Category Archives: raw milk

farms, locavore, politics, raw milk

Monday is S510 Day

Monday is the big day—the Senate vote on S510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. I’ve heard so much about this bill, good and bad, I don’t know what to think anymore. It seems to boil down to these two arguments: What kind of fool doesn’t want food safety? What kind of fool thinks we’re going to get it from this bill? Mostly, the bill gives our elected officials a chance to look good on camera, purporting to address the public outrage over the many food contamination incidents.

As it happens, we have all the laws we need in place today for a safe food supply but the FDA and USDA lack the funds to appropriately inspect farms and facilities. (Makes me wonder where the FDA is getting the funding for the stings and shut downs of one-cow farms.) This bill gives additional power to the FDA and the Secretary of Health and Human Services that has yet to be defined, even though the FDA has been repeatedly wrong on food issues (rBGH and GMO labeling come to mind).

When it comes down to it, this bill is really about control of the food system. Naturally, I’m not for federally controlled food, being more of a local free range type. It’s not that I don’t think the government is here to help—I just doubt they will be very good at it. I’ve been incredibly safe with my local fare while the general population has not been safe with their national and international federally-regulated foods. I count my blessings through every food scare.

Not to rub their noses in it, but I can make egg nog from scratch using fresh (unpasteurized) milk and cream and fresh (non-irridated, unpasteurized) eggs and drink it without fear. Most of the consumers in this country cannot. A good food safety bill would make it possible for everyone to do that yet, this bill could make it illegal for me to do that anymore. We’ll see how well the Tester amendment holds up. Still, my whole personal food pyramid could collapse.

My fears are not unfounded. Take raw milk for example. I know my farmer and I trust his delicious, wholesome product over the alternative. For some reason though, the authorities have taken every opportunity to raid, invade, sting, or otherwise entrap purveyors of raw milk. The FDA is already on record for saying we have no inherent right to choose what we eat. So why give them more power until we can believe they will use it fairly and wisely.

Forgive me for being a skeptic when it comes to the benevolence of our public servants, but goodness in politicians is measured by how well they stay bought. The passage of this bill into law is subject to the scrutiny and approval of Big Food. Yet Big Food’s production practices are at the heart of our food safety problems! This bill will be to food safety what the Patriot Act is to our freedom and the Health Care Act is to our health: helping a very few, a reduction of some liberties for the many, and financially lucrative for very large corporations in related industries.

Henry Kissinger is credited with saying, “If you control the food supply, you control the people.” You don’t need to be part of the tin foil hat crowd to see the Big M’s dominance on the global food scene. Talk to farmers in Iraq and India and see how their food security is working out.

It seems obvious to me that a safer food supply would be made up of decentralized, small-scale farms, following sustainable practices. It would be good, clean, and fair.

I’m certain that no matter what happens, my farmers will make lemonade out of lemons, applying their usual Yankee ingenuity to keep their farms viable and productive.

politics, raw milk

Just another uppity raw milk drinker

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There’s an editorial in the Minnesota Star-Tribune whose argument against raw milk is that raw milk drinkers are too uppity—that because we think raw milk is superior to dead milk, we must also think that we’re superior to dead milk drinkers! Yes, those are their words:

There’s a dangerous sense of superiority shared by Minnesotans who buy raw milk and serve it to their families.

Even if we did have a sense of superiority, which I don’t think we do, what makes that inherently dangerous? It’s not like we’re advocating on behalf of pathogens, which is what this irresponsible editorial would have you think. What’s dangerous is having the eating population think for themselves because we can draw conclusions that differ from the FDA and USDA.

The editorial goes on to cite a few examples of bad conditions at farms I wouldn’t buy milk from, but never mentioning the kinds of farms I would. They do not mention the stings on farms that have had no incidents nor out-of-compliance conditions. They don’t mention the millions of people who drink raw milk and have never had a health issue, who have in fact, noticed improvements to their health.

It cites studies, largely funded by those who stand to gain from the sale of pasteurized milk. Because as people know, corporations and politicians are far more credible than nature.

Is this what passes for journalism today—marginalizing a niche group by antagonizing the rest of the population?

As we have been saying long before the USDA caught on: know your farmer and know your food.

h/t to David.

Update: I wanted to add this information to the mix (h/t to Don):

Every year in the US there are:

  • 12,000 deaths from unnecessary surgeries;
  • 7,000 deaths from medication errors in hospitals;
  • 20,000 deaths from other errors in hospitals;
  • 80,000 deaths from infections acquired in hospitals;
  • 106,000 deaths from FDA-approved correctly prescribed medicines.
  • The total of medically-caused deaths in the US every year is 225,000.

This makes the medical system the third leading cause of death in the US, behind heart disease and cancer.

So, why isn’t this being pursued with the same fervor?

Connecticut, farmer's markets, farms, foraging, locavore, raw milk, winery

Saturday’s Forage 5/16/2010

This week’s forage technically began on Friday evening on the ride home from work. Sport Hill Farm was still open so I picked up:

  • arugula
  • spinach
  • a lovely potted lavender plant

The new barn at Sport Hill is really coming along. It is beautiful. Sorry, no photo since this was an impromptu visit! Next time.

Cecelia is up for a weekend of wine trailing for the 2010 Passport contest, so we planned on an abbreviated Saturday forage.

Serendipitous score: at the Newtown Deli, there’s a (newish) fresh meat market called Butcher’s Best Market. Their lamb and pork are from local farms. I scored

  • lamb chops from Sepe Farm, Sandy Hook, CT
  • a container of lard, made from Rowland Farm hogs

At the New Milford Farmers Market (on the green, Saturdays from 9 AM to noon), I scored:

Lots of folks at this market were selling seedling starts for the garden.

At the Hopkins Vineyard Barrel Tasting (more on that in another post), I scored

At Chapel Hill Farm in Sherman, I scored blueberry and peach jam.

At Bluestone Farm, I scored

  • Cavolo Nero starts (Tuscan Kale)
  • Maple syrup (2010)

And at New Morning Natural Foods, I scored:

And that was it!

Rowland Farm
politics, raw milk

News from the Raw Milk Revolution

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Today was the public hearing at the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) over raw milk buying clubs. Raw milk is legal in MA, but can only be purchased at the farm. As part of the day’s festivities, they held a Raw Milk Drink-In this morning in Boston Commons!

Here in CT, raw milk can be sold in retail stores and I am quite grateful. My milk comes from Stone Wall Dairy in Kent, which is an hour away. I don’t know if I could make the trip every week. I only know of four raw milk producers in the state, and none of the others are any closer. Besides, after three years, I am fond of these cows and their farmer.

To deal with precisely that kind of situation, raw milk consumers in MA organize buying clubs. Members take turns driving to the farm to collect the milk for the group.

Because these clubs are unregulated, MDAR wants to make them illegal. But these are contracts between private citizens, which do not require regulation.

Of course, if the buying clubs get shut down, the small dairy farmers will effectively be put out of business. Qui bono?

Thanks to David Gumpert (author of “The Raw Milk Revolution), Mark McAfee, of (Organic Pastures Dairy), and others for taking the time to testify and support those who did.