The Tuesday “Raw Milk Freedom Riders–Milk and Cookies Rally” is shaping up as a national event. There are car caravans coming from Minnesota and Illinois, as well as protesters flying in from Wisconsin, Michigan, and California, among many other places.
That is as it should be, since the event is about protesting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s prohibition on interstate shipment of raw milk, and the effective criminalization of parents and other consumers who routinely buy it in one state and drive back home to another state.
There is no doubt that Michael Schmidt’s hunger strike, about to enter its second month, has had a huge impact and is encouraging participation. If he can do what he’s doing, and even plan to be the keynote speaker at the rally in front of the Maryland headquarters of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration…well, it shouldn’t be such a big deal for ordinary individuals who value access to nutrient-dense foods to be present as well. (In other words, you still have time to arrange to be present for a very important event.)
While the event is in part a protest, in part defiance, and in part a tribute to Schmidt’s courage, it is also symbolically an effort to push for collaboration with authorities and development of common ground around food rights and food safety. In that sense, it fits in with the current negotiations over herd shares in California described by Mark McAfee and the Raw Milk Institute Initiative (RAWMI) that’s been debated extensively here…along with Michael Schmidt’s campaign in Canada.
Each of these initiatives is really about ensuring that safe raw dairy products are available to whomever chooses to obtain them. Yes, these initiatives are about rights and freedom, but I don’t think it’s essential to expect regulatory officials to necessarily adopt that language as a precedent to developing accommodations.
Optimist that I am, I keep thinking that it’s not out of the realm of possibility to expect that an accommodations could even be reached with the FDA. Yes, easy as it is to forget, that regulatory symbol of negativity and arrogance is made up of real people, many of them highly professional and even caring.
The “Raw Milk Freedom Riders–Milk and Cookies Rally” will be defying the federal prohibition on interstate raw milk transport, but only as a symbolic act of desperation. Unwilling to tolerate being branded as criminals–via FDA raids, undercover investigations, and court actions– event organizers like Liz Reitzig and Karine Bouis-Towe have been completely transparent in their intentions and actions. The FDA and local law enforcement agencies have been alerted, way in advance, as to the order and location of events for Tuesday.
Implicit in those actions is an invitation for open and serious discussion about how to develop a new path of accommodation. After years of total negativity, even violent regulatory enforcement, it’s difficult to imagine the FDA being a force for positive change. Michael Schmidt has been fighting the authorities in Canada for 17 years, and is now fighting day-to-day for a simple meeting with his provincial leader. Some American farmers are going on ten years.
But maybe authorities are beginning to see the light–that there’s little to gain in fighting the rapidly growing numbers of people who their food rights seriously, and in fact, there may be lots of pain.
***
I’ve been reading Joel Salatin’s book Folks, This Ain’t Normal, and it makes two intriguing points about what he calls “an unmistaken Food Inquisition in America.”
1. The major force behind the current over-regulated environment isn’t Big Ag, but overly zealous consumer advocates. “And that is why every time, every time, every time–should I say it once more?–every time the public asks for government oversight, it eventuates in the biggest players getting more power and the smaller players being kicked in the teeth,” argues Salatin.
2. Contrary to the belief of many that Prohibition was a failure, it actually set important precedents now being used against food rights. Salatin argues: “In my opinion probably the single biggest blow to America’s food system came with Prohibition, because it forever gave the government control over what we could and could not consume. In that action, the die was cast. Until then, freedom of food choice was a foregone conclusion in our culture. But once well-intentioned, righteously indignant people decided it was okay for the bureaucrats to crawl between my lips and my throat, criminalizing any other substance du jour was acceptable. This conditioned the nation to accept more and more restrictions until today you can hardly spit without a license.”
There’s lots more in the book questioning some of the crazy food production practices that now pass for conventional wisdom…and it’s all presented in insightful and entertaining fashion.
And if you want to know even more about how pathetic the food safety regulatory system can (has) become, just read the story of how a local public health inspector nearly ruined a farm-to-fork feast…and how important it is to question the inspectors, and demand your basic constitutional rights. A good case of Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund to the rescue.
