How I Fell Into the Trap of Blaming Raw Milk for Possible Illness...

I did a lot of traveling this past weekend--driving around Virginia on Friday and Saturday, and around northern New England on Sunday.

By Monday and Tuesday, my stomach was feeling kind of queasy. Uh-oh, I thought. I had had raw milk at three different places I visited over those three days. One of them had gotten me, I immediately theorized. John Sheehan of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was right--I had been playing Russian roulette, and finally pulled the trigger on a chamber with a bullet.

[ READ MORE (Complete Patient) ]

'Pusher' provides good raw milk

Oh my. How silly of me. Reading newspapers and watching TV newscasts led me to believe that crime here in the Ozarks is a big problem. Frequently, we hear of drug problems, murder, robbery and lots of unthinkable things that keep our authorities busy. Of course, they are paid with our tax dollars.

On Sept. 7, by reading Sandy Clark's column, I learned that we now have a new criminal element to worry about. There is (horror of horrors) a raw-milk pusher in our midst and it took four undercover agents to nab him!

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Livestock manager resigns in milk fight

Farmer Alice Jongerden has resigned as livestock manager of a cow-sharing syndicate that has been the subject of lengthy prosecution by the Fraser Health Authority for distributing raw milk.

Fraser Health has been trying to shut down Jongerden's Home on the Range dairy for violating the Public Health Act, which forbids distribution of unpasteurized dairy products. The health authority issued a cease-and-desist order in 2008 and secured an injunction against the dairy from the B.C. Supreme Court last spring.

[ READ MORE (Vancouver Sun) ]

Ontario raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt to take over “Home on the Range” cowshare in British Columbia

Alice Jongerden from the Home on the Range cow-sharing syndicate has now officially resigned as of Thursday evening. [Alice was the agister (or proxy farmer) at Home on the Range.]

All responsibilities have been transferred to Michael Schmidt in Ontario. Michael Schmidt was acquitted of all 19 charges in the Ontario Court of Justice last January on the same charges. The Province is currently appealing the landmark-ruling of Justice of the Peace Paul Kowarsky.

[ READ MORE (The Bovine) ]

Reid: Food Safety Bill Is on Hold

Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday the Senate will not take up long-pending food safety legislation before the Nov. 2 elections, citing a Republican senator’s objections.

Reid announced on the Senate floor that “we’re not going to be able to get this done before we go home for the elections.” Reid and Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin have been trying to move the bill quickly, but Tom Coburn , R-Okla., who has a long list of concerns about the legislation, has blocked them.

[ READ MORE (CQ) ]

Study Shows That Pesticides Make Women Sick

Farming is hard work — like, really hard. With the planting, the picking, the tilling, the harvesting — the job can certainly be considered back-breaking labor. As a recent study shows, for some folks, farming hurts more than just backs.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska recently studied 16,000 women who live on farms in Iowa and North Carolina. They found that these women, who are regularly exposed to common farm pesticides, displayed an increased risk for developing thyroid diseases. "There is increasing evidence that environmental exposure to pesticides should be considered a potential risk factor for thyroid disease," Whitney Goldner, a researcher at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, told RadioIowa.

[ READ MORE (Change.org) ]