“In Russia, we can’t say what we want, but we can eat what we want. In the U.S., we can say what we want, but we can’t eat what we want.” ~ From an attendee at the postponed hearing in Foxborough considering tough raw milk regulations for Lawtons Family Farm
The non-hearing over Lawtons Family Farm was frustrating in one sense–the 140 or so attendees who overflowed the meeting room were brewing for an active debate. When someone in the audience suggested to the Foxborough Board of Health that, instead of postponing the hearing, the board just withdraw the proposed tough new regulations designed to replace long-established state regs, the audience burst into loud applause.
The board was obviously impressed by the outpouring. “We’ve never had this much interest in something we are doing,” one of the health board members stated.
I don’t think the board is going to withdraw the regulations, but I sense there will be some easing in its approach. I had a long talk after the postponement (new date not set yet) with Eric Arvedon, the Foxborough board member who is leading the charge on the tough town regulations, and he told me that revised proposed regulations will be posted within the next few days. Missing will be the requirement that Lawtons test its milk on a weekly basis, instead of the states monthly requirement.
He also suggested there would be adjustment to a couple other controversial items: that Lawtons file an operating and safety plan each year to get its raw milk permit renewed, and that the dairy be shut down for up to 30 days in the event of high bacterial readings.
“We’re not trying to make it hard for them (Lawton’s),” he told me. “The regulations will pretty much mirror the state regulations.”
If that is the case, why get a town involved in something the state seems to be handling very well? Arvedon said he isnt convinced the state is handling the situation as well as it could. He was perturbed when, last spring, the state twice required Lawtons to halt sales for a few days because of certain high (non-pathogenic) bacterial counts, and, in his estimation, Lawtons seemed unresponsive to the towns concerns that customers be notified.
Terri Lawton, who helps run the dairy with her parents, says customers were notified, even though the state has no notification requirement. She says she rejected a town request for confirmation that customers were notified because this would have meant sharing a customer list.
From my conversation with Arvedon, I would say that the town officials have a very steep learning curve about raw milk….if, indeed, they are sincerely interested in learning. The health culture in which the Foxborough Board of Health spends much of its time is the factory-food culture that typifies the U.S., and is far removed from the raw milk/nutrient-dense food culture.
It seems that one of the big problems in the Foxborough situation stems from the fact that Massachusetts is one of the few states, perhaps the only state, in which both towns and the state are granted authority over raw milk by the legislature. For the nearly 30 dairies that produce raw milk around the state, the towns seem content to have the state handle the permitting and inspection process via its two full-time dairy inspectors. However, a little more than half the towns actually have prohibitions against raw milk sales, dating from the 1950s and 1960s, though at least three of those towns have reversed the bans in recent years so as to allow local farms to sell raw milk (and none of the towns that allow sales have enacted bans).
In the case of Foxborough, it seems clear that the board of health members are just getting up to speed on the realities of raw milk. I inquired with Arvedon about something he was quoted about in local papers–that 30 states prohibit raw milk and cheese sales.
When I asked him where he obtained that information, he said he was sure it was from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and began rummaging through a thick file of FDA and CDC printouts about raw milk. He wasnt able to find it, probably because even the FDA hasnt exaggerated the situation with regard to raw milk availability that badly; as we know, raw milk cheese that has been aged at least 60 days under FDA regulations can be sold anywhere, and there are 17 or 18 states that prohibit raw milk sales to the public, though most of those states allow herdshare arrangements.
Why would a local board of health that mostly oversees a National Football League stadium and local restaurants want to inject itself into something as challenging as raw milk? According to the Lawtons lawyer, Frank DiLuna, who represents clients before local health boards on various issues, They do it because they can.
In this case, all it took were a couple of high bacteria readings, and the local officials were prepared to pounce. Seemingly another reason why raw milk producers, in particular, can be well served by involvement in the Raw Milk Institute (RAWMI)–for the information and teaching it provides on producing consistently high-quality milk, and for the credibility it provides to uncertain local regulators.
While waiting last evening for the Foxborough Board of Health to take up the raw milk issue, board members debated food preparation procedures at nearby Gillette Stadium for New England Patriots games. An inspector had just been over there Sunday evening, and was concerned that some cooked food might be held more than four hours before being served to customers. There was an intense back and forth about how food vendors at the stadium might need to mark the time various foods are prepared, so food more than four hours old could be disposed. I’m not sure why four hours was such a huge deal, but it was.
In a culture where keeping the fast-food burgers and fries fresh and antiseptic is a high priority, educating about raw milk, the microbiome, and fermentation is definitely going to be a big challenge.
Find out which one of the Township board members themselves or which of their kids or grand kids have Crohns, Asthma, frequent colds, excema… or anything else related to autoimmune illness. Get them on “free raw milk” for the next 4 weeks. Then watch the votes change directions in a hurry!!! Perhaps even a few of the board members themselves have a serious GUT or BUTT problem. We know how raw milk fixes those kinds of unspoken things. In all seriousness, this board is just like any other group of uninformed Americans. They need accurate information so they can feel good about making a good decision for their community.
Look to the EU for the data and systems that work. America is still mostly in the raw milk dark-ages.It is kept there by industry and the FDA that loves their 18th century solutions.
To quote our wonderful Dr. Bruce German (from UC Davis International Milk Genomics Consortium ), “Pasteurization is a 18th century solution to an 18th century problem…we can do much better!”
So lets do much better!! We have the means, lets apply the will.
And we’d eat cooked food a couple of days later because that’s all we had. What’s a single paradigm?
But we survived.