STOP, Safe Tables Our Priority, wants the food world sterilized. By any means. Irradiation, pasteurization…Gassing, chlorination. You name it, they want it dead. They petition congress and spend serous bucks getting hearings and food killed in DC.
Remember the end of Food Inc? the mom that lost her son from Ecoli…she busted the USDA all about her son and sterilizing food. She did not beg for organic standards or no antibiotics in animal feeds, or immune system building food…she begged for stronger regs to kill things and sterilize things. Just do something to fix it!!! The standard US Gov response to anything bad….bomb it, nuke it, SEAL Team it. Kill it. The FDA is a military organization…there is group think in Gov.
The common thread here is pissed-off moms that go to DC and want food sterilized because CAFO crap food killed or injured their child. The senators are helpless but to respond to their passion and tears. Real tears.
These moms have missed the point entirely. First, their kid ate crap dead food since birth, took antibiotics like crazy, had a weak immune system and then consumed undercooked CAFO crap, laced with manmade antibiotic resistant superbugs?!?!
Do the math. It is an All American Equation.
Because we the well nourished immune strong Americans defy the medical kill it all paradigm, because we nurse our babies and build exceptionally strong immune systems in them….we are outside of the sickness care system. In fact we rebel against it….many of us were nearly killed by it. We know better.
Joel….you are dead on.
We must teach health to the mainstream through our personal experiences. Email blog, Write, speak, protest, eat raw milk and cookies….What Sally Fallon Morell Started ten years ago was nothing more than an American nutritional rights revolution.
Yesterday in Sacramento I saw our CDFA completely capitulate and admit that raw milk is special…raw milk is not the same as pasteurized milk. I saw them respect consumers and farmers rights. I love America….it is worth investing our blood and sweat and tears into.
An example of someone Salatin is writing about. Sometimes PhDs are the biggest idiots…..
Abraham Lincoln
If we fail to engage in the American process how will me keep America on track and great.
STAND UP FOR LIBERTY!!! RON PAUL REVOLUTION!!! RON PAUL 2012!!!!! LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC!!!! ACT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, AND YOU'LL ALWAYS KNOW YOU GAVE YOUR ALL FOR LIBERTY!!!!!!
This is what Marks words tell us repeatedly.
MARK: "America right or wrong. If right fight to keep it right. If wrong fight to make right.
Abraham Lincoln"
I could not find that quote by LIncoln, when did he say it, please site it so I can read the whole quote. I did find one below that sounds more like what you posted, not spoken by Lincoln.
"Our countrywhen right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right."
Carl Schurz, Wikisource-logo.svg "The Policy of Imperialism", in Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, vol. 6 (1913), pp. 11920..
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Policy_of_Imperialism
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving. Dale Carnegie
You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.
Harper Lee
"If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. You may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all of the time." Abraham Lincoln
"To lead people, walk beside them… As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate. When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves'." Lao Tzu
Spoken as if he owned it.
The regulation doesn't prohibit possession of raw milk – if they don't engage in commerce or sell/redistribute the milk after crossing state lines, are they violating the federal regulation?
From 21 CFR Section 1240.61 – Mandatory pasteurization for all milk and milk products in final package form intended for direct human consumption.
(a) No person shall cause to be delivered into interstate commerce or shall sell, otherwise distribute, or hold for sale or other distribution after shipment in interstate commerce any milk or milk product in final package form for direct human consumption unless the product has been pasteurized or is made from dairy ingredients (milk or milk products) that have all been pasteurized, except where alternative procedures to pasteurization are provided for by regulation, such as in part 133 of this chapter for curing of certain cheese varieties.
MW
That was a quote I had memorized since highschool. It was something taught in my American history class.
Leadership:
Leadership is a long term mission….taken when others do not see the vision….it is the persistent teaching of many one at a time, in a coordinated sequence, when all others see the teaching as random.
We saw leadership at our CDFA meeting this week. We saw a resulting change. We experienced change because of teaching and building over many many years. Leaders cause change….they may not even have followers…but all know their acts by the change they cause.
I could careless about titles or labels…we are known by what we do, the change we struggle for and how we help others.
