Liz Reitzig has, over the last few years, become a national leader of Americas rapidly expanding food rights movement. She is the co-coordinator of Grassfed on the Hill buying club serving the greater Washington, DC, area, and co-founder of the Farm Food Freedom Coalition. Liz has spent the past six years working on the state and national levels representing small farms and consumers at the state legislature and in the halls of Congress lobbying for food and farming rights. She is the principle organizer of an annual National Grassroots Lobby Day and Legislative Reception on Capitol Hill. She does all this while raising five young children.
Tomorrow, she is leading a Know Your Rights Workshop and on Saturday a demonstration for Lemonade and Raw Milk Freedomall these events in Washington, DC.
In this guest post, Part 1 of a two-part series, she explores why its so important for Americans to support their farmers engaged in producing sustainable nutrient-dense food, and provides specific suggestions for actions people can do on their own to add support.
by Liz Reitzig
I have invested the past six years of my life addressing issues surrounding access to real foods. Many people I know are astounded that food rights are even an issue and that I spend my time working to advance food freedom. Why do I do this, they ask.
I am sure that many of you reading this are aware of the many hurdles our farmers and food producers who care about sustainability go through in order to provide their communities with clean, healthy, safe, wholesome food. It is a harsh reality of life in todays America that many have become targets of government force for simply feeding their communities.
Since this is the reality we are living with, we must acknowledge the reality that those who continue to provide our communities with real food are doing so at great risk to themselves and that it takes exponentially more time and effort than it would otherwise need to if the threat of government force did not exist.
This is why it is absolutely essential for those of us who make up their communities to take on more responsibility on their behalf. What do I mean by this? A little story about a farm and its chicken and pig might help explain:
Once Upon a Time….
A Chicken and a Pig lived on a farm. The farmer was very good to them and they both wanted to do something good for him.
One day the chicken approached the pig and said, “I have a great idea for something we can do for the farmer! Would you like to help?”
The pig, quite intrigued, said, “of course! What do you propose?”
The chicken knew how much the farmer enjoyed a delicious healthy breakfast. He also knew how little time the farmer had to make a good breakfast. “I think the farmer would be very happy if we made him breakfast.”
The pig thought about this. While not as close to the farmer, he too knew of the farmer’s love for a good breakfast. “I’d be happy to help you make breakfast for the farmer! What do you suggest we make?”
The chicken, understanding that he had little else to offer suggested, “I could provide some eggs.”
The pig knew the farmer might want more, “That’s a fine start. What else should we make?”
The chicken looked around…scratched his head…then said, “ham? The farmer loves ham and eggs!”
The pig, very mindful of what this implied, said, “that’s fine, but while you’re making a contribution, I’m making a real commitment!”
(Story from http://www.agilejedi.com/chickenandpig)
We have successful local food systems today because many farmers, producers and other individuals have made a real commitment. They have taken on an enormous project and dedicated their lives to it so that present and future generations have access to clean, safe food. In the process, each producer has developed a community that benefits from his or her work.
We all know some prime examples of people who dedicate their lives to ensuring community access to real food or teaching people how to produce their own foods or promoting local food.
These amazing food producers, suppliers and teachers are like the pig in our storythey give all for this cause. They are committed! They have given their lives over to this tireless, often thankless, work so that we have choices in what we eat and so that these choices remain for future generations.
I dont think we need to go into too much detail here for us all to be conscious of the diverse ways these producers are preserving our agricultural heritage through urban farming, seed exchange, and feeding their rural and urban communities. I hope you will each reflect for a moment on how pivotal their roles are and just how much they bring to your community.
Most of the rest of us are like the chicken–involved. Were willing to do something to further the cause. Maybe real food is important to us. Or perhaps we want to eat locally. Or support a sustainable food system. Maybe weve joined a CSA or buying club. Or maybe we shop at a farmers market. Or maybe we are still waiting for the right time.
Each of us has an incredible opportunity right now to embrace the idea of making a sacrifice in our life, get on the road to true commitment, to further a cause that is so much bigger than any one of us: access to safe, real foods for this and future generations. Whether we are the chicken in the story, or one of the other farm animals not even mentioned, there is room for greater involvement on a path to full commitment.
