When large government agencies like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration want to make controversial policy changes, they often use the major media to launch trial balloons to see how different options play with key constituencies.
That helps explain why both the New York Times and Washington Post came out Saturday with major articles about the FDA’s coming clampdown on raw milk cheese, and its likely trashing of the 60-day rule–the minimum aging of raw milk cheese for commercial sale. This is something I’ve been anticipating for a year now, and the day of the actual restrictions is drawing ever closer—likely within the next few months, according to the FDA’s friends at the major media.
If you read the two articles carefully, though, you find that while they parrot the FDA’s fearmongering, they say nary a word about the real research question that needs to be asked before changing the rule. Before I get to that, here are a few statements from the Washington Post article that give you the underlying FDA pitch:
“The FDA sees greater food-safety risks when food is made on a farm…”
“But because cheese made from raw milk is not heated, regulators worry that the lack of a ‘kill step’ means greater risk of contamination from pathogens that can cause illness.”
“As part of its new emphasis on cheese safety, the FDA is reexamining its rules on raw-milk cheese and is likely to propose changes within the next several months…”
And this from The New York Times article: “The F.D.A. has not tipped its hand, but some in the industry fear that raw milk cheese could be banned altogether or that some types of cheese deemed to pose a higher safety risk could no longer be made with raw milk. Others say they believe the aging period may be extended, perhaps to 90 days. That could make it difficult or impossible for cheesemakers to continue using raw milk for some popular cheese styles, like blue cheese or taleggio-type cheeses, that may not lend themselves to such lengthy aging.”
And like the bloated tackler who jumps onto the pile of football players after the tackle has been made, product liability lawyer is chirping that it’s his research that prompted the media to go after the 60-day aging rule. (It’s dispassionate and thorough research I wrote previously about that reflects well on raw milk cheese…until it’s used for promotional purposes and to curry favor with media and regulators.)
Regardless of who did what to whom, let’s return to the heart of the matter–the underlying question that the FDA, the Washington Post, the New York, Times, and Bill Marler don’t want to deal with. All the reports discuss the fact that there were a handful of illnesses attributed to raw milk cheese in 2010 (54 if I added the Marler report’s table correctly).
But what about before 2010? Complete silence…and for good reason.
I went through the data, in the form of the famous notarized compilation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on illnesses from raw dairy products over 33 years from 1973-2005. I found four outbreaks with a total of 67 illnesses from raw milk cheese over 33 years. I’m not a mathemetician, but I can tell you that that works out to an average of two illnesses a year, as in 1 + 1= 2.
In the interests of complete transparency, I will report as well that there are 119 illnesses from raw milk queso fresco cheese over that same period; I haven’t included those in the total of 67 because these cheeses aren’t produced with the intention of being aged 60 days under FDA rules.
But if the anti-raw-milk rabids insisted on including queso fresca, because they are so desperate for evidence to support their crusade, then the total works out to 186 illnesses from raw milk cheese over 33 years; then the average would be less than six per year.
I didn’t have a chance to explore the years 2006-2010, but I’d love to see that data. Do the germophobes have the guts to do that, and assess all the data?
In the meantime, what seems to have occurred is that there was a jump in reported illnesses in 2010 to 54 from what had been an average of two over a 33-year period. The anti-raw-milk crowd jumps on one year and ignores 33 years of history. Not quite kosher, guys, and gals.
Moreover, we know there is much more consumption of raw milk cheeses than straight raw dairy, simply because the cheese can and is sold legally at retail around the country. So what we’re seeing is many fewer illnesses from raw milk cheese than from raw dairy, which isn’t alarming to begin with (an average of 49 per year).
But there seems to be no stopping the FDA and its apologists. This is like an agenda item at the North Korean communist party meeting about whether to blame the western nations for its food shortages. No doubt about who’s in charge and what gets passed. We just do a much more clever job of disguising our intentions.
What I do know is this. Under the PMO, the raw milk that is allowed for raw cheese is class 4 manufacturing and can come from Grade B dairies. It is the lowest quality raw milk in America by standard and definition. It is one step from being dumped.
This is the quality of raw milk that is supposed to make raw cheese. This is what I consider pre engineered failure.