During his tenure as a Commissioner, Stephen Decatur also became active in the Washington social scene. At one of his social gatherings, Decatur uttered an after-dinner toast that would become famous:
"Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but right or wrong, our country!"
Carl Schurz would later distill this phrase more famously as, "My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." [175
Maybe my history teacher was off just a little on his quote citation. It appears that the quote came from Carl and not Abraham Lincoln. Maybe Abe said somethign close to this but not the exact words. And all these years I thought I was quoting Abe Lincoln.
A great quote and words that apply now more than ever.
The FDA provided this answer to your question last March in a response to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund suit against the agency challenging the interstate prohibition on raw milk:
"Moreover, it has been settled law for nearly a century than an article that is purchased by a consumer and transported across state lines for his or her personal consumption is in interstate commerce….it is apparent that the sale of unpasteurized milk to a customer who intends to transport it out-of-state, either directly or through an intermediary, constitutes delivery into interstate commerce…"
http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/docs/ey110317–ds_status_report_03_11_exh_a.PDF
In other words, the parents who cross from Maryland to Pennsylvania to obtain their raw milk, and bring it back to Maryland, are engaging in criminal behavior. Parents will be directly challenging that FDA interpretation of the law via Tuesday's action.
Will the FDA take action against these parents. Again, from the FDA response: "FDA has not brought enforcement actions against individual consumers in the past and, subject to the considerations described above, has no present intent to do so in the future." Implicit in the statement is that FDA has the authority, and reserves the right to exercise that authority at its whim.
David
The formation of human-scale groups is as natural as sunrisecompletely bottom-up, ignited by an innate need for real, face-to-face kinship and for the joy of being truly responsible for another human being. They are America's new connective tissue, gradually infiltrating, rebuilding, and redeeming a sick and flimsy country. They may very well be America's salvation as crushing system-induced debt cuts the legs off Wall Street, Main Street, and Easy Street, finally putting an end to the illusion that insulation from natural realities is a sustainable life strategy.
Our local, diverse, human-scale affiliations deserve at very least to be left alone. If the system boys cannot understand their value, if they cannot understand how friendship can be an adequate guarantee of quality, or protection from lawsuits, or reason enough to tolerate higher prices, then the problem is certainly not with the affiliations.
Brilliantly said. I am so glad you write and post here. I deeply appreciate your humanity.
"Get Big or Get Out" has exploded & crumbled under its own fake illusion of PMO CAFO greatness….the dead carbon rich detritis which are its remains will sprout new life.
Bacteria always eat first and last.
A new America is being born… not a pretty birth, but a necessary and honest one. Lots of pain, bleeding, groaning and moaning going on.
Perhaps its the rebirth of an old America.
Consider this statement by Thomas Jefferson, A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.
Ken Conrad
MIT study reinforces Salatin's stance on feeding the world with local foodsheds, says our current food supply – so lacking in nutrients – is the cause of the obesity problem.
and
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/hgt-bacteria-1031.html
Another MIT study; Reinforcing what Miguel has told us for some time..and suggesting that the presence of the antibiotic can trigger the exchange?
"Bacteria may readily swap beneficial genes
Microbes have developed a quick and effective way to exchange genetic information coding for antibiotic resistance, other functions."
"Much as people can exchange information instantaneously in the digital age, bacteria associated with humans and their livestock appear to freely and rapidly exchange genetic material related to human disease and antibiotic resistance through a mechanism called horizontal gene transfer (HGT).
In a paper appearing in Nature online Oct. 30, researchers led by Eric Alm of MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Department of Biological Engineering say they've found evidence of a massive network of recent gene exchange connecting bacteria from around the world: 10,000 unique genes flowing via HGT among 2,235 bacterial genomes.
HGT is an ancient method for bacteria from different lineages to acquire and share useful genetic information they didn't inherit from their parents. Scientists have long known about HGT and known that when a transferred gene confers a desirable trait, such as antibiotic resistance or pathogenicity, that gene may undergo positive selection and be passed on to a bacterium's own progeny, sometimes to the detriment of humans. (For example, the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria is a very real threat, as seen in the rise of so-called "superbugs.")
But until now, scientists didn't know just how much of this information was being exchanged, or how rapidly. The MIT team's work illustrates the vast scale and rapid speed with which genes can proliferate across bacterial lineages.