Have fun, or not. Your choice/
Can I send in a picture of my puppy? She’s just as beautiful but didn’t make it to the meeting. Maybe next time wherever they reschedule. W
Thanks David it was great meeting you too and the book autograph, priceless.
A much better measure of cleanliness and quality is to measure the total number of coliform bacteria present in milk. Coliform is a family of bacteria that is widely found in the environment. Most varieties of coliform are benign, but some are not. E coli 0157H7 is a member of the coliform famly. Measuring the total coliform present in a milk samples is a good measure of the overall cleanliness of the milk processing plan. Coliforms are picked up between the udder and the bottle. If the plan for getting the milk from udder to jar is good, the milk should have very few coliform bacteria present. If that plan is followed consistently, the milk should be conistently low in coliform bacteria, which means the risk that a pathogenic strain of bacteria is present is nearly zero.
A milk sample could show 0 pathogens, but still have a very high coliform count. Most coliform bacteria are totally benign, but that high coliform count demonstrates that somewhere between udder and jar, bacteria is being introduced. And while that bacteria might be benign today, tomorrow it could contain a pathogen.
In California, the allowable number of Coliform bacteria in raw milk is <10, the same number that is allowable for pasteurized milk. Raw milk producers who follow a sound risk managment plan routinely have coliform counts of
I am very excited to announce that Mike Deschmidt in New Mexico is up and producing state authorized retail approved raw milk…in just less than 2 months he is selling out from his 30 ( do not have the exact number ) or so cows!! Mike is the first producer of legal NM raw milk in quite some time. It is legal in NM but no one had been producing it for more 15 years from what I understand. I flew down to see him last spring and he was making great progress then. He even had a pasteurizer installed to process some of his extra raw milk product because he thought that his raw milk might struggle in sales. After just a few weeks….not a drop extra, all sold out !!! He has not used his pasteurizer one time. He is testing and getting great numbers. He increased his testing after Marcy McBee had her challenge last month…just to know more information and not have any surprises. Congrats to Mike and his family.
Here is the Desmet Dairy website. I was off a little they are milking 16 cows of mixed breeds and state legal and inspected. Great story….his dad owned a CAFO with huge number of cows doing the highly processed commodity market thing. Mike made the shift and is the face of the new generation of innovation and the national raw milk rennaisance. Great to see this!!
Question: if you have multiple filters in your system….does the first filter have the same bugs as the second or third filters have??? Any thoughts? How do bugs behave arround fabric filter media? Why do they agrigate and concentrate ? Why do filter tests not reflect thevsame data as bulk tank tests from the same flow of milk?
Our university PhD friends say that the best way to find pathogens in a body of water is to leave a fabric sleeve in the water for a period of time…the fabric will show or collect bugs that a simple sample from the body of water will not show. Is this the same for raw milk flows??
These are unknown pioneering questions. The answers could revolutionize raw milk safety and provide some simple solutions to complex challenges. We will see…
How many times do you change the filter or wash it out during milking?
Was there milk from previous milkings in the cooler prior to introducing the current milk into the cooler?
How long does it take for your cooler to start up once your milk is introduced?
Where do you store your filters, in the original package or do you place them into a container?
What type of material are your filters manufactured from, fabric, or stainless steel?
Filters will accumulate clotted milk, is there any mastitic cows in the herd? Etc.
Ken
This is the first time I recall seeing this rationale for RAWMI. Where local regulators truly are uncertain, as opposed to fascistic, that’s exactly the kind of thing the food freedom movement should be doing.
But in the past I’ve always seen the rationale as being to collaborate with centralized bureaucracies like the CDFA and FDA, who aren’t uncertain at all about what they’re trying to accomplish.
http://www.naturalnews.com/043066_racism_public_schools_peanut_butter_and_jelly.html
Courageous Conversations, I saw them open for the Shenanigans and the Innuendos at the Holiday Inn decades ago.
Russ, this was actually my idea as I learned more about the degree of ignorance on raw milk among Foxborough regulators. I thought an affiliation with a private standards-setting organization like RAWMI, might provide reassurance that the regulators didn’t need to feel compelled to get involved. Terri Lawton was uncertain it would carry weight, especially if the regulators have other agendas, as well they might. Since the meeting was postponed, we’ll have to wait to learn more.
Considering the dramatic enhancement that consumption of raw milk provides to its consumer and zero deaths in the CDC data base from fluid raw milk, raw milk is a much better flu treatment Nd prevention than a shot injected acros America in tens of thousands of local pharmacies by non medically trained minimum wage aides. http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/11/25/heartbroken-mother-fox-and-friends-healthy-teenage-son-chandler-webb-died-after-routine
Death from a flu shot is a crazy outcome. It is also something Bill Marler can not sue for… Pharma is the one that gets immunity while the 19 year old gets death!!! Just a reminder of the sickness of our system.
There it was – hiding in plain sight.
When the people who are “just doing their job” make statements like the goon from my State who said he’d rather drink gasoline than drink raw milk, we should all have known he had no clue and needed to be educated from the real world side of raw milk, not the propaganda side.
Good going, David!
Our Sheriff and DA were very supportive of us. We actually have one of the most “Constitutional” sheriff’s in the nation right now. However, neither of them knew a thing about raw milk, other that the bits that they had picked up via the media. They knew raw milk was “controversial” and considered risky by some.
So for us, working with RAWMI was very helpful in bringing credibility to our risk-management plan. It was beneficial to say, “Here are standards for safe raw milk production. I didn’t develope these, rather they have been created by a team of experts in this area. We are voluntarily meeting or exceeding these safety standards.”
So far, we’ve not had any interations with our local health department. But I’m sure they know what we are doing. Its a small county. People who work in their office who get milk from us! And since there is very little good information about raw milk available to local public health folks, I’m more than happy to point them to RAWMI via our website, and to our RAMP plan and bacteria tests.
