Raids are increasing on farms and private food-supply clubs

When the 20 agents arrived bearing a search warrant at her Ventura County farmhouse door at 7 a.m. on a Wednesday a couple weeks back, Sharon Palmer didn't know what to say. This was the third time she was being raided in 18 months, and she had thought she was on her way to resolving the problem over labeling of her goat cheese that prompted the other two raids. (In addition to producing goat's milk, she raises cattle, pigs, and chickens, and makes the meat available via a CSA.)

But her 12-year-old daughter, Jasmine, wasn't the least bit tongue-tied. "She started back-talking to them," recalls Palmer. "She said, 'If you take my computer again, I can't do my homework.' This would be the third computer we will have lost. I still haven't gotten the computers back that they took in the previous two raids."

As part of a five-hour-plus search of her barn and home, the agents -- from the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office, Los Angeles County Sheriff, Ventura County Sheriff, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture -- took the replacement computer, along with milk she feeds her chickens and pigs.

While no one will say officially what the purpose of this latest raid was, aside from being part of an investigation in progress, what is very clear is that government raids of producers, distributors, and even consumers of nutritionally dense foods appear to be happening ever more frequently. Sometimes they are meant to counter raw dairy production, other times to challenge private food organizations over whether they should be licensed as food retailers.

The same day Sharon Palmer's farm was raided, there was a raid on Rawesome Foods, a Venice, Calif., private food club run by nutritionist and raw-food advocate Aajonus Vonderplanitz. For a membership fee of $25, consumers can purchase unpasteurized dairy products, eggs that are not only organic but unwashed, and a wide assortment of fermented vegetables and other products.

The main difference in the two raids seems to be that Palmer's raiding party was actually much smaller, about half the size of the Venice contingent: Vonderplanitz was also visited by the FBI and the FDA.

In the Rawesome raid, agents made off with several thousand dollars worth of raw honey and raw dairy products. They also shut Rawesome for failure to have a public health permit, though the size and scope of the raid suggests the government officials might have more in mind. Regardless, within hours the outlet reopened in defiance of the shutdown order.

Earlier in June, agents of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, escorted by police and also bearing search warrants, raided and shut down Traditional Foods Warehouse, a popular food club in Minneapolis specializing in locally-produced foods. They also raided two farms suspected of illegally selling raw milk. And in a national first among such raids, agents searched a private home and made off with computers; the family's offense appears to have been that it allowed one of the raw dairy farmers to park in its driveway to distribute raw milk to area residents who had ordered it.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has declined comment on such raids, saying they are part of an ongoing investigation into raw milk distribution in the state in lieu of eight illnesses in May linked to raw milk.

Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection has launched three raids over the last three months on the dairy farm and farm store of Vernon Hershberger, near Madison. The day after DATCP agents placed seals on his fridges storing raw dairy products in July, Hershberger cut the seals, and announced he was going to challenge the agency's contention he needs a dairy and retail license to sell his products. Obtaining such licenses would be problematic, though, since Wisconsin prohibits sale of raw milk, except "incidental" sales, and defining "incidental" has been a bone of contention for many years. In any event, Hershberger contends he sells only to consumers who contract privately for his food.

What's behind all these raids? They seem to stem from increasing concern at both the state and federal level about the spread of private food groups that have sprung up around the country in recent years -- food clubs and buying groups to provide specialized local products that are generally unavailable in groceries, like grass-fed meats, pastured eggs, fermented foods, and, in some cases, raw dairy products. Because they are private and limited to consumers who sign up for membership, these groups generally avoid obtaining retail and public health licenses required of retailers that sell to the general public.

In late 2008 and early 2009, the representatives of state agriculture agencies in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois met via phone conferences with representatives of the FDA to map a plan for targeting raw-milk buying clubs in the Midwest. The meetings came to light after Max Kane, the owner of a Wisconsin buying club who was subpoenaed by Wisconsin authorities for the names of his customers and suppliers, obtained email accounts of the sessions via a Freedom of Information request to Wisconsin's Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection department. (Kane has since been prosecuted by Wisconsin authorities for contempt of court for failing to give up the names; his case is under appeal after he was found guilty last December.)

