Last month, while visiting at a small ag and liberal arts school in upstate New York to give a talk, I got to tour its well-run conventional dairy of more than 300 cows (and a 5,000-gallon bulk tankpictured at left). It serves as an on-campus training facility for students at the school, the State University of New York in Cobbleskill.
I also got to meet with a dairy professor. I didnt expect a lot of encouraging words, given the school’s focus on conventional dairying, and how I predicted in my talk at the school ongoing upheaval in the food world, symbolized by the raw milk revolution.
Lo and behold, the professor was way ahead of me. She was not only friendly, but informed me she had set up a raw milk day for one of her dairy classes. She had invited experts in to explain to her students the challenges of producing and selling safe raw milk. The reason? Her ag students were demanding it.
This is all in a state in which regulators have had their share of run-ins with raw dairies. Apparently there have been some attitude changes among New York regulators.
Indeed, it seems as if positive attitude changes are happening in assorted places on the raw milk and food freedom front these days.
- South Dakota has approved new regs that establish raw milk as a distinct food category.
- Oregon is about to remove its ban on advertising of raw milk.
- Wyomings governor signed into law its Food Freedom Act that allows for the direct sale any food (including raw milk, and excepting only certain meats) directly to consumers.
- A Nevada county that includes Las Vegas is organizing a milk commission, to legalize raw milk sales.
- And in Maine this coming week, hearings will begin on legislation to allow small dairies to sell raw milk privately without a permit; the same legislation made it through the legislature last year, only to be vetoed by the governor .to widespread criticism.
And we know Illinois has pulled back from heavy-handed restrictions on raw milk. California seems to be adopting a similar live-and-let-live approach with its hundreds of small dairies selling raw milk under herd share arrangements.
Sure, there are places that havent gotten the message. Minnesota is one of those places, and eyes will be focused this week on a hearing, beginning today, as to whether Lake View Natural Dairy can be held in contempt for refusing inspections by the notoriously-anti-raw-milk Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Supporters have launched a legal defense fund-raising effort.
But no matter how the case turns out, Minnesotas agents going after yet another law-abiding farm family will simply turn up the volume on the craziness of the long-term war on raw milk and food freedom.
Ive written about how prosecutors and sheriffs seem to be giving ag regulators the message that going after raw dairies is low priority on the enforcement hierarchy. Increasingly, regulators are hearing the same message from state politicians. Moreover, the pols are learning that supporting food freedom issues can actually win them votes.
A seismic shift is in the making, as more young people become engaged in farming, seeking options outside the dead-end commodity marketplace. It wont happen smoothly or easily. And any example of illnesses from raw milk will be exploited ever more fully to try to delay, or even reverse the shift. So continued persistence and diligence and care by those who value food freedom are essential. The trends are moving in the right direction.
It appears that A2 milk will hit conventional retail stores in a couple of weeks.
Now let me explain further…this is not A2 organic pasture grazed milk found on conscientious local “cows shares” in RAW FORM! This is UHT 282 degrees pasteurized, 60 day ultra dead CAFO A2 milk. The label even shows Holstein cows…not the ancient breeds of jerseys etc.
This does it for me. This is the UBER Milk story that ends all tall stories. They claim that if you have digestive problems with milk and or have allergies to milk…try A2 milk…yet in small print it says at the end…”not intended for diagnosed consumers with lactose intolerance or known dairy allergies”.
The A2 company has received $20 million of investors money and now they are on a mission to change the world with A2…yet the proteins found in milk are 100% denatured and destroyed with heat above 150-165 degrees F. They go 120 degrees higher!!!
The A2 proteins they claim to be so great are 100% denatured and blown apart into a twisted mess when super high temperature pasteurized, homogenized and standardized. They are selling UBER snake oil to consumer fools. The A2 Corp refuses to give the location of the cows or herds, they refuse to divulge the processors that do the processing….they call this proprietary information. I call it covering up a huge lie. Market trends say…I want to visit the dairy and know the farmer.
This down under A2 market blitz is clueless…..and far worse.