I do not believe the education of our regulators can be done en masse, in toto. We need to teach these people almost on a one-to-one basis (using RAWMI or RAMP or whatever if you wish) because en masse they tend to not “get it”. Consider them as still students. Most students learn better and retain better on a one-to-one basis, which is why homeschooling is tremendously successful.
I don’t know, that’s just my take on the thing. I feel as though teaching even ONE of them (and actually getting them to understand and learn about raw milk) is good because they will then possibly try to enlighten those they work with on a daily basis – maybe even by accident. We still need to teach basic facts, because that’s where these guys are the most “lost in the wilderness” about raw milk. You come at them with terms like “pathogens” and “bacteria counts” yada yada, you lose them right away – because it’s BORING and they think they already know all that stuff.
I still think, too, that the word raw tends to turn them off from the get-go. But again, that’s just me.
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The CDC simply says; My dog’s better than your dog, my dog’s better than yours my dog’s better cuz he gets KEN-L-RATION, my dog’s better than yours. (A dog food commercial from the 60s.)
http://youtu.be/uZAourInlHY
They start with a ridicules question is raw milk legal?(Of course it is.) If it is, can it be banned?(Of course not. At least not legally.) Then take a common symptom(the average American has it 3 times a year.) of many illnesses and a side effect of many drugs and say it is caused by a common human gut bacteria. Some of their evidence is never even written down or even spoken, just inferred. None of it even relates to their initial hypothesis. Then they simply move on to finding this hypothetical cause to this new disease we now call foodborne illness.
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1911, Boston
Forty-eight died from streptococcus in raw (unpasteurized) milk in an outbreak with more than 2,000 illnesses.(pure speculation since there is no documentation of whether the milk was pasteurized or not and consumers were often not told their milk was being pasteurized.)
At the time, people were said to be suffering from septic sore throat.(strep throat)???
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/11/a-top-10-list-of-deadliest-foodborne-illness-outbreaks/#.UpYjb9KOSyt
This I pilfered from one of my wife’s friend’s emails:
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According to someone “in the know” they said the hearing is not about banning the sale of raw milk. However, the article I originally sent you contained a quote from a Foxboro BOH official indicating that banning its sale should be evaluated to keep you informed. Maybe the need to attend is not as dire as originally thought – I hope that is true. See an excerpt from the email I received from the person “in the know:”
“Already up on this and have sent letters to the BOH. The issue before the board is whether or not to adopt local regulations for raw milk dairies that are more stringent than the state, not to ban it.”
Of course, if the regulations are costly, Oake Knoll would have trouble staying in business. The regulations are almost identical to something Framingham adopted a few years ago. Eastleigh Dairy was able to comply but is currently in bankrupcy due to economic issues not the raw milk regs as far as I know.
David Gumpert has put a great deal of spin on this thing. Currently there is one board member who has requested that the regs be adopted and one who does not want them adopted. One member is undecided as far as I know . . . “This is not about banning raw milk, however.”
Also, here is a link to the original article about Lawton’s Farm – lots of interesting info. about the farm and Foxboro’s proposed regulations applicable to the sale of raw milk. Which links back to David’s TCP blog.
I have actually had more challenges speaking that language with fellow producers due to misconceptions about pathogenic risks and bad information. For example, for a long time I was led to believe that raw milk had pathogenic-killing properties, and therefore was safe for consumption even if it happened to become contaminated. Not true. At one time, I also thought that e coli 0157 was not present in grass fed herds. Also not true. I’ve found that respectful and open-minded dialogue around science is beneficial both ways…for the raw milk producer and for the public health avocate…especially as D says, on a one-to-one basis.
Let the tongue lashing now begin… 🙂
Dialogue before a confrontation, or a crisis, is much prefered.
Ora, just to clarify .If the meeting Monday evening had gone forward as planned, the first item the Foxborough Board of Health would have voted on was whether or not to ban raw milk. As your friend suggested, the board seems divided, with a swing vote likely making the final 2-1 decision. If the vote had been in favor of banning raw milk, there could have been a number of possible outcomes after that. For example, Lawton’s might have been grandfathered in, with the stipulation it operate under the tough local regulations. Or, if raw milk wasn’t banned, the tough regulation still could have been enacted. Or, the regulations could have been adjusted, with some items adjusted to make them less onerous. Or, raw milk could have been approved, with stipulation that the state continue to regulate Lawton’s. I’m sure some other permutations possible.
I’d say the need to attend the re-secheduled meeting will be even more urgent. The only reason the Foxborough officials have shown signs of flexibility is because of the large crowd on hand. That same pressure will be needed to keep them flexible. If people don’t show up, you can count on them reverting to the original plan, which was to put Lawton’s in a straitjacket.
And it’s not a pot here, it’s a cauldron. Be wear heat resistant gloves or get burnt.
http://www.pbase.com/revsnet/51912_oak_knoll_farm&view=slideshow
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that there are 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths annually due to foodborne illness in the US (Scallan et al, 2011). Approximately 1 in every 6 Americans suffer from foodborne illness each year.
http://www.pma.com/system/files/Epidemiology%20-%20Part%201.pdf
At that rate any group of 900 people should have 12.5 cases of foodborne illness each month just to be average. And since 10% of all STEC cases in the U.S. progress to HUS any group of 900 people should have 1.25 cases of HUS each and every month!!!
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That means if any cow share with 900 people has less than 1.25 cases of HUS each month, their raw milk is preventing HUS not causing it. Is there any cow share with a safety record that bad? Someone please check my math.