Now, the Midwest program seems to have gone national, and the recent spate of raids suggests a quickening pace and broadened scope. While most raids before the Midwest government meetings had been related to raw-milk distribution, some, like a December 2008 armed raid of Manna Storehouse, an Ohio food club near Cleveland, have been about licensing issues. In that raid, armed law enforcement officers held a mother and eight young children being home-schooled at gunpoint for several hours while they searched the home and food storage areas. A legal challenge to the raid by the family is still tied up in court.

The current uptick has Pete Kennedy of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund concerned, not only about the spreading of the raids, but about the seemingly easy willingness of judges to hand out search warrants. While the U.S. Constitution's fourth amendment suggests judges should exercise tight controls over search warrants ("no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause..."), Kennedy observes, "I haven't seen an agency turned down yet" over the last four years in requests for search warrants connected with raw milk and other food production and distribution.

Given that the targets of search warrants don't get a say in court as to whether they should be issued, legal experts and those who have been raided say the most that food producers can do is take steps to prepare themselves to weather the raids as best they can.

You swam in water knowing it had dead animals and raw sewage in it? I don't think my folks would have been enthusiastic about that. Of course, I'm sure we didn't intentionally drink the water in the creek.

The cleanest lakes in any state have such. THINK! Use Common Sense. Of course there is. Oh do you swim in the ocean? Ships dump everything into it. Now here's one for you. The U.S. Navy has a long standing tradition of swim call. This takes place out in the ocean as a morale booster. Kinda breaks the stress. Coming out of the discharge ports is raw sewage. Nobody got sick out of at least several hundred swimming in the water.

You believe what you want to believe but that just isn't true. Unless you check every batch of raw milk for pathogens it isn't as safe as pasteurized milk.

I believe I'd want to know the source before I bought it whjich is more than my local grocer could or would give me. If the farmer takes reasonable precautions? Yes a operson should be reasonably safe. Remember there are still many family farms and many do in fact drink their own cows milk. You'd stand a bigger chance getting food poisoning either eating in a restaurant of food you buy at the store.

And many of them come from inside the cow that you have little control over.

LOL I can tell you the farm animal with likely the most dangerous indwelling parasites living in it. It's a goat. Milk is as safe as you'd want. You can literally stop anywhere a farmer raises them and buy one legally. Now how about that. Why? No commercial competitors perhaps?

Even so, people still get sick from raw milk and raw milk products. You cannot fully sterilize the udders. Taking proper precautions has significantly reduced the number of illnesses due to raw milk consumption. Still, why would anyone take the risk when the pasteurized product is just as nutritious without the risk?

You can't sterilize the entire world or your environment. It's like the persons who insist on using all products labeled antibacterial they do themselves and others far more harm as the bacteria and germs become more resistant to it much the same way there is now medication resistant Staph and TB due to improper use of antibiotics and cleaners.

Ever actually been inside a commercial meat processing plant and seen what goes on there? I have several times. I worked temp at one once. Another I helped install walk in coolers, another one I picked up a load I was to haul. Go in one once and you'll loose your appetite. Ever gone into kitchens of Fine Restaurants? LOL you'd really get a shock. Onions especially green ones are dangerous also. Should we pasteurize them as well? More people will get sick from food they buy in a store and anyone drinking raw milk or buying farm products straight from the farmer unless the farmer is reckless.

One other thing independent operator Farmer Jones is less likely to feed his livestock growth hormones then big corp farms. I can remember when neighbors used to sell eggs, milk, you name it. There is a lot of monetary influence in both the diary and poultry industries. Many companies don't really care how nasty they are but do not want any and I mean any competition.

I'm in my early 50's but I can remember as a kid even raw meat was reasonably safe. The butchers in the store would taste it. Fruit and produce actually tasted good and didn't rot while it was still green. I've drank raw milk and yes it did taste better. I spent time with cousins on a farm and they had two dairy cows. I can remember when bologna and hot dogs tasted good and no one usually got sick. I eat either today and I'm bent over double in about 15 minutes in pain. No it's not raw meat it's processed meat with special chemicals added. Who informed me this was what was causing it? My doctor.

