Back in 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s chief dairy guy, John Sheehan (pictured left), committed himself to restricting production of raw milk cheese, stating in a national magazine: “60-day aging is largely ineffectual as a means of reducing levels of certain pathogens in cheeses. With this information in hand, FDA is now developing a risk profile for raw milk cheeses, which will aid in the Agency’s assessment of the requirements for processing these cheeses.”
Here we are, 11 years later, and John Sheehan is still the chief dairy guy at the FDA, the 60-day aging is still in place….and Sheehan is still promising to mess with it. In a new report contained in a newsletter from the American Cheese Society, the ACS says it had a director attending a meeting at the International Dairy Foods Association at which, “Sheehan stated that the agency is drafting an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) indicating the agency’s current thinking on the 60-day aging requirement for unpasteurized cheese, and he mentioned the possibility of a Performance Standard in place of the 60-day aging rule.”
Hmmm. A “Performance Standard.” What exactly does that mean?
It may not matter, because the also ACS reported that “FDA subsequently provided clarification that this has been considered, but that the leadership was embracing an approach that will involve continuing outreach to stakeholders and expanding the conversation about the aging process for soft-ripened cheeses before making any decisions about next steps.”
Sounds to me like his higher-ups were contradicting Sheehan after he suggested the FDA might be coming to a conclusion not pleasing to raw cheese producers on the 60-day aging requirement. Sheehan’s superiors were essentially saying, “Let’s talk a few more years about this 60-day aging rule.” I mean, 11 years isn’t all that long a time period in the context of a large bureaucracy, which is considering restricting a rule that has been working for going on 70 years.
What I think is going on is that the FDA, led by Sheehan, has been searching for the last nearly dozen years for an excuse, any excuse, to come down on raw-milk cheese, and hasn’t been able to get the goods. Most recently, over the last couple years, the FDA has been engaged in something it calls a “raw milk cheese sampling pilot program,” whose goal has been to analyze 1,600 raw milk cheese samples, of which about 500 were to come from domestic producers. That program is due to wrap up in a couple days, July 1, the ACS reported. According to the ACS, Sheehan reported “Listeria was found in 5 domestic samples resulting in 4 recalls.” The fact that there was no mention of illnesses means not a single individual was sickened by any of the cheese with listeria—a not uncommon occurrence, since very small amounts of listeria in food are known to not cause illness.
So, while the last time I wrote about this, I thought the FDA was getting ready to put the screws to raw-milk cheese producers, now I’m not so sure. Since no one’s getting sick from raw milk cheese, the FDA can just keep talking mumbo jumbo and creating uncertainty…and keeping its corporate processed cheese clients happy. After all, Sheehan & Co. keep getting paid and accumulating pension credits no matter how long this non-problem problem goes on. Eleven years. Twenty years. Fifty years. Who cares? Life is good.
COMMENT BY Dairy Duchess:
It’s going on three weeks now, but I started occasionally helping my cheesemaker friends at their farm. All this has helped in my understanding of what really goes on with making cheese. They haven’t started doing any aged cheeses yet, but do soft-ripen some. What I’ve learned is, any kind of ‘foreign’ bacteria/mold (which isn’t the ones used in making the particular cheese at the moment) will affect the outcome. Just opening the door to turn the cheese can introduce molds and such, which can cause problems in the final product, so one has to be careful in what they do.
I will be paying close attention to what goes on once they are ready to start aging cheese. I do know that samples are collected from the other cheese that has been made, and these are from pasteurized milk. There is no way around that rule, because the cheese is either fresh, or soft-ripened, so it has to be pasteurized. It has been a very interesting learning experience!
COMMENT BY D. Smith:
Oh no, here we go again with that, that, that – – face.
I’d rather look at a piece of cheese, any day of the week.
COMMENT BY David Gumpert:
D, I know….my apologies. I was going to mention in my post something about re-using that photo. It’s just that Sheehan has been the architect of this long war on raw-milk cheese, and in the process trying his best to protect the corporate dairy industry.
COMMENT BY D. Smith:
No apologies necessary. I just can’t hardly stand to look at the little worm.
COMMENT BY Gordon S Watson:
Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals taught his students ( crypto commies such as Hilary Rodham ) to “personalize the contest”. Just as the Campaign for REAL MILK got traction in Canada, when Michael Schmidt was cast as its champion, so morality plays need blackguards = the bad guys of the piece. For fun : photo-shop a black cow-boy hat on Mr Sheehan in his white full-dress military uniform : the Food PoliceMan. I suggest you run a contest for cartoons using the same pic. of the Smilin’ Irishman, atop the FDA with witty captions, appropriate for our side in the propaganda war. If there’s one thing the commies cannot stand, it’s mockery.
