I love eucalyptus trees, both their smell and their look. But I didnt like learning about how they are being used to supposedly fight global warming.
Vast eucalyptus forests have been planted in Brazil, and the trees are harvested for charcoal. Same with palm trees in Honduras, there to extract bio-gas.
Its much worse than simple extension of the monoculture mindset, according to a disturbing documentary I saw earlier this week, The Carbon Rush. It dramatizes how the Brazilian and Honduran projects, along with others in India and Panama, are receiving carbon credits for offsetting pollution created in the developed world.
But, irony of ironies, these carbon-credit projects are not only not reducing carbon emissions, but they are destroying indigenous communities where they have been set up. Local people are barred from accessing the woods and fields that have been planted as eucalyptus or palm farms. Indeed, these projects are heavily guarded by corporate police to keep local people out or, in some cases, like Honduras, to confiscate their land, and murder those who object.
Its a discouraging film, but extremely informative about how seemingly rational incentive-based global policies (part of the Kyoto Protocol) get twisted out of shape by corporate manipulation. Well worth seeing.
**
I have re-visited that Minnesota study on raw milk illnesses sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, in an article for Alternet.
As I suggest in the article, the research methodologies underlying the study are very dubious. But beyond that, theres also the matter of a missed opportunity. The researchers had the opportunity to explore with raw milk drinkers their experiences consuming raw milk (whether they are regular or occasional consumers, for example), their long-term health experiences, and their challenges in obtaining regular supplies. Going more in-depth with their subjects would have required a more careful study, and a study geared toward informing.
But, of course, the study wasnt about offering positive guidance in any shape or form. It was only about trashing raw milk, so it couldnt go in any other direction.
**
Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures Dairy Co. sent along a couple of examples of dairy filters to highlight the differences in milk intended to be served raw and that intended to be pasteurized. Here is his explanation for the photos below:
My son Aaron took a picture of this milk filter (first photo below) during a random visit to a local ‘Grade A Dairy’ this last week. It may not be everyones dairy .but it is a CDFA (CA Dept of Food and Agriculture) Grade A dairy and milk that flowed through this filter….gets commingled and supplied to consumers everywhere. The very clean filters (second photo below) are from OPDC RAWMI RAMP audits we do every week. These are common OPDC milk filters that show the negligible effects of milking hundreds of OPDC organic raw milk cows….Our RAMP team classifies, grades and places our filters into individual plastic bags. They are frozen for collection and testing each week and that is why they have clumps of ice-milk on them. Filters are as much as ten times more sensitive to pathogen tests as finished raw milk samples.
When you consider that not all PMO (Pasteurized Milk Ordinance) Grade A raw milk filters may look this bad .all comingled CAFO milk is this bad. Why .because the better raw milk ( if there is any) and bad raw milk (like that which flowed through this filter) all gets dumped and commingled into one bulk tank at the FDA-approved creamery that then cooks it to death.
Shades of pink slime.
**
Compliments to all here on the tone of the debate and discussion following my previous two posts. While some individuals acknowledged temptations to get personally nasty to others, the tone has been generally restrained and issues oriented This is a positive change from past discussions involving public health people, where some have been run off the blog.
Its not that the public health people I quoted have radically changed their views, but Id say theyve both moderated their tone and shown more willingness to engage in discussion. Who knows where it leads, but it is progress in the context of the highly-charged raw milk controversy.
**
As I go around and speak about food rights, I am struck by the deep desire many people feel to organize and fight the conventional food system. It was the same this past week at Groton Wellness, in Groton, MA. We had about a dozen people on a frigid evening, and pretty much everyone stayed around for an hour-long discussion following my talk, on possible ways to organize their communities, initiate food sovereignty ordinances, get young people involved in farming, and take on legislative missions.
People are definitely feeling beaten down, and ever more radicalized, by seeming coordination between the mainstream media and government agencies like the CDC and FDA, to misinform on food issues, and want to organize.
**
Ill be in Lincroft, NJ, on Sunday (speaking at 2:30 pm), at the NOFA-NJ Winter Conference. There seems to be a huge amount of enthusiasm for the gathering, and Im very much looking forward to participating.
Thank you for sharing the photos of dairy filters. What a remarkable difference.
J Heckman
RAWMI LISTED raw milk is a different world of milk!!! A place the FDA fears to tread because of the comparison it will clearly bring. Thank you David for your posting of these two pictures. They are worth more than a million words. I rest my case.
All of the 48 milk filters we have sent off for testing in the last two months have all been negative for pathogens. According to studies on raw milk filters in the EU, milk filters are between 3 & 10 times more sensative ( ie…accurate in finding ) to pathogen discovery and detection than finished milk samples.
It is no wonder that clean raw milk tastes delicious….it is clean raw milk. It is not “the good, the bad and the Ugly CAFO commingled cooked sh**.” The truth really stings. Sorry CAFO guys. Those of you that do a great job are being really cheated by those that do not. In your system it all becomes the least common denominator of quality when it is ALL dumped into that huge silo down at the regional creamery. The place that pays you less than dirt.
Disconnect with consumers and their needs and this is what happens.
I’m thinking of hanging the first photo alongside one of our milk filters for our herdshare members to see. They would be…impressed? I’m not sure that is the exact word I’m looking for. Educated is perhaps more like it.