I used to take bologna sandwiches to school in a lunch box unrefrigerated. It never made me sick nor the other kids doing the same. In short the genetic altering, the added chemicals, the usage of animal parts of which about four decades ago went to dog food companies has made store bought food taste like excuse my wording Crap.

It's everything from bread which taste like week old from day one-day 14 to about any food I can name. Fruits altered for shipping purposes that lack any hint of flavor they were picked so green. Meat that taste so rancid you're nearly afraid to eat it. Corn and grain fed of course. Milk sure doesn't have the taste it did 35 years ago. Neither does ice cream. Man's tinkering with the food chain goes unquestioned and seen as being good yet some country bumpkin sells a gallon of farm milk or a dozen eggs to a neighbor word gets out to some local commercial milk producer and calls in and all hell brakes loose from the feds on down?

http://livingawholelife.blogspot.com/2009/01/is-raw-milk-safe.html

Is Raw Milk Safe?

Here is a topic today that may give a few people pause. There seems to be a lot of misinformation about raw milk as evidenced by a recent comment from a friend of mine. The topic of me purchasing raw milk for the last year came up and she asked me, “Don’t you guys get sick from that?” I have to interject a little humor here - would I really purchase something and require my family to consume it if it made us sick?? I know I’m a nut, but cut me a little slack. :)

You might wonder what exactly raw milk is? Well it’s simply milk straight from a cow or goat that hasn’t gone through the pasteurization process. It’s usually purchased fresh from a local farmer. I started purchasing raw goat’s milk from a local farmer about a year ago and will soon change to raw cow’s milk from another local farmer. The goats and cows are pastured as much as possible and fed pesticide-free grain when supplemented.

There has been a lot of negative press about raw milk and the public perception is that you will contract horrible diseases like listeria if you consume milk raw. Let me give you some interesting information about the safety of raw milk.

Raw milk has built in protective systems, most of which are destroyed during pasteurization

Raw milk contains lactoperoxidase which uses small amounts of H2O2 and free radicals to seek out and destroy bacteria. Interestingly other countries are looking at using lactoperoxidase instead of pasteurization to ensure the safety of commercial milk as well as for preserving other foods.

Raw milk contains lactoferrin which steals iron away from pathogens and carries it through the gut wall into the blood stream and uses it to stimulate the immune system. Lactoferrin will kill a wide range of pathogens but does not kill beneficial gut bacteria. In fact, in a study involving mice bred to be susceptible to tuberculosis, treatment with lactoferrin significantly reduced the burden of tuberculosis organisms.

Raw milk contains B-lymphocytes which kill foreign bacteria and call in other parts of the immune system for support.

Raw milk contains macrophages which engulf foreign proteins and bacteria.

Raw milk contains neutrophils which kill infected cells and mobilize other parts of the immune system.

Raw milk contains T-lymphocytes that will multiply if bad bacteria are present and produce immune-strengthening compounds.

Raw milk contains Immunoglobulins (IgM, IgA, IgG1, IgG2) which transfer immunity. This is especially helpful if you purchase milk from a local source as the cow/goat will build immunities to local bacteria, virus, and allergens which will then be passed through the milk.

Raw milk contains antibodies which bind to foreign microbes to prevent them from migrating outside the gut and initiate immune response.

Raw milk contains polysaccharides which encourage the growth of good bacteria in the gut and protect the gut wall.

Raw milk contains oligosaccharides which protect other components from being destroyed by stomach acids and enzymes; bind to bacteria and prevent them from attaching to the gut lining; and other functions just being discovered.

Raw milk contains medium-chain fatty acids and enzymes which disrupt cell walls of bad bacteria.

Raw milk contains hormones and growth factors (natural ones - not the added synthetic kind) which stimulate maturation of gut cells and prevent leaky gut.

Raw milk contains mucins which adhere to bacteria and viruses, preventing those organisms from attaching to the mucosa and causing disease.

Raw milk contains fibronectin which increases anti-microbial activity of macrophages and helps to repair damaged tissues.