"We are finding [completely] identical genes in bacteria that are as divergent from each other as a human is to a yeast," says Alm, the Karl Van Tassel Associate Professor. "This shows that the transfer is recent; the gene hasn't had time to mutate."
"We were surprised to find that 60 percent of transfers among human-associated bacteria include a gene for antibiotic resistance," adds computational systems biology graduate student Chris Smillie, one of the lead authors of the paper.
These resistance genes might be linked to the use of antibiotics in industrial agriculture: The researchers found 42 antibiotic-resistance genes that were shared between livestock-associated and human-associated bacteria, demonstrating a crucial link connecting pools of drug resistance in human and agricultural populations.
"Somehow, even though a billion years of genome evolution separate a bacterium living on a cow and a bacterium living on a human, both are accessing the same gene library," Alm says. "It's powerful circumstantial evidence that genes are being transferred between food animals and humans."
Moreover, the team identified 43 independent cases of antibiotic-resistance genes crossing between nations. "This is a real international problem," says microbiology graduate student Mark Smith, another lead author of the study. "Once a trait enters the human-associated gene pool, it spreads quickly without regard for national borders."
The practice of adding prophylactic antibiotics to animal feed to promote growth and prevent the spread of disease in densely housed herds and flocks is widespread in the United States, but has been banned in many European countries. According to the Federal Drug Administration, more than 80 percent of the 33 million pounds of antibiotics sold in the United States in 2009 was for agricultural use, and 90 percent of that was administered subtherapeutically through food and water. This includes antibiotics such as penicillins and tetracyclines commonly used to treat human illness.
The MIT researchers found that HGT occurs more frequently among bacteria that occupy the same body site, share the same oxygen tolerance or have the same pathogenicity, leading them to conclude that ecology or environmental niche is more important than either lineage or geographical proximity in determining if a transferred gene will be incorporated into a bacterium's DNA and passed on to its descendants.
"This gives us a rulebook for understanding the forces that govern gene exchange," Alm says.
The team applied these rules to find genes associated with the ability to cause meningitis and other diseases, with the hope that transferred traits and the genes encoding those traits might make especially promising targets for future drug therapies.
"This is a very interesting piece of work that really shows how the increasing databases of complete genome sequences, together with detailed environmental information, can be used to discover large-scale evolutionary patterns," says Rob Knight, associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who says he agrees with the authors' findings. "The availability of vast datasets with excellent environmental characterization will give us an unprecedented view of microbes across the planet."
Continuing the work, the researchers are now comparing rates of exchange among bacteria living in separate sites on the same person and among bacteria living on or in people with the same disease. They're also studying an environmentally contaminated site to see which swapped genes might facilitate microbial cleanup by metal-reducing bacteria.
Other co-authors of the Nature paper are graduate student Jonathan Friedman, postdoc Otto Cordero and former graduate student Lawrence David, now at Harvard University.
The work is part of the National Institutes of Health's Human Microbiome Project. It was funded by the Department of Energy's ENIGMA Scientific Focus Area and the National Science Foundation."
We are BACTERIOSAPIENS. Raw milk is the great carrier of inner ecosystem biodiversity….the very basis of immune strength for humans.
"nuthin to it!"
thank you!
-blair
Mark,
I found this article difficult to read and interpret, but what I interpreted was damning evidence for Big Ag's existence. Scientists fall short of challenging their financial support. But they know what is going on, and so do we. I called one of the CU microbiologists involved in this study, and he has not returned my call yet. He graduated from the same university I did. His website presents compelling science in our favor. But scientists withhold any bold statements that might retract Monsanto et al. They are owned.
But still, we got the goods.and I think if we think, we can make a clear cogent case. Michael's life depends on us.
-Blair.
-Blair
Blair
I was not able to open the second article you referenced.
Antibiotic resistant genes are used as makers in GM products and represent a destructive disruptive assault on the environment and our ecosystem through HGT (horizontal gene transfer). Monsanto and its scientists including those who withhold any bold statements are thus engaged in a heinous crime against humanity.
Joseph
Those are the type of videos one is compelled to share with the whole family.