I’ll add another way in which it’s a Trojan horse. In Brazil there’s a move afoot to withdraw from the global moratorium on the “Terminator” variety of GMO. The sham “eco-friendly” rationale which is being given is that it’ll be used only with GM eucalyptus, to prevent their pollen from contaminating other trees.
http://attempter.wordpress.com/2013/12/19/brazil-the-good-news-and-bad/
In practice expanded tree monoculture will just drive accelerated deforestation and escalating GHG emissions (industrial ag is the biggest GHG emitter and destroyer of carbon sinks), while once the suicide seed is commercialized in one product, it’ll quickly become standard for maize and soy, and then for all other GMOs.
That’s typical corporate “science”, and typical “science” coverage in the corporate media.
Meanwhile the media almost never mention studies which implicate structural elements of corporate agriculture in food-borne illness. Salmonella? Roundup (ubiquitous and systemic in all non-organic processed food in the US, as well as meat and dairy products from animals fed on GM-based feed; which again means everything in the supermarket which isn’t certified organic) is known to disproportionately kill beneficial microorganisms in the gut while sparing salmonella, C. botulinum, and other potentially pathogenic microbes.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2012/14520-roundup-harms-beneficial-gut-bacteria-study
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2013/14715-how-gmo-farming-and-food-is-making-our-gut-flora-unfriendly
Sure enough, botulism is surging among livestock, while salmonella-driven illness has also soared in tandem with CAFOs and GMOs. As for pathogenic E. coli, it’s a purely CAFO-generated problem.
And then CAFOs and GMOs both systematically create antibiotic resistant strains of pathogenic bacteria.
Yes indeed, it’s clear why the corporate system is desperate to find a scapegoat, just as it’s desperate to suppress the rising Community Food movement, including raw milk. As a new economic sector and social/political movement, Community Food is becoming a potent rival to corporate agriculture and its affiliated politics, in proportion as we the people learn how we’re being poisoned by corporate food.
You got it. A picture really says it all and leaves an clear emotional – intellectual impression that you can “visually taste”. Even the Rutgers, FDA and other “raw milk resistant & paycheck resistant PhDs” “will get it” through some deeper human alternative information absorption pathways. The RAWMI LISTED data, plus these pictures are literally the “coup-de-grace” of our demonstrated raw milk food safety point!! Remember that the clean filters shown above were after 400 OPDC cows milked!!!
There are two raw milks in America…one for people and one for the pasteurizer!!!
When I saw all the discussions about and between PhD’s on the previous TCP in the last few days and weeks….I could not help myself. I thought this might stop the conversation and academic confusion cold in its tracks and start some deeper reflection about the real no BS truth of what we are saying and have demonstrated.
The science about the 3 to 10 times more sensative milk filter sensativity is found in the 2012 Giacometti studies. This study is referenced in Nadines PP linked here on slide 40.
http://www.bccdc.ca/NR/rdonlyres/00E8757C-99E4-4414-8C54-2C92BB776567/0/RevisedPresentationJuly8RawmilkmythsandevidenceNadineIjaz_PROTECTED.pdf
The best outcome for the dirty milk filter PMO grade A industries is to pray for an equalibrium of sorts: Where they get the processed cultured products, the export markets and class 4 products like dried powdered milk, processed cheeses, pasteurized yogurts, flavored pasteurized milk and icecreams. We get the local fluid raw milk consumers and perhaps the raw Kefirs, the good cheeses and all of the local family business and they get to keep the chains and costcos’s and the long shelf life products. This becomes a market fight into a new paradigm and future. Comes down to who they can continue to fool and who will tolerate and digest it.
Time and dollar voting will tell. I know that China is buying export dairy products like crazy. Why?….in 2003 a high level emissary from the Chinese Government visited OPDC to try and get ahold of UHT technology. They had been directed to “make the Chinese taller by drinking milk” like in the West!! Their first mistake, they had come to the wrong place. UHT at OPDC??? They had no clue what an immune system was…when I started to talk about the role of bacteria in the GUT and immunity….their eyes glazed over and they started looking at their interpreters with funny looks on their faces.
Boy were they extremely confused….short on information and short intellectually for sure. Now…it gives me impressions of North Koreas Kim Jong-Un.
All very weird. All very insecure and China-Ego-Centrist. None the less…American and New Zealand Food Inc dairy exports are loving it.
Local and family first!
If not, it would be my guess that this is why the “regulators” are itching to keep and get everyone onto a food stamp program of some kind. They are even out recruiting people to apply for food stamps and other gubment entitlement programs (hand outs, basically). When someone signs up, that means you and I pay for our food twice. Isn’t our gubment benevolent though?
.
Fly Transmission of Campylobacter
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3298251/
Gordon L. Nichols
Journal List Emerg Infect Disv.11(3); Mar 2005 PMC3298251
…
An annual increase in Campylobacter infection in England and Wales begins in May and reaches a maximum in early June. This increase occurs in all age groups and is seen in all geographic areas. Examination of risk factors that might explain this seasonal increase identifies flies as a potential source of infection. The observed pattern of infection is hypothesized to reflect an annual epidemic caused by direct or indirect contamination of people by small quantities of infected material carried by flies that have been in contact with feces. The local pattern of human illness appears random, while having a defined geographic and temporal distribution that is a function of the growth kinetics of one or more fly species. The hypothesis provides an explanation for the seasonal distribution of Campylobacter infections seen around the world.
