Here’s Markenna Goodman, of Treehugger.com, interviewing raw milk author David E. Gumpert on the findings in his recent book… via AlterNet.org:

Author David E. Gumpert, at the keyboard.

“Food regulation is one of the most important issues consumers face today. And for people who are concerned with where their food comes from (and how it got there), milk is now at the center of this debate. And because of its health benefits, many more people are turning to raw milk. Even lactose intolerant folks have found they can digest the un-pasteurized liquid; and it’s been said to reduce allergies and asthma in children — ailments that are on the rise in the U.S.

But there’s one hitch: raw milk is illegal.

I spoke with journalist David Gumpert, author of The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America’s Emerging Battle Over Food Rights, about our right to healthy food–what could very well be the new civil rights movement.

Makenna Goodman: Okay — I’m just going to ask, even though it seems like it should be obvious: What is raw milk?

David Gumpert: Raw milk is just what the name suggests — milk straight from the cow (or goat), which hasn’t been pasteurized (heated to 161 degrees for 15 seconds) or homogenized.

MG: Mass media says raw milk is bad for me. Is this true?

DG: That is a complicated question. Yes, people do become ill from pathogens that can crop up in raw milk, like campylobacter, salmonella, listeria, and E.coli O157:H7. Most of the illnesses are mild, but occasionally, people have become very ill, and those most inclined toward the serious illnesses are children. But it’s important to note that people also become ill from a variety of other foods, including raw spinach, ground beef, peanut butter, lettuce, and peppers. To the extent the mass media suggest that raw milk is highly dangerous, they are misleading people. Data from the CDC shows in the 33-year period 1973-2005, there have been an average of about 50 reported illnesses annually from raw milk. And consumers should be aware that it’s possible to become ill from pasteurized milk; there have been outbreaks from contamination that has occurred post-pasteurization and led to occasionally thousands of people becoming ill. In Massachusetts during 2007, three elderly people died from contaminated pasteurized milk.

MG: What exactly is the difference between pasteurized (the milk we normally drink) and raw milk?

DG: Pasteurization is a heat-treatment process that took hold in the early and mid-twentieth century, in response to large numbers of illnesses and deaths from disease (like typhoid and tuberculosis) spread by contaminated raw milk. That, however, was a time when much less was known about the danger of pathogens, or the importance of sanitation and refrigeration.

Pasteurization kills off pathogens, and once it was introduced, childhood illness from pathogens in raw milk declined by 25% or more. The decline in illnesses, however, coincided as well with better sewerage systems and cleaner water.

There’s been lots of debate in alternative health and nutrition circles as to whether pasteurization, in particular, depletes milk of important “good” bacteria, enzymes, and proteins. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control maintain that pasteurization has no appreciable effect on the nutritional composition of milk, but does get rid of potentially dangerous pathogens like campylobacter and salmonella. Pasteurization is really a processing function, though, and with all the concern over processed food, more people are questioning whether pasteurization does, in fact, alter milk’s composition.

MG: What are the health benefits from drinking raw milk?

DG: There was a time during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when raw milk was pushed by some in the medical profession as nearly a cure-all for conditions ranging from arthritis to diabetes to gout. Today, there are extensive anecdotal tales of improved health from raw milk, such as relief from lactose intolerance. There is also research from Europe in the last few years indicating that children who drink raw milk have reduced rates of asthma and allergies….”

MG: In your new book, The Raw Milk Revolution, you talk about how pasteurization has affected the way milk is being processed, sold, and consumed. Can you explain how, here?

Read the rest on AlterNet.org

Report on the Toronto vaccination scene from Infowars.com:

“The numbers are considerably down from just 4 days ago and now Canadian officials are ramping up their efforts to get people to take the shot by expanding clinics into the workplace and schools. Another tactic they are using is to claim that there is a shortage. This is a marketing technique which causes people to rush out and line up because of the shortage. You will see similar techniques used by companies like PlayStation and Nintendo. They claim that they can not keep up with the demand and the result is people flock to the stores to make sure that they get theirs before its all gone….”

