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Ron Klein with some of his water buffalo.Even veteran farmers occasionally receive cruel unexpected reminders about the dangers of handling livestock. Ron Klein, a Michigan dairy farmer who comments here, barely survived repeated attacks by one of his bulls late last month. In fact, when you read the harrowing account on this blog from Olga Bonfiglio, youÂ’ll wonder how he survived at all. It seems he could easily have been killed.

 

The bull was “in a frenzy,” as Klein described it. Even as Klein attempted to make his way toward a fence, and escape, the bull kept coming at him, a couple times catching his shirt in its horns, and flinging him about  like a rag doll.


In the end, it was likely his experience and instincts that enabled Klein to survive with serious injuries. He tells me he is on the mend. The bigger issue, he says, is that “folks new to farming (understand about) getting livestock–it is not Disneyland.”


Here’s some data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control on fatalities caused by cows and cattle. What happened to Ron not an entirely uncommon scenario.

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Aajonus Vonderplanitz, the nutritionist, responded angrily to charges by Mike Adams of Natural News questioning VonderplanitzÂ’s lab testing procedures and academic credentials. He used an unfortunate tactic that IÂ’ve seen him employ several times now– suggesting Adams could be a government plant.

“Is Mike Adams truly a government and/or corporate mole? With the vehemence of his rhetoric, he is doing nothing but defending criminals and bashing me. He argues my credentials and laboratory tests (as) if they are what is important rather than freedom.”

In an email to supporters, Vonderplanitz seemed also to be admitting some degree of culpability in terms of his credentials and the lab tests, as if the ends justified the means.

He repeated his charge made on the Unhealthy Family Farm web site that Sharon Palmer and James Stewart “poisoned the (Rawesome) members with toxic commercial food, everything we work so hard to avoid.”

He also said his Ph.D. was an honorary degree. Adams  Â“has attacked my HONORARY doctorate bestowed on me by the defunct Richmonds University. It seems that some sinister people are using the defunct university to forge diplomas for profit and fraud. He has compared mine with counterfeits. Because there are some counterfeits does not mean that all are counterfeits but that is his tactic.”

Since Vonderplanitz sent out his email, additional bad news has emerged for Vonderplanitz– a tape that seems to capture Vonderplanitz plotting with a lawyer to obtain the name and property associated with Rawesome Food Club, and $500,000 as compensation from farmer Sharon Palmer, presumably for him to discontinue targeting her with charges of providing poisonous food to the food club. 

The ongoing revelations of recent weeks—that Vonderplanitz encouraged the Ventura County District Attorney to go after Sharon Palmer and James Stewart, used questionable testing procedures of supposedly tainted food, magnified his academic credentials (even a sincere honorary degree isn’t the same as a real degree), and schemed to benefit financially from Rawesome and Sharon Palmer—paint a very damaging portrait. The revelations at once undermine his credibility and his contention that he has been entirely focused on ensuring the health of Rawesome members.

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There’s apparently a new move in Congress to legalize interstate shipments of raw milk—in the form of a proposed amendment by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul to the huge farm bill. The proposed amendment hasn’t received much attention…except from the dairy industry. Not surprisingly, it sees a huge threat from the rapidly growing market for raw dairy products, and the growing support in Congress for removing the prohibition, which is used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to harass small farms. The industry groups, as usual, couch their opposition in terms of concerns about raw milk’s safety.

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National Public Radio aired a report earlier today that linked the rise in allergies with benefits from raw dairy in countering allergies. The report made specific mention of a recent study of Amish children that connected raw milk consumption with lower incidence of allergies.

The NPR segment also expressed concern about endorsing widespread consumption of raw milk because of issues about its safety. It quoted a scientist involved in the Amish study as saying, “…there’s something about milkÂ…That’s key, along with exposure to large animals, particularly cows.”

It added, “Scientists don’t know exactly what it is in raw milk, or in the barn, or on the cows, that helps boost the immune system. They’re researching that now. But (the research scientist) cautions against drinking raw milk or serving it to your child. It contains too many dangerous, disease-causing bacteria.”

In the context of expanding, and increasingly sympathetic, media coverage of raw dairy, the NPR report is intriguing.  While the health benefits of raw dairy are catching attention, the media arenÂ’t yet at a point where they will question the arbitrary fear-mongering by the medical and scientific communities over raw milkÂ’s safety.

Here’s the contradiction: If a new drug claimed to reduce the incidence of childhood allergies and asthma by 40 per cent or more, it wouldn’t automatically be slammed because it had potential side effects. The FDA would conduct a risk-benefit analysis to determine if the side effects were serious enough to outweigh the benefits. That doesn’t occur in the case of raw dairy, though. Scientists make blanket statements that raw milk contains disease-causing bacteria, as if that’s the norm, when in fact it happens exceedingly rarely. Presumably the scientists want to be in lockstep with the FDA, which won’t entertain the possibility that raw dairy could provide health benefits. Unfortunately, the scientific community and most media continue to buy into the irrational slamming—something that borders on criminal because they are scaring families away from a healing food.