If there is some difference between A1 and A2….great. Why is this not apparent in the science or the digestion of the A2 product. The only recent science that they are parading around is a New Zealand A2 Corp funded study of human feces and their consistency. They found that consumers that drink A2 have firmer feces….what a great study!! I am not so sure that a firmer fece is a better fece. Sounds like they are selling constipation and the FDA has bought into this scam 100%.
From top to bottom…this is a scam….a nonsensical, non science based, no digestible, allergenic scam. UHT is dead and shelf life friendly…The A2 Corp has completely missed the market trends. The trends are probiotic, local, non CAFO, gut friendly, less processed. A2, as it will be sold to the public very soon, is the opposite of all of these things.
David, thank you for reporting on the brighter side of the emerging markets for raw milk and the enlightened PHDs that get it.
I have a prediction, this will be a total market flop. Make a note.
One caveat to my prediction, if some how A2 proteins can survive UHT processing….I will be a monkeys uncle. The science says that all proteins are damaged horribly with heat. All enzymes and other delicate elements are also destroyed.
I can see the consumer lawsuits now….kids in ER’s with severe allergic reactions and claims of hours of “toilet sitting” from constipation. If this was not so serious….I would think it a joke. These A2 Corp jockeys need to spend a few hours at the farmers market and talk to a real raw milk consumer and her kids.
They have reached new lows….and this one takes the prize.
As for all the A2 raw milk producers I think you are doing a great job. I just hope this A2 Corp charade does not disillusion you. I would feel completely cheated.
After returning home from the Anaheim Food Expo, I have had some time to reflect. That show has been overtaken by the big boys that recognize the real money in real foods. Some of the booths looked like hollywood stage mockups, million dollar condos or maybe the spacestation.Multiple stories with stairs and private meeting areas for “who’s who invited guests”. I was told that some cost more than $150,000 to construct, only to be taken down in four days!!
You could not get a meeting with Wholefoods or UNFI if your life depended on it. Those insider relationship deals were cut in the back rooms and the outsiders just looked on from the outside in awe. It was all about looking huge and looking awesome. About….Beating your chest and proclaiming your position in the food chain.
My take away was this….raw milk is founded in the grassroots and the deep and direct relationships between farmers and families. One of the great quotes said to me by one of our wonderful retail raw milk stores was this…”if it was not for your raw milk….we would just throw the dairy case out into the street and not carry dairy at all”. Then they said…”.we just love the raw milk consumer…they are so passionate and real”
You can not fake or commercialize raw milk. It is real and so are its partners in its food chain.
Thanks for the correction about the bulk tank–what happens when you give a city guy too much info.
As for the organic food, so much has to do with having the right shelf space. Companies pay huge $$$ for such privileges. Consumers have little comprehension of the behind-the-scenes deals. They naively think it’s about who has the tastiest and most nutritious food.
This just in: The judge in the Minnesota Lake View Natural Dairy case wound up staying his own contempt order. Now that he had a chance to hear both sides argue, he ruled there would be no fines, no inspections, and no contempt….until he’s had a chance to review the full scope of the arguments, and issue a written opinion. He promised that within 90 days. The momentum definitely shifted in this case, where MDA was ready to force a $500 a day fine for failing to allow its agents to find “problem” after “problem.”
http://www.supportlakeviewnaturaldairy.org/#sthash.vRFXUHmt.dpbs
In light of the history of New York with it’s “pioneering” of pasteurization what you present here is really especially good news! It appears that we have the “young people” to thank. Well then thank you every one of you young people! You make my heart sing (almost an opera)!
Talk about passionate. One of the masters candidates was a young mom with a heck of story about raw milk. Her baby became very sick on pasteurized milk when she was weaned from breast milk. She discovered OPDC raw milk and literally overnight…the baby slept, bowels moved, no cramping or pain….all was good. Mom is now on a passionate path to teach others and that includes becoming a Dietician and helping others in the hospital environment.
I just got a call from a young woman that was told by her Cancer Doctor Oncologist ( works at St. Agnes Medical Center in Fresno ) to take some pills but “only with raw milk”. He had told her that the prescribed calcium supplement’s would not work unless accompanied with plenty of raw milk!!!!!!!!