Not sure what this would look like in your life? Consider the following:
- Maybe it would look like giving up a family vacation in order to donate the money to a farmer facing jail.
- Maybe it means traveling a little further and paying a higher price so that those who produce our food can make an honest living.
- Or maybe it looks like changing your schedule to pick up your groceries regularly at the farm.
- Or maybe it means going to a farm to personally thank a farmer for getting up early on Christmas day and milking cows so that you can have real milk 365 days a year.
- Maybe it looks like scheduling and planning a food-related event in your area.
- Or perhaps it looks like making a movie about local farmers, writing letters to the editor, reaching out to your neighbors or working on legislative issues related to food and farming.
- Maybe it means starting a buying club, growing a garden or playing with someone elses children so that they can become more involved.
- Perhaps it looks like making signs for a rally, engaging in peaceful non-compliance or throwing a few bucks towards supporting someone elses planned event.
Whatever it looks like in your life, go ahead and embrace it!
(In Part 2, what commitment looks like in Liz Reitzigs life, and what it might look like in your life.)
She walks the walk…talks the talk, preaches the teach and lives the life!!
She has always had my back and I will always have hers.
It is more than a trend, said Jim Richter, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Wilcox Fresh, Rexburg, Idaho”
Did they really think it was a ‘passing fad’?
Also, check out Jeffrey Smith’s web site called Institute for Responsible Technology concerning GMO’s. He’s the guy who wrote Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette. He may have a couple of others too, but I can’t think of the names right now. Here’s the link for his site: http://responsibletechnology.org/resources/media-kit/jeffrey-m-smith-bio
You might also be interested in OCA (Organic Consumers Ass’n) web site, if you don’t already follow it. I don’t at all agree with their stance on global warming, but whatever. All blogs and web sites contain information where you basically have to pick and choose what information you want to follow, and what information you don’t. It’s the nature of people to disagree sometimes.
A repeat?
http://durangoherald.com/article/20120817/NEWS01/708179935/-1/s
“Selling adulterated food is a felony. But doing so without knowledge or intent to defraud consumers is a misdemeanor, penalized by up to a year in prison or a $1,000 fine.”
Wow, raw dairy isn’t treated this way…….
“”memo outlined how companies could avoid liability for sickness and death because consumers never review their auditing reports.
And even if consumers did see the reports, the memo argued, they need to take steps to protect themselves. Either way, inspectors should be able to escape with no liability.
BS, if the “inspector” does a poor job, they should be liable. If a doctor does a poor job, they are liable.
“Marler said he is considering suing retailers for the remainder.”
Why sue the retailers? Wallyworld has plenty of money….the sharks circle…
Brown is a popular name, but for that matter so is Peterson! My paternal gramma’s maiden name was Petersen, so even though the spelling is different the pronounciation is the same. I read an interesting article the other day about how many people’s names were either completed changed, or at least altered from the original, at Ellis Island upon their arrival in this country. Schmitzenheimer became Schmitz and yada yada. No wonder people who came later couldn’t find their kin.
Really off the wall stuff – my neice and her husband. When they got married HE took her maiden name as his last name. All I can do is roll my eyes whenever I think about it. They just wanted to be “different”. No der . . . different is a mild word compared to the one I use whenever I have to explain it to someone. ;-^
It’s just insane. But this is where we’re headed, as much as I hate to say it. We are being over-protected “for our own good”. Yeah. Uh-huh. Sure.
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/08/woman-fined-5k-for-throwing-birthday.html
Baylen Linnekin article/interview: http://reason.com/archives/2012/08/18/where-are-all-the-food-libertarians
Thank you, really.
Dave
The police no longer need to go before a judge to get a warrant to access/or seize phone, internet or email traffic, information or phone call and use data. The smoke screen around this intrusive legislation is exemplified by the conservative party’s rhetoric or should we call it propaganda. “This legislation will enable the law enforcement community to catch pedophiles, so anyone against this legislation supports pedophiles.” In Canada we no longer have any court protected expectation of privacy in the use of our phones or computers or cameras.
The link to Dr. McBride was exquisite…..
