Sometimes agendas are clear and upfront, such as in well-run businesses.
Sometimes, though, they are vague or hidden. The matter of agendas becomes ever more important as regulatory, legislative, and media attention is focused increasingly intensively on raw milk’s growing popularity.
On the media side, there’s that Seattle Times article that Concerned Person and Bill Marler are waving around to promote their agendas (more on those in a bit).
The Seattle Times’ reporter’s agenda? At first blush, it appears to be about the growing popularity of raw milk, and attendant debate about safety, but on further examination, the agenda is really that it’s impossible for raw dairies to produce safe raw milk. The evidence is a single dairy that has apparently had a previous problem with E.coli 0157:H7 in its milk, and continues to milk a cow that is spattering manure around. Hey, what’s anecdotal evidence among friends?
One problem is that when you have an agenda, you sometimes exaggerate. Thus, the reporter suggests early in the article that pathogens in raw milk are nearly inevitable:
“All cows, actually, all warm-blooded animals, have E. coli in their guts. Some strains of it are harmless. Others are not. They’re called Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, and ‘cows are the main source where these organisms live,’ said J. Kathryn MacDonald, a state epidemiologist.
“The Shiga toxin doesn’t hurt the cows, but it can make humans very, very sick as in kidney failure, coma, stroke, prolonged hospitalization. Even death.
“We get E. coli illness by swallowing the bug.”
After strongly suggesting that most cows inevitably transmit e.coli that could easily kill us via their milk, the reporter says, well, no, “Actually, by swallowing tiny bits of manure containing the bacteria.” Of course, by this time, many readers have stopped reading. When you have an agenda, you present the “facts” to support your agenda.
Same goes for the list accompanying the article of “Pathogens Linked with Raw Milk Dairies”. Of nine instances listed, four involve one dairy that has had listeria discovered in its milk. No illnesses are noted, because there were none. As there have been none in New York state in more than a dozen cases of listeria found in raw milk. No mention of this little piece of trivia, because it departs from the agenda.
Even aside from these highly misleading aspects of the article, I wonder why the Washington Department of Agriculture isn’t working with Dungeness Valley Creamery to improve its sanitation, what Lykke said following my March 18 post: “We need as scientists and food safety experts to step up to the plate and figure out how to work with raw dairymen/women to make raw milk safer and available for informed consumers, while at the same time keeping the standards scalable for raw milk producers to meet a common food quality/safety goal.” The reporter seems not to have inquired as to what the agency was doing to promote Lykke’s view. But I think I can answer the question: Its agenda is to convince raw dairies to use pasteurizers on their milk. If they won’t? Then they are fair game, not for instruction or education, but for castigation, like in the Seattle Times article.
As I said, Bill Marler and CP seem to take joy in waving the article around. “So, how do you justify this?” asks Marler following my previous post, prior to quoting from a graphic description of a Dungeness cow spewing manure on the dairy owner during milking. What is being justified? Yes, it seems as if the farmer isn’t practicing the best sanitation practices, but if so, who is justifying it? But remember, there’s an agenda here. A big part of the Marler agenda is that raw dairies don’t care about safety and illness and, see, Dungeness proves my point. Gotcha. Now, let’s keep raw dairies in the tightest possible strait-jacket—farm-only sales, lists of customers for the regulators to monitor, etc., etc. Talk about misusing anecdotal evidence.
Which leads me to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), and all the negotiations going on in Wisconsin over legislation to permit raw milk sales from Grade A dairies. I’m afraid agenda concerns have me souring on that legislation. Why? Because I’ve come to appreciate—despite my original wish to at least establish a precedent for legal raw milk in the state—that the agenda of DATCP, which will be overseeing any new law, is elimination of raw milk, period, end of discussion. DATCP has expressed its concerns about legalizing raw milk, and already begun demonstrating its agenda with the Scott Trautman inspection described in my March 18 post. Any instance of possible milk contamination won’t be a learning moment, but rather further evidence permissive legislation can’t work. It’s like putting a fox—even a fox in a business suit—in charge of your chicken coop. The fox may say he’s come to accept his new role as impartial overseer, but in the end, the fox will be too tempted by all those chickens, and let instinct take over. It’s the same with DATCP.
