I dont know the full story of the people who supposedly became ill from drinking that California cow shares milk, but I have learned to be skeptical of such allegations, and not to make sweeping generalizations about what should or shouldnt happen if it is true. Ive also learned to be leery of politicians who argue for well regulated anything.
Will the regulators then move to rid us of herd shares? Dont laugh. The move is already well under way in New York, in the state’s all-out war against Meadowsweet Dairy.
I definitely dont want to be a spoilsport or rain on the SB 201 parade. I want to see it pass and resolve the California impasse. Just so we understand that may not lead us to the promised land.
I agree that the price point goes crazy when sold at retail. But when good wines and good raw cheeses sell for half a fortune, it is essential for Americans to rethink what they spend on food. In the USA food expenditures average 10%-15% of income. In many EU countries it is well above 25-35%.
Americans are used to buying junk food at dirt bottom junk prices and they have forgotten the price of real food. The price of junk food is truly extremely expensive when the health care costs of eating junk garbage is included in the true cost not to mention the human cost of disease etc.
CA Suggestion:
The better place to buy raw milk is at the farmers markets where the prices are 35% cheaper and the product is very fresh. OPDC operates a HUB sale one time per week in Van Nuys Ca where all products are heavily discounted and all people can purchase.
It becomes Organic Peoples Dairy Company on that day.
The big issue is not price and cost but ignorance of whole food nutrition and its incredible value. Trying to convince someone to change nutrition is far harder than pulling teeth.
Many people require a near death western medical experience to " get it ". When they do… they become passionate as hell and watch out because they feel cheated from all the years of lies they believed.
This is an American problem….new immigrants do not suffer from it at all.
One time I was told by a consumer…better to buy a case of raw milk than to get a case of cancer. Thats the place we must be mentally to get real value from our food.
Mark McAfee
Founder OPDC
The SB 201 Raw Milk Press Conference will be held at the Venice Beach Whole Foods Market in Venice Beach CA Tuesday September 9th at 1400 hours.
All SOCAL raw milk drinkers are invited to attend and show your support for
SB 201 "The fresh raw milk act of 2008".
Let raw milk….rock the world….one immune system at a time.
Mark McAfee
I am in Sacramento, I go to the Farmers market every other Sunday, the one under the freeway off of Broadway. It is open all year and one of the biggest in Sacto. Raw dairy is one of the few things I’ve not seen there.
I have also worked the markets in SoCal for a ranch that sells grassfed, grassfinished bision. Both ranches strive to keep the prices as low as possible for all co-producers.
It is interesting to see what happens to others when they begin to consistently eat high quality foods. It has been my experience along with others that at first we flinch at what we perceive to be the high costs of these foods. We are so used to "cheap" food. As time went on however, I realized that I was actually feeling satiated by what I was eating. I wasn’t continually eating to feel full. The product may be costing more but this is also balanced by the fact that I am eating less and because I feel good. I am also buying less "junk."
This experience is not just limited to me. Those who I sold bison to constantly commented on how "clean" the meat tasted. The common response to first time raw milk drinker is that they feel their bodies begin to "absorb" the milk immediately. These experiential reactions are common.
Mark is spot on about this being an American problem. I spent the first 20 years of my life on a dairy farm. I know what it takes to keep a farm going and bring a product to market. Joel Salatin is right when he says there is a massive disconnect that is not limited to Democrats or Republicans, Liberals or Conservatives. This is a collective and generational disconnect.
I had a e-mail discussion with Mark’s son today about how those of us who work at the markets "see" the people we sell the dairy products to. I found that not only do we "care" about the people we sell to, we also "care" about the product we sell. Implied with this is that there is enough "health" to go around for everybody.
I think the investment is worth it.
unless present policies and programs are changed so that they counter, instead of reinforce or accelerate the trends towards ever-larger farming operations, the result will be a few large farms controlling food production in only a few years.
Another USDA commission got rolling on the same topic in 1997.
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/nea/ag_systems/pdfs/time_to_act_1998.pdf
Heres a quote from the reports opening statements. Note especially the last line:
Looking back now nearly 2 decades later, it is evident that [Berglands] warning was not heeded, but instead, policy choices made since then perpetuated the structural bias toward greater concentration of assets and wealth in fewer and larger farms and fewer and larger agribusiness firms. Federal farm programs have historically benefited large farms the most. Tax policies give large farmers greater incentives for capital purchases to expand their operations. Large farms that depend on hired farm workers receive exemptions from Federal labor laws allowing them the advantage of low-wage labor costs.