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According to the CDC’s epidemiological evidence 100 raw milk drinkers should die from food borne illness every year, but so far none have. Which means raw milk saves 100 lives per year regardless of it’s quality.
Since 2005, there have been 27 children who have developed HUS from drinking raw milk.
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Mary, there are 10 million raw milk drinkers in the U.S. Are you saying that they only experienced 27 cases of HUS over a 7 year period? You do realize that the national average for HUS is 1/6 x 5 to 10% per year. An average group of 10 million people experiences between 583,333 and 1,166,666 cases of HUS over that length of time. If what you say is true epidemiologically speaking raw milk would have prevented between 583,306 and 1,166,639 cases of HUS in the U.S. sense 2005.
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[(The number of raw milk drinkers in the U.S. Divided by 6) times 7 yrs] times 10% divided by 2.
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[(10,000,000 / 6)x 7yrs] x 10% = 1,166,666 and 1,166,666 / 2 = 583,333
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10,000,000 / 6 = 1,666,666
1,666,666 x 7yrs = 11,666,666
11,666,666 x 10% = 1,166,666
1,166,666 / 2 = 583,333
http://www.foxbororeporter.com/articles/2013/11/27/news/14343447.txt
Don’t you see the flaw in your reasoning?
You may be on to something conceptually but you ain’t got nothing yet.
National Geographic Live! : Dinka: Legendary Cattle-Keepers of Sudan
http://youtu.be/erNAdYoqaFo
Your conclusion may be correct, but it’s not provable in the way you’re describing.
http://www.pma.com/system/files/Epidemiology%20-%20Part%201.pdf
At that rate any group of 900 people(CS) should have 12.5 cases of foodborne illness(CSFBI) each month just to be average.
(1/6 AFBI x 900 CS) / 12 MO = 12.5 CSFBI
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10% of all STEC cases in the U.S. progress to HUS.
http://www.newjersey.gov/health/cd/documents/chapters/ecoli_ch.pdf
Any group of 900 people(CS) should have 1.25 cases of HUS each and every month!!!
0.10 STEC x 12.5 CSFBI = 1.25 CSHUS
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Ruffly 300,000,000 people in U.S.(USP)
The CDC’s FoodNet Survey says there are 10,000,000 raw milk drinker(RMD) in the U.S. http://www.foodrenegade.com/government-data-proves-raw-milk-safe/
CDC estimates 3,000 deaths annually due to foodborne illness in the US.(FBID)
http://www.pma.com/system/files/Epidemiology%20-%20Part%201.pdf
According to the CDC’s epidemiological evidence 100 raw milk drinkers should die(DRMD) from food borne illness every year,
(10,000,000 RMD/300,000,000 USP) x 3000 FBID = 100 DRMD
http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/h/hemolytic_uremic_syndrome/prevalence.htm
STEC (whether 0157 or non-0157) are the only pathogens that cause HUS. Salmonella, norovirus, and other pathogens listed in the Scallan study do not cause HUS.
In the Scallan study, it lists 3704 cases of STEC E. coli 0157 and 1579 cases of STEC non-0157. So if you estimate 10% of these will turn into HUS (I have heard the number closer to 5%), you are looking for approximately 500-600 annual cases of HUS due to STEC nationally.
Yes, “white privilege” is a fact of history. And our God = the God of Israel = is the One who determined it, for His purpose : ” I have given you power to get wealth, in order that my Covenant will be established in all the earth”. No mere co-incidence that the Dinkas a] – were keepers of cattle since, at the latest, the time of the Hyksos invasion, and b]- are the traditional aristocrats of what was known as “Kush”, ie Africa.
Your homework, Mike, is to find out who were “the Hyksos”, and why did the native population of ancient Egypt resent the sheepherders intruding into their land in the time of Joseph? The answer is in the Bible … “here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept”. It’s worth the effort, because, knowing who true Israel is today = us, Caucasians = is the key to prophecy.
I actually have a small treasured media credential for Foxboro Stadium from 15 years ago when I worked with the Foxboro Reporter newspaper covering the Kraft’s other team that nobody knows exists. I say “worked with” rather than worked for, because I volunteered and never got paid a dime. If I find it I’ll post a link because I think it’s wicked cool to have a badge that says Foxboro Reporter with my name on it.
A great paper published by Dr. Ton Baars PhD in the EU earlier this year addresses your questions about raw milk in other places in the world and especially the EU and Germany. According to Dr. Baars there has been no reported illness related to raw milk consumption in the German system of “Vorzugsmilch”. They test and use special protocols that are not particularly tight or perfect. But the results are outstanding when considering the history and data that flows from it. See this article for more. I will see if I can find a link. It is the holy grail for a summary of the best research found arround the world on raw milk. Dr. Michele Russell is even quoted in it. RAWMI standards go far beyond the German system but we have just begun to create our track record and collect data. We are also under intense political and econmic raw milk pressures in the US that are not generally found in Germany. A link to the summary of the Peer reviewed and published article can be found here:
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/255685679_Milk_Consumption_Raw_and_General_in_the_Discussion_on_Health_or_Hazard
Journal of
Nutritional Ecology and Food Research
Vol. 1, 91107, 2013
It is simple analogies such as this that nurtures wisdom and points us in the direction of the truth.
Ken
http://the-moneychanger.com/articles/amazing_calcium_therapy
The germs were sourced from several prominent personalities such as food writer Michael Pollan and Olafur Eliasson of New York City waterfalls fame. Each of these luminaries took the time to massage their noses, armpits, bellybuttons or toes with sterile swabs that they sent back to the museum. There, scientists used the bacteria to produce fuzzy, off-white cheeses that revoltingly “smell, and taste, of the body odour of the donor
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2013/11/people-are-making-human-cheese-using-belly-button-bacteria/7659/
Ken
If so, I don’t see how that helps the cause of raw milk truth, and of course appeasement is proven by history to fail.