As Lola Granola said following my previous post: “Under the proposed legislation, a grade A dairy now needs to keep records of its customers (subject to DATCP inspection, the very thing Max Kane is disputing); needs to have monthly milk testing at a STATE-approved lab (which may be different than where your processor sends your milk sample every month); this legislation gives DATCP the authority to create RULES regarding the raw milk permit…”
WI Raw Milk Consumer understands the matter of agenda: “DATCP is going to make life hell for the farms that continue to legally provide raw milk. I anticipate the farms that survive the fallout from this struggle will be the ones that sell raw milk via underground private ‘cow-share’ type arrangments, and never register their existence with the state.”
All you have to do is understand people’s real agenda, and you can predict behavior. The problem here is that raw dairies don’t have an agenda. They’re all over the place. They have to get themselves organized.
Michael Schmidt articulated the challenge well following my March 15 post: “It is clear that we can waste a lot of time and energy on discussing how we can conform to standards which could satisfy bureaucrats ,lawyers and insurance companies. In case you have not yet realized: this IS the next rights movement. Can it be squashed? Not if we put our illusions aside that if we conform long enough we will get what we want. NO… We better get our intentions sorted out. We will never ever win this battle on the basis of having the right to sell and make money. THIS IS ABOUT FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOM, which we do not have.”
I foresee a self-governing and self-policing national raw dairy association, perhaps with localized state groups. Raw milk is becoming too popular, and dairy farmers too vulnerable to arbitrary regulation, to do otherwise. To become a member, your dairy has to pass tough but realistic standards of the type Tim Wightman of the Farm-to-Consumer Foundation has begun to articulate. It has to be inspected periodically by member-engaged inspectors. It needs to sponsor education programs to help farmers stay current with safety and sanitation standards. Its seal of approval goes on every container of milk, so consumers can look for it as a sign of top-quality raw milk. If any member has a safety issue, it needs to be addressed and monitored—transparency is key. This is what I was getting at in my concerns a few weeks ago about the Raw Milk Association of Colorado’s handling of a possible campylobacter outbreak. It is establishing an important precedent.
My agenda is to find ways to guarantee our right to access the nutritionally-dense foods we want and need, all based on realistic and fairly enforced safety criteria.
***
Coming soon, to a theater near you? It’s “Milk Men”, the story of Max Kane and his raw milk journey. Interesting trailer. Only problem: we don’t yet know how it ends.
This is very true and proved by the fact that people are fighting for just this.
Why doesn’t the govt come down on the lunch meat processors/companies? They are so much more contaminated than raw milk produced for human consumption. They are still in business.
Why is raw milk so attacked? the govt does NOT require the major companies/producers to disclose the toxic chemicals added to foods or the high potential for food borne illness on processed foods sold for human consumption. Why pick on the tiny sliver of raw milk? What do they fear?
Most people haven’t a clue how their food is genetically made up, chemically induced, adulterated.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/safe/foodborne.html
http://www.mainstreet.com/article/lifestyle/food-drink/frankenfood-genetically-modified-produce-us
http://www.prevention.com/health/nutrition/healthy-eating-tips/12-commonly-contaminated-foods/article/017a323b0b803110VgnVCM20000012281eac____/2?print=true&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prevention.com%2Fhealth%2Fnutrition%2Fhealthy-eating-tips%2F12-commonly-contaminated-foods%2Farticle%2F017a323b0b803110VgnVCM20000012281eac____%2F2
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/332797/the_10_most_contaminated_foods.html?singlepage=true&cat=7
http://www.organicconsumers.org/toxic/msg010306.cfm
Although I believe that all reasonable efforts should be made to reduce the presence of fecal bacteria in the milk its elimination is impossible and this should be of no surprise to anyone. That being said however I would prefer to drink live fecal bacteria in raw milk then the toxic fecal bacterial corpses in pasteurized milk. I have lived with cow shit all of my life and I have no fear of the organisms that reside within it.
The unwillingness of the regulator to address the lack of illness despite a so called pathogens presence, is a reflection of their unwillingness to deal with the complexities of the issue since it would undermine not only their integrity but their current agenda
Authority gone to one’s head is the greatest enemy of truth. Albert Einstein
Ken Conrad
This organization will take on providing "guidelines"for farmers and not regulations. We have a farmer appointed committee to help farmers to meet the guidelines.
