Us vs Them, will Cargill, Monsanto, USDA et al prevail?
Today I got a letter from our insurance company reminding us that our policy is about to need annual renewal. My heart sunk. We have a great agent, a comprehensive, low-cost policy and peace of mind. In the past year, I’ve gotten some frantic calls from other raw milk farmers desperate to find insurance coverage. They say that the federal government has been pressuring insurance companies to no longer cover raw milk farms. About six months ago, I went to add a piece of equipment onto our policy. At the end of the conversation, the agent said “You sell raw milk over there, right?” Oh no! Well, when our policy comes due in October we are going to have to pay for a special “rider” to cover our raw milk. We don’t yet know how much (nor did my agent) this will cost us. From what I hear from other farmers, this type of “rider” is kind of like Andre the Giant “riding” a mini donkey, designed to crush our ability to do business. This has nothing to do with risk, nothing to do with an increase in claims! The US Centers for Disease Control statistics prove that raw milk is just as safe, even safer than other foods! I am weary of this war on personal freedoms and small farms. We are not forcing anyone to drink our milk. People are clamoring for it. I hope the war the feds and agribusiness is waging against raw milk is because they have reason to feel threatened. Maybe enough people are learning what food really is and is not in significant enough numbers for the “dark side” to be concerned. Thank you to The Atlantic for this…
The Latest Raw Milk Raid: An Attack on Food Freedom?
AUG 15 2011, 2:47 PM ET7
Federal agents organize a sting operation against a tiny raw milk buying club—and ignore more serious food-safety crimes
August 3 was a telling day for food freedom in America, but the events were framed in terms of food safety. In Venice, California, the Rawesome raw food club was raided by armed federal and county agents who arrested a club volunteer and seized computers, files, cash, and $70,000 worth of perishable produce. James Stewart, 64, was charged on 13 counts, 12 of them related to the processing and sale of unpasteurized milk to club members. The other count involved unwashed, room-temperature eggs—a storage method Rawesome members prefer. The agents dumped gallons of raw milk and filled a large flatbed with seized food, including coconuts, watermelons, and frozen buffalo meat.
That same morning, leaders at the multinational conglomerate Cargill were calculating how best to deal with a deadly outbreak of drug-resistant Salmonella that originated in a Cargill-owned turkey factory.
When word of the raw milk crackdown got out, a bevy of high-profile lawyers offered to represent the raw foodies pro bono, says Rawesome member Lela Buttery, 29. Christopher Darden, who helped prosecute O.J. Simpson, appeared at Stewart’s arraignment just in time to lower his bail from the $121,000 that prosecutors had recommended to $30,000, and to strike a rarely used clause that would have prevented Stewart from employing a bail bondsman.
Buttery told me the mood in the courtroom was almost comical when Stewart’s initial $121,000 bail was announced. “We’d been watching child molesters and wife-beaters get half that amount. James is accused of things like processing milk without pasteurization and gets such a high bail amount … the felons in court burst out laughing.”
Rawesome began 12 years ago as a small group of raw-milk drinkers who occasionally pooled their money and bought unpasteurized milk from local dairies. As more and more people joined, the club’s distribution facilities grew from a cooler in a parking lot to a rented storage space to the current warehouse. The inventory diversified, but the presentation remained minimal: food in piles, haphazardly labeled, as agreed on by club members.
Rawesome members sign a form attesting that “as a member of this private members-only club, I demand access to food that is 1) produced without exposure to chemical contaminants such as industrialized pesticides, fertilizers, cleansers or their gases; 2) complete with its natural unadulterated enzymes intact; 3) may contain microbes, including but not limited to salmonella, E. coli, campylobacter, listeria, gangrene and parasites; 4) the cows are grass-fed and the goats are pastured on a regular basis; 5) fowl are regularly given the opportunity to range outdoors and not fed soy products; and 6) eggs are unwashed and may have bacteria and poultry feces on them.”
The August 3 raid was not Rawesome’s first. A June 2010 raid resulted in seizures of cash, computers, and other equipment that has yet to be returned, Buttery says. It also resulted in Rawesome’s agreement not to distribute raw milk from Santa Paula-based Healthy Family Farms, which had been supplying it to Rawesome.