COMMENT BY mark mcafee:
The FDA thinks they have power? ….we are just weeks away from the FDA starting the process of being dragged back into federal court to explain why raw butter is banned in interstate commerce…..and not one illness can be found in 40 years of state or CDC data.
Sheehan is such a spook. Secret…seldom seen, seldom heard….the classic industry spy agent.
COMMENT BY D. Smith:
An arrogant spook, too boot.
The fda will no doubt come up with something that the courts will buy into, in order to get their way. Facts (of no illnesses) do not seem to make a bit of difference. In fact, if you could prove it was making people sick, they’d go out of their way to eliminate the now banned interstate commerce thingy. That DOES seem to be how it works for our court system. If it’s wrong and they know it’s wrong, they tend to go for it. Imagine it.
Some examples? Ok. Here’s a few: Vaccinations. Chemotherapy. Radiation. Rx drugs by the 1,000’s with known and well-documented side effects. Pesticides. Herbicides. Insecticides. Aluminum waste dumped into the water. And those just scratch the surface.
Anyone else feel sick yet?
Happy 4th of July to all . . . 8-|
COMMENT BY Bora Petski:
Just remember we’re the land of the free, home of the self proclaimed brave while we live in insulation of world wars and delusional, have been bought out because we allow it and participate in financial support of it daily. More fancy tech corporate commercials please. Not me or you, but the almighty dollar that’s about to collapse. Happy forth.
Bottom line and never forget it, it’s all about the money and control of public awareness psyche to direct or redirect that $. Real milk is just a drop in the bucket unless you value it and won’t let go like 99% of public has. Count me in, my money these days is scarce and choosy
And now TMI. My business neighbor next door literaly next door (actually same door into vestibule entrance) has called the cops on me a couple of times because evidently he doesnt like dogs barking when people show up or wondering into his half space. That’s their job, it’s our security system and they never ever attack anyone. I’m about to give it up and go out of business. Kiss me goodbye. Think I’ll get getsome goats or cows instead.
COMMENT BY David Gumpert:
This segment from NPR is supposed to be a positive view on how MDs are becoming more open to learning about diet and nutrition, but it’s really a sad commentary on how little they know, or care, about such matters.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/07/01/419167750/a-dose-of-culin…
COMMENT BY D. Smith:
Well, at least it sounds like students are aware that they need to be taking an interest in nutrition, rather than pushing it off as something for the lunatic fringe. The obesity and diabetes epidemics should be enough to open their eyes to the fact that nutrition plays a huge role in health – in fact, the biggest role.
I wish the article would have mentioned some of what these students are actually learning – are they learning that cholesterol isn’t what they’ve been taught and that we’ve all been misled regarding saturated fats for the past 50 years, etc. Because if those students aren’t learning about PROPER nutrition, they’re wasting their own time and will eventually waste the time of their patients.
It may, however, be the beginning of an inroad to getting more providers to pay attention to nutrition, and that would be a major hurdle to clear.
COMMENT BY Ora Moose:
David I saw that article and was going to post it but glad you beat me to it’s no real big surprise if you are realistic about asking a barber if you need a haircut. If only I had a dime for every time I had to educate someone on the conflict of interest when they tell me their vet recommended some brand that is well known to be inferior and just a result of profit making and false advertising. We try to stay informed and eat accordingly, that’s why this website is so valuable for people that value real basic food and eat rather well (better than dog food but not always) if it’s not financed by someone elses’s ulterior motives.
COMMENT BY Ora Moose:
D, there’s an innate basic conflict between making money off people that are may be sick have coverage and need your services vs. perfectly healthy people that are not sick and can’t afford it. Accept it, and know that many people think they or their doctors know better
COMMENT BY Ken Conrad:
David
This type of experience is invaluable. However, doctors need to able to distinguish between and respect that which is natural and that which is not natural. The allopathic approach to health care needs to be able to distance itself from its obsession with using unnatural toxic interventions to control illness and disease. And since, as Dr. Robert Mendelsohn suggested, “medical schools” tend to give students” a curriculum that is absolutely meaningless as far as healing or health are concerned”, then this in turn serves to contradict and undermine the above effort.
The following quote by Robert Bell MD is applicable to any disease or illness, “Cancer is Nature’s protest against disobedience (the unnatural). It is the penalty she imposes upon those who, perhaps knowingly or unknowingly ignore her teachings”. Bracketed emphasis is mine.