Every farmer who wants to get into cow sharing and accredited by Cow Share Canada has to take the cow share college course.
We have an independent dairy inspector assessing the farm with recommendations if necessary.
When all is said and done the farmer will have a stamp of approval from Cow Share Canada.
We then connect consumers with this farmer in the area. We serve as link to connect consumer and farmer and feel responsible for both.
Both have to join Cow Share Canada to be able to be connected.
At the end we encourage the basic common sense approach buyer beware.
Consumers are as responsible as the farmer for their own healthy and safe food.
Unless we are willing to take on responsibility for our own affairs we will always end up with the nanny state.
While this sounds great, David, I believe that this, too – even if it’s started with the best of intentions and the purest of hearts – will fall to the "agenda" of the controlling members. I have seen this happen to some of the pro-small-farm groups already, and it’s an inevitable consequence of ego, the temptation of money, and the need for control.
If you understand the government’s agenda and how the government works (One World Government controlled by the One Central Bank, with a healthy dose of eugenics thrown in) you will see that even these proposed solutions fall right into that agenda, especially if you get a few controlling members who covertly work for the One World Government, intentional or otherwise (I already know of one One World Government mole in one prominent pro-farming group.).
The solution? I don’t have an answer but I predict the best bet is a free market economy in the tradition of the Austrians and Mises. (And no matter what the pundits say, we don’t have free market economy, we have a regulated market economy.) If you produce a quality product, you will have customers. If you produce a bad product, you will have no customers. And corporations have to go. Corporations are a 20th century invention and the source of many of our problems. Corporations plus government? Watch out! It’s called fascism and it’s already here.
If we want to be free we have to start taking responsibility for ourselves and stop demanding that the government or some NGO (Non-Governmental Organization, i.e. the National Raw Dairy Association that David’s proposing) make decisions on our behalf (wanting some group to put the Good Housekeeping Seal on a farm or product to create the illusion of safety). When we ask for that, we get that, and more. Because someone will always say that if a little ‘regulation’, even if by an NGO, is good, more would be better (CP and Marler). And too often, the government or the NGO will happily oblige (for an NGO, they’re "protecting their members"). The screw tightens and you’re back in the same place you started, only this time, you hung yourself, and did so willingly.
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090908005739&newsLang=en
The World Health Organizations has "recommendations" for their members, too, and it’s Codex Alimentarius.
http://www.codexalimentarius.net/web/standard_list.do?lang=en
Barney Google
And then we sat back and looked at how we were going to have to compromise the very product we take pride in, just to satisfy the Grade A requirement. Not to mention giving away our very customers, like they were dealing in criminal acts. Do you have to keep a record of everyone who buys alcohol? Why not? Drunk drivers kill people every single day!
No, we can’t abide by these rules. Not even temporarily. David, it was your post from the Meadowsweet Dairy in NY that convinced us; the line about tying the noose around our own necks. It really hit home.
We are erasing any web presence our farm has online and vanishing. We will hold out to see what the real bill has to offer. In the meantime…we no longer exist to the general public. And I’m afraid that many raw farmers will be doing the exact same thing.
Buy Buy American Pie. A spoof NO its the Plain Truth
I remember when it all began. Long ago before I retired we purchased a lathe for our mfg. plant machine shop it came with a very well known US label surprise surprise it was made in China pardon the language but it was a peice of crap. There after we refered to the inferior the junk being imported as MADE BY BEIJING PRISONERS and the price reflected the quality.
In the last 10 days I have read a report that Sodium Fluoride from China without proper chemical ingreident documentation was being used in city water supplies in MD and Mass but was thankfully halted by citizen actions.
The war on raw dairy [food safety? yea the world is flat also] is just a small part of the over all war on ALL Americans we have been stabbed in the back by a thousand spears.
Who has cast these spears in our back?
As the Raw Milk Association of Colorado (RMAC) has matured, we’ve run into the regulation and control issues presented here. There is indeed a desire to establish standards for production that merit a Seal of Excellence issued by RMAC. We are after all a trade organization – intending to promote the raw milk market and ensure a safe supply. Some need that Seal of Approval – not because they think it’s important, but the public does.