With the prohibition against selling to Rawesome, Healthy Family Farms owner Sharon Palmer, 51, disbanded her dairy herd. Palmer and her employee Victoria Bloch, 58, were also arrested August 3 on charges related to marketing chicken products, one count of which involved Rawesome’s unwashed, room temperature eggs.
California is one of the few states that allow the sale of raw milk, but only from dairies permitted by the state. Until August 3 Rawesome had been obtaining raw milk from a variety of sources. Buttery says many club members object to the Holstein breed used by the one certified raw-milk label in California: Organic Pastures. They prefer milk from heirloom cattle varieties that contain different proteins. And many members prefer the milk of goats, sheep, or even camels. It’s safe to say that uncertified raw milk was being spilt at Rawesome, which would indeed be illegal. But since the general public can’t just walk in and buy raw camel milk, Rawesome members believe there’s nothing wrong with a private club of consenting adults obtaining unpasteurized raw milk together.
Later that day, as Stewart, Palmer, and Bloch languished in jail, Cargill issued its voluntary recall, four months after people began getting sick, of 36 million pounds of ground turkey traceable to an Arkansas plant. Cargill has a history of deadly outbreaks, is a major supplier to the nation’s public-school meal programs, and sells turkey under dozens of brand names, none of which include the word “Cargill.”
The labels at Rawesome don’t say much either, but records in the club’s office sourced each batch of raw milk. This information, before it was seized, was available to members. If a contamination issue were to have flared up, members contend, it could have been much more quickly traced than, say, that Cargill turkey. Buttery says that in 12 years there hasn’t been a reported problem.
Despite a lack of victims, Rawesome stands accused. And while Cargill has no shortage of victims, nobody at the company has been charged with a crime over the turkey recall. The government has fewer options against multinational corporations than it does against neighborhood food co-ops. USDA oversees the safety of meat products but can only encourage “voluntary recalls” of products that have been infected with antibiotic-resistant pathogens, reports Tom Philpott of Mother Jones. The final decision to recall was left to the company, which inevitably considered the bottom line as well as public safety when making its decision.
While Cargill self-polices, the Rawesome club has been under more intense scrutiny than members even realized. “Since the raid it’s come out that we’ve been under investigation since June 30 of last year,” Buttery says. “They’ve been monitoring us from unmarked vehicles; they have agents who have become members.”
The L.A. County prosecutor’s office has advised defense attorneys to expect a “voluminous discovery period” for the trial, in part because there were two sets of undercover investigators. And they have made motions to add new charges, including tax evasion, money laundering, and illegal resale of food.
The proceedings against the “Rawesome Three” have been compared to the trial of the Chicago Seven, as well as a street corner shell game. The new charges are unrelated to the initial raid on raw milk, and they threaten to distract from the heart of the issue: whether consumers can enter into private leasing arrangements, which are similar to arrangements commonly used on a daily basis by all kinds of businesses in the U.S., to obtain their food. The Rawesome situation seems barely different from, say, a group of co-workers going to a colleague’s house for lunch, and they drop him some paper in return.
Despite massive financial problems in California and Washington, D.C., the government was able to find enough money for a multi-year, multi-agency undercover investigation to root out information that nobody was trying to hide. Details on the provenance of Rawesome’s raw milk is available to all members, including the undercover government agents.
While the Cargills of the world get to help decide the rules, tax dollars are being used to do away with freedom of choice. This is the state of food freedom in America today: It’s being sacrificed in the name of food safety.
your spin is sickening
Ms. Rosenblatt:
(that’s us!) Champlain Valley Business Journal Article, April 2011
PROVIDED Evan Reiss and Lindsay Harris of Family Cow Farmstand in Hinesburg own two of the growing number of micro-dairies appearing throughout Vermont that provide raw milk for customers.
As the milk churns
Micro-dairies bemoan ban on raw milk sales in stores
This spring, as lambs once again graze upon Vermont’s meadows, there is a new breed of farm expanding in their midst. It is the micro-dairy, and it is proliferating at an encouraging rate throughout Vermont.