Raw milk contains glycomacropeptide which inhibits bacterial/viral adhesion, suppresses gastric secretion, and promotes bifido-bacterial growth.

Raw milk contains B12 binding protein which reduces vitamin B12 in the colon which harmful bacteria need for growth.

Raw milk contains bifidus factor which promotes the growth of Lactobacillus bifidus, a helpful bacteria which helps crowd out dangerous germs.

Raw milk contains beneficial bacteria like Lactobacilli and bifidus bacteria which crowd out bad bacteria and produce lactic acid that kills bad bacteria.

Whew! Sorry about that! That was way too much information and I almost didn’t include everything, but I really want to impress upon you what raw milk contains that contributes to it’s safety. Not only do all of these components protect the milk and make it safe for drinking, but all these components are added to your body through drinking the milk. This gives your own immune system a huge boost.

Here’s the bad news. When milk is pasteurized most of these components are completely inactivated and those that remain are greatly reduced in their capacity to fight bacteria. Studies as early as 1938 showed that heating milk actually supports the growth of harmful bacteria by inactivating “inhibins” (factors that inhibit bacterial growth).

Raw milk is often blamed for causing infections with dangerous ornganisms. One such organism is Listeria monocytogenes which is a deadly food pathogen that can cause severe illness, fetal death, premature birth or neonatal illness and death. A 2003 USDA/FDA report, compared to raw milk one is 515 times more likely to contract Listeria from deli meat and 29 times more likely to receive Listeria from pasteurized milk than from raw milk. In response to a Freedom of information request the CDC provided data on raw milk outbreaks from 1993-2005. During this time there were no cases of food borne illness from raw milk caused by Listeria.

In addition to not containing harmful bacteria, there is some evidence that suggests that raw milk will actually fight harmful bacteria that comes into contact with it. Researchers in 1987 added Campylobacter to chilled raw milk. On day 0 there was 13,000,000 bacteria per ml. On day 9 there were less than 10 bacteria per ml. In another challenge test in 2000, researchers found that Lactoperoxidase in raw milk kills added fungal and bacterial agents. As recently as 2002 BSK Food and Dairy Laboratories inoculated raw colostrum and raw milk with three pathogens. The pathogen counts declined over time and in some cases were undetectable within a week. The conclusion of this test was that raw colostrum and raw milk does not appear to support the growth of Salmonella, E. Coli or Listeria monocytogenes. Just as a point of reference it’s interesting to note that E. Coli can survive on coins for 7-11 days at room temperature and Salmonella can survive 1-9 days on pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. These are fairly hardy organisms.

Raw Milk versus Pasteurized Milk

From 1980 to 2005, the CDC attributed 19,531 illnesses to consumption of pasteurized milk and milk products. This is 10.7 times the number of illnesses attributed to raw milk during the same period. Raw milk sales represent about 1% of the nations total milk sales. Adjusting for bias, pasteurized milk is 1.1 and 15.3 times more dangerous than raw milk on a per-serving basis.

Why do we pasteurize?

During the 1800s the death rate was 50% among urban children drinking “Swill Milk” or milk produced in inner city confinement dairies. The cows in these dairies were fed brewery swill and raised in unimaginable filth. In addition, water was often added to the milk to make it go further. To combat the poor quality milk the famous germ scientist, Louis Pasteur, called for pasteurization, or heating, of all milk in order to make it free of any potentially harmful bacteria, no matter how it changed the quality of the milk. It was never meant to be a permanent fix, but only a temporary remedy until milk could be clean again. In time, inner-city swill dairies were outlawed, milking hygiene was improved, and consumer access to refrigeration was improved thereby making pasteurization unnecessary. Unfortunately though, pasteurization has become a way of life and most can’t imagine drinking milk any other way.

So in a word, yes, raw milk is safe and arguably safer than pasteruized milk. However, raw milk like any food is only safe if it’s produced under safe conditions. It’s very important when choosing a raw milk source that you know your farmer and make sure that he is following safe farming practices. For more information check out the Campaign for Real Milk site.

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