More story and links on infowars.com

Interesting that while these reporters were originally given permission by management to film and interview in the building where people were lining up for vaccinations, they were later asked to leave when it became apparent that they were asking” the wrong kind of questions”. So bear in mind when you watch this video that you may be hearing questions that are not officially sanctioned!

This just in, from Jane Burgermeister’s “The Flu Case”:

A mysterious plague-like flu has recently been afflicting the people of the Ukraine. Photo of Ukrainian Prime Minister Julia Timoschenko via Swine Flu Watch blog.

“On a cold, overcast December afternoon in 2004, I briefly met the Viktor Yuschenko, the Ukrainian President.

He had been treated for poisoning at a hospital in Döbling and when he was released, he held a press conference surrounded by doctors and attended by scores of journalists.

Yuschenko stood there barely saying a word, looking haggard and with a bluish pallor: his face was pock marked and his hair was an unnatural colour; his eyes were full of mistrust and fear even though the private Rudolfinerhaus clinic held few threats.

Five years on, this shattered looking individual, who was once the head of a pro democracy movement, is about to proclaim himself a dictator.

Ukraine is the first country to come under the control of the WHO and the UN under the International Health Regulations 2005, and the reality is that Yuschenko and his Prime Minister Julia Timoschenko are just carrying out the orders from WHO and the UN when they suspend civic rights and democracy under the pretext of fighting a pandemic emergency.

Whatever is left of freedom in the Ukraine is about to be extinguished.

Elections in January are set to be suspended.

Demonstrations have been banned.

Political opponents have been prohibited from travelling inside areas put under quarantine.

Borders have been partly closed already.

Critics of a mass vaccination campaign are facing criminal prosecution and goal.

Huge swathes of land have been put under quarantine.

Plans are in the works for the forced vaccination of people with a toxic and untested swine flu vaccine. The US government is planning to send nearly a million doses of the jab. a substance classified as a bioweapon, to the Ukraine by early December…..

Pregnant women and children are the first to be given the jab which Yuschenko using the twisted logic and lies worthy of the Nazi Propagandist Josef Goebbels has said must be administered to them to “protect their health”….”

Get the whole story from The Flu Case.

Meanwhile, Poland is not “getting with the program”:

“The Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said yesterday that the lobbyists of pharmaceutical companies were responsible for creating the hysteria sweeping the globe over the „swine flu“ virus.

According to a report on the Polish TV channel, TVN24, Tusk said that the hysteria over the swine flu was being created in order to force governments to pay out millions on contracts for pandemic vaccines.

Tusk said that the Polish government would not spend large sums on vaccines for the relatively harmless swine flu when the seasonal flu kills more people.

Also, he criticised the pharmaceutical companies for trying to shift their responsibility for paying compensation for any death and damage that their vaccines cause onto the government.

“We know that the companies that are offering the vaccines against the H1N1 flu do not want to take responsibility for the secondary effects of the vaccine. They refuse to put [the vaccines] onto their market because their legal responsibility will be larger. They demand clauses which are probably not in conformity with Polish laws, and which pass all responsibilty to the government of a country for the secondary effects and eventual compensation,“ Tusk said, according to the AFP.

Tusk expressed support for the stance of the Health Minister Ewa Kopacz, a family doctor, who has refused to buy the swine flu jabs on the grounds they are not adequately tested by the medical authorities.

The Polish Deputy Minister for Health Adam Fronczak also noted that more people had died in the swine flu vaccines than from the actual virus in one country, apparently Sweden, according to TVN24.

“In one of the countries where there was a big contract for vaccines, two people died because of h1n1 but four people allegedly died a few hours after vaccination,“ he said…”

Read more about the Polish situation

Well, for sure, any mention of “Reptilians” is likely to start listeners’ eyes rolling skyward. And yet here we have respected journalist Bill Maher (of PBS) in conversation with the infamous “out there” conspiracy theorist David Icke, discussing just that very topic. Is nothing sacred? Enjoy:

What will we read about next on the Bovine, you might wonder…  Zombies?

Thanks to CK Hunter on American Patriot Daily, who posted this first!