These farms are carrying on the work of the larger farms which have dotted Vermont’s hills and valleys since its inception, but are now greatly depleted due to the overwhelming cost of doing business. These smaller dairies are the passion of those who, like their predecessors, are dedicated to providing the best in sustenance for their families and customers while caring for their animals and for the land itself.
Vermont’s new farmers are going back to what once were basic, natural ways of producing food, yet in safer, cleaner, more secure settings provided by ever-growing technologies.
Family Cow Farmstand on Shelburne Falls Road in Hinesburg is a raw (unpasteurized)-milk micro-dairy, the first state-certified raw-milk dairy in Vermont, according to co-owner Lindsay Harris.
Harris was a field biologist and wetlands ecologist for the State of Vermont when she and her husband, Evan Reiss, who has a degree in ecological agriculture from the University of Vermont, decided to farm full-time three years ago. Though she was born in New Jersey, her grandparents lived in Vermont.
“I was born to farm,” she said. Her husband, also “a born farmer,” she said, grew up in Hines-burg. Their first child is due in May.
The Harrises have 17 Jersey and Guernsey cows and young livestock, breeds known for their high protein and butter fat. They milk six of them.
“Why raw milk?” said Harris. “Because it’s better tasting: rich, yet not heavy, a healthy whole food with amazing flavor.” When the milk is pasteurized, she said, the natural enzymes and probiotics that aid in digestion are destroyed.
The cows are grass-fed and the Harrises sell directly to their customers, as state law prevents the sale of raw milk in stores. The Vermont Health Department contends that is for safety reasons, because raw milk could potentially contain harmful bacteria, including salmonella and E. coli.
Though recent legislation has loosened regulations somewhat in Vermont, farmers still cannot skim the milk to make cream and butter for sale purposes.
Explaining the difference between the dietetic approach of small farms versus that of corporate farms, Harris said, “A cow is born to eat grass. Her digestive system is set up that way and, as a result, the pH in her stomach is in balance. When she has a healthy pH, her rumen is supporting a whole community of beneficial organisms that help her digest her food.
“But, when a cow is fed grain and concentrated feeds, which is what commercial cows are fed almost exclusively, they [cannot digest it]; they get a condition called acidosis and become susceptible to pathogenic bacteria such as E. coli. Those nasty bacteria don’t have any competition; the beneficial bacteria are very reduced, out of balance, and the cows can get sick.”
“The industry standard is that it’s okay to put diseased milk into the system because you’re just going to pasteurize it. It’s more about money than it is about health.
“When you have healthy cows and a clean farm, there’s no reason to pasteurize,” she said.
Other farmers who provide raw milk for a living are in resounding agreement. Doug Flack of Flack Family Farm on Pumpkin Hill Road in Enosburg has a friend in California who milks 330 cows, all on pasture land, producing raw butter, raw milk, raw cream, kefir, raw yogurt and cheeses sold in 350 retail stores.
In Maine, Flack said, numerous raw-milk dairies have been selling their products to stores for at least 10 years.
“Anyone who has drank raw milk from good, clean, healthy herds can testify to its benefits,” said Sara Armstrong Donegan of Trillium Hill Farm on Route 116 in Hinesburg village.
The industry has taken away so much control from farmers that it forces them to compete in a market where they’re losing money, Harris said. This isn’t true for smaller dairies.
“That’s why we love to do what we do,” she said. “We can produce an extremely high-quality product and have control over our pricing. Last year, our vet bills for two little kittens were three times as much as for our entire herd. We feed grass, and the grass makes healthy milk, safe milk, and it takes care of the cows: it’s a beautiful, efficient system.”
Though regulatory hoops can be challenging, Harris said, the new laws allow farmers to sell up to 40 gallons of raw milk per day. “It’s exciting,” she said.
Harris and Flack both serve on the board of Rural Vermont, a statewide grassroots organization dedicated to building a prosperous rural life. “There are very unfortunate limitations in the new bill which are hard to work around, and we’re working on getting some of those changed,” she said.
Farmers recognize the fact that raw milk has had an unfortunate reputation in the past, Harris said. “But nowadays, when we know how to care for cows, can vaccinate against infectious diseases, we have advances in sanitation and know how to keep our equipment clean, the data just don’t support that.”
