For the first time in a long time, I spent a week pretty much away from the Internet (okay, there were a few 15-20-minute spells to monitor some urgent business, but it sure felt as if I was away from it).
In reading over email from the last week, it looks as if the California campaign to overturn the October legislation on coliform standards has bogged down—or at least is experiencing some dissension—over which law firm to engage to challenge the legislation, or even whether to file a suit. As a couple of readers point out, there is also news out of Kansas about 87 people becoming ill from raw milk and, as usual, no comment included from the accused dairies. I’ll try to find out more about these matters, and if anyone has info, feel free to share it.
I thought the survey several readers referred to in my previous post, about sustainable farming and buying local, was extremely interesting—another indication of the passionate interest in nutritious food. It looked to me as if the affirmation of government involvement may relate to the simultaneous concern about food from China—as in, it would be nice if our government really did protect us from dangerous food from that part of the world.
I spent last week in the Dominican Republic, with my family, celebrating a major birthday. What kind of holiday would it be if food and health issues weren’t lurking in the background?
We gathered in the Dominican Republic because it offered a warm winter destination and an activity everyone in my family could share enthusiastically—baseball. It’s winter league time there, so we stayed near a Dominican winter league town, la Romana (a seaside city of about 500,000 people), home of the Toros.
On two nights, we hired a cab, and headed for the old ball park—akin to a minor league park in the U.S. Much of the game is a throw-back to old times in the U.S.—players run out ground balls and the whole team greets an outfielder who throws a runner out at the plate.
Each of the evenings we attended was “Ladies Night”, with free admission for all women—when was the last time a U.S. major league team had one of those?
Beers were $2.25, and the vendors kept a tab if you didn’t have the right change.
The food thing got a little dicey when we moved beyond beer, though. Pop corn? Well, that was provided by a vendor carrying a yellow trash-can-full of the stuff, and shoveling it into small paper bags as people bought. The peanuts were already shelled, and had been placed into small plastic bags hand-taped shut. Soda was poured into plastic cups filled with ice that was first scooped by hand from a bin.
I had some beer, but decided to skip the popcorn, peanuts, and soda (aside from the fact I’m not a soda person to begin with). Much as I wanted to see whether my raw-milk-fortified gut could fend off whatever might be in the popcorn or peanuts, I decided that a long-planned family vacation wasn’t the place I wanted to play risk-and-dare.
Another interesting custom: along about the fourth inning of the game, large plastic bags full of empty soda bottles circulated among the fans. Isn’t that great, I thought, they’re into recycling here. Turns out, I had the situation backwards. The recycled bottles were being passed out to the fans, not collected, so they could bang them on seats as noisemakers to encourage the Toros. (The little girl in the photo is doing her thing.)
A fun time was had by all, and maybe next time I’ll try my luck with the open-bin food.
Scooping ice with hands…I just read on a food blog about testing done in the Chicago area of ice contaminated (from various Restaurants) and served to people. A high school kid in Tampa did a science project on the ice at fast food places and they too were contaminated.
Glad you had a great vacation.
Does anyone know what the status is on the "battle" for our right to eat/drink what we choose?
AB 1735 ACTION ALERT
The Final Push
NEXT STEP :
Get Serious with the Secretary of Agriculture
——————————————————————————–
As a direct result of your actions last week, we now have the support of all key assembly representatives to overturn AB 1735.
However, your assemblymen have expressed concern that we do not have the support of the California Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. A.G. Kawamura.
He appears to be the last raw milk challenge standing.
It is critical that we create an avalanche of political pressure like last week, only stronger in message (see below). Please focus all of your efforts on A.G. Kawamura.
Contact the CA Secretary of Agriculture immediately!
Please call him today and send out as many letters and faxes as possible.
A.G. Kawamura
Secretary of Food and Agriculture
1220 N St., Suite 400
Sacramento, Ca. 95814
Phone: (916) 654-0321 or (916) 654-0433
Fax: 916-654-0403
The message to him should be very strong, yet respectful. The talking points we suggest may sound harsh but they reflect the truth (see "Background" below). The Secretary needs to know what has happened on his watch:
Certain corrupt staff members within CDFA have personal prejudice against raw milk. They have participated and conspired in an illegal, secret, and silent process to deny California consumers their access to raw milk.
Demand that the Ag Secretary use his power to immediately suspend or reverse AB 1735 and the "less-than-10 coliform" standard for raw milk in California.
Demand that the CDFA staff who misrepresented raw milk science and snuck the groundless coliform standard into AB 1735 be dismissed immediately.
Background:
We have discovered that certain staff members in CDFA actually committed crimes by "introducing negative language into a bill which would be applied to an industry which it regulates." This is outrageous illegal activity; it defies written administrative policy and must not be tolerated within CDFA. The normal legal process requires CDFA to bring any legislative language to the attention of the governors office prior to contacting an assembly committee. CDFA misrepresented facts, claiming AB 1735 was so insignificant that it could be handled as a consent item and did not require discussion or debate. Other substantial and material misstatements of fact also occurred to keep AB 1735 secret and silent.
This is the big event we have all been working towards. It may be the last effort needed to overcome AB 1735. Please call today and send your letters.
A note from your friends at Organic Pastures
Q. Will Organic Pastures Dairy Company be going out of business in Jan. 2008?
A. HEAVENS, NO – We are growing!
Please rest 100% assured, dear customers, that Organic Pastures Grass-Fed Organic Raw Milk will be sold throughout California after January, 2008. We are adding more organic cows and even building a new creamery!
We are also expanding our marketing and education efforts to better serve you. OPDC has pioneered grass fed raw milk for the 21st century and we intend to continue building a world of happy and healthy people.
All the best, the OPDC team.
And one wonders why the people dont trust their governments.
PS the notion that it will be impossible to tell who put this in the bill is even scarier than not having access to raw milk. They must be found out and dismissed!