If the FDA and all of Wahington DC and all of medical America would take its message to heart ( and GUT ), our entire economic collapse, jobs crisis, social security bankruptcy, farming distaster, dairy crisis, failed modern medical detour and pharma poisoning apocalypse would cease.
The world will continue to be flat until such a time as enough death occurs that people are forced to look at death and sickness in the face. Sorry to say we have a little farther to go down this valley of the shadow of inhumane profit based food and medical torture. It will take an incident to create a larger moment and the masses. Not sure what that incident will be…
1 in 16 dairies in CA will be lost in 2012 alone. 28 dairies in Fresno County filed for bankruptcy in 2012 alone!!!
Where is the class action lawsuit brought by dairies against the processors??
I have been fighting to have raw milk producers removed from the milk pool ( OPDC pays $1000 per day to the milk pool but can not participate in the milk pool !!!) … I think I will win this battle by attrtition and default. Pretty soon there will be no milk to pool….mute fight. Done!!! Just a matter of time…
What a sick reality…watch McBride.
In 1969 Opdc could have opted out of the milk pool. Opdc did not exist then. We have tried two lawsuits and one legislative attempt Big dairy wants our money and killed the bill.
Opdc supposedly receives raw milk into it’s plant. That is the corrupt excuse given for the unfair economic toture and tax into the milk pool.
It is flat wrong. !!!!
The Milk Pool is literally killing the dairy farmers. It assures that they all get the lowest possible milk price and there is nothing that anyone of them can do to liberate themselves from the ensuing bankruptcy.
OPDC can not buy a drop of fluid milk from the Milk Pool….like other processors. Why? Because of the required less than 10 coliform count and also the lack of control over quality and potential pathogens. About 5% of all Milk Pool milk contains pathogens.
CDFA does not appear to care about these very compelling issues and the structural unfairness that it forces on OPDC. They just do not care! and they smile when they say they just do not care.
Instead…OPDC is mandated to pay into the Milk Pool about $360,000 per year. Ask me why Raw Milk Costs so much in CA….one of the biggies is the Milk Pool!!!!
The argument given by CDFA about our mandatory Milk Pool fees centers mostly arround the fact that OPDC has a dairy and also has a creamery plant liscence. The milk goes from the dairy into a creamery plant…therefore we receive Milk into a Milk Pool plant even though we deny we are a Milk Pool plant….CDFA will not allow OPDC to operate a non Milk Pool Plant. It is captive fascism!!!
In the bottom line assessment….CDFA wants raw milk to bleed and bleed into the Milk Pool. The more we suffer the happier they are. The more we pay the more money is available to be sent to the Milk Pool CAFO dairies that can not sell milk becuase of Lastose Intolerance or Milk Allergies.
To bring up this subject….just makes me boil.
We are trying again next year….one more time… to get raw milk out of the Milk Pool.
We will see how that goes.
Mark
I thought, wrongfully thought, that Mother Jones Magazine would present the Raw Milk story in an unbiased and helpful manner…boy…was I wrong.
They quoted FDA extensively, made a satire out of the PARSIFAL and GABRIELA studies and discounted these peer reviewed and published studies completely as if they did not matter and were irrelevant. They said that raw milk killed people, but did not give the data that supported any deaths. The then went on to talk about the guarantees of pasteurization and how it has changed milk safety for the better and assured that Ecoli does not hurt people. What a bag of CAFO Soy Antibiotic GMO crap!!
Wrong and inaccurate at so many levels. It was not ecoli that hurt anyone 120 years ago. It was Typhoid, TB and Water borne illness that killed so many in the late 1800’s.
The bacteria phobia and just plain ignorance and laziness of the writer leads me to believe more than ever, that HIPPIE magazines lead the ignorance parade. My guess…when you smoke to much pot to take away the GUT pain….you do not write and or do research very well. Lazy brains do not write or think very well.
Sad status of American journalism. Even the journalism that I thought might, just might be fair to raw milk really sucks.
The article never mentions all the deaths from pasteurized milk or the huge amount of dairy allergies ( and eight associated deaths from pasteurized milk allergies since 1998 ), but it sure quoted the hell out of Mary Martin.