Here’s an excerpt from the latest by raw milk author David E. Gumpert:

Organic Pastures' Mark McAfee, out standing in his field. Mark has been a leader in taking raw milk farther into mainstream market penetration in California. AP photo by Gary Kazanjian

“There’s an interesting phenomenon going on now around raw milk. It is gradually, but very definitely, moving more toward the mainstream. Increasingly, the media are writing more objectively, the latest example being Jill Richardson’s even-handed assessment of the politics of raw milk on Alternet.

One of the things that tends to happen as you move from the fringes to the mainstream, though, is that you tend to come under increasing public scrutiny. We’ve seen one example in the intense focus on the outsourcing practices of Organic Pastures Dairy Co., which Jill Richardson’s article highlighted (and continues to be a subject of intense debate on my most recent couple of postings).

We see another example in the four-part series comparing raw and pasteurized milk that has unfolded on the blog of food poisoning lawyer Bill Marler, who is close to many state and federal regulators, and has been notable for his anti-raw-milk stance in the past….”

Read the whole of David’s excellent report here on the Complete Patient blog.

Here’s an excerpt from a recent NY Times column by Nicholas Kristof titled “Something Scary in the Pantry“:

For how long is ignorance "bliss"? Photo from babble.com

“Your body is probably home to a chemical called bisphenol A, or BPA. It’s a synthetic estrogen that United States factories now use in everything from plastics to epoxies — to the tune of six pounds per American per year. That’s a lot of estrogen. More than 92 percent of Americans have BPA in their urine, and scientists have linked it — though not conclusively — to everything from breast cancer to obesity, from attention deficit disorder to genital abnormalities in boys and girls alike.

Now it turns out it’s in our food.

Consumer Reports magazine tested an array of brand-name canned foods for a report in its December issue and found BPA in almost all of them. The magazine says that relatively high levels turned up, for example, in Progresso vegetable soup, Campbell’s condensed chicken noodle soup, and Del Monte Blue Lake cut green beans.

The magazine also says it found BPA in the canned liquid version of Similac Advance infant formula (but not in the powdered version) and in canned Nestlé Juicy Juice (but not in the juice boxes). The BPA in the food probably came from an interior coating used in many cans.

Should we be alarmed?

The chemical industry doesn’t think so. Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council dismissed the testing, noting that Americans absorb quantities of BPA at levels that government regulators have found to be safe. Mr. Hentges also pointed to a new study indicating that BPA exposure did not cause abnormalities in the reproductive health of rats.

But more than 200 other studies have shown links between low doses of BPA and adverse health effects, according to the Breast Cancer Fund, which is trying to ban the chemical from food and beverage containers.

“The vast majority of independent scientists — those not working for industry — are concerned about early-life low-dose exposures to BPA,” said Janet Gray, a Vassar College professor who is science adviser to the Breast Cancer Fund.

Get the full story from the NY Times (may require free sign-up)

Mr. Kristof elaborates further on the theme on his blog. Excerpts:

“…..As I note in the column, the evidence is not conclusive — it’s a bit like tobacco in the 1970’s, for there are hundreds of studies showing linkages with adverse health effects, and scientists understand the mechanisms for those harms, but there is still much that is not understood about what dose of BPA causes what harm at what age. For example, the chemical industry cites one recent study in which BPA did not cause harm to the reproductive health of Long-Evans rats. But that strain of rats has been found to be less susceptible to endocrine disruptors, while CD-1 mice (also used in many experiments) are more vulnerable. Are humans more like Long-Evans rats or like CD-1 mice? We don’t know. But there are so many studies showing low-dose effects on animals and humans that the precautionary principle should apply: let’s try to cut back on exposures….”

“…..Still, it’s troubling to see the recent studies showing that higher levels of BPA in the blood correlate to obesity, diabetes, miscarriages and cardiovascular problems — even in adults who have plenty of hormones in their bodies. For safety’s sake, I’m steering clear of BPA to the extent I can. The FDA has generally dropped the ball on regulation of chemicals over the years, particularly in the Bush years, but it is now reviewing BPA again and I have a bit more confidence that it will follow science today in a way that it didn’t.