At OPDC we use ultra high quality beyond Grade A Human Consumption raw milk to make our truly raw cheeses. This is where the FDA must tread if progress is going to be fairly made. Lastly, calling a thermalized cheese a raw cheese is mislabeling and misbranding. It is cheating and lying and stealing from both artisanal farmers and conscious consumers.
The lies covered up and permitted inside the NCIMS must stop!!
Mark
David, thanks for the tip-o-pen, although you can not help but be a bit snarky can you? My point on my post was not to pile on (bloated or not), but to point out that, like you, the NYT and WaPo were kind enough to read what I wrote BEFORE they wrote the stories. The WaPo writer was kind enough to call and talk about it for an hour You and the NYT did what you did. For those interested in downloading it directly:
http://www.marlerblog.com/uploads/image/cheese%20piece%20Final%20updated%2012_18_10.pdf
Well, off to watch the Super Bowl – Go Cheese heads!
"Since April, the agency has inspected 120 cheesemaking firms, large and small, and found that one-quarter were contaminated with listeria monocytogenes, bacteria that can cause serious illness in the elderly, children, pregnant women or those with compromised immune systems. The agency did not report whether the contamination was more common among the artisanal operations. "
Why not?
How many small plants had contamination??? How many were raw milk cheese plants? Were any? Guilt by association.
And some wonder why we have NO faith in the liars at FDA that allow/promote synthetic poisons of every sort, from hormones, to pesticides, to drugs that permeate every facet of our food supply so the giant corporations they serve can make $$$$.
Enough to make us sick. And it does.
Mark
"Consider that 90 percent of soil microorganisms are typically dormant and only half of bacterial species are active. Lennon and his co-author, Stuart Jones at the University of Notre Dame, theorize that dormancy and the presence of such large reservoirs of microbial seed banks have important implications for biodiversity and the stability and functioning of ecosystem services.
The idea of a microbial seed bank is a rather novel concept, but from our research we found that dormancy and seed banks are prevalent in most ecosystems. Lennon said. Whats fascinating is that theres only a small fraction that are active, which means theres a large reservoir that could potentially be activated at any given time.
Dormancy and the seed bank effect make microbes more resilient and could play key roles in microbial biodiversity as species migrate or simply remain mostly dormant over extended periods, he added. Dormancy could also help explain the sudden outbreak of diseases, he said, perhaps sparked by some change in the environment.
One-third of worlds population carries dormant tuberculosis microbes, he said. Obviously, you can live a long time with the dormant cell in your body, but its important to understand what can trigger its reanimation or what maintains its dormancy.
" Dormancy could also help explain the sudden outbreak of diseases, he said, perhaps sparked by some change in the environment."
They are telling us that the seeds of microbes can lie dormant inside our digestive system waiting for the right conditions to revive and proliferate.Again it is the environment that determines which micro organisms are active or dormant.If the environment determines that a microbe is dormant,ingesting an active microbe of that type would likely result in that new part of the ecosystem also becoming dormant.If the system changes so that the ingested microbe remains active,the dormant microbes already present would also likely become active .Is a disease outbreak caused by ingesting a microbe or by some unknown factor that results in a change in the digestive system?
Read the whole paper.
http://news.msu.edu/media/documents/2011/01/a80196f8-838f-49fe-a326-31feeb5bf99f.pdf
ONWARD TO LEGAL RAW MILK IN AMERICA'S DAIRY LAND!!!
THE PMO IS ON ITS DEATH BEAD. WISCONSIN WILL DELIVER THE LAST BLOW TO THIS ARTIFACT OF A BYGONE ERA!!!
LET THE FDA MINIONS COME HERE AND TRY TO STOP US FROM MAKING RAW MILK CHEESE. WE HAVE ONLY BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!!
When you think about the number of antibiotics that we in the western world have taken over the past decades, vs our piddly little immune restoration efforts, like doctors telling you to "eat yogurt".
Don't get me wrong, it's great they have finally understood the importance of restoring beneficials. But really, do they think that four or five strains that are artificially loaded into commercial yogurts will restore the body after the mass genocide that has taken place?
I think those of us who have access to raw milk may be getting hundreds of bacs restored, compared to other folks, but the article you found really shows us that even we are probably only getting back a fraction of what was lost.
There was a news story on NPR several months ago about a guy who had a disease that modern meds could not help with – I think it was irritable bowel syndrome, but I can't remember. He had heard about a study that found hookworms in the body could relieve his symptoms. He wanted to experiment on himself but could not find a source to supply him with hookworms. So he went to Africa, found a village with a primitive toilet area, and walked in it barefoot in order to infect himself.