Armstrong Donegan and her husband, James Donegan, raise goats.
“They’re really wonderful creatures,” she said. “We’ve both lived with digestive problems, and have found relief and renewal from drinking the fresh milk that our goats produce.”
The Donegans are currently focusing on their Community Supported Agriculture sales to about 25 families. They also sell milk to Beth Sengle, a caterer at NRG, and to the Farmhouse Tap and Grill in Burlington. They milk nine goats, grow vegetables and raise pastured laying hens.
When it became legal to advertise, they did so and their customer base has grown accordingly. Like the Harrises, the Donegans foster an ideal environment for their goats in terms of diet and housing, using foods and herbs that support their immune systems.
“Pasteurization is cooking milk and just like when you cook any food, you lose some of the nutritional value of the food,” Armstrong Donegan said. At Flack Family Farm, workers are immersed in biodynamic farming and educate the public through farm visits, seminars and even plays. Flack has a Doctor of Philosophy in ecology, zoology and botany, and has a vast knowledge of grass farming.
The farm herd is comprised of 15 mature cows as well as young stock, bulls and beef animals. Flack milks between four and six cows for the micro-dairy, providing raw milk to some 20 families in the area.
Natural minerals and planned grazing for their American Milking Devon cattle, Flack said, rejuvenate the soil, sequester carbon, and yield nutrient-dense foods and medicines in what they produce. This includes dairy products inclusive of raw milk, grass-fed beef and pork, eggs, fermented vegetables and herbal tinctures.
Flack said he is frustrated with the “situation that Vermont has gotten itself into, where we’ve been trying to compete on a national scale for commodity milk and we’ve lost too many family farms.”
“We’ve sent off the land a population roughly equal to the size of Burlington since the early ’70s. These are special people with diverse skills; [professionals] who are highly motivated and work without complaining for hours on end . . . we’ve been very slow as a state to wake up to the devastation this has created to rural Vermont.”
The potential for producing nutrient-dense food here in Vermont, Flack said, includes those foods “grown outdoors from animals that are [pastured], all raised in the sunlight. Right on the top of the list is raw dairy.”
“The best medical practitioners of the mid-20th century [at] big clinics such as Yale, Mayo and Johns Hopkins were aware that certified raw milk was one of their most effective tools for not only producing healthy people, but for healing serious illness,” Flack said. “This is fully documented in the scientific literature. There’s a whole literature on the subject.
“Roughly 300 organic dairy farms are shipping commodity organic milk to competing companies, but there’s a long way to go before they receive parity,” he said.
Citing the “powerful new interest” in small dairies and in farming generally that is now being realized, Flack said, “There’s this fabulous collection of people in Vermont now who are rebuilding the farmscape.
“Here we have this demand and hundreds of small farmers starting to take on family cows and wanting to have raw-milk dairies and not necessarily small dairies . . . it could move so quickly and heal so many people if we created the proper environment, which includes education for consumers, for legislators and other leaders. It needs some serious education for the so-called food experts and the medical establishment; educational opportunities for farmers who are interested.”
“It’s sad,” Harris said. “We make butter and cheese, and we really enjoy a wonderful bounty from the farm. We’re working to get [the laws] changed so that our customers can enjoy those products, too, but right now the law forbids it.”
Cow Therapy
Have you heard of the “Three Minute Fiction” writing contest on NPR’s Weekend Edition? Below is Evan’s submission. (It’s not biographical, yet…;-)
Cow Therapy
The vacuum pump struggled to life, and slowly the milking machines hit their rhythmic tap. The cows’ milk hit the sides of the metal pail with a faint ‘swish’. The man’s hands moved methodically as he cleaned the teats of the next cow in line. His mind was elsewhere, years of repetition got him through the milking just fine.
He had argued with his daughter the night before and she slammed her door in his face. It was something about his inability to understand what she was going through. He couldn’t help but agree with her. He had little idea what it was like to be a teenage girl these days. Her reality seemed so far from what he knew. Over the years, he worked hard to reach out to her. He balanced work on the farm and countless second jobs. He spent late nights with his old algebra and Spanish books trying to relearn lost concepts so he could help her with homework. He was encouraged when his wife had said there was no ‘right’ way to raise a child, but sometimes he wished there was.