We know darn well that testing is no guarantee of product safety, yet beyond following the standards set forth in the CO statute, and a few other RMAC standards, that is our primary "required" standard for attaining the Seal. Consistently meet milk testing requirements for 6 months straight.
The real trick is educating people…about farming.
(To be a legal raw dairy, producers must
1) Document their herd health practices and their milk handling process, and explain it to shareholders.
2) Keep on file a copy of the Bill of Sale & Boarding Contract for each shareholder
3) Register w/CDPHE – a letter advising CDPHE that raw milk is being produced via the herdshare program at their farm, with their name & address.
4) Label the milk unpasteurized (RMAC also requires bottling date)
5) Disclose to shareholders the results of any tests performed, and explain what they mean. (The statute does not require any tests, only that results be explained.)
The statute is intended to foster the farmer/consumer relationship, and self-regulation.
So – back to Standards – what our standards committee did is establish a list of ‘recommended process standards’, and record which processes each dairy adheres to – and track it on our website. That way, the consumer can decide whether they want consistently low test results and/or whether it’s preferable to choose a dairy that feeds no grain, has a closed herd, gives them year-round access to pasture, etc…
It’s going to take considerable time & effort to document this, and keep it updated, let alone educate the consumer about why access to pasture year-round may be desirable on this farm, but not that farm….
We don’t have a field inspector – we can’t afford it – and I can’t help but think that would erode integrity and distance us from each other, over time.
But if you talk to informed consumers, coming to your farm on a weekly basis, who needs a field inspector coming round?
I’d rather create video tours and interview the farmer, and distribute those.
-Blair
Corporations aren’t exactly a 20th century phenomenon. They date back to Roman times. The term itself is Latin derived from "corpus", or "a body of people."
Corporations are indeed troublesome social structures in our day and age, but all societies have social and collectivist structures of this sort. It is simply in human nature, as we are social beings with motivations rooted in social constructs, values, mores, etc…
The question is how we utilize these social structures — are they here to oppress and control us, or do we use them as tools of democracy and liberation? Unfortunately, because of the way that American capitalism developped, corporations are totally unaccountable to anyone except their board of directors. This is the ultimate consequence of a society which is based upon conquest (read: Manifest Destiny), extraction of seemingly unlimited resources (read: land and oil), and stratified into competing social classes and castes.
I am very familiar with the Austrian/Mises school of thought. Talk about 20th century… more like 19th century! We ought to be preparing our communities for the collapse of the industrial economy. Permaculture is the wave of the future, and I see raw milk as playing an important role in that. We’ve got to get over this individualist "me, me, me" ideology that so pervades American culture, though.
I like the idea of a national raw dairy association and Michael Schmidts cow share college course. Both farmers and consumers need to be educated about raw milk safety standards. Heres my only agenda: raw milk produced as safe as humanly possible; the more people that strive towards this goal the better. Every social/political movement is like a pendulum swinging to the extremes and then it settles in the middle. The raw milk movement will do the same.
Mr. Brown at Dungeness Dairy needs to take the raw milk college course. The fact that his lack of safety concerns were caught on video as hes talking the raw milk mantra talk is irony at its best.
cp
The irony of all this, is that the farms that DO take food safety seriously, and operate above ground and register with the state, are the very farms that are going to be put out of bussiness by fascist regulators at DATCP.
I do not use the term fascist lightly here. Fascism is a merger of state and corporate power. DATCP has shown on many occassions that they are there to uphold protectionist regulations for big industry and to arbitrarily punish small farms that speak out against big industry.
Scott Trautman, case in point. He is being driven into the ground by DATCP and their inspectors taking out a political vendetta on him. DATCP approved the design of Trautman’s brand new milking parlor before it was built a few years ago, and now they claim the design does not meet code. Supposedly he is going to have spend $10,000 to construct more walls to satisfy their new demands, at which point they are going to re-inspect and find yet MORE problems.
These regulators are fascists. There is no comprimise with them or the agenda that they represent. I am not using hyperbole here. I speak from personal first hand experience with DATCP, and from talking to other people in the WI dairy industry who have YEARS of experience dealing with DATCP. DATCP is a fascist organization. They should NOT be trusted with the authority to regulate raw milk. They want raw milk to be dirty and get people sick. Their own spokeperson has predicted this. It is a self-fulfilling prophesy, and they will see to it that people do get sick from raw milk, by driving the good farmers into the ground.