Can I puke now??
Mark
bacterial contamination appears to be so much more prevalent in everything but dairy….
“New Creation Dairy Goats
Mark, THANK YOU again for leading the class in oregon that prompted our family to push for whole foods and only consuming raw milk….here’s my post for today on my facebook page: Allergy/Asthma update: On Sat night we went to a friends house who has cats….which is my daughters biggest problem and ALWAYS triggers the asthma to the point of needing a middle-of-the-night nebulizer treatment….this was our FIRST visit to this friends house that DID NOT end with ANY treatments, including her regular albuteral inhaler!!!! She was so thrilled to make it out with only a slight sniffle and wheeze…her comment when we got home was, ‘I LOVE RAW MILK!!!!’ …. ”
This is why raw milk will thrive as long as people have a will to live!!!
Asthma claims 4000 kids per year…..raw milk saves that many and many more.
Dr. Lindy Woodard speaks about her pediatric practice and the use of RAWMILK to reduce and or eliminate asthma and allergies and ear infections.
I rest my case. She says that raw milk is medicine.
I would venture to say that Mary Martin contacted Mother Jones with her story and they ran with it without bothering to do any real journalistic research, even though she now claims amnesia. Or maybe Marler spoke for her. Hmmmm. I stopped looking at Mother Jones several years ago because they had some idiotic stuff in print without reference materials. IMPHO, in order to be credible, they need to reference their work. Any good journalist should.
But if it were me, I’d go back to being a paramedic and deprive the milk pool. But that’s just me. Stressful as it is, it would be a walk in the park, stress-wise, compared to letting them rule the roost, and you wouldn’t have to kiss the butts of the State goons.
I love me some hippies.
She never revealed to me that she was a raw milk drinker when she interviewed me, but I could tell by her questions she was connected to WAPF. We had a lovely talk. In the end I encouraged her to watch Mari Tardiffs video and read the 3 part story that was written about her. We also talked about the Oregon outbreak; two very young children damaged by strokes. She also talked to different people in public health. She has now decided that raw milk is not worth the risk.
Prior to drinking raw milk for a year, she did not have all the information about the risk side of things. After gaining that information, she decided the benefits did not outweigh the risks. We live in a very toxic world and the deadly pathogens that have evolved where not here 100 years ago.
Im not sure why Mark is so upset about her choice.
It is the nature of the spirit(s) within. JMHO.
I guess it makes sense to someone. It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Does she also know how pasteurized CAFO milk is produced and the risks involved with drinking it? Did she watch a graphic video about that?? Does she know it’s filled with chalk to make it white and that synthetic vitamins are added because the original goodness is stripped out of it? Yeh, I’m sure she does but now she drinks it because it’s “riskless”. If either she or you believe our “toxic world” doesn’t extend to pasteurized foods, you both have much to learn. What makes pasteurized food toxic is simply that it’s dead to begin with. Vibrant health does not come from dead foods.
Personally Mary, if I were you, I think I would not drink any milk at all. I really think you should campaign against all types of milk (raw, nut, pasteurized, canned, etc) because that would be the fair thing to do.
What is the point of having food rights and freedom of choice (we still have it for a while I think) if we can’t follow through with our personal choices? The problem I see is accessibility to healthy foods – whatever “healthy” might be in anyone’s personal opinion. If the USG steps in, we definitely will be restricted in our choices. That will Include your choices. Is that what you want? Broccoli will be considered as toxic as Pradaxa. I see sushi restaurants springing up all over the place, even out here in the boonies where I live – and we’re 1,600 miles from the nearest ocean. Perfectly acceptable raw food, if you like that sort of thing. I see people eating spinach and cantaloupe and all the other things that were pulled from the market shelves. WOnder if the author eats those things and considers them “riskless”.
It is again one of those days where posts are just landing wherever they wish. I tried to “reply” to user2690 but of course it shoved my post all the way to the bottom of the page instead of correlating it under his post. So now everything is out of kilter. Arg.