He found comfort around the cows, as one does around old friends. They always reminded him not to take himself so seriously. Jemima was the most amusing cow on the farm; she felt there was more to life than lactation. He sometimes imagined her annoying the other cows with dumb ‘knock-knock’ jokes or something like “Why did the clover cross the road?” He laughed out loud as he pictured Jemima telling her buddy Polly, “Your mama is so dumb, she went on a date with a mechanical bull.” They cracked up, gagging on the cud they were chewing.
Walking into the milkroom with a full pail of fresh milk, he saw the sun creeping over the hills to the east. As he poured the milk into the cooling tank, he saw how it resembled the sunrise. The milk was creamy yellow, so fresh, and welcome into his world. Glancing out the window, he saw his daughter walking from the house through the pasture. She had not been to the barn in weeks so he had asked her to help him this morning. Her eyes were still wet with tears when she walked through the door.
“Good morning.” He said as he poured her a glass of warm milk.
“I am still upset.” She said accepting the milk reluctantly.
“I have something to show you.” He said.
They entered the barn and walked over to where Jemima was patiently standing. He reached out and softly stoked the underside of her neck.
“Do you think you could tell Jemima how you are feeling?” he asked. The expression on his daughter’s face quickly changed from irritated to curious.
“I often have things I want to say, but I don’t find understanding ears around me. The cows don’t judge me, they listen. Sometimes I just need to talk and I feel better. What do you say?” He asked.
His daughter studied the gentle curves of Jemima’s face. As her eyes met Jemima’s she sat down beside the cow. He smiled and gave her a kiss on the head.
He did not know if this would help her, but at least Jemima would have something to gossip about at the evening milking. As he walked away he could hear the conversation beginning.
Polly and Jemima
A Passionate Raw Milk Customer’s View
http://plumpestpeach.blogspot.com/
Please see the above link to read Jessica Bongard’s lovely blog posting about our farm! Jessica owns, Plumpest Peach which features “delicious dinners delivered” to the greater Burlington, Vermont area. Her photography is exquisite!
Thanks, Jessica! Customers like you keep us slogging to the barn in this cold and snow.
Love, Lindsay
Organic Valley Strips Farmers of Opportunity
| Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation weighs in on Organic Valley’s new raw milk policy. |  |
 |
| Action Alerts – 2010 Action Alerts |
| Monday, 27 September 2010 12:34 |
| Dear Members,
As many of you may have already heard, the CROPP cooperative, producer of dairy We at WAPF did not immediately publicize this new policy, instead writing privately Many of CROPPs farmers have high levels of debt, and they have, over the past few Many of their farmers had active raw milk businesses established before they even Despite our grave concerns, I received a response from George Siemon dated June 21, Is that true? CROPP did indeed start small, as a local cooperative of just a few We then further delayed making any announcement about the OV decision because we In any event, for the average OV farmer, 1 percent is probably about three to six Ironically, the $12 billion dairy industry giant, Dean Foods, which owns the Horizon This isn’t the first time CROPP seems to have lost its bearings. A couple of years Just as in the case of buying from factory farms, we hope CROPP farmer leadership The unfortunate decision by the CROPP board should galvanize all of us to renew our If the farm family you get your raw milk from faces the dilemma of choosing between If you feel betrayed by a cooperative that you had always considered to be an ally, Above all, lets all make the pledge to vote with our pocketbooks in support of small Sincerely yours, ——————————————————— LEGAL LIABILITY MARKETPLACE FALLOUT To mitigate this risk, without harming farmer-members who are engaged in raw milk 1. Require any member that sells raw milk to immediately take down their Organic 2. Prohibit any member that sells raw milk from discussing Organic Valley in any COMPETITIVE FACTORS Consumers are going to continue to seek out raw milk. Whatever market share raw However, in the meantime, this new co-op rule stands to economically injure many of Consumers who drink raw milk are not going back to drinking OVs ultrapasteurized DISRUPTIONS TO SUPPLY However, a workable solution could be crafted by requiring raw milk producers to VIABLE ALTERNATIVE |
Pastures, Stone Walls, Sweet Potatoes and a Recipe Contest!