I thought belly buttons were for storing lint?
Ken
A good quick summary of what the Campaign for REAL MILK is up-against, is available in the top article on Dr Makows website, today < www.henrymakow.com >
It draws the Big Picture. The raw milk thing is not about health ; it never was. Its all about control : who gets what share of the profits and prestige. Since I had the privilege of being taught by Buckminster Fuller, who educated us theres more than enough to go round, and also Bobby Dylan, who sang youve got to serve somebody, I can live with the local over-educated-thugs-in-white-robes demanding kickbacks in cash and/or deference to their position. As long as the REAL MILK is flowing those pompous pricks can just get stuffed
The comments about Darwin-ism being a religious cult, are particularly good
^^^^^^
A snippet from the article by Phil Collins
The Epistemological Cartel
In The Architecture of Modern Political Power, Daniel Pouzzner outlines the tactics employed by the elite… Among them is: ‘Ostensible control over the knowable, by marketing institutionally-accredited science as the only path to true understanding’ (Pouzzner, 75).
The word ‘science’ is derived from the Latin word scientia, which means ‘knowing.’ Epistemology is the study of the nature and origin of knowledge. The ruling class has bribed the ‘bookkeepers’ (i.e., natural and social scientists).
Meanwhile, the masses practically deify the ‘bookkeepers’ of the elite, and remain ‘ignorant of the methodology of the bookkeeping.’ The unknown author of Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars provides an eloquently simple summation: ‘The means is knowledge. The end is control. Beyond this remains only one issue: Who will be the beneficiary?’ (Keith, Secret and Suppressed, 203).
In Brave New World Revisited , Aldous Huxley more succinctly defined this epistemological cartel:
The older dictators fell because they could never supply their subjects with enough bread, enough circuses, enough miracles, and mysteries.
Under a scientific dictatorship, education will really work’ with the result that most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution. There seems to be no good reason why a thoroughly scientific dictatorship should ever be overthrown (Huxley, Brave New World Revisited, 116).
This is the ultimate objective of the elite: an oligarchy legitimized by arbitrarily-anointed expositors of ‘knowledge’ or, in Huxley’s own words, a ‘scientific dictatorship.’
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Shiga like toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are estimated to cause more than 265,000 illnesses each year in the United States.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncezid/dfwed/PDFs/national-stec-surveillance-overiew-508c.pdf
A 2007 CDC FoodNet survey, reported 3.04% of the population consumes raw milk, or about 9.4 million people, based on the 2010 census.
http://www.rodalenews.com/research-feed/raw-milk-one-safest-foods-available
In the US an average of 27 STEC cases per year or 3 cases of HUS are blamed on raw milk.
http://www.realmilk.com/safety/those-pathogens-what-you-should-know/
STEC infections in young children may lead to complications such as HUS in about 5% to 10% of cases.
http://www.nj.gov/health/cd/documents/chapters/ecoli_ch.pdf
265,000 (STEC illnesses) / 308,745,538 (People 2010) = 0.000858
0.000858 x 9,400,000 (U.S. raw milk consumers) = 8055 (expected STEC illnesses in raw milk consumers if not drinking raw milk) (actual average US raw milk STEC cases per year 27)
8055 x 5% to 10% = 403 to 806 (cases of HUS per yr if not drinking raw milk)(actual less than 3)
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/oldspeak/a_new_flu_season_of_pain_profit_and_politics
“Private vaccine and pharmaceutical companies have no expense for marketing and distributing influenza vaccines to doctors and health care facilities. Rather the US government purchases the flu vaccine outright from vaccine makers and then the government is required to promote, advertise and sell them. Government holds the debt. Because the pharmaceutical industry already received its money, it is the governments responsibility, with taxpayer money, to sell the vaccines by whatever means at its disposal. This is another reason why people of all ages and parents need be better educated to see past the barrage of junk science and the publicity of misinformation originating in the federal health agencies. ”
Ah, government is such a Godsend. And then there’s this from one of my reporter heroes. Wonder if he drinks real milk?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FkhQ1EN5Ec
Wow that wouldn’t cost much and force a small farm out of business would it?
Not sure which of these links will work, explore.
http://www.foxboroughma.gov/Pages/foxboroughMA_HealthNews/01C2120B-000F8513
http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/19567319/821618459/name/Foxborough%20Raw%20Milk%20Regulations%2011-27-13%2E.pdf
http://www.foxboroughma.gov/Pages/FoxboroughMA_Health/index?textPage=1
But if there IS a company – or an individual such as DeepPockets Dave the Bookie – willing to underwrite the Oake Knoll Dairy, then all we’re talking about then, is, value for $ = What does such a policy cost? Policies for Car insurance for $3 million lilability, are done daily. The insurance companies know very well what the odds are, which is why they’re so profitable.
Same with REAL MILK – for the last 10 years, I’ve been saying “show me the actuarial tables!”
someone phone up Lloyd’s of London, and ask them what their premium is, for product liability for ~ 2 million pounds sterling, for the 100 or so raw milk dairies in England. They’ll get back to you in about an hour, and write you a policy before close- of-business.
OR = you could do it the Biblical way … be self-insured
In all sincerity, the people that wrote this draft do not understand Recalls, verses Degrades. They are treating products that exceed bacterial standards as a “Recall” product when they should be subject to a “Degrade” instead. The authors of this draft policy are not qualified to write such policies. They have not done their comparative diligence. They have written a confused and a jussive protocol that does not improve safety….all it does is economically oppress raw milk and creates sudden death shut down protocol that is not justified.