…
Campylobacter spp. are the most common bacterial causes of diarrhea in England and Wales. The epidemiologic features of Campylobacter infection have proved difficult to discover, and extensive strain typing has failed to clarify the main transmission routes. Testable hypotheses must be established to explain available evidence, particularly the reason for the observed seasonality. Relatively few outbreaks of Campylobacter gastroenteritis occur, and most cases are sporadic. In case-control and case-case studies of sporadic Campylobacter infections, most cases remain unexplained by recognized risk factors
…
The relative geographic uniformity of the increase seen in May of most years has the temporal appearance of an annual national epidemic. Because person-to-person infection within the community is uncommon, it is likely that the epidemic is caused by a single main driver for human Campylobacter infection.
…
Contamination of a range of foods by flies will result in a pattern of infection that will not be amenable to identifying specific vehicles through standard case-control, case-case, or cohort studies, unless specific objective or subjective assessments of fly numbers can be obtained.
…
This hypothesis arose after a lecture by Professor Sandy Cairncross at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, in the spring of 2002.
You know I support the mission of RAWMI, but let’s be honest, the need for RAWMI is because pathogens are getting in the milk indented for human consumption.
Dog Whistle Politics: Has Wrecked the Middle Class by Ian Haney Lopez
Listen – Aired January 22, 2014 – 8:00am;
http://www.wpr.org/shows/racism-politics
Watch, Published on Jan 14, 2014;
Your support of RAWMI efforts is deeply and warmly appreciated. Thank you for that vision and support.
On this very nice Saturday morning….I will however, take exception of your “OUTBREAK” comment.
When the CDC and researchers claim that more ourbreaks are caused by Raw Milk than by Pasteurized milk….that is contrived & manipulative researcher bias at its FDA & CDC grant award winning very best!!!
The number of “OUTBREAKS does not tell us the NUMBERS of PEOPLE SICKENED”. People are what matter to me and should matter to everyone! Especially when the CDC cherry picks the date ranges to avoid the deaths from pasteurized milk in 1985, 2007 and more even more recently in 2013. It is undisputed that NO deaths have occured from any raw milk in America since 1972 according to official CDC data. Dr. Michele Russel makes a great point that the CDC data is not perfect and there is most certainly un-reported information on both sides of this equation & argument and suggests that we not blindly trust the CDC data anyway.
One pasteurized milk outbreak….”this is counted as just one Outbreak” caused more than 150,000 serious illnesses in 1993 from Salmonella in pasteurized milk!!
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/10/5/pdfs/03-0484.pdf
It is intersting that the investigators were not permitted access to the farms and that the farms implicated were never named!!! All to cover pasteurized milk!!! This is written right in the CDC report!
That is one OUTBREAK event. In 2006, when your son was sickened…just a few weeks prior, CDFA investigated 1900 people sickened from pasteurized milk. Seven were seriously sickened and hospitalized. Interestingly…there was no press release from CDFA on this huge pasteurized milk event. When OPDC was accused of sickening several people in 2006 …we were hung from the nearest tree with great fanfare & celebration and even before the data was investigated. Then later the state “pays for the 7 day recall” and has OPDC sign a “release and agreement not to sue them”…becuase they could not find a link to causation or a bad bug that matched any illnesses even in our milking cows manure. Not to mention that at that exact same time in 2006, three people died and hundreds were sickened by one outbreak of Ecoli from Spinach!!
Most raw milk outbreaks impact just a handful or fewer of people. It is completely disengenous to even try and equate an “outbreak incident to numbers of actual people sickened”.
Have a great weekend and celebrate life!
These are the outbreak numbers according to CDC records and state reports since 1998. Due to under-reporting, the number of actual illnesses per outbreak were probably higher (source: http://www.realrawmilkfacts.com/outbreak-tables). The link has tables that break down the type of dairy products (e.g., fluid, queso fresco cheese, etc.), but in summary:
Milk and Cheeses/Products Sold as Pasteurized
29 outbreaks, 2,824 illnesses (1,880 of the illnesses were at prisons), 8 deaths
Unpasteurized (Raw) Milk and Raw Milk Cheeses/Products
136 outbreaks, 2,468 total illnesses, 2 deaths
The 2006 campylobacteriosis outbreak you refer to involved 1,644 inmates and milk produced at a prison vocational institute. The prison milk was not distributed to the public, which is probably why there was no press release. Here’s the paper we published describing the lab investigation part – http://jcm.asm.org/content/51/1/195.long
Michele
Mary, learning about what went on behind those outbreaks, I strongly disagree with you. When you have farmers starting to produce fresh milk when their sole experience has been in industrial/conventional dairying, and they haven’t bothered to learn that raw milk production requires different practices but just assume that they can do the “same old thing” – or they come in with habits they learned from their grandparents and haven’t updated them in 100 years — then they are producing IPP milk, whether they are labelling it as “raw milk” or not. It is NOT meant to be consumed by people — except the farmer markets it that way. It is industrial milk – even if the herd consists of 3 cows – if the agister or farmer is not using raw milk best practices (and RAWMI isn’t the first – farmers could easily have been looking to England and Europe to learn what to do), then it’s industrial milk intended for pasteurization and processing (IPP). The methods count, not the destination.