Thanks.
Ken Conrad
In Dec 2008, I submitted a legal Citizens Petition to the FDA requesting an amendment to CFR 1240.61 to allow the people of Nevada to get CA retail raw milk delivered to them. The FDA regs state that a response is due from them in 180 days. CFR 1240.61 is not a law voted by congress. It is an internal FDA policy voted inside the dark back rooms of the revolving doors that process our food to death. It can be reversed just as easily.
Instead the FDA ignored the 6 inch thick Citizens Petition
The petition said very nicely, Tear Down the Wall . Please Tear Down the Wall that divides Moms from the food that feeds their families. Tear down the walll that divides people from their food.
Today, Moms drove through that FDA Wall You have your answer FDA. Moms will eat you alive!!!!
Raw milk and Cookies …..an American revolution.
Here's the link to the 2nd article:
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/hgt-bacteria-1031.html
Appears it has been changed.
I agree – it is a heinous crime.
-Blair
Ask anyone on the street what the USDA stamp on the carton of eggs means. Everyone I have asked says that they have inspected them and they are safe to consume. Wrong – they are the size indicated on the box.
The average person has been hoodwinked completely be cause the governement taught them what they know. "Abraham Lincoln I believe said that the philosophies taught in the schoolhouse today will be the philosophies of the government tomorrow." Why are we so surprised at this?
I rambled sorry, Thank you all for fighting for when I am ready to sell my milk 😉
http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/Product-SpecificInformation/MilkSafety/ucm277854.htm
"However, in light of concerns that have been raised about potential FDA actions, we want to remind the public that FDA does not regulate the intrastate sale or distribution of raw milk. Whether to permit the sale and distribution of raw milk within a state is for the state to decide.
With respect to the interstate sale and distribution of raw milk, the FDA has never taken, nor does it intend to take, enforcement action against an individual who purchased and transported raw milk across state lines solely for his or her own personal consumption."
"Those supporters were out in force today at the FDA headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, urging FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg to cease federal efforts to ban the trafficking in raw milk sales across state lines."
See the whole story here:
http://www.agweb.com/livestock/dairy/article/nmpf_urges_food_and_drug_administration_to_defend_laws_against_raw_milk_sales/
I really enjoyed this comment:
Many diseases are not preventable, but where there is a clear and effective prevention against milk-transmitted foodborne illness, why would we allow the myths and untruths to remove that protection? Kozak asked.
Tell that to the people that were sickened or KILLED by pasteurized milk; don't worry it was an effective prevention!
We have accepted the state of affairs wherein we are governed by whim.
We elect an entire House of Congress every two years, a President every fourth, Senators for six year terms and the present result is-
A nation founded on very different principles is now governed by federal whim.
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
They lose when raw milk goes direct from Farmer to Consumer. …..think big $$$$$$$
Todays Raw Milk Freedom Riders Rally in front of the FDA sent a huge message!! Great event!! I am sure David will cover it well
Congrats to Liz and the moms!!
Mark do you by chance happen to know the approximate percentage of those that now consumer raw milk nationwide? The "under 1%" citation by the FDA I believe is way too low & makes me think that they don't want to really acknowledge it.
I learned a very interesting thing recently that I think is not well known by everyone. Apparently, most laws are no longer made by Congress and that they are now done by those that are within the federal agencies, but these people are not elected. Evidently they have been given too much power with no checks in place of what they do. I guess this is very evident to how those agencies got away with what was done to Rawsome Foods. Another example is what happened to the farm that had a private event that received a disturbing interruption by another official that really did not have any authority to do what they did to them. This is getting more & more scary. Within my own backyard, we are now having another problem with those who want to put our organic farm, Be Wise, out of business with false allegations!
Based on the CDC's own survey, the average number of people drinking raw milk in this 2006-2007 sampling was 3.0% of the population, ranging from 2.3% in Minnesota to 3.8% in Georgia.
No login is necessary.
This is more than raw milk…this is about OUR CHOICE to put in our bodies what we choose!
Who owns your body?
http://www.dairyherd.com/dairy-news/NMPF-urges-FDA-to-defend-laws-against-raw-milk-sales-133021288.html?ref=288
nancy