The mental concept we have of environmental damage tends to be on dirty air or filthy water — things we can see. But it may be that today the most insidious damage is hormones in the environment that have profound effects on our bodies, even though they are invisible. Your thoughts?…..”

Read his whole blog post here.

Here’s an excerpt from a column that appeared last Saturday in the Toronto Star, a mainstream newspaper from Canada’s largest city. While this may seem tame compared to a lot of what we publish here on the flu scene, this is notable for being one of the few voices of common sense being heard among all the decontextualized hype in the mainstream media.

Nurse Cathy Hayman (right) injects the H1N1 vaccine into the arm of three year old Timothy Logan who visited the H1N1 clinic located in the Pickering Town Centre with his mother Dawn (left). (Oct. 26, 2009) Photo: Tara Walton, Toronto Star

“People die of the flu. This is no consolation to the family of 13-year-old Evan Frustaglio, the Toronto boy who died Monday, apparently after contracting swine flu. But it is true.

This was so before this latest pandemic. It will almost certainly continue to be so in the future. But it is no reason to go off the deep end.

Keep things in perspective. What is worrisome about this particular strain, sometimes known as Novel Swine-origin Influenza A (H1N1), is its newness. We know, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, that is contains genes from pigs, humans and birds. We know from experience that such a mix gives it the potential to pass back and forth between species and to become particularly virulent.

Which is presumably one reason why the public health establishment is so fixated on swine flu. The other reason may that world governments are using this pandemic as a test run to see how they would respond to a real crisis.

But what we also know is that, so far, this flu strain has been no more serious than any other.

To put it another way: Before the H1N1 scare, the death from flu of a 13-year-old boy wouldn’t have led newscasts across the nation.

Consider the facts.

According to the World Health Organization, fewer than 5,000 people have died around the globe from this variant of swine flu. In any normal year, influenza causes between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths worldwide….”

Get the whole story from thestar.ca

In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a new movie out titled “The men who stare at goats“. While that’s all about military psyops and such, this post is actually about people who raise dairy goats in an urban setting.. for instance so they’ll have a ready supply of raw milk and not be dependent on the whims of regulators. This is an excerpt from Jennifer Coughlin’s excellent post on “Neighbourhood Notes” blog, titled “Goats in the City: Portland Neighbors Take a Step Towards Self-Sufficiency“:

And the goats are staring right back!

“I have said before that the lessons of our grandparents could really come in handy now that our gross economic negligence has come back to bite us in our entitled behinds (NOTE: I am making a big generalization for effect here, so don’t get upset if you don’t feel that you’re in any way responsible for the Fine Mess the U.S. finds itself in). It seems that others feel that way, too, that a return to the ways of our much more self-reliant ancestors is long overdue. Thus more and more folks are planting vegetable gardens, learning to sew and knit, and are even keeping livestock. Chicken coops (and even bee hives!) are a familiar sight around Portland, but some people are turning to another animal as well—the goat.

Goats and humans living together is nothing new; they were among the earliest animals to be domesticated—some 10,000 or more years ago. In that time, goats have been kept for milk and meat, their dung used for fuel, and their bones, skin, and fur used for shelter and clothing. Today in the U.S., the number of goats kept for meat is growing, as people from parts of the world where goat is more commonly consumed migrate to this country, but Oregon ranks second in the keeping of dairy goats. And in a city like Portland, it would be safe to assume that the majority of goats being kept are for the purpose of producing milk.

According to the Multnomah County Health Department’s Environmental Health section’s Vector and Nuisance Control department (whew, that’s a mouthful), there are officially 30 registered goat keepers in Portland. But, according to Dave Thompson, code enforcement officer, that may not be an accurate picture of how many people actually keep goats. The city code (though enforced by the county, goats fall under the city’s jurisdiction) stipulates that three or less goats are considered pets and therefore do not have to register with the city. Thompson explains that there is no formula for regulating goat keeping; they basically look to see how it will affect the neighbors, and make sure that the conditions will be adequate and humane for the animals….”