When choosing a farmer, the consumer must know what to ask for, because unfortunately many farmers DO pass off IPP milk as raw milk. We’ve seen that numerous times. In fact, having a background in a commercial, CAFO, dairy where cows are kept on concrete floors may even be a red flag – many of the best raw milk farmers I know came into this with NO commercial background, no set of assumptions. They have microdairy herdshares (10 cows, 30 goats or less), and are quietly producing a high quality, artisan product for their shareholders. It can be done, very safely, and they just want to be left alone.
…
GM eucalyptus oh my god!!!
http://www.bccdc.ca/NR/rdonlyres/00E8757C-99E4-4414-8C54-2C92BB776567/0/RevisedPresentationJuly8RawmilkmythsandevidenceNadineIjaz_PROTECTED.pdf
How about going back to the CDC starting line in 1972 and taking the data to the finish line today . It is not quite fair to start after the Jalisco pasteurized incident ( 49 deaths in 1985 ) and finish before other more recent incidents have been reported, like the deadly Craven brothers pasteurized cheese incident this last year. This race of the data needs to be fair and square. Where is the data from the 150,000 Americans sickened as shown in the CDC link I provided above in my prior comment and post? The CDC themselves report more than 422,000 illnesses from pasteurized dairy since 1972. I think you missed quite a few pasteurized dairy illnesses in your query. Perhaps….change the date range and bring in all the numbers.
Shelly….I could not agree more. There has been a rather steep and lonely 15 year raw milk learning curve for us pioneers that produce raw milk for people. Where was the CDC, NIH, FDA or most any other government agency to help us make the quantum leap from Grade A PMO raw milk to low risk raw milk for people!!! They were a no show! In fact mostly, they fought us in the most unfair and unkind ways. That is why the pioneering, committed, caring, ever learning, innovative, consumer connected, raw milk producers of America are nothing short of All-American heros.
What is “Queso Fresco”? And are there any theories on why there has been so much illness associated with it? I have a recipe for Queso Fresco in my cheesebook (says nothing about using a bathtub) and it is basically a low-heat, low acid cheese. Is it the cheese processing that was suspect, or the milk itself? And, is it known where the milk came from? Was it raw milk from a “raw milk dairy”, a family cow situation, or a pre-pasteurized bulk tank?
The pioneering path is becoming less lonely as we are joined with more and more PhDs that see our vision and listen to reasonable consumers and their anecdotal testimonials…..not to mention the tons of EU research.
.
Fly Transmission of Campylobacter
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3298251/
Gordon L. Nichols
Journal List Emerg Infect Disv.11(3); Mar 2005 PMC3298251
Excellent question. The national foodborne disease outbreak surveillance system in the US changed in 1998. Online statistics only go back to that year (see http://wwwn.cdc.gov/foodborneoutbreaks/). A list of older outbreaks can be found here – http://www.realrawmilkfacts.com/PDFs/comparing-raw-pasteurized.pdf. However, I think the recent outbreaks in this century are more relevant to prevention practices than those from 30-40 years ago.
Shelly/Shawna,
The tables in the earlier link separate the Mexican-style queso fresco outbreaks from fluid milk. The paper describing The Abuelo Project (mentioned by Ben Chapman) has a good description of some of the unique food safety risks from this cheese http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.89.9.1421
Michele
Mary….Perhaps raw milk needs to designated Raw milk produced under high standards specifically for raw milk and All other raw milk.
We all know about those illness outbreaks from raw milk that was intended for human consumption. I think about them all the time, especially those that happened on little farms like mine. I think, what didnt that farmer know? Would he or she have done better if they knew better?
When we began to consider producing milk for the community, we needed information…information that was hard to come by. Fortunately for us, we began our education not long after RAWMI began its farmer outreach, and they came alongside us. Thanks to that partnership, here is just a sampling of what we have learned about low-risk raw milk production:
How to properly prepare an udder that is dry and sanitized
How to monitor SCC and what that means
What cattle diseases to screen for
Why quick cooling is important to milk quality
How to avoid cross contamination on a diversified farm
Why its important to keep milk cool in transport
How to test my milk for coliform and SPC, and what those results mean
How pasture feeding and low-stocking density reduce but doesnt eliminate pathogen shedding
Basic epidemiology of major pathogens
Not all raw milk producers who are producing for human consumption have the benefit of information.
My argument is that generally we do better when we know better. Looking forward to learning more about campylobacter from Michele.
Rawmilkmike….tune into the webcast and maybe it will answer your questions.
I entered in to our Court hearing the essay by Arthur Burns entitled “And Not a Shot is Fired” : it being a handy explanation of how the one-world-govt. Agenda is being imposed. Just the meerest co-incidence that Tim Shum was imported from Red China to head-up a local ( so-called) “health Authority” in British Columbia? Hardly ; the more one delves-in to who’s at the levers of power, the more compelling the evidence is, of the medico /pharma industries being a crucial aspect in that anti-christ conspiracy. My experience in BC, exemplifying what happens to the messenger – after I started publicizing how the very nutrition has been stolen out of the mouths of our children, they criminalized the whistleblower.