COMMENT BY Ora Moose:
Ken, maybe it should be a requirement of doctors that they experience firsthand being sick before they can dispense advice for others but I guess its a given since we’ve all been sick at some point to a varying degree if not a PHD in the school of hard knocks as they say. Then again, it’s probably just as illuminating that you experience being healthy as not.
COMMENT BY D. Smith:
I don’t recall mentioning money.
My point was that doctor’s are rarely even interested in the nutritional aspect of health, as if it basically doesn’t exist, or as though one thing had nothing to do with the other. That’s ridiculous and it looks as though that’s finally starting to change a bit, which is always a good thing. Still, no one should take nutritional advice from people who haven’t actually studied that subject – and it’s a big subject with many variables. There are always going to be differing opinions of what’s healthy and what isn’t – but we’ve learned from the past that taking advice from doctors who are not nutritionally educated, and politicians like George McGovern (what were we thinking??), sure didn’t work out very well for the human race.
COMMENT BY mark mcafee:
Friends and my dear FDA,
The far more worrisome issue is not that doctors lack knowledge of nutrition and its essential link to the immune system…it is the fact that pharma researchers were thoroughly convinced for 40 years that: high fat diets made you fat and low fats and low cholesterol was good for you. The thing to worry about is the “sales job done on the FDA, the consumers and the medical schools” that changed curriculum’s to reflect false and bad information. We all know this is all false and has caused massive illness and death!!
To quote doctor Dr.Bruce German at the conclusion of the 2014 International Milk Genomics Consortium convention in Arhus Denmark, when he posed 2 questions to hundreds of PhDs:
1. How could researchers be so wrong for so long thinking they were so right when it came to the low fat diet being good for you!??
2. How can we be sure that we are not making the same mistake by thinking we can make a better baby formula with synthetic breast milk?
This is reality….science is owned by money interests that twist reality into a form which helps Wall Street Stocks…not consumers or babies immunity or health.
This is what we should be concerned about. Let us free our scientists to be scientists…not whores to CORPORATE Wall Street Stock numbers. This is an innate concern…one that is part of our $$$$$ structure as a society. We must change the way that research is funded and to whom that research benefits.
COMMENT BY Ken Conrad:
Mark,
There appears to be a never-ending supply of carpetbaggers, (unscrupulous opportunists) who are more then eager to take advantage of whatever scientific discoveries may transpire.
That being said however, they wouldn’t get past first base if it weren’t for the reverence of a consuming public in the scientific model. Science has become the new religion and has established its own churches and doctrines visa vie the various learning institutions with its many influential sponsors including “the church of modern medicine” the government and industry. If there ever was a need for separation of church and state this is it. That however is not going to happen, because all human beings are fundamentally religious.
COMMENT BY David Gumpert:
Well, at the risk of getting into sensitive territory, organized religion is at its heart about business. Same with medicine. It’s a business. And in the developed world, allopathic medicine is organized as a monopolistic business. The problem with food and nutrition has always been that it’s difficult for the medical/pharmaceutical business to charge their normal monopolistic rates for dispensing. The industry is trying, with doctors now writing “prescriptions” for weight-loss diets and for exercise and for meditation (and charging big time for the privilege). Our society has been conditioned to believe if a doctor tells you to eat good food, then it must be worthwhile. Of course, what a doctor tells you is good food may not in fact be good food.
COMMENT BY Ken Conrad:
The truth toolkit
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Sceptical_Doctoring_vs_Doctoring_Data.php
Of course we have to be able to decide whom to trust. So Kendrick provides what he calls a “truth toolkit”: ten things you should remember when you hear a story about health:
1. Association does not mean causation. If people who eat more red meat have a higher risk of heart disease, does that mean that eating red meat is bad for your heart? You might think so, because a study from Harvard [1] found that people who eat more red meat have a higher risk of heart disease. And that’s how the media reported it (cf. [2]). But the study also found that people who eat red meat consume more calories, exercise less and are more likely to smoke.
2. We are all going to die. We often read of some new drug that saves lives, when the most it can do is postpone death. So the important question is “By how much?” Kendrick describes a press release [3] that claimed treating 10 million people with statins would save about 50 000 lives a year. He points out that a more informative way of putting it is that if 200 people were treated for a year, it would make no difference to 199 of them and the other one would live for a few extra months. (For more on statins, see Statins for the Healthy are Harmful [4] and The ‘Deadly Dangers of Saturated Fat’ & the ‘Superlative Safety of Statins’ [5].)
3. Relative mountains are made out of absolute molehills. According to a news report on the BBC [6], regularly drinking two large glasses of wine or two pints of strong beer a day triples the risk of mouth cancer. That sounds alarming, but only 2.5 out of every 100 000 people in the UK die of mouth cancer. So even if this is cause and effect and not just merely association (people who drink are more likely to smoke, less likely to exercise, and so on), the number of people affected is very small. Three times a tiny number is another tiny number.