He did get hookworm and his symptoms were relieved.
But Miguel's article makes it clear that the hookworm is likely only a piece – how many beneficial bacteria did he potentially pick up that may have played a role?
Science has only just spotted the top of this iceberg. Adding the variable of dormancy to equation means the potential that we will ever actually sort out all the possible interactions is practically nil. We might finally reach some understanding when we are advance enough to see what's at the edge of the universe.
The above article refers to bacterias ability to carry a resistant gene along with its ability to horizontally transfer such resistance to other bacteria, a resistance by the way, which has apparently been acquired as a result of the use of antibiotics?
Perhaps the FDA and its minions aught to consider the effects of endorsing the release and use of GMOs along with the antibiotic resistant marker genes that are commonly transcribed into all such organisms?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110105194838.htm
It has also been recently discovered that bacteria have a second defense strategy known as persistence.
From the second article above it states, Persister' bacterial cells are temporarily hyper-resistant to all antibiotics at once. They are able to survive (normally) lethal levels of antibiotics without being genetically resistant to the drug. These cells are a significant cause of treatment failure yet the mechanism behind the persistence phenomenon is still unclear.
I find all of the above including Migels references on dormancy very fascinating, yet such info merely reinforces my belief that we are playing a very silly and dangerous game if we think we can win this declared war on organisms. There is a purpose in all of this however in that it will nurture humility and respect for all that God has created.
Ken Conrad
Good points about GMO's, Ken.
Bills pic of the fish last week was great. Here's one that depicts the FDA and their GMO science:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_scientist
Enough to make us sick. And it does.
Mark
This guy is such a nutcase. Mark, you are such a nutcase. It's a wonder you are not writing from a mental institution.
you want to see insanity writ large? Take a hard look at what importation of Milk Protein Concentrate has done to the food supply system of Ham-merica. A de-natured, de-vitalized white powder = the base for wood glue = brought in completely without inspection, folded-in and passed off as "milk ingredients" into everything you can think of.
And that's OK with the FDA.
well, it's not OK with informed consumers. The worse it gets with what industrial-ized agriculture presents as the image of food, the greater the demand for the real thing, from people who know the difference. And the higher the price they'll pay for what they want
Dont mess with my brother!
It is understandable that you are frustrated. Your microbiological world view conflicts with Marks. And you would love to see him trip and fall so you could reestablish yourself and your view. That is only human nature so we all understand the tendency.
Since he is not tripping, but rather is sprinting ahead despite your dire predictions, and he has thousands of happy moms who carry him along, you call him a nut case. This also is human nature so we understand that too.
Anyone who is familiar with history is not surprised either. This is exactly the tactic used by the established astronomers when Galileos discovery of the moons of Jupiter blew all their long cherished science. Hes a nut case, put him in an institution. They actually tortured him till he said what he saw was wrong.
Its exactly the response of the British Doctors and Navy officers when Dr James Lind discovered the cure for scurvy in 1747citrus fruit. Other doctors and educated men of the day laughed him to scorn. The very idea that something as terrible, mysterious and deadly as scurvy could cured by a food!
So the British sailors continued to die at a terrific rate for almost another 50 years. (More died from scurvy than from battle) It wasnt till 1795, after the death of Dr. Lind, that the British navy finally, grudgingly, included citrus fruit into the diet of their sailors and scurvy promptly disappeared.
It took the British 50 years to admit they were wrong, but it wasn't a conspiracy. It was the inability to take the blinders off…or, even to know that blinders were on.
The following quote from Leo Tolstoy is one of my all-time favorites. I think it has applications.
"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives."
Im sure this will frustrate you too. Just put me in a cell beside Mark and give me 100% certified organic raw milk from grass fed cows and kefir made from the same every day for a punishment.
Think about it!
Edwin Shank
Have to comment on these comments from the Washington Post:
"There's no question there are more challenges," Kraemer said. "The employees are the same ones who are milking the cows. Ensuring there is a separation from inherently dirty operations is a challenge."
So inherently dirty operations are commanding upwards of $27.00 per pound for raw cheese. . . . Bravo!!!!
Follow the money. TFCLDF ~ hope you guys really take the FDA down for this . . . . dirty cheesemakers indeed.