And that’s no idle rhetoric. When one goes back into the history … lo and behold, who was the instigator of the quota system for managing the economy? Why J Maynard Keynes his-self! Thus, the raw milk controversy is just one of many battle fronts against the Fabians’ in their “long march through the institutions”.
Anticipating the comments from the Peanut Gallery : yes, I can live with govt. regulation. “The mark of the immature man, is ; he’s willing to die for his cause. The hallmark of the mature man, is ; he’s willing to live for his cause” My kinsmen obtaining our birthright = REAL MILK = is so important that I can compromise, if I must.
To this Campaign, I bring the lesson learned in the DeTax thing [ fighting the iniquitous income tax] = this country is ruled by people who hate us. At this point in the Israelite cycle, you’re in subjection to them, no matter what. So you have to figure out your own coping-mechanism. With the income tax, one is compelled to cheat, in order to survive. The racketeers know that better than do the little tax-serfs. Bribery is how every communist system works. Applying that understanding to the raw milk issue, means, we have to bribe the cartel, in a currency of their choosing. Knowing they’re whores, all that remains is = negotiating their price …. there are lots of different ways to convey a bribe, other than just old-fashioned raw banknotes in a brownpaper bag
What strikes me about this story is how the education had a ripple effect. I’m seeing this with RAWMI’s education efforts big time. Producers are talking about processes and information sharing is happening that just wasn’t five years ago. Locally, I’m seeing producers opt not to provide raw milk until they have their plans in place, milk tests back, etc. This is new, at least where I live.
And WAPF isn’t completely wrong. Nor are they completely right. Which makes these statements misleading to both producers and consumers.
Studies do support low stocking density and high-forage feeding in reducing pathogenic ecoli shedding. But is does not eliminate it, as Dr. Berge has stated even on this blog.
As for raw milk killing pathogens on contact…I’d love that to be true! Would make my job so much easier!
And YES, consumers need to know their farmers. They need to know that their farmers have good information and are implementing it.
But how do they find that information…both farmers and producers, if all they have are the “myths” you state on one side, and public health saying “don’t drink it, don’t consume it” on the other?
As for you kvetching that the assertions = ‘raw milk is safe if the cows are grass-fed + if you know your farmer’, are urban myths … Ron Duffel thought so too, but he was only the director of Food safety for the BC Ministry of Health. On my website, see his letter to me wherein he put those ideas on official govt. stationery, in 2003 when he exempted our cowshare from the law which required milk in commerce to be Pasteur-ized. If you have evidence OTHERWISE let’s some peer-reviewed studies … what’s that? …. you say there are none?!
As for : raw milk killing pathogens = now that I have the little impengo-toy hooked up to my iPhone, I can do the research on that theory, right here on the homestead. Myself, I believe it. Suggested by Dr Bernard Jensen’s observation that raw milk has an electical component
Even critics have a purpose in the ecology of politics, but I doubt if you have the integrity to do what you’re demanding of Sally Fallon = admit your error, when the snapshots from the impengo / the hard data confirm good bacteria in REAL MILK do outcompete any bad ‘uns.
As the Campaign for REAL MILK surges ahead, you’re wallowing in its wake. You lost the overall contest, so you’ve unleashed your claws against our champion … a lady who’s done monumental work, helping and healing countless people. Wilhelm Reich had your type figured-out … see his work on “the emotional plague”
Milk killing pathogens on contact?
Thats a new one!
I recall on numerous occasions having discussions on this blog with respect to a known and valid process that occurs in the world of microbes and raw milk known as competitive exclusion?!
If there ever was a myth fostered its this persistent notion that microbes can be eliminated.
Ken
Raw milk myths and evidence by Nadine Ijaz pdf
http://www.bccdc.ca/NR/rdonlyres/00E8757C-99E4-4414-8C54-2C92BB776567/0/RevisedPresentationJuly8RawmilkmythsandevidenceNadineIjaz_PROTECTED.pdf
Here’s a little copy paste on the subject of The elusive pathogen.
They say Salmonella, Escherichia coli O157, and Campylobacter can be found in raw milk.
…
E. coli O157:H7,
Some people who are infected with the bacteria do not notice any symptoms. Symptoms of E. coli infection usually end in about a week with no further problems.
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/e-coli-infection-symptoms
Salmonella,
Salmonella infections can have a broad range of illness, from no symptoms to severe illness. People with salmonellosis usually recover without treatment within 3 to 7 days.
http://www.about-salmonella.com/salmonella_symptoms_risks#.UuLsXtLTlxA
Campylobacter,
The illness typically lasts about one week. Some infected persons do not have any symptoms. Most human illness is caused by one species, called Campylobacter jejuni, which grows best at 37°C to 42°C, the approximate body temperature of a bird (41°C to 42°C), and seems to be well adapted to birds, who carry it without becoming ill. These bacteria are fragile. They cannot tolerate drying and can be killed by oxygen. They grow only in places with less oxygen than the amount in the atmosphere.
http://www.cdc.gov/nczved/divisions/dfbmd/diseases/campylobacter/#what
…
2000 – There were 19 confirmed cases, 19 likely cases, and 49 suspected cases of E. coli O157:H7 in Oregon in August. The cases were linked to a Wendy’s restaurant, and although beef was the suspected vector of transmission, such a link was not conclusively shown.