The requirement for insurance at the $3 million level is unheard of. I have never heard of such a regulatory policy. It may even be unconstitutional. I can not think of any authority that would vest the power to mandate insurance. Insurance is not in the realm of regulatory authority. I can think of no other food that is mandated to hold insurance. This is an issue between the producer and any retailers or the consumers but not the regulatory government agencies or local Townships.
It is time for everyone associated with raw milk in the Foxborough Township to object and require a comparative assessment of the draft policies. The policies are agregrious,unjust,unfounded, and they do nothing for food safety. If food safety is the goal, then why not address sound RAMP programs. The policies do use big words like SSOP’s but fails to comprehensively address food safety. There is no mention of pathogen testing….not one word! Pathogens cause illness….high bacteria counts do not!! These draft policies where drafted by unqualified people or highly qualified people on a mission to destroy raw milk.
FYI, a $3 million dollar insurance policy will be very expensive. My experience says that it will be at least $50,000 per year for a small operation if it is even possible or available at any cost. A lessor policy coverage at $2 million per year costs a CA raw milk priducer more than $60k per year. The additional $1 million per year adds even more cost. There are few if any insurance companies that cover raw milk in the USA.
The Foxborough policies have not changed their wolf in sheepskin clothing. They are now just modified to destroy t
Protest at all cost!!
Getting them to warm up to such an idea might not be all that far fetched considering our societys current socialistic controlling inclination.
Joking aside, since 1986 the federal government in the US has begrudgingly paid out 2.7 billion dollars to Americans harmed by vaccines in exchange for shielding drug companies and doctors from vaccine injury lawsuits in civil court. It should be 20 times this!
Hell its the least they can do if you consider the immune depressing and environmental modulating effect of those vaccines and other government approved and promoted programs related to food production such as GMOs, herbicide, hormones and antibiotics in crop and livestock production.
Why should the farmer have to carry the burden of responsibility for what is clearly an act of premeditated aggression against public health and the environment by self serving fascist governments.
Ken
According to that, they can also mandate pasteurization, “improved seeds” (i.e. GMOs), glyphosate, synthetic fertilizer, etc., whenever they choose. All these can be claimed to be necessary to protect the integrity of commerce. They’ll go ahead as soon as they think they can get away with it politically.
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How do we know E. coli O157:H7 even causes illness if: According to the FDA the infectious dose for E. coli O157:H7 is unknown. That suggests that they have never tested E. coli O157:H7 consumption in raw milk. (FDA. 1993. HACCP. Regulatory Food Applications in Retail Food Establishments. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Division of Human Resource Development, HFC-60. Rockville, MD.) http://www.hi-tm.com/Documents/Ecoli98.html
It is interesting to note that Organic Pastures Dairy in California, which has been producing raw
milk since 1999 and tests the milk at every milking (14 times per week) for pathogens has never
found a pathogen in their milk.
http://www.realmilk.com/wp-content/uploads/2000/01/ResponsetoJohnSheehanTestimony.pdf
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If only 50% of HUS(kidney failure) cases involve dialysis and there are no outward signs of HUS other than diarrhea, how do we know there aren’t many parents successfully treating HUS at home. The doctors don’t seem to have come to a consensus on what the best treatment is. There are many medications and treatments that have proven over the years, to be counterproductive. Parents should know the threshold(the exact numbers) for starting dialysis and the success rate at that threshold. Of course parents make mistakes and can be reluctant to spend money they don’t have but they are more likely to have their childs best interests in mind than a pharmaceutical company. You may ask what’s wrong with taking a drug every time you get a cough, headache, or diarrhea, or every time someone tells you you could get a cough, headache, or diarrhea? The answer is on the back of the box.
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Some little snippets of hospital politics:
The evaluation of kidney failure is challenging, despite many advances in diagnosis and treatment over the past decade.
…Thus, the best strategy for the combined use of these indices remains unclear. It has been suggested that the so-called kidney failure index (KFI) (urine sodium divided by the urinetoplasma creatinine ratio) be used to differentiate the four categories of ARF…
http://pednephrology.stanford.edu/documents/2%20Kidney%20Failure%20Peds%20in%20Review2002.pdf
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ERS published its first comprehensive cost estimates for 16 foodborne bacterial pathogens in 1989. These initial estimates reflected the limited information then available about the incidence of foodborne illness,
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There has been almost no progress in reducing illnesses from Salmonella since 1996, when CDC first began conducting surveillance on the pathogen.
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Available data-sets do not commonly contain biochemical data with which to definitively identify an AKI (acute kidney injury) episode. We thus use administrative billing data to identify episodes of AKI alone and those requiring dialysis. This indirect method has a number of limitations, including poor sensitivity and the possibility of a phenomenon described as code creep. This occurs over a period of time when billing thresholds are changed by physicians and/or hospital coders, and can increase the likelihood of an administrative code for AKI being generated by a less severe episode, potentially skewing analyses that demonstrate temporal changes in AKI incidence. As less severe episodes are identified and coded, the incidence of associated adverse outcomes is also likely to fall.
Figure 6.1 captures this problem by showing the rising incidence of AKI. While in isolation there appears to be an epidemic, it is likely that a proportion of this change is the result of code creep. Superimposed on this figure is the proportion of reported AKI patients requiring dialysis. While the threshold for defining AKI has changed over time, the threshold for when to initiate dialysis has likely remained fairly stable. In contrast to the incidence of AKI, the incidence of AKI requiring dialysis has been declining, further supporting the notion of code creep for AKI diagnoses.
