For much of August, the nations second-largest raw dairy, The Family Cow in Pennsylvania, was shut down. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, as part of its regular testing of licensed dairies, had discovered campylobacter in several samples.
There were reports of illnesss epidemiologically associated with the dairy, the PDA and Pennsylvania Department of Health reported.
For weeks, The Family Cows owner, Edwin Shank, worked to rectify the problem. He tried different regimens cleaning his milking equipment. He refined the dairys system of critical control points. He reached out to microbiology and private agriculture experts for input.
He also tried to engage PDA officials in the process of building confidence that he was working constructively to isolate his pathogen problems and come into compliance. He even arranged a meeting with PDA officials at his farm that I understood to be quite positive in tone.
This bridge-building has been part of an ongoing process with Shank–he tests his milk more frequently and more extensively than the PDA requires for permitted dairies.
He had a frustrating time getting the campylobacter problem under control, however, as his farms milk continued to test positive for campylobacter on several lab assessments.
Finally, on August 25, he got the word. His milk had come back clean on two consecutive tests, and a state inspection was thumbs up. He was open for business.
But government officials werent done with The Family Cow. On August 30, five days after Shank reopened the dairy, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control put out a report about the The Family Cow’s pathogen challenges, reporting on a recall in May, and essentially concluded that Shank was engaged in a losing proposition to produce pathogen-free milk–it used the dairy’s efforts to be super vigilant about pathogens against it.
Although the dairy has consistently adhered to PDA requirements for raw milk dairies and conducted milk coliform and somatic cell testing more frequently than required, this was not the first outbreak associated with this dairy, the CDC report noted. There has been an outbreak in 2012 with 148 illnesses that was the largest raw-milk-associated outbreak in Pennsylvania in the past two decades.
You kind of get the idea of where this report is going in terms of lessons. One is that raw milk dairies are prone to repeat problems with pathogens even under optimal conditions; seasonal changes in bovine bacterial shedding or inadequate quality control during milk collection might contribute to outbreak recurrence
But more ominous from the CDCs perspective is that compliance with state regulations and increased producer awareness after an outbreak are insufficient to prevent future outbreaks. Thus, public education should stress that avoiding consumption is the most effective way to prevent illness from raw milk products.
Theres no consideration given to the possibility that The Family Cow could have some unresolved issue in its dairy operation. Perhaps the farms large flock of chickens is passing on the campylobacter to the cows. Or possibly the dairy hasnt been doing an effective enough job of culling cows with high somatic cell counts.
Theres no acknowledgment given over to the fact that hundreds of dairies are producing raw milk without illnesses, day after day, month after month, year after year.
When it comes to the CDC, the answer is always the same, no matter what the issue facing a raw dairy: Raw milk is inherently unsafe, and theres nothing that can change that reality. End of story.
Note #1. What drives a good man to serve people with raw milk in spite of the risk and not back down?
Note # 2. Better start studying raw milk and why people demand it! There is something very special that is driving this market and smart researchers should want to know what that force is?
The days of ignoring raw milk and its immune properties have long past. The CDC and DPA can not ignore the medical benefits and just throw their stones. Ed does not respond to those kinds of things. He and his family are driven by humanity. The real undeniable testimonies of thousands of families. Moms speak the truth about their experiences. They are not driven by CDC or PDA politics.
Ed stayed the course and learned a lesson that practically none of us knew. That Campy can be from mastitis. That high SCC can identify those at risk cows. I deeply appreciate this lesson learned. It took testing nearly every one of his cows for Campy to figure this out. Maybe Campy risks go up with chickens or maybe not. We just do not know. But we are seeking and learning. The CDC is square brained and not driven by the inquiry or interest. They have shown their politics and their bias.
So proud of you Ed.
A conscious person knows that this kind of medicine is really criminal…but worse. It is practiced by doctors that are paid mountains of money to cut you to pieces so you can crap in a plastic bag. That’s the CDC and FDA!!
http://www.everydayhealth.com/drugs/humira
Ken
You fail to appreciate that if you want to grow a market….you must stay in that market. If people are not eating and healing their immune related illnesses, there will be no internet chatter or paradigm shift and raw milk will never emerge as healing food and Americas farmers will be forever doomed to the commodity slavery of highly allergenic dead milk. Immediate compliance does not mean submission. It means that you are focused on the greater good of your consumers. It means that you are very smart and focused on stating the course and learning and improving. It also means that you know the laws and who has the guns, badges, authority and all the money to enforce the laws and use their guns and our money. Refusal to comply with state regulations equals sudden empty shelves and no market building for the greater populations for our citizens.
Over time, the regulators will come to see and respect what the raw milk market builders have done.
That or the kind of person who tries to make it big and make lots of money also takes short-cuts and makes compromises.
David, how many cows does it take to be the second largest dairy anyway?
How does the regulatory world with its governmental sword not morph into a retardant of progress by the influence of bucks-up businesses? You dont have to answer that question because its not really for you. You are doing important work on multiple fronts.
Perhaps in the way the 2nd amendment is for the protection of the people, by the people, from the government, the right to choose healthy food, the right of free association, the right to contract is for the protection of the people, by the people, from the government.