…
2006 – E. coli O157:H7 from Taco Bell. 39 people in central New Jersey and on Long Island were sickened and suffered from hemolytic uremic syndrome. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at first believed the E. coli O157:H7 to be in the green onions. The FDA on December 13, 2006 said it could not confirm that scallions were the cause of the problem, as previously suspected, and that it was not ruling out any food as a possible culprit. It was later suspected that infected lettuce was the cause.
…
2006 – E. coli O157:H7 in bagged spinach packaged by Natural Selection Foods and most likely supplied by Earthbound Farm. 3 dead, and 198 people reported sickened
…
As of August 28, 2008, from April 10, 2008, the rare Saintpaul serotype of Salmonella enterica caused at least 1442 cases of salmonellosis food poisoning in 43 states. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration suspects that the contaminated food product is a common ingredient in fresh salsa, such as raw tomato, fresh jalapeño pepper, fresh serrano pepper, and fresh cilantro.
…
2009 – the FDA reported there was a possibility that the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, which sickened at least 66 people in 28 states, MIGHT be a result of raw cookie dough consumption.
…
2011 – Contaminated papaya appears to be the cause of an outbreak of Salmonella food poisoning (salmonellosis) in 23 states. The FDA says papayas distributed by Agromod Produce Inc. is likely the source of 97 cases of Salmonella Agona.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_foodborne_illness_outbreaks_in_the_United_States
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php/news/archive/2014/15274-germany-claims-no-problem-with-glyphosate
By now they’re often pretty frank that the “safe” levels are to be defined simply according to how much glyphosate the corporations want to sell and how much has to be sprayed to have any effect at all on the Roundup-resistant superweeds.
Sasu MA, Ferrari MJ, Du D, Winsor JA, Stephenson AG. Indirect costs of a nontarget pathogen mitigate the direct benefits of a virus-resistant transgene in wild Cucurbita. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. Nov 10 2009; 106(45): 19067-19071.
Michele, you make an intriguing observation I’ve never before seen anyone in public health make about the 1,644 illnesses in the 2006 outbreak from pasteurized milk. You say, “The prison milk was not distributed to the public, which is probably why there was no press release.” Many of the illnesses from raw milk you tabulate affected individuals who belonged to herdshares. That milk, as well, was not distributed to the public. Yet there were invariably widely distributed press releases, not to mention outraged articles from product liability lawyers. What was the difference between the prisoners and the herdshare members? Both belonged to discrete groups (though the prisoners were in a public institution, while the herdshare members belonged to private organizations, and had signed agreements taking personal responsibility for possible illnesses). Does the difference in treatment have something to do with the possibility prisoners are considered less important? Or does it reflect the lack of recognition accorded herdshares by the public health community?
One other thing: In reporting the data, you continue with a bad habit started at Real Raw Milk Facts, and continued by the CDC. You report total numbers, never saying that the period covered was 14 years, and that the average number of illnesses from raw milk was 176, and for pasteurized milk 201, per year. Those numbers are quite small when considered in the context of approximately 30,000 reported (by CDC) food borne illnesses per year. Context is real important in discussing these issues.
What needs to be asked however is it indeed these so-called pathogens that are causing illness or is it the tinkering with microbial competitive exclusion via the chemicals being used in an attempt to deactivate their presence in food that alters human gut bacteria?
By focusing on and attempting to eliminate so-called pathogens doctors, regulators and scientists are barking up the wrong tree.
http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/blogs/lies-damned-lies-and-salmonella-testing-at-usda/
One was purchased retail, one was purchased on the farm and two were from herdshares.
In a war…nothing is fair. That is why the First Lady can recommend more fruits and vegetables and those vegetables can be one of the most risky foods of all and that is ok..
Find one so-called pathogen anywhere near raw milk and the regulatory media missiles are launched against raw milk regardless of even having no illnesses.
That is precisely why RAWMI was created. All of us in the raw milk movement can not win in their war….but we can win the hearts, minds, souls, trust and guts of our consumers and dollar vote to a huge win. That is why we must use THEIR definitions, their structures, their regulations and their labels of pathogens as we make our point, create our irrefutable track record of excellence.
Time and patience….we must be beyond reproach. We have few tools to fight their war, so we should not and can not. But we can fight and win ours….and we are.
…
This is a must see for anyone concerned with people who hate us income tax govt. oversight communists. Or big government as some call it.
Dog Whistle Politics: Has Wrecked the Middle Class
Listen – Aired January 22, 2014 – 8:00am;
http://www.wpr.org/shows/racism-politics
Watch, Published on Jan 14, 2014;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqKHc8Fmaxg
For the anti-Christ and one-world-govt. maybe start with the Byzantine empire 300 to 1400.
http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/imperialism/notes/byzantinechron.html
http://www.npr.org/2012/12/03/166244488/in-istanbul-a-byzantine-era-fleet-surfaces-again
Mary, you know as well as I do that those press releases go out for two reasons only: propaganda and fear mongering. The herdshare operators know who their members are, and contact them when there is an outbreak. The prison kept it quiet because the authorities decided it wasn’t good propaganda to publicize that there had been an outbreak involving pasteurized milk. In fact, as I understand it (I believe it was discussed on this blog), the CDC refused for several years to even include the prison outbreak in its outbreak data….for the same reason, not good propaganda.
http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/facts.html#mostcommon
…
Anyone can be infected with norovirus and get sick. Also, you can have norovirus illness many times in your life. Norovirus illness can be serious, especially for young children and older adults.