For the record, I am not reaching out to Mary, but consider her a long distance friend. Mary has been nothing but civil to me and others, and her opinions, however convergent or divergent to my own, are neither here nor there when it comes to taking responsibility for each other. Kindness and love to all. (Notably, ones responsibility to be kind and loving does not preclude the exchange of ideas or attempts to persuade. One might argue it is the only way to effectively persuade.)
On the latter, Mary stated above that a raw milk drinker may not have been fully informed about the risk side of things. In defense of that statement, she correctly notes that pathogens exist today that did not exist 100 years ago. She concludes that this change has made raw milk too risky.
I would answer that mutation is a normal biological process, part of earth since the first dawn, and that it is virtually certain that humans have been forced to adapt to similar bacterial mutation as long as we have existed. Fortunately for us, immune modification is also as old as time, and is in fact the natural and proper antidote to pathologic mutation. Yes, we have become part of the problem through profligate use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, monoculture farming, dead-food diets, and a kill-all-perceived-enemies medical mentality, but that only makes the need for good raw milk more pressing.
In the video Mary linked above, Dr. Natasha McBride makes a case for small, clean, diverse, polyculture farms. She is quite correct in doing so, and though she didnt say it, I bet Dr. McBride would also support the integration of polyculture farms into residential landscapes. I happen to think the integration of such farms into residential biomes is an essential immune builder. It is certainly the absolute best way to make use of cows, since cows are continually sampling their environment and modifying their milk in response, to provide specific, beneficial antibodies. Become a part of a cows biome, and you are integrated into a most amazing, protective chain of biological machinations.
Follow the medical paradigm to its logical conclusion. Follow the polyculture paradigm to its logical conclusion. Which do you like better?
http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/are-you-a-milk-moonshiner/
Here’s the comment verbatim: “If you are concerned about bacterial count, put a few drops of iodine in the gallon of milk and stir it thoroughly.”
It came from this link: http://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&p=97019
It is in a comment posted by buffalo girl about the fifth post down.
Comments?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7021616
As for our family, we don’t consume dairy.
But I’d never heard or thought about adding it to raw milk, but as I said, the person who posted that statement at the link I included in a different post, didn’t go into any details at all. I don’t know if she was adding it to the milk as a trace mineral or as a purifying aid or what she was actually using the iodine for.
I can see adding it to pasteurized milk, Deborah, as messing around with raw milk really does remove trace minerals and your grandmother was probably smart to replace what she knew was missing.
I guess I’ll have to do a little more research on this subject. I will check over at AJCN and see what they have to say about it, if anything at all, or maybe I can find something at PLoS. If I do find anything relevant, I’ll post it here.
If I couldn’t find raw milk anywhere locally, or if that point ever comes in future, I won’t consume milk of any kind.
“CLA IN REAL MILK
My wife and I operate a 100 percent grass-based seasonal dairy. Your readers need to know that just because a dairy is organic doesnt mean these cows are eating a grain-free diet. These dairies can feed organic grain, hay or silage and still sell organic milk. This may be slightly better than regular store-bought milk, BUT these cows can still be confined just like the cows in conventional dairies.
If that doesnt sound like a concern to you yet, then here is another bit of info. The national average lactation period of a dairy cow in the USA is 1.6 lactations. This means these cows are slaughtered when less than four years old for various health reasons too numerous to mention. Now keep in mind these organic dairies may also operate in the exact same manner, which means that these cows are living in an unhealthy environment and are sick. We are eating organic products and thinking we are doing the right thing only to find out that big industry has once again ruined a good thing.
We had our milk checked for CLA(conjugated linoleic acid) levels. [CLA helps prevent cancer and obesity.] We also checked two neighbors milk. All three of these are Jersey herds checked the very same day. One herd is totally confined. The other herd is one-half grass and one-half total mixed ration. The results were interesting. Our all-grass herd had a CLA level 3 to 4 times higher than regular store-bought milk. The other two herds were basically the same as regular store-bought milk. I found it very interesting how the herd getting half grain had CLA levels the same as the totally confined herd.
There is no room for cheating. Know your dairy farmer! And remember, when the price for grass-based dairy products is higher, the products contain three to four times more nutrients and that the dairyman is producing about one-third the milk of the modern conventional dairies. He needs to make a living also. K.B.”
What evidence do you have for this radical assertion?