4. Things that are false are often held to be true. For a long time it was believed that women are protected against heart disease by their sex hormones. Kendrick was unable to find any research to support the idea. The origin appears to be no more than the observation that (a) men were more susceptible than women to heart disease and (b) the sex hormones are the most obvious difference between the sexes. As a result, many menopausal women were prescribed hormone replacement therapy to maintain this protection. In the US, failure to prescribe could constitute malpractice [7]. Eventually a large controlled study was carried out to measure the effect [8]. It turned out that the sex hormones were not providing protection. On the contrary, women who were taking HRT were at a greater risk of heart failure and strokes.
5. Reducing numbers does not equal reducing risk. High blood pressure is associated with a greater risk of heart disease. But that doesn’t mean it is the cause; in fact, there is no evidence that reducing the blood pressure reduces the risk [9]. Yet a drug that can lower the blood pressure below a certain number is considered an effective treatment, with no further check on whether it actually does the patient any good.
6. Challenges to the status quo are crushed. When Marshall and Warren argued that ulcers were caused not by stress but by a bacterial infection, they were met with ridicule and hostility – until they were awarded a Nobel Prize. Kendrick suggests three points to bear in mind. First, most experts are only experts in a relatively narrow field. Second, the angrier they are, the more likely it is that they suspect they are wrong. Third, because their reputation, status and income may all be at stake, it is very difficult for experts to change their minds.
7. Games are played. He who pays the piper calls the tune, and the pharmaceutical industry carries out or funds an ever-increasing proportion of the research and pays, in one way or another, most of the so-called key opinion leaders.
8. Doctors can seriously damage your health. For a number of reasons, doctors tend to be inclined towards more intervention rather than less.
9. Never believe that something is impossible. Many people died because the experts claimed cholera could not possibly be communicated by water or puerperal fever by doctors’ unwashed hands. Today we are assured that vaccination cannot possibly be a cause of autism. (See MMR Controversy Reignites [10] for an update.)
10. ‘Facts’ can be, and often are, plucked out of the air. It may sound very scientific to be told we should aim for a body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 25 but these are arbitrary figures. What is more, the evidence is that those who are considered overweight (BMI between 25 and 30) live longer than those who are ‘normal’, and even those classed as obese (BMI between 30 and 35) do as well [11].
COMMENT BY Ora Moose:
“I have no idea if these three doctors were “alternative” “holistic” or any info of them at all at this time… We cannot speculate as to how “alternative” these two doctors were, if at all.”
Funny how this kind of stuffed is mostly under the radar on major media.
http://www.healthnutnews.com/2-more-doctors-d-o-m-d-go-missing-after-3-f…
COMMENT BY Ora Moose:
More interesting stuff along the lines of alternative self help for health and healing:
https://as219.infusionsoft.com/app/hostedEmail/2658466/9f554f539e7193d4?…
COMMENT BY D. Smith:
An interesting perspective here: http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.ca/2015/06/if-your-bs-detector-isnt-shr…
COMMENT BY Gordon S Watson:
anti-vax doctor “suicides” … yeah, right
https://mail.google.com/mail/?pli=1#inbox/14e6a297ce009674
the latest high-profile casualty in this wicked game
COMMENT BY Gordon S Watson:
the proper URL to the article about anti-vax doctor being found dead / “suicided” ? !
http://www.greenpasture.org/utility/showarticle/?eid=4087&usid=4766b2011…
COMMENT BY David Gumpert:
Supporters have just sent out an email that the fundraising campaign for CA raw milk producer Claravale Dairy needs more support–it’s nearly 1/2 way to its $60K goal. http://www.gofundme.com/spilledmilk
COMMENT BY tommculhane:
The comments on the gofundme page for this doctor are quite interesting:
http://www.gofundme.com/xscefs
I hope Claravale decides to use their funds to do a proper investigation into the government’s program to “neutralize” the raw milk threat to Pharmaceutical profits from mineral deficiency/sick gut illness.
COMMENT BY tommculhane:
“The medico-drug cartel was summed up by J.W Hodge, M.D., of Niagara Falls, N.Y., in these words:
‘The medical monopoly or medical trust, euphemistically called the American Medical Association, is not merely the meanest monopoly ever organized, but the most arrogant, dangerous and despotic organisation which ever managed a free people in this or any other age. Any and all methods of healing the sick by means of safe, simple and natural remedies are sure to be assailed and denounced by the arrogant leaders of the AMA doctors’ trust as fakes, frauds and humbugs.