…
Norovirus is the most common cause of acute gastroenteritis in the United States, though it is rarely diagnosed, because the laboratory test is not widely available. Each year, it causes 19-21 million illnesses and contributes to 56,000-71,000 hospitalizations and 570-800 deaths. Norovirus is also the most common cause of foodborne-disease outbreaks in the United States and accounts for 58% of all domestically acquired foodborne illnesses.
…
The best way to help prevent norovirus is to practice proper hand washing and general cleanliness.
http://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/about/overview.html
Mary, I should amend what I said. In some situations, local public health people are no doubt sincere in putting out press releases, hoping to disseminate information warning unaware individuals that they might have consumed a tainted product. The problem is that such releases have been misused, not just to warn about specific food safety problems, but to disseminate propaganda about certain foods, like raw milk and raw milk cheese. So you get a situation not unlike the boy who cried wolf–where people wonder about the intentions of those putting out the releases.
Really? If it’s not important, why is it added to pasteurized milk? A synthetic Vitamin D like what’s used in pasteurized milk isn’t used efficiently by the body anyway, so I really don’t know why they bother – other than for the propaganda angle. It makes people think they’re doing something good by drinking the junk.
http://www.occupycorporatism.com/gov-study-claims-vitamin-d-supplements-useless/
I have pasted the paragraph here;
What foods are most associated with foodborne illness?
Raw foods of animal origin are the most likely to be contaminated; that is, raw meat and poultry, raw eggs, unpasteurized milk, and raw shellfish.
Because filter-feeding shellfish strain microbes from the sea over many months, they are particularly likely to be contaminated if there are any pathogens in the seawater.
Foods that mingle the products of many individual animals, such as bulk raw milk, pooled raw eggs, or ground beef, are particularly hazardous because a pathogen present in any one of the animals may contaminate the whole batch. ?A single hamburger may contain meat from hundreds of animals.
?A single restaurant omelet may contain eggs from hundreds of chickens.
?A glass of raw milk may contain milk from hundreds of cows.
?A broiler chicken carcass can be exposed to the drippings and juices of many thousands of other birds that went through the same cold water tank after slaughter.
Fruits and vegetables consumed raw are a particular concern. Washing can decrease but not eliminate contamination, so the consumers can do little to protect themselves. ?Recently, a number of outbreaks have been traced to fresh fruits and vegetables that were processed under less than sanitary conditions. These outbreaks show that the quality of the water used for washing and chilling the produce after it is harvested is critical. Using water that is not clean can contaminate many boxes of produce.
?Fresh manure used to fertilize vegetables can also contaminate them. Alfalfa sprouts and other raw sprouts pose a particular challenge, as the conditions under which they are sprouted are ideal for growing microbes as well as sprouts, and because they are eaten without further cooking. That means that a few bacteria present on the seeds can grow to high numbers of pathogens on the sprouts.
?Unpasteurized fruit juice can also be contaminated if there are pathogens in or on the fruit that is used to make it.
Also, I’m not sure the historic information about human illnesses thought to stem from milk is all that helpful, except for what can be learned from it. Rather, it should shape our thinking and strategies for the future:
To me, it seems we have at least 2 rather distinct human populations, those that are exposed to the microflora present in the manure of ruminant livestock as part of their daily lives (let’s say dairy farm families/workers) and those that are unlikely ever to be exposed to the same microflora (let’s say most families who live in towns and cities). Given that the important route of infection is the fecal-oral route, avoiding fecal contamination of one’s GI tract via contaminated food, licking dirty fingers, inhaling manure-dust etc becomes important. For those farm families/workers, some fecal-oral contamination is likely unavoidable, and they appear to become somewhat resistant to infection (either through their exposure/priming of suitable immune response mechanisms, or because the microflora in their GI tracts adapt to neutralize them in some way). On the other hand, urban-dwelling people who live in isolation from such exposure, appear to be highly susceptible to any bovine fecal organisms with the potential to be pathogenic, either because their immune systems cannot react quickly enough, or because they lack the balance of enteric bacteria required to hinder the replication of these novel ‘intruders’. (I prefer the naive immune system idea, actually).
This creates a situation where those exposed to these foreign fecal microbes, especially for the very first time, are very much at risk of developing disease (which may have catastophic consequences for a few individuals), if the contamination is (for them) excessive.
Therefore, I’d argue that prevention of fecal contamination (or neutralizing it prior to consumption) has to be a key aspect of providing safe food to the majority of the human population, whether it relate to the distribution of raw milk, sprouted seeds, prepared salads, spinach, cantaloupes, undercooked hamburger etc……because I think that fecal contamination was a large element in these reported cases of food-borne illnesses.
To me. The key to the future should be ‘know your enemy’ . Manure is a major enemy.
And yes, I’m saddened that dairies might have such dirty filters as the one above (even if it might have been one filtering milk for 11 hours over a very large number of cows). The USA dairy industry largely undervalues those who do their milking, but that is another story for another place.