Now, if artisans are commanding and getting the price quoted above . . . . please tell me how they are getting anyone sick. Come on . . . . let us hear from the regulators what farms from the above price bracket quoted are they targeting. . . .
I think those raw cheeses are being served at the finest restaurants in the US. I think you need to get these top chefs downright mad.
Back to skirting my Icelandic fleeces and planning my gardens next year . . . .
Kind regards,
Violet
http://www.kilbyridgefarmmaine.blogspot.com
Water off a ducks back….all background noise. It kind of affirms that we are on the right track.
I am meeting Jamie Oliver this weekend in LA. He is one of our wonderful customers. Can not wait to connect and share our experiences. We share much of the same vision.
Focus on all positive things, flavor, safety, the pastures, the cows, the consumers. There will always be the dark side.
http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution
The negatives will continue to mount….and get even crazier as we become more and more loved and appreciated by those that really do matter.
Mark
http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution
Mark
I have to post this again.
The FDA is a unifomed and commissioned branch of military government. This completely explains why the FDA is the "Second Secret Service" they rule in secrecy and are unresponsive to Citizens Petitions or other democratic processes. The determinations and edicts they profess do not match the peoples will and most importantly do not have rational science behind them.
Enough to make us sick. And it does.
Mark
I bet the Bolsheviks or the Maoist said the same types of things before they took over. And someone came up with leeches to cure illness, Anderson. Way to throw interceptions.
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/sci_update.php?DocID=133
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-07-07-leeches-maggots_x.htm
The maggot serves a very useful purpose yet without the fly the maggot would cease to exist and likewise without bacteria the maggot (depending on the species) would have no reason to exist.
As of 2008, maggot therapy was being used in around 1000 medical centers in Europe and over 800 medical centers in the United States. The therapy takes advantage of a specific maggots (blow fliy) ravenous appetite for dead tissue, while leaving the live tissue alone. The process also results in the excretion of powerful antimicrobial like substances that disinfect the wound as well as secretions that appear to amplify wound healing. Yet despite these amazing qualities and its excellent track record for healing wounds, current medical protocol requires maggots be sterilized for therapeutic use, clearly, a reflection of germaphobic insanity.
After having amputated 11/4 inches of the end of my thumb several years ago I had a stream of doctors and nurses attempt to convince me to receive antibiotics and a tetanus shot. My stubborn resolve prevailed and the wound healed without incident.
Ken Conrad
Actually, Mark didn't write that… he merely agreed with it.
"I bet the Bolsheviks or the Maoist said the same types of things before they took over. And someone came up with leeches to cure illness, Anderson."
Well, the more YOU write, the more you expose your own ignorance of science and medicine. As Sylvia points out, even hospitals are using leeches and maggots once again to cleanse dead and dying flesh from wounds so that they heal faster, in fact for the last two decades or more. Look it up for yourself before you expose your own ignorance.
And pig hookworms are being used to heal chronic IBS and Crohn's; pig is used because it's not endemic to humans… the worms live long enough to stimulate the immune system to start working, then die because it's not their environment. This subject has been brought up here at least once. Look it up for yourself.
What goes around, comes around… we're finally returning to the wealth of knowledge earned by generations of experience. Pharmaceutical companies send employees into the Amazon jungle to discover what they shamans and witch doctors know about healing, so they can take it back to their labs, strip it down to individual components and make artificial versions in the hopes of making many more billions. Look it up for yourself.
The fact is, our society is sterilizing itself with its total abject fear of germs and disease when it grovels to Big Pharma and their cohorts in the FDA and other branches in our government. Why do you think Monsanto's products are gaining approval even as I type? Because they have "ex-employees" everywhere, in all the major branches of government, including the US Supreme Court. If Monsanto does it, so will Big Pharma… and just about every other Big Whatever that makes billions of dollars every year.
Look it up for yourself, if you don't believe me.
An article for the enlightenment of JOHN DOE. Do we have more to fear from these good folks than "madman" Mark and his pure unadulterate uncooked real food YUMMY raw dairy??? Who has the better track record over the last 10 years Mark or the folks that Dr Barbra Starfield reports on??? JOHN DOE HMMM I think some us could come up with a guess as to your real name but to protect your ID and privacy will refrain from doing so. Hope you find the article linked helpful. Enjoy.