Things are changing!!
“less important to the conversation” Really? Really? How presumptuous and narrow minded of them.
If that is what the “bright new minds” have to offer, I’d want no part of them and would be quick to point out their flaws that have great potential to harm the raw milk movement.
Excluding any of the “oldsters” is NOT productive, in fact, it does nothing but divide people. Shame on these supposedly educated students.
You can have a bright old mind as often as a bright young mind, but how easy is it for some old minds to change course after 40…50…60 years of going in one direction along a safe and comfortable path? Sometimes, not easy at all, believe me, and I say this from personal experience.
And, if I’m so allowed in my old age – IN MY OPINION – raw milk is still raw milk. Good, healthy food no matter who promotes it. My experience with YEARS of drinking raw milk no longer counts because of my age and because I’m not a young dietician? Again, I don’t think anyone actually read what I wrote in my earlier post. Being young doesn’t make them the only game in town. I fear some day we’ll all find out how new-age stuff is sometimes pure crap.
I think you missed the point I was making about signs of the “Changing of the Guard. The guard I was referring to was the pro-FDA dogma policy…raw milk haters. That guard appears to be weakening and retiring. The new guard and younger more open minds are taking over. I do not see how this can be anything other than simply great!!!
I was not making any reference to the raw milk movement and its old Guard. I was referring to our staunch opposition. As I get older…I find myself in the old guard of raw milk myself!!
The FDA has set a very low bar for its concept of safe milk for pasteurization. The FDA just completed a blind study on bulk tank milk and found that about 1% of US milk bulk tank milk violates drug residue standards. That’s 1 in 100. In my opinion…that is outrageous and down right horrible. If 1 in 100 airline flights crashed every day….what do you think that would look like!!! No one would fly. Fewer and fewer consumers trust conventional milk because it is filled with drug residues and the FDA just proved the case against conventional pasteurized milk!! Clearly this is the market dollar voting trend.
The FDA says this is proof that US milk is quality and safe. If that is a the standard for safe and quality….we are in deep CAFO manure in America.
A deeper review of the FDA study….exposes the tragedy of the FDA PMO milk program. Hundreds of dairies are mixed together and 100 dairies milk becomes one big mix of milk. That means that all ( on average ) US milk is contaminated with drug residues. Most of these drugs are anti-biotics from treatment of cows for mastitis.
It is no wonder that under FDA regulatory management….conventional fluid milk sales are dropping like a rock and organic sales are rising. As the FDA lauds this study as proof of safety…. it clearly shows that the FDA thinks that drug residues are ok…clearly a failure of regulatory oversight. They even go on to say that no enforcement action will be taken against farmers that have drug residues in their milk. The FDA is so out of touch….like on a different planet.
I would like someone to explain to me how an acceptable allowable limit can be established for insidious drugs such as antibiotics and organophosphate pesticides. And what about rBST, have they set residue standards for that drug. I hardly think so.
Ken
Is it possible that producers have switched to antibiotics or other drugs that they know aren’t currently being tested for? Why would the FDA be working to test for a greater diversity of drugs if they weren’t concerned about other drugs being used?
If you only knew…
Do you know any dairy farmers (I’m not familiar with who you are, that’s why I’m asking)? I have a sheet of paper that is filled on both sides. It lists the various drugs commonly used, including those that are “extra label”, “not allowed on dairy farms”, etc. I think it was a couple of years ago, but there was more extensive testing being done. One of the reasons was due to residues found in dairy beef. The beef was not categorized as cows, steers, bulls, or heifers, but merely as “beef”.
As for “Is it possible that producers have switched to antibiotics or other drugs that they know aren’t currently being tested for?” Here’s something for you to think about. How would those producers KNOW which drugs aren’t being tested, unless they have some insider information? The reason I said that is, there was some milk that got diverted from its usual processor, and ended up at a plant where residue was detected. SOMEBODY knew that drug was not getting tested for at the plant the milk normally went to. I will not disclose who that person was, or how they knew, but had access to this knowledge (specifically, the drug families that were tested).