Today, we have 300,000 fewer farmers than in 1979, and farmers are receiving 13 percent less for every consumer dollar. Four firms now control over 80 percent of the beef market. About 94 percent of the Nations farms are small farms, but they receive only 41 percent of all farm receipts.
Like most major industries, the ownership and control over agricultural assets is increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Farmers have little to no control over setting the price for their products. The basic tenets of a competitive market are less and less evident in crop and livestock markets today.
"…The dominant trend is a few, large, vertically integrated firms controlling the majority of food and fiber products in an increasingly global processing and distribution system. If we do not act now, we will no longer have a choice about the kind of agriculture we desire as a Nation.
Business growth depends on growth in market share. Agribusiness, with government help, has done well collecting market share, largely by transfering costs (e.g. of degraded land and degraded human health) thus making it nearly impossible for small farms to compete in price, but also by raising the barriers to entry into small-farm business (including restricting access to meat processing as discussed in the comments following Davids last post). Big agribusiness has been so successful that at this point most people simply have no other choice but to purchase industrial-scale food.
Upstart, revolutionary ideas like purchasing milk direct from a farmer, or establishing contractual ownership of herd animals constitute a serious threat to the current system of controlled demand. Those ideas will not be tolerated, even if it means attacking basic rights like the ability to drink the milk from ones own cow.
(The above-quoted report, by the way, is now ten years old. It was titled "A Time To Act")
They already passed a law against that. And the Land of the Free looks like it isn’t going to fare any better than The Land of Milk and Honey.
-observations of my husband.
Gwen
A couple years back I ran across a white paper produced by the usual agri-business suspects in the 60’s or 70’s. The main thrust of it was they were trying to vertically control the food system from dirt to plate, either outright or by causing the consolidation of agriculture into large farms. IOW, the things you bring up were intentional actions to control the food supply.
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find that paper since and I’m wondering if you or Miguel know where it can be found.
http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=11853
The news coverage was exceptional and several LA newspapers including the Santa Monica Daily News showed Martin Sheen holding a OPDC half gallon in his hand as he guzzled it.
Senator Dean Florez,Martin Sheen, Christine Chessen the founder of CREMA, Mark Mcafee and Collette Cassidy the owner of Claravale spoke as well.
There was even a heckler that was obviously a plant from an interested anti SB 201 party that told any one that was listen that OPDC had killed six kids. Which is completely untrue and a biased anti raw milk attack.
If this keeps up OPDC is going to get rich from libel judgments.
She was obviously miss informed…..it showed the depths that people will go to hurt raw milk. The media ignored the comments and the coverage was very positive on live TV channel 2 and 7 in LA.
Call the governor!!
All the best,
Mark McAfee
That superbug you’re talking about can likely be cured with silver colloid (the REAL kind, there are DANGEROUS FAKES being sold, so watch out), which is actually an anti-bacterial that bacteria cannot become immune to. I get mine from http://www.mesosilver.com Most antibiotics are poisons and that’s why many people feel awful when they take them especially when they are strong. Silver isn’t a poison, it’s a mineral that bacteria ingest and somehow it screws up their digestive system and as long as the bacteria keep ingesting it, they’ll eventually die of starvation. The bacteria have no way of detecting silver since it seems like any other mineral to them.
Also, keep in mind that silver colloid is not naturpathic. It kills good and bad bacteria just like any antibiotic. Make sure to supplement yourself with pro-biotics during and after treatment if you or somebody you know uses it. Raw milk, Kefir, and others are good solutions to use.
There are some alternative doctors/nutritionists that prescribe doses of silver colloid for illnesses. Mine does, but I’m not sure about others.
http://haphazardgourmet.blogspot.com/2008/09/martin-sheen-is-gentleman-at-raw-milk.html
Lisa,
The link you posted, the bloggers are far from factual. They stated that raw milk drinkers approached them and said,
"never heard a single mention of potentially deadly pathogens, and wondered both why there was no warning labels on milk bottles, "
Warnings are on bottles. There were many other statements made that are untruths. It does fall into the same trash bin as marler’s blogs.
Ken, I see the stage is set so that opinions can be formed before-hand. Lets make the farmer out to be shifty, etc…..
It is their agenda to get rid of all dairies. It’s just easier to target our raw dairies first for without this bill, they will become extinct in California. Yes it is about choice.