Here is a refresher link let the other side read it especially # 8 and # 9 any ring of familiarity and # 5 is very scary as well! FREEDOM and LIBERTY have no ISM attached
http://www.libertyzone.com/Communist-Manifesto-Planks.html
Labor activists and other radicals have been facing state repression for generations, from the Haymarket organizers being executed in 1886 for organizing a successful labor strike on the first celebration of May Day as the REAL labor day, to Eugene Debs being imprisoned for urging Americans to resist the draft during WWI, to labor organizers being black listed as communists in the 1950’s, to Black Panthers being killed by the FBI in the 1970’s, to enviromental and animal rights activists being persecuted in the new "Green Scares" of today.
To understand Marx, you have to understand the historical context in which he was writing. Not a fan of him, btw. There were plenty of non-authoritarian socialist critics of Marx, who have been overshadowed intentionally by pro-capitalist propagandists.
The problem of state power cannot be separated from the problem of class. The fundamental purpose of the state is to uphold the ideology and interests of the ruling class, and to keep the classes and social groups underneath divided against one another. You don’t have to be a Marxist to understand this simple fact. Capitalism is crooked. Corporate money is the driving force behind the campaigns against raw milk.
However, with the impending crises of industrialism and the petro-economy, the whole concepts of capitalism and socialism (which are intricately tied to the industrial revolution) will quickly become antiquated. The dichotomy in the 21st century will be between industrialism and permaculture. Social justice is a key compenent of permaculture, btw.
How ever you or I define our present sad state of affairs it would seem we may have the same goal in mind unfettered freedom of choise.
But not sure what you mean by social justice if that means forced universal health care and the like I would have to respectfully disagree and would like the choise to opt out of such programs.
The fatal error of any political ideology stems from its lack of respect for an individuals God given freedom.
Evolutionist William Provine sums it up well, "Naturalistic evolution has clear consequences that Charles Darwin understood perfectly. 1) No gods worth having exist; 2) no life after death exists; 3) no ultimate foundation for ethics exists; 4) no ultimate meaning in life exists; and 5) human free will is nonexistent."
Ken Conrad
http://times-news.com/opinion/x58341438/Water-plant-visitor-says-he-s-been-there-before
http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=12196993
Will we ever see the day when health officials issue warnings about the real contamination of our food supply?
E621 monosodium glutamate
E622 monopotassim glutamate
And all the others.
The E numbers are used in Europe for all additives.
"This numbering scheme has now been adopted and extended by the Codex Alimentarius to INTERNATIONALLY identify all additives regardless of whether they are approved for use" Wikipedia
Will the US be REQUIRED to use the E number or maybe will we identify our additives with a US number.
There is currently no voice in CA standing loudly against raw milk. The Dairies and their leadership are busy licking their bankruptcy wounds and are not worried about raw milk. They have far bigger fish to fry. In fact there may be a collaberation developing in some joint raw milk & conventional milk legislation. It looks promising. Funny and weird things happen when big corps see death and collapse looming eminently. With the continued dairy price slump at far below break even prices…they are begging for a repreave. They have become quiet and flexible politically.
David has said this before….economics is perhaps the biggest guiding hand for all of this.
Dollar voting is happening and guiding change as we speak.
Connect to your consumers with safe delicious raw milk …you will have absolutely everything. Embrace change and adversity as if it was a God given "briar patch" and more lemons to protect you from market encroachment.
Got to love lemons. It inspires creative moments and stirs Milk Men Movie trailer genius.
Thank you Max, Scott Trautmen and Michael and David and Edwin Shank…I am proud to be among you and all the other Milk Men. The national dialogue has just turned a green light onto health care…Health is now talking about prevention. We must become part of this debate and dialogue….this is a huge time for us. We must connect health to food and that food is whole and un processed, immune building and healing.
This is the vision and the mission. What did you do today to connect to your consumer. Make a U-tube video and talk to them. Place these links on your websites. Your consumers long to hear you speak. You are the soil they miss in their souls.
I have my consumers and they have me.
Mark