In patients with an AKI who require dialysis, intermittent hemodialysis (IHD) continues to be the most common known form of therapy, but its use appears to be declining; in 2011, 36 percent of AKI patients requiring dialysis were put on this type of therapy, compared to 65 percent in 2000. The proportion of AKI patients whose dialysis modality is unknown has reached 57 percent, nearly triple that found in 2000, and largely a result of changing reimbursement payments.
Principal diagnosis codes on AKI claims indicate that the AKI event itself remains the major reason for AKI hospitalization. There has, however, been a significant increase in the number of patients with a diagnosis of septicemia again, most likely due in part to the changing reimbursement for various diagnoses.
http://www.usrds.org/2013/view/v1_06.aspx
As a side note, whenever I type the word raw milk into my search engine, it does NOT bring up articles about pasteurization. Go figure.
Here is some great new science. Piglet babies thrive on raw bovine milk. The study shows that piglet digestive tracts develop better when the piglets are fed bovine raw milk than when they are fed pasteurized milk or other processed formulas.
Too bad they did not use human babies to show this effect. This study is published by the NIH.
I am confused…don’t the NIH and FDA talk to one another??? Is our government that disfunctional??? Do not answer that….I asked a stupid question.
Milk, spinach, burger do not make people sick….but pathogenic e coli does, so we need to keep in out of our food. It can be done. It is being done. It takes knowledge and a plan. Denying that contaminated milk can cause illness is not helpful.
If we are about food freedom here, the path to greater freedom is not by insisting that there is no risk associated with pathogens. It is by understanding and dealing with those risks and taking responsibility for ourselves. The desire for responsiblilty is perhaps no where more strong than in the mindset of the consumer-direct farmer raw milk farmer.
What producers have lacked is good information, and I believe that information (and the research required to obtain it) has been deliberately withheld. The private sector is doing a heck of a job to turn that around though. Never before has there been more information and mentoring available, and bad information is being replaced by good. Its a great time to be doing raw milk.
His argument is convincing as to the deaths / illnesses arising from consumption of homo milk ( from the CAFO system ) being hidden under the catch-all excuse individual allergic reaction.
Early-on in my involvement in this thing, it became obvious to me that the dairy cartel is in the same position as was Big Tobacco, for about half a century = having plenty of scientific studies in hand proving that its product certainly is hazardous to the public health, yet colluding with so-called govt. health authorities in suppressing that information. Whence cometh the vicious, utterly IL-logical opposition to REAL MILK. Our task now, is – as Siegfried Gursche put it – “FIND A WAY TO TELL THE TRUTH”
According to the FDA the infectious dose for E. coli O157:H7 is unknown. That suggests that they have never tested E. coli O157:H7 consumption in raw milk. (FDA. 1993. HACCP. Regulatory Food Applications in Retail Food Establishments. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Division of Human Resource Development, HFC-60. Rockville, MD.) http://www.hi-tm.com/Documents/Ecoli98.html
I buy four wieners in the spring and feed them raw milk with chopped oats and grass until they weigh about 200 lbs. I guaranty you there is no better pork.
One spring when the boys went out to the barn to milk the cows they discovered the four little pigs that I had just recently purchased had managed to get out of their pen and were all sucking on the same cow at the same time. The cow didnt seem to mind in the least in fact she appeared to enjoy it.
Ken
@ Gordon: Another good read is Swindled by Bee Wilson. Very eye-opening information. It was written in 2008 so a lot has changed even since that time, but it’s still really good information. She touches briefly on the subject of milk, but she talks about the adulteration of foods and how we got to where we are in that regard.
I make a point of not buying pigs from an SPF (Specific Pathogen Free) hog farm. They present a real problem when being transferred from their isolated protected environment to an open-air facility.
When my dad went into the hog business in the 1960s he started of with SPF hogs with the intent of establishing his own SPF herd. Eventually we ended up building a loafing barn for the 150 sows and turned them out on pasture during the summer.
All you need is for a bear to rip open the barn door and get in or a bird to fly in through the blades of a ventilation fan that has stopped running, or mice and rats to gain entry and you have a real problem if these invaders carry in an organism that your pigs have never been exposed to.
Ken
Ken
Coliform and SPC tests are cheap. About $5. Its money well spent.
Is that what you were asking?
This is for chickens, though, not dairy. (Not yet. But we’re also talking about getting a cow for milk.)
The moment you assent to their authority to regulate the production/sale of a food you’ve lost the war. Under common law the authority to regulate and license presumes the activity is a governmental privilege; illegal but for the governments permission. So they have the right to pass whatever regulation they wish and you get to suck it up whether you like it or not.
So words like unconstitutional are wholly inappropriate for details on the content of the regulation. What would be unconstitutional, illegal, null and void is any regulation or statute that presumes to regulate the production and sale of food; which are our rights as humans. But to go down that track you have to argue against the whole body of regulation; not just some part you find abusive.
Feed saturated with glyphosate, Bt toxins, and genetically modified DNA fragments is bound to affect the quality of the output. We have the work of Don Huber, Monica Kruger, and many others to confirm it. If livestock are increasingly sterile, suffering miscarriages and birth defects, cattle botulism, severe cobalt and manganese deficiciencies, and many other such effects from glyphosate and perhaps from genetic modification itself, the meat and dairy are bound to be nutritionally inferior and poisonous. I’d see no point in drinking raw milk for its health benefits and to avoid the toxic pasteurization process if it’s going to be loaded with other poisons.
