Raw-milk cheese in Northwest, elsewhere on the FDA radar

Last spring, a woman entered a cheese shop in Seattle looking like a tourist in comfortable slacks, a T-shirt and light jacket.

She marched straight to the counter and asked for local, raw-milk cheese.

[ READ MORE (Oregonian) ]

Raw milk regulations get Fairbanks farmer’s goat

When one of her children began having allergic reactions to cow’s milk Heidi Livengood took a good long look at raising goats. She liked what she saw.

Livengood now has 15 Nigerian dwarf goats and two Angoras. She previously raised heritage turkeys, chickens and ducks but when a nearby property owner in her Steele Creek neighborhood complained about the critters she phased out most of the fowl from her menagerie, keeping only a goose and a chicken or two.

[ READ MORE (Daily News-Miner) ]

Farmer, Mass. in milk tussle

A local woman plans to fight the state's decision to bar her from selling the raw milk produced at her farm, calling the current regulations too onerous and costly for a small-scale operation.

Brigitte Ruthman, owner of Joshua's Farm on Dodd Road, has one milk-producing cow. Earlier this year, she provided raw -- or unpasteurized -- milk to three other people through an agreement similar to a food cooperative.

[ READ MORE (Berkshire Eagle) ]

On the Madness of Banning Raw Milk

According to the CDC, there have been “1,505 reported illnesses” including “185 hospitalizations and 2 deaths” from raw milk since 1993.* I don’t mean to sound callous, but 2 deaths in 20 years? This is cause for nationwide panic?

For perspective, consider the following:

[ READ MORE (Fifty to Life) ]

Udderly Fresh: Raw Milk Co-Op Brings Farm to Students

As a left-leaning and “crunchy-granola” school, it comes as no surprise that campus is host to several different food co-operatives. Yet, while both the Fruit and Veggie Co-Op and the brand new Cheese co-op have received much student interest, the Raw Milk Co-op may be the only group of students on campus committed to visiting the cows who produce their wares.

The co-op began several years ago in a quest to bring raw milk to campus and connect students to the farms and animals that produce the milk they drink. This year, 30 different students and Middletown residents have signed up to receive milk once a week in various quantities. Members of the co-op take turns driving to Deerfield Farm each week to pick up the total of 15 gallons of milk.

[ READ MORE (Wesleyan Argus) ]

Corporate Food Tyranny

Yesterday I described the pending food bill in some detail, discussing its many dubious and sinister features. I established that it cannot accomplish the food safety goals it claims to seek and can’t even be intended to accomplish such goals. Its intent must lie elsewhere.

For insight into the mindset and motives of the government, we can’t ask for better testimony than the FDA’s own brief asking for dismissal of the suit filed against it by Farm-to-Consumer. (The FDA’s motion to dismiss was rejected in August.)

[ READ MORE (Volatility) ]

Behold the Four Horsemen of the Looming Food Apocalypse

It`s not enough that former Monsanto executive Michael Taylor is the Food Czar in Obama`s administration. Monsanto recently purchased Xe Intelligence Services. Xe is the new name for Blackwater, the largest private mercenary military outfit in the world. Within that same time frame, Bill Gates purchased 23 million dollars (US) of Monsanto stocks.

Let`s take a look at each of the four horsemen.

[ READ MORE (Natural News) ]

Election shuffles ag leadership, casts doubt on food safety

The midterm election alters the playing field and the players for the 2012 farm bill and will likely make progress difficult for hot-button issues for the produce industry, including immigration reform and new food safety rules.

The dramatic change in the makeup of the Congress complicates the possibility for action during the lame-duck session for food safety reform and child nutrition reauthorization, said Robert Guenther, senior vice president of public policy for the United Fresh Produce Association, Washington, D.C.

[ READ MORE (The Packer) ]

U.S. food unregulated, illness unreported

A plate of food may come from many countries and is handled many times, increasing the risk of germs that can make people sick, U.S. microbiologists say.

Members of the American Academy of Microbiology issued a report, "Global Food Safety: Keeping Food Safe from Farm to Table," detailing how each plate of food may contain ingredients from many places.

[ READ MORE (UPI) ]

USDA sells cheese while warning against eating it

Domino’s Pizza was hurting early last year. Domestic sales had fallen, and a survey of big pizza chain customers left the company tied for the worst tasting pies.

Then help arrived from an organization called Dairy Management. It teamed up with Domino’s to develop a new line of pizzas with 40 percent more cheese, and proceeded to devise and pay for a $12 million marketing campaign.

[ READ MORE (New York Times) ]

The Mystery of the Morningland Dairy Garlic Colby Cheese

The case of Morningland Dairy in Missouri has been one of the more outrageous in The State's continuing campaign against nutritionally-dense foods, especially such foods sold privately. Morningland has effectively been shuttered, ordered to destroy its entire 2010 inventory worth about $250,000, because of the supposed presence of the pathogen listeria monocytogenes seized by government agents in their June 30 raid--a highly unusual step.

Missouri farmer and food activist Doreen Hannes has been working with Morningland to make its case that the investigation into Morningland has been flawed and lacking in due process. Here, she reports on serious discrepancies in the paperwork associated with the seizure of Morningland's cheese in the Rawesome raid, the government lab report identifying pathogens in its cheese, and invoices sent by the company to Rawesome. Her report indicates no one can be sure exactly what was tested, and thus calls into question the integrity of the entire testing protocol used to test products seized in the Rawesome raid. See if you agree.

[ READ MORE (Complete Patient) ]

Ag Department Funds Fast Food Plan to Eat More Cheese

Does the government care more about the nutritional health of its people, or lining its pockets with funds from industry lobbyists? The question seems less rhetorical than ever in light of recent news of a war of motives within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

A little-known organization within the USDA's marketing department, Dairy Management, has been shamelessly scheming up ways to get Americans to eat more cheese. This plan comes as the USDA itself funds and manages various projects to reduce obesity, which tell Americans to eat less saturated fat and fewer calories (i.e. less dairy). According to an investigation by the New York Times, for the past several years, Dairy Management has teamed up with a handful of fast food restaurants to help them develop and market more cheese products — from cheese-laden burgers to pizza and more. This push led to millions in profit for the businesses, millions of pounds of cheese sold, and Americans convinced to consume insane amounts of cheese at their health's expense.

[ READ MORE (Change.org) ]

Raw milk farmer Michael Schmidt’s “Edmonton Declaration” from his news conference this morning in Alberta

Agriculture has been the backbone of Canada. History has taught us that a healthy Agri-culture is able to feed all the people and therefore creates a healthy and socially stabel enviroment.

At the turn of the last century 70% of our Canadian population was actively involved in farming.

[ READ MORE (The Bovine) ]