“….Starting small, dreaming big

Who knows how many suburban garages feature goat milking stations?

I visited Abita Springs Farm, smack dab in the middle of the Cully neighborhood, where Ed and Nancy Arcament have nine goats. In the four years they’ve been keeping goats, they’ve had 17 kids born; unfortunately 14 were male, which won’t help much with milk production. With their great pedigree though, all but two of the male kids were sold as bucks for breeding. The two that were not chosen for bucks are now pack goats at Yellowstone National Park—not a bad life for animals native to mountain climes. Their Alpine goats are top milk producers, so they are able to sell milk and still have enough left over to do what they’re really passionate about—making cheese….”

Read the rest on Neighbourhood Notes blog.

Photos are also from the Neighbourhood Notes post

Trailer for “The Men who stare at goats” movie.

This is possibly the most comprehensive explanation of the swine flu and vaccination issues we’ve seen yet. It begins with some scientific background on the types of flus, then goes into the history of the Swine Flu, discusses the events around the shipment of the deadly 72 kilos of supposed vaccines earlier this year and how that particular “pandemic” was prevented, the politics around WHO’s declaration of a pandemic, and the political dangers that could lead to compulsory vaccination. Thanks to Infowars.com for publishing it first!

“Teresa Forcades is a nun at the monastery of Sant-Benet, in Monserra-Barcelona. She is a doctor physician specializing in internal medicine, PHD in public health at Barcelona’s university, specializing in the USA at the State University of New York. She gives verifiable scientific data and the disturbing irregularities related to this subject. This is relevant to all countries, all people….” Read more on infowars.com

Slovenian raw milk automat. Keeping health care costs manageable!

Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist: “….In several columns, I’ve noted indignantly that we have worse health statistics than Slovenia. For example, I noted that an American child is twice as likely to die in its first year as a Slovenian child. The tone — worse than Slovenia! — gravely offended Slovenians. They resent having their fine universal health coverage compared with the notoriously dysfunctional American system.

As far as I can tell, every Slovenian has written to me. Twice. So, to all you Slovenians, I apologize profusely for the invidious comparison of our health systems. Yet I still don’t see anything wrong with us Americans aspiring for health care every bit as good as yours.” Read the whole column here.

Photo of Slovenian raw milk automat is from Kimberly Hartke’s blog — which Cathy Raymond calls “The Huffington Post of Real Foods”! Here’s an excerpt from the story that goes with the picture. See Kimberly’s blog for the full report with video and more photos:

“New Technology in the Old World Offers Fresh Milk Straight from Farm

by Sylvia P. Onusic, Guest Blogger

Photo Credit: Lidija Slana of Ljubljana

Slovenia, on the “Sunny Side of the Alps” is a small country of about two million people located directly east of Italy, south of Austria, and north of Croatia. Slovenia successfully fought a short war for independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991, joined the European Union (EU) in 2004, and held the Presidency of the EU in 2008.

The capital city, Ljubljana, is a very charming Austro-Hungarian style Old World town, where almost everyone speaks English. The downtown old city hosts a large farmers market (trznica) every weekday and Saturday during the entire year where green grocers, farmers, flower vendors, and local townspeople sell their wares. Whatever is blooming, budding or for picking in the forests shows up at the market.  Living in Slovenia for 6 years, I learned a lot about quality of life and a big part of that involves the availability of home made and local foods. Slovenes are also no strangers to raw and fermented foods. They are traditional and honored food. In the market during the fall, raw lacto fermented sauerkraut and its juice, and pickled turnips, have been available for years.

A Traditional Culture Embraces Technological Innovation

A recent addition to the market is a “mlekomat” – an automatic raw milk machine which dispenses non homogenized, non pasteurized milk from cows on Alpine pasture, which are not ever treated with antibiotics.  This summer I visited Slovenia and had the opportunity to use the machine and drink the milk. The machine dispenses milk in a variety of quantities, and bottles can be purchased to transport the milk. Patrons also can bring their own containers….”

Get the whole story, video and more pictures from Kimberly Hartke’s blog.