Alfalfa, organic or not, isn’t likely to stay uncontaminated for long if the GM plantings are allowed to continue.
that theme was lost a long time ago … back about the time the public fool system started proramming America’s children to believe they were living in a “democracy” rather than the Republic of the united States of America. You persist saying things like that, you’ll wind up like Gordon Kahl ; Robert Matthews; George Lincoln Rockwell, and the rest of the villains whom you’ve been conditioned to think were ‘madmen / domestic terrorists / racists / Neo -nazis’ = etc. all the rest of the knee-jerk epithets. Get the facts : think for yourself
it you wanted a watershed moment when the “war was lost”, I’d say it was the last day of the Congress in 1913, passing of the Federal Reserve Act. The mortal enemies of the nation (which had been established by white Christians, for their progeny) slithered into the high places of govt. ie, control of the technology of legal tender. All the rest is mere outworking of the details of communist power.
In this situation – where we’re ruled by people who hate us = now what’re you going to do about it?! A handy example being : East Germany. Although the Germans are still under tribute to this day [ untold Billions of reparations flowing to the Israelis| its citizens gaoled for voicing dissent against the official Party line of what happened during the 3rd Reich ] – the actual police-state conditions in the FDR lasted “only” half a century. Life went on … they learned how to cope … and they had no problem getting raw milk all the while!
What I see happening here, is : people involved in the Campaign for REAL MILK have intuitively, already dis-counted the coming collapse of the US $. They’re working for pittance, creating their own future which mandates repudiating Marxism … especially = relearning and practicing the agricultural laws of the Bible, which is what the “common law” is based-upon.
As for the economics of growing, I don’t know a lot about that, as the only feed that we grow for ourselves is grass-hay. When we buy non-organic but non-gmo we typically pay less than we we purchase feed that is certified organic.
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Shiga like toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) are estimated to cause more than 265,000 illnesses each year in the United States.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncezid/dfwed/PDFs/national-stec-surveillance-overiew-508c.pdf
STEC infections in young children may lead to complications such as HUS in about 5% to 10% of cases.
http://www.nj.gov/health/cd/documents/chapters/ecoli_ch.pdf
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It looks like anecdotal evidence may be better than epidemiological evidence.
This info would be beneficial to us all since we are all here to learn and our wonderful public health people refuse to do this type of research.
Wayne
http://naturalsociety.com/gmos-spreading-uncontrollably-around-world/
I argue from Truth and Law. If we toss out our just legal foundations then from what position shall we argue? All that is left is might makes right.
Here’s my commentary on the Testbiotech report discussed in the piece you linked.
http://attempter.wordpress.com/2013/11/16/new-report-on-gmo-contamination/
I conclude that it’s more evidence that “co-existence” is impossible, and that the total abolition of GMOs is necessary.
In regards to your question to Mary as to how baby pigs acquire their immunity.
It is very similar to humans for there is a reason why they are born in the location in which they are. This much I can also tell you, soon after they are born they indiscriminately root around everywhere and if they happen to get out of their pen they will make a beeline for cow manure and start gobbling it up.
Ken
Since I have access to the full paper that was referred to, I would just indicate that the cow milk and colostrum administer to the piglets were both freeze-dried and gamma-irradiated (to sterilize). This would make them quite different to the customary description of raw milk used within TCP and elsewhere. Thankyou. John
To take this a little further though as FYI. Human fetuses acquire antibodies via the placenta and they are born with circulating antibodies that reflect their mother’s environment. I believe this difference is extremely important to the discussions I read on TCP. As a far as I can tell, babies of dairy farm families seem somewhat (largely) protected against E coli 0157 infection, even though their exposure to this bacterium is likely to be quite high. Some of this protection might relate to the fact that their mothers are also protected by their own exposure and then pass this to their fetuses as specific anti-E coli (ST) antibodies (although this is merely my speculation). Babies born to urban/suburban families appear to be much more susceptible to STE coli, with occasional unfortunate consequences after a novel, but quite small exposure (via STEC-contaminated food, petting shedding calves etc). My guess is that, in part, this might be because they and their mothers live in an environment where E coli 0157 is generally uncommon (and this makes them a population at risk). John
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20956021
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/a-cure-for-the-allergy-epidemic.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://thecompletepatient.com/article/2013/november/10/ny-times-explores-huge-raw-milk-health-benefits-hesitates-final-leap
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How do we know E. coli O157:H7 even causes illness if: According to the FDA the infectious dose for E. coli O157:H7 is unknown. That suggests that they have never even tested E. coli O157:H7 consumption in raw milk. (FDA. 1993. HACCP. Regulatory Food Applications in Retail Food Establishments. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Division of Human Resource Development, HFC-60. Rockville, MD.) http://www.hi-tm.com/Documents/Ecoli98.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3395287/
Formula feeding has risks that are not associated with feeding human milk to infants. It is presumably these risks that mothers using peer-to-peer shared human milk wish to avoid. Formula feeding is associated with increased risk of infectious diseases including gastrointestinal disease and respiratory tract infections. In resource-rich countries, children who are fed infant formula are up to five times more likely to be hospitalized in infancy than children who are fully breastfed. Some of the mechanisms by which formula feeding might facilitate infection are understood; for example, ingestion of foreign protein such as dairy protein in infant formula can inflame and damage the protective mucous membrane of the intestine assisting colonisation by pathogens. The use of infant formula is also associated with an increased risk of non-infectious diseases such as allergic diseases and type 1 and 2 diabetes; again, the early exposure to foreign foods is thought to be a factor in the development of these illnesses. In addition, formula feeding is associated with impaired cognitive development, perhaps because infant formula lacks many ingredients thought to be involved in brain development. Finally, formula feeding is associated with an increased risk of death due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) that is 3.7 times that of breast fed babies, and a peptide in dairy formula has been identified as a possible contributor to SIDS.