There is a lot going on around here this weekend! Family Cow is hosting a Party in the Pasture, a celebration of spring. There will be lots of fun things to do including meeting the cows and calves, tasting many delicious homemade dairy products and home-raised pulled pork, touring the farm and checking out Charley MacMartin’s stone calf corral in progress!
Charley of Queen City Soil and Stone is our awesome neighbor. He is building a traditional, Scottish, dry stone wall enclosure for our calves. He’ll be working on it during the party. He is inviting folks of all ages to come check out his work (which is amazing!) and lend a hand. Click here to check out Queen City’s website.
Also, next door to us, Red Wagon Plants is holding their Third Annual Sweet Potato Slip Sale to benefit Friends of Burlington Gardens this Saturday and Sunday (6/5/10 & 6/6/10) from 10 am to 6 pm both days. They will provide 4.5″ pots of rooted sweet potato slips (4 to a pot) for $5.00 each. This will give you tremendous yields of this delicious “super-food.” They will also have some herbs and recipes to give away at Family Cow during the Party in the Pasture.
To celebrate this joint effort, we are holding a fun and friendly contest. Everyone is invited to submit a recipe that uses both sweet potatoes and milk by 5:00 on Friday 6/4 – online via email “julie@redwagonplants.com” or on Red Wagon Plants Facebook page. We will post all of the recipes on our website, and on Saturday morning we will announce the winner of the contest. The winner will receive a $25 gift certificate to Red Wagon Plants and a free gallon of milk from Family Cow Farmstand.
Here is one of the recipes we have received…
Creamy Sweet Potato Soup Recipe
from Carin Laughlin Hoffman (5/31/10)
INGREDIENTS
2 Tbsp (1/4 stick) butter
1 cup chopped onion
2 small celery stalks, chopped, greens reserved
1 medium leek, sliced (white and pale green parts only)
1 large garlic clove, chopped
1 1/2 pounds red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams), peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces (about 5 cups)
4 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt chicken broth (use vegetable broth for vegetarian option)
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups half and half
2 Tbsp maple syrup
The leafy tops of the celery stalks, chopped
METHOD
1 Melt the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onion and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add chopped celery stalks and leek, sauté about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 2 minutes.
2 Add sweet potatoes, chicken stock, cinnamon stick, and nutmeg; bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.
3 Remove cinnamon stick and discard. Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return to pot.
4 Add half and half and maple syrup and stir over medium-low heat to heat through. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cool soup slightly. Cover and refrigerate soup and celery leaves separately. Bring soup to simmer before continuing.) Ladle into bowls. Sprinkle with celery leaves.
Serves 6 to 8.
YUM!
Hope to get your creative and delicious recipes and see you this weekend!
Lindsay
Growth Hormones in Milk
This is a terrible farming practice for so many reasons. Cows get shot up everyday and make lots more milk. They have lots more health problems too. What is the effect on human health from drinking hormonally altered milk? The answer is scary, no one knows. Well, they may have a clue, but the research has been suppressed by Monsanto (the manufacturer of the hormone), so it can’t be good. What effects does hormonally altered milk have on childhood development? No one knows. But corporate milk in schools might as well be one of the ten commandments. There is no law that says companies have to tell us there are hormones in our dairy products. In fact, Monsanto is pressuring the FDA to outlaw “Hormone Free” labeling. Unless that stuff in your fridge is from a cow you know, certified organic or labeled “Hormone Free” you are pretty much guaranteed to be getting growth hormones from your milk, cream, yogurt, ice cream, cheese, whipped cream, sour cream etc.
These products are cheap, but at what cost?
Below are links to two parts of an informative 20 minute documentary on this scary subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GpqwZDbMHU
More info on A1 vs A2 Milk
Check out this interesting ABC news story from down under. Click to the right under “Video” and you can watch it.
A2 vs A1 Milk
Check out The Bovine for a great explanation of this!
http://tinyurl.com/dzoqvp
We are planning to have our cows tested as soon as we can afford it!
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Guernsey cows are 95% A2. These are our gorgeous Guernseys!
Lindsay