John
We don’t know the CDC is convinced milk is bad . If they are, why do they use the term are most associated with rather than the word cause? They also use the term the MOST LIKELY to be contaminated. Most importantly if they are likely to be contaminated then a minimum infectious dose would have to be determined. Also notice they really are not talking about most of the foods consumed by the average American. So why does the average American get the CDC’s scary foodborne illness(diarrhea) 3 times a year?
Raw milk myths and evidence by Nadine Ijaz pdf
http://www.bccdc.ca/NR/rdonlyres/00E8757C-99E4-4414-8C54-2C92BB776567/0/RevisedPresentationJuly8RawmilkmythsandevidenceNadineIjaz_PROTECTED.pdf
…
This study could be used to justify recent claims that vitamin supplements have no positive medicinal effect.
The multi-vitamin study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), BASF , Pfizer and the DSM Nutritional Products .
Several scientists came together to contribute to a paper entitled, Enough Is Enough: Stop Wasting Money on Vitamin and Mineral Supplements which outlines that most mineral and vitamin supplements have no clear benefit, might even be harmful in well-nourished adults, and should not be used for chronic disease prevention.
An interesting conclusion was that doses of vitamins may be too low for effectiveness.
…
This is all part of the anti-raw food movement. In some countries vitamins are already illegal. It has already started here. It may only be a matter of time.
If what youre saying is correct about farmers and their acquired immunity then it stands to reason that if urban dwellers are exposed to minute amounts of the same bacteria in the milk that they drink, then they to will acquire a similar immunity providing they avoid the above invasive medical routine.
There were 34 nations that participated in the following study done in 2009.
The study states, Linear regression analysis of unweighted mean IMRs (Infant Mortality Rates) showed a high statistically significant correlation between increasing number of vaccine doses and increasing infant mortality rates.
In other words in the US and Canada where children receive by far, more vaccines doses per child then anywhere else in the world, at 26 and 24 doses respectively, have by far the highest infant mortality rate when compared to Sweden and Japan where children receive only 12 doses per child.
Infant mortality rate per 1000 in Sweden was 2.75, in Japan 2.79.
Infant mortality rate per 1000 in Canada was 5.04, in the US 6.22
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3170075/
The large number of vaccines given to patients is leading to an epidemic of chronic inflammation resulting in epidemics of autoimmune diseases and allergies according to Dr. Classen’s research.
http://www.examiner.com/article/new-peer-reviewed-study-strongly-links-autism-to-vaccine-induced-type-1-diabetes
Ken
Anyone seen that data?? Does it exist ? Maybe not. If it does…It is an indictment of those that make the money on shots.
High dose IV Vitamin C could possibly be considered medicinal, although few hospitals recognize it as a viable treatment and it is forbidden at many hospitals, even though the alternative practitioners know it can treat tumors and lots of other serious medical conditions.
We really should be getting those vitamins and minerals from our foods however that is next to impossible now that most food isn’t real anymore and the soil is beyond depleted. Which is exactly why a study like this would come to light right about now. The bigfoodguys want the ignorant population to believe that the stuff they sell in those boxes and cans on the grocery store shelves are “nutritious” enough to sustain us. Wow, I’d hate to try to exist and be healthy on that junk. Plastic and other toxic stuff in poultry and chicken nuggets, pink slime and meat glue in the meats available in the supermarkets and at fast food joints . . . it’s enough to gag a maggot. So of course they’re gonna tell us that supplements aren’t useful. Our bodies become fodder for the medical/pharma industry – and that IS their intention.
Their multi-vitamin study might actually have some merit. Nutritionists do not recommend multi-vitamins in any form. Also, if you supplement at all, do not purchase vitamins from a drugstore (like centrum or one-a-day) because those really ARE worthless – and dangerous. They are synthetic crap our bodies don’t have the first idea what to do with. You’d be better off eating the cotton wad that comes in the bottle. 🙂 Seek out whole food vitamins (like Garden of Life, Standard Process, etc). If you aren’t going to indulge in quality vitamins, there’s no point. Also, most of the cheap vitamins have fillers which include soy. It’s actually hard to find certain vitamins anymore which don’t contain soy in some form. I avoid them like the plague.
Stand by your farmer – – – that’s pretty funny! One of your best. We should make signs, the heck with balloons.
I think David’s skit idea was worthwhile as well as pretty darn funny. He accomplished much more than a lot of people realize just yet. Stay tuned.
You’d be better off eating the cotton wad that comes in the bottle. 🙂
Now that would be a sight for sore eyes! That is funny!! It sure helped clean the sleep out of my eyes when I read it at three in the morning.
Ken
This is a good article about why snow is important for more than just skiing and snowshoeing!
http://www.granny-miller.com/a-year-of-snow-a-year-of-plenty/
I also remember my Dad and my Grampa Farm using a few of these lamentations. Just because they’re now considered old-fashioned, doesn’t mean there isn’t some merit to them.
http://www.granny-miller.com/50-old-time-weather-proverbs-signs/
I’ve never understood why weather forecasters always talk about winter weather as if it were a curse. It’s a necessary part of nature but those educated idiots who grew up in the big city wouldn’t really understand that from a farmer’s standpoint, I guess. Overcast, blustery, snowy days are my favorite.