I have to have a valid client/vet relationship in order to get certain drugs. Not all of them are antibiotics, but they aren’t available OTC either. The penalties for antibiotic residue in milk are pretty stiff–like having to pay for a tanker load of milk, for starters. Once upon a time, it was three strikes, then you are out. Not so now. There are fewer drugs available currently than there was even ten years ago. A lot of them have been pulled from the market. ECP is one such drug. I can recall when it could be used to induce labor in cattle, but was banned a number of years ago. There are a lot less tools in the toolbox. I’m not condoning excessive drug use, but some of them are life saving, especially to a very valuable animal (think of some high dollar show cow that had some sort of accident where she cut herself severely–I know it’s happened before to someone’s bovine).
I’m rather puzzled with your “…insidious drugs such as antibiotics…” comment. Do you consider ALL antibiotics as ‘insidious’? I have a little cow that freshened two weeks ago. She prolapsed her uterus, and since I’ve never put one back that was all the way out, I had to call the vet. A no brainer, but he gave her antibiotics for infection, because there was no doubt that she got contaminated. He said she had a 50/50 chance of making it. Well, she was actually up the next day, albeit a little paralysis, but she’s alive. She was running a fever a couple of days after her therapy was done, so he told me to treat her again. Was I supposed to let her die? I’m just asking.
BTW, rBST can not be tested for because it can’t be differentiated between naturally occurring, or artificial, unless something has changed recently. If so, I haven’t seen the information. How long has it been since you were a dairy farmer? By that I mean, how long has it been since your milk went to a processing plant? You just seem to be out of the loop.
Here’s another tidbit for you. My mom is alive today because of penicillin. She contracted meningitis when she was a little girl (drinking fountain at the school playground–anybody had access to it too), and at that time, penicillin was still an experimental drug. She was unconscious, and they were out of options. My grandparents had nothing to lose at that point, so they gave the doctors permission to use it.
As for drug residues and resistance, humans create most of their own problems, yet want to blame someone else.
I’m a consumer of raw milk that comes from people with 1-2 milking cows. And someone suspicious of industrial ag and the FDA. I’ve been on this blog since it’s beginning.
I didn’t know because I’ve only been on here for a few months, but have been reading since last summer. I asked if you knew of any dairy farmers because I wanted to know if you had access to some of their information. I’m TOTALLY suspicious of the FDA, USDA, and the rest of their ilk. I question some of industrial ag’s practices. At least you didn’t use the term ‘factory farm’. I’d still like a definition of that.
Some of the comments I’ve seen on the internet just blows my mind. I have a small, grazed herd, but am considered conventional/commercial. There are plenty of people who don’t know the difference between commercial/non-commercial. I have a dairy permit, therefore I’m commercial. It doesn’t matter how many cows I milk (or how few). I am subjected to inspections. I am conventional because I’m not certified organic, nor will I ever be. I do the minimum of treatment in my cattle (animals can and will get sick or hurt), and I don’t use anything on my pasture. I do have to purchase feed (hay and grain), so I am at the mercy of my suppliers. My milk buyers don’t care if I feed grain. They feed it to their own stock (but they don’t have cattle), so it’s fine with them.
I never said that there is not a place for anti biotics….there is for treatment of life threatening illness especially for humans. But there is no place for antibiotics in our milk or food. Antibiotics get into food when dairymen treat cows with antibiotics and then milks those cows into a milk tank…sending that tank of milk to the creamery and into milk to be drank by trusting unknowing consumers.
This is happening 1 out of 100 tests….
It is no wonder that organic milk is thriving. Drug residues are never found in Organic milk!!
Disgusting….the FDA is a whore for industry and provides no care or protection for whom they should protect..the kids and consumers. If I could find a more harsh description of their conduct I would.
Today I received the long awaited FDA FOIA request response from the FDA regarding any data that would show that RAW BUTTER had ever caused an illness in the USA.
The FDA could not find one incident of illness related to or caused by raw butter in the entire history of the FDA. Yet…raw butter is banned over state lines. Not one illness or incident of raw butter causing illness. Not one!!! My newest FDA Citizens Petition is filed tomorrow. There is no reason why raw butter should be banned under CFR 1240.61.