I joined Rawesome on the spot and dont the authorities still have to answer to any discrepancies between actions for which they had Judicial Authorization and actions taken? Didnt they have authority to take samples and didnt they destroy the place?
THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE.
Thank God for the grass.
Thank God for the cows.
Thank God for our minds.
Thank God for our need for food.
Thank God we can work.
We had better get straight the difference.
This is an epidemic phenomenon across the nation (nations probably), abuse by government.
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
If you look at the data, I do not think that your hypotheses of “big being less safe and small being more safe” holds completely true. OPDC coliform numbers ( 400 organic cows ) are most of the time in the less than 1 or 2 range with many of our tests in the last few months coming in all 1 or less than 1. If you review the data from the other three American RAWMI Listed dairymen ( all 3 cow operations) they are slightly better but in the same range as well. This is splitting hairs on margins of safety….if coliform levels are used as that measure. All of these numbers are near perfect or perfect depending on how you think of perfection and standards.
It is not accurate to think that size is a good measure of comparable risk or safety. A better measure is to look at the plan and the objective data that flows from the use of a certain plan and its data. With RAWMI data we are now able to objectively measure relative safety. I do agree….that a smaller herd would seem to be easier to control….but on deeper review perhaps not. The investment in testing, team training, incentive pay systems, the ability to test SCC, investment in alternative use of raw milk ( cheese and butter etc ) the costs over revenues actually favors a larger professionally run RAMP team centered operation. Smaller operations are extremely expensive per gallon per cost and time invested.
To be fair…each size has its own benefits and challenges. I have learned to never prejudge an operation based on size or whether they use machines or milk by hand etc….we all need to embrace all forms of diversity and the uniqueness that comes from creative innovative and ethically motivated raw milk producers. I am forever impressed with committed producers and what they can do. The same goes for Mr. Ed Shank. Watch and you will see….innovation, inspiration, perspiration and elevation of expectations. Perhaps even a touch if desperation. I know….I have been there.
http://civileats.com/2013/09/03/can-public-health-unite-the-good-food-movement/
When the author of the above article speaks of public health advocates is he referring to people such as, John Sheehan, Bill Marler, Bill Gates and Ralph Nader etc.
I guess public health advocates have the potential to be the food movements most important allies if they could sincerely relinquish their obsession with control and allow people to make their own choices rather then actively force their opinion of what they consider a healthy lifestyle on others.
I agree with Russ and despite Markss optimism albeit well intentioned, it does not matter how good a job we do, as is the case with Edwin Shank, since I think we can all agree that this issue has little to do with public health and everything to do with who controls the distribution of food.
The most that can be done with organisms such, as campylobacter, using RAWMI or health standards protocol is to limit their presence. You cannot eliminate them. Repeat problems will continue to occur and provide fuel for narrow minded, biased public health advocates, which they will no doubt milk for all its worth.
Ken
As a society we struggle to make sound decisions. To exemplify, take a look at this from coyoteblog.com- New Feature Here: Trend That Is Not A Trend September 3, 2013, 2:56 pm.
Warren Meyer is adept at analysis as you will see.
If the great organs of public discourse (in this case The Arizona Republic, and the Associated Press) are to be taken at face value, then the piece by Journalist Joan Lowy, herself, and they, are shown to be a smoldering hole in the ground where once stood some sort of cultural edifice founded on common sense.
If we allow ourselves to be led around like this, we will only make or have imposed upon us endless strings of bad choices, stifling our very breath, stalking our waking moments, ruining our sleep.
Is it this quality of reasoning being brought to bear upon us by the authorities when it comes to food safety, nutrition, access to food, health, medicine, &c.?
Jim Ryan at Philosoblog (philosoblog.blogspot.com) says that:
It is not clear that equality in property is ever preferable to liberty, hard work, team work, charity, and self-reliance. It is not clear what would count as a good reason to say that a society in which liberty, hard work, team work, charity, and self-reliance were flourishing would be even better if the government decreased the achievement of those values so that equality in property could be increased. For this reason it is not clear that equality in property is even a value at all.
Have a great day!
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DhxXvOEZUM8#t=79
Mark, you are too shy please let us know what you really think and don’t hold back. Did I hear you say that your last name McAfee is pronounced “macoffee?” I always thought it would be MACafee or McAFEE. Not that it matters.
Remember, long shelf life = dead food. Pass it on, or pass on it. Use it or lose it.
Here’s more on Ed’s situation:
http://www.naturalnews.com/041896_raw_milk_farmers_Pennsylvania_Department_of_Agriculture_contamination.html
*By background, education, and temperament, an NGO cadre (or a “public health” one) is likely to identify more with a Monsanto cadre than with a small farmer, indigenous tribesman, anyone from the the Global South, etc., and is likely to want to find a compromise with his system colleague at the expense of all those weird people. That’s how an outfit like the CFS can do such great anti-GMO journalism but then turn around and support viciously pro-Monsanto, pro-commodification, pro-globalization, anti-organic, anti-human legislation like the Food Control Act.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2013/09/hunter-lewis/obamachow/