" Dormancy could also help explain the sudden outbreak of diseases, he said, perhaps sparked by some change in the environment."
If you've had chicken pox, the virus is dormant in nerve tissue of the spine. When it is triggered it becomes shingles. What triggers it? In the younger than 60 patients it appears that high stress levels may be a factor. Chronic stress changes the environment of the body-leading to many illnesses. Why does it happen in some and not others?
Educating the public on how and where the processed foods originate and how they are processed is a big key if changing consumers knowledge. Most haven't a clue how powered milk is processed or where it comes from or what it is in.
I do not know your name so I can not address you properly…sorry about that.
From an outsiders perspective, it would sure seem that what I posted are words of a lunatic. Please let me explain so you know where each and every quote and thought came from.
When I attended the NCIMS conference in 2008 ( Pete Kennedy and David Gumpert were there at the NCIMS and can verify that everything I have said is true ), I saw the FDA in military uniforms and stood arround like military officers. That is because they are commissioned as military officers. White hats, epalets, rank medals, blackshoes and all.
Not one action at the NCIMS went forward with out a nod from a uniformed and ranked FDA officer. Not one…they held the final say and run it as a military dictatorship. The NCIMS is the private organization that rules over the PMO and all the rules of pasteurization and etc for the USA. It is not a democratic organization. It is ruled over….by the FDA dressed in full military regalia.
The FDA cancelled my Raw Milk presentation to the NCIMS Scientific Committee that had been scheduled for six months and was on the agenda. My presentation was cancelled with five minutes notice. I had to wait four days in an expensive hotel to get my next chance to speak to the NCIMS costing me $1800 dollars. They only use expensive hotels. During that time, the FDA refused to speak to me, even though I am a NCIMS member at OPDC. It was as if I was carrying some kind of disease. I guess they thought I had "raw milk fever"…..not sure.
The FDA is a "Secret Service" to corporations because they operate to protect corporate interests and they do this in secret. In this last weeks national news stories about the FDA and Raw Cheeses, the FDA said that they did not expect the artisal producers to look like Kraft Cheese or be as safe. These are the words of a corrupt and bought off agency that operates in secrecy and for the advantage of the corporations that they represent. The food safety of artisnal cheeses have been very very safe. Yet this attack on raw cheeses does not even address, the origins of the milk or that many raw cheeses are not even raw and have been thermalized. The FDA data is twisted, commingled and not even correct. They will act with out hearings or debate….they act by edict.
I have tried several times to get an appointment with the FDA to ask about the progress on the Officially Submitted Citizens Petition that was submitted more than 2 years ago. They have failed to respond to any of the letters or my requests. They are required by law to respond to the Citizens Petition with in 180 days. That was 1.5 years ago. Now the FTCLDF is suing on this very issue that is the topic of my Citizens Petition and the FDA is squirming becuase a beam of light is about the cast on them in their dark FOOD Inc place.
The FDA operates secretly and does not hold hearings in open to debate anything. They rely on their scientists that come from Kraft and Deans foods. See Food Inc….
Not one of my claims are words of a commi-lunatic…they are carefully chosen words to describe a criminal organization. But I will agree that my words are dangerous…because they are true and they represent the core beliefs of grass roots moms that "get it" . These moms are now acting to change the FDA by "Dollar Voting" and bankrupting the FDA bed fellows at Deans and LandOLakes and Kraft foods.
Mr. Troll or whoever you are….I hope this brings some light into the dark place you sleep in.
Mark
You have told us before that you can work with the FDA and they will eventually see the light . . . . how can you keep saying this after your last post?
Enough double speak from you . . . . from here on out any comments on how you can work with regulators etc. you will be called out by me.
I am also curious as to why there are no small artisanal quality raw dairies in California. It is only OP and one other. Here in my very rural part of the country I can choose from two . . . a raw jersey dairy that only milks a few cows and a mid size organic dairy that milks mainly holsteins .
Kind regards,
Violet
http://www.kilbyridgefarmmaine.blogspot.com
And supposedly educated scientists today still insist that an all-meat diet will cause scurvy, when Vilhalmur Stefansson's practical expedition experience and year-long experiment at Bellevue nearly a hundred years ago proved otherwise.
There are many reasons why people will refuse to believe something when the evidence is right before them. Usually they boil down to pride and/or money.