Yes, despite their effectiveness all antibiotics are insidious. Their overall negative effect on the digestive system, the immune system, the kidneys, along with the steady and in some cases rapid emergence of antibiotic resistant microbes etc. are all examples of their gradual, subtle and harmful nature.
I amputated a finger about ten years ago. The doctors and nurses were intent that I receive antibiotics including a tetanus shot; I refused both. One of the comments they used in an attempt to persuade me to take the antibiotic was that I had a 30% chance of developing a bone infection without it. My response to them was, the likelihood of developing a serious infection such as flesh eating disease increased with the use of antibiotics in attempt to prevent an infection. In the end I got neither an infection nor tetanus.
Over the years I have dealt with many full prolapses both in cattle and pigs and in one instance the neighbors ewe. The reason why the neighbors called me to deal with prolapses is because they trusted me to do it right and I didnt charge them. I gently push in the animals uterus, stitched them up if necessary, and gave them calcium gluconate, again if necessary, without the help of a vet. Initially after graduating from Guelph I did use antibiotics in most cases however I began to realize that there was no net benefit so I havent used them in over 35 Years. Ive not ever lost a cow due to an infection.
Recombinant Bovine Growth hormone (rBGH) is not legal in Canada where I live. It is a genetically engineered biosynthetic version of the naturally occurring pituitary hormone (BST) in cows. There are distinct and fundamental differences between the two types especially with respect to how they are metabolized and the by-products they produce. From the DNA of cows is taken the specific gene sequence that carries the instructions for making BST, and inserting it into E coli, which can then produce large amounts of rbST. Also inserted is an antibiotic resistant marker (ARM) gene to determine if they have been successful at inserting the gene that they are trying to transfer.
The natural BST (bovine Somatotropin) produced by the cow does not include E coli, nor does it include an antibiotic resistant gene in its genetic sequence, nor should it. As to whether or not they can test for rBST, what I can tell is that their reason for using an ARM gene in rBST is so that they can distinguish rBST from the naturally occurring BST in cattle.
There are over eighty different types of antibiotics used to treat mastitis in livestock and the list is growing. There is no guaranty that all of these antibiotics are effectively screened by current inhibitor tests. As well there is an inextricable link between rbST use and antibiotic residues in milk.
Ken
Ken
I saw your other response before this one. Good that you didn’t have a problem with infection or tetanus. I can only go by what I’ve learned, heard, read, etc. over the years.
As for my cow, I was unable to get any additional bedding before she calved, so it was pretty messy. Friends managed to scrounge up a bale of straw before the vet showed up. He had trouble getting her uterus back in because it was already swelled up quite a bit. Then, he asked me if I had any Pen G on hand, and I told him only a little. He didn’t even have any on his truck, and said the dairy guys don’t use it (or don’t use it much) anymore.
I do know that there are some who will use restrictive drugs, and I’m not limiting this to just dairy and beef producers. What about those who only raise a handful of animals, and don’t bother with a client/vet relationship? A good deal of them aren’t even aware of what happens with drug residues. Newbies are especially guilty of that one, and the stories I could tell you… I have a friend with a couple of cows, but was never a dairy farmer, only milked for someone else. She will use things that are not allowed on a dairy farm because she doesn’t sell the milk to anyone else, and will deal with the repercussions.
My understanding is, there are less antibiotics to use. Sure, newer ones are created, but some are removed from use. Maybe I should question my vet.
I thought I had initially addressed Ken on this. I agree with “no place for antibiotics in our milk or food”, nor should there be any other harmful contaminants. How many times has there been label mix ups, and something other than feed is fed to milk cows?
I do know how some of that antibiotic milk ends up in the tank. When margins are slim, some don’t waste time with waiting on milk samples to clear. Time is money, so if the label says “x”, then that is all the time they will wait. Then there are other reasons like a vet saying the residue will get diluted too much to worry about. Years ago, we had a Jersey that took at least a week to clear, and that meant she went over the required withhold time. It included dry treatment. The label said “96 hours”, and she went double that, without fail.
http://afsdairy.ca.uky.edu/extension/milkingmanagement/bestanibioticstaphaureus