Every practitioner of the healing art who does not ally himself with the medical trust is denounced as a ‘dangerous quack’ and impostor by the predatory trust doctors. Every sanitarian who attempts to restore the sick to a state of health by natural means without resort to the knife or poisonous drugs, disease imparting serums, deadly toxins or vaccines, is at once pounced upon by these medical tyrants and fanatics, bitterly denounced, vilified and persecuted to the fullest extent.'”
http://www.whale.to/b/ruesch.html
The more things change…
COMMENT BY Ken Conrad:
D,
I decided to pull the batteries from by BS detector; I got tired of the shrieking.
COMMENT BY tommculhane:
D’s link is about con artists. Now here’s a couple items of interest from the establishment’s own Wikipedia article on John D. Rockefeller Sr., co founder of Standard Oil:
“…Rockefeller was the second of six children and eldest son born … to con artist William Avery “Bill” Rockefeller (November 13, 1810 – May 11, 1906) and Eliza Davison… Bill was first a lumberman and then a traveling salesman who identified himself as a “botanic physician” and sold elixirs. The locals referred to the mysterious but fun-loving man as “Big Bill” and “Devil Bill”…Throughout his life, Bill became notorious for shady schemes…”
“Rockefeller founded Standard Oil as an Ohio partnership with his brother William along with Henry Flagler, Jabez A. Bostwick, chemist Samuel Andrews, and a silent partner, Stephen V. Harkness. As kerosene and gasoline grew in importance, Rockefeller’s wealth soared … controlling 90% of all oil in the United States at his peak.”
“…In less than four months in 1872, in what was later known as “The Cleveland Conquest” or “The Cleveland Massacre”, Standard Oil had absorbed 22 of its 26 Cleveland competitors…”
Ok, so how does the son of a con man end up “absorbing” most all his competitors and controlling 90 percent of a raw material?
Hey, can I control a raw material? How about clay? Anyone who uses clay, you have to send me a royalty, ok?
Obviously the official Rockefeller story is absurd. He had to be the front for something much much bigger. See btw the youtube video on the Rothschilds banking family, over a million views, about 55 minutes, type in “Rothschild puppetmasters trillionaire” on youtube and you’ll find it, well worth watching. Alleged to have controlled over 1/2 the world’s wealth, at the time of the emergence of Standard Oil out of nowhere. Many believe Rockefeller was a front for this, others say no. In the Rockefeller article I linked above, they do say:
“Rockefeller was also co-owner of Time’s “rival” magazine, Newsweek, which had been established in the early days of the New Deal with money put up by Rockefeller, Vincent Astor, the Harrimann family and other members and allies of the House.”
It is pointed out in the youtube video that the Rothschilds did fund Harriman, Astor, and other wealthy Americans such as Carnegie and Vanderbilt. Anyway the key thing is, one way or another, Rockefeller would have been a front for the elite, transnational level of power on this planet that does things like funds all sides in wars. So Rockefeller being linked so heavily with the Sickness Industry fits like a glove. So when you go see a medical doctor, these are the folks that have trained him.
And you’ll notice how the various arms of the establishment all work hand in hand with this. For example, Catholic and Christian hospitals dispense as many pharmaceutical drugs as anyone else…
One big happy family.
COMMENT BY Ora Moose:
Fascinating stuff there Tomm, and small world to boot. My oldest brother-in-law is the family research historian, and discovered that his dad (my FIL) was actually the illegitimate child of one of the Astor boys fooling around with one of the maids. He never knew his father but was well taken care of, and owned a speakeasy in NY city during the prohibition boy could he tell some interesting stories sitting around the fire.
COMMENT BY mark mcafee:
This is what it looks like when the USA places agricultural sanctions against Russia for its actions in the Balkans.
They link up with China and simply give us the finger. See the worlds largest dairy with 40,000 cows and 8 rotary milking dairy barns….soon they will build a 100,000 cow dairy and no longer need the USA for dairy products at all. Be careful when you tour a delegation from China…they are reverse engineering everything that they see. http://www.agweb.com/article/100000-cow-dairy-coming-to-china-NAA-wyatt-…
COMMENT BY David Gumpert:
Here’s some advance news: My blog will soon (next day or two) be moved to a new platform. More details to come, but hopefully we’ll experience few glitches from this side of the curtain. Thanks in advance for your patience if there are more than a few.
COMMENT BY tommculhane:
David, I’m not a computer guy, but the first thing they teach in computers 101 is to make backups, so if you value your archives you need to have your computer people back them up. Last time, as you know, they didn’t.