Raw milk redefines “dairy intolerance”

The following picture and story excerpt is from Kimberly Hartke’s blog and is a guest post from Kate at www.modernalternativemama.com

Kate and her kids. Photo via Kimberly Hartke's blog

“Two and a half years ago, I had no idea what I was in for.

I was 7 months pregnant with my first baby and we hadn’t yet started our “real food” journey.  We ate whatever sounded good to us, whenever we wanted it.  That meant a lot of boxed meals, restaurant food, and dairy — processed, pasteurized dairy.  Ice cream, cheese, etc.  I loved cheese and couldn’t imagine ever being able to go without it.

Fast forward about 15 months and I had a 13-month-old who we discovered couldn’t eat dairy. A 13-month-old who was still breastfeeding.  I couldn’t bring myself to give it up, and since she wasn’t breastfeeding too often, I just had a little bit.  Her favorite type of cheese was mozzarella — the kind you buy in a bag in a store labeled “low-moisture, part-skim.”  Unfortunately, it was also the type to which she reacted worst.  After eating this cheese, she would have horrible diaper rashes, bad diarrhea, eczema over her whole body, and she’d wake several times each night.  Once we took cheese out of her diet, she did much better.

Legal aspects of Minnesota milk case

Here’s a fascinating commentary, by Gordon Watson, on the story excerpted in the post below:

Below is the top story today, on David Gumpert’s website , The Complete Patient. This post contains information that is very important to us in the Campaign for REAL MILK. In order to defend himself, the farmer is entitled to have a copy of the affidavit which was used by the authorities to obtain the Search Warrant.  But they won’t give it to him!  I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that that “Information to Obtain” gives away the fact that the tale told to some Judge to get the Warrant, was surmise upon surmise = allegation/ accusation /innuendo = but devoid of facts which would give color of law to something as serious as a home invasion by 8 cops

Attempts to demonize raw milk in the American media reach a fever pitch

Once again, David E. Gumpert of the Complete Patient has his eye on the front lines, in America’s raw milk “war”. An except:

“The media in recent months have been full of articles about raw milk. While many of them now quote proponents of raw milk, the writers color the articles heavily with fear mongering, like this from the Chicago Tribune. Even those written by supposed raw milk drinkers, like a smarmy one in The Atlantic, talks about raw milk containing “a rogue’s gallery of bugs.”

I just kind of shrug at most of these as reflecting the long-held bias of the media in favor of officialdom. I figure many of these publications are on their way to extinction anyway, and I know it’s in significant measure because they are so far out of touch with the marketplaces they supposedly serve.

An Edible History of Humanity

Excerpted from a recent story on Alternet.org:

“Throughout history, food has played many roles in changing the world: It has been a weapon of war, an offering for peace, a force of development and imperialism and an organizer of societies. In many cases, food and its production have had some of the most profound effects on humanity and indeed on the earth itself. Food has affected social status, social roles, empires and the outcome of wars. The roles that food has played in shaping society and the planet itself are captured in a new book by Tom Standage, titled An Edible History of Humanity.

Maria Armoudian: Let’s start with how food production has altered the planet. What is the impact of food on the earth?

E-coli from Minnesota raw milk farm?

David E. Gumpert of the Complete Patient blog reports:

Google the terms “Hartmann Farm, Gibbon, MN” and you’ll get a good five pages of lawyer and media sites writing that three of four people have become ill from E.coli 0157:H7 in raw milk sold by the dairy. Nearly all the articles are based on an announcement by the Minnesota Department of Health that the illnesses have been “traced to raw milk” from Hartmann Farm, citing as evidence not only that they drank raw milk, but have the same genetic versions of the E.coli 0157:H7.

The lawyers are re-purposing the announcement because they are elbowing each other to be first in line when the families of those who became ill possibly select a product liability lawyer to seek damages. The media are pouncing on the announcement as evidence that the public health community is correct that raw milk is inherently unsafe.

Try this at home — raw milk cheese

Chilliwack Times reports on Alice Jongerden’s recent visit to Michael Schmidt and Glencolton Farms

Here’s further evidence that B.C. media continue to take a keen interest in all things raw milk. The following is an excerpt from a story in today’s Chilliwack Times by Paul Henderson:

Alice Jongerden (right) on the Schmidt farm

“Chilliwack dairy farmer Alice Jongerden made a recent trip to the raw milk mecca of Durham, Ont. where farmer Michael Schmidt operates Glencolton Farms.

Jongerden runs Home on the Range, a raw milk dairy in Chilliwack that has received significant attention in recent months as health authorities attempt to shut it down.

Jongerden made the trip to Schmidt’s 150-cow operation to see how his cowshare co-operative works.

American cooperatives side with big dairy, give farmers an ultimatum, stop selling raw milk or stop selling to us

Is raw milk a threat to big business and big dairy coops? Photo of raw milk bottle label from "the internet".

From this latest update on the American raw milk scene from David E. Gumpert of the Complete Patient blog, it’s evident that even farmer cooperatives are emulating big dairy in their push to squelch the growing competition from raw milk’ market ascendancy. But will their fears turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy as they give farmers currently selling a little raw milk on the side an ultimatum to “get big or get out”. I suspect that will lead to a lot of farmers choosing to expand their raw milk operation to where it sustains the farm, rather than to kowtow to companies pushing a product that fewer and fewer consumers want to buy. And now, that excerpt from The Complete Patient:

A regular Joe comments on raw milk’s raw deal in Wisconsin’s recent veto

This commentary comes from Joe Miu who is an American college student who writes a blog titled “Paper Clip Politics“:

“Last week Governor Doyle vetoed a bill that would have legalized the sale of raw milk to consumers. This piece of legislation would have given farmers and consumers the option of selling and buying unpasteurized milk at local farms. When I first heard that this proposed bill was making its way around the Capitol, I reacted like most twenty-one year olds would: “Who cares?” Diving deeper into the issue, I discovered it was a bipartisan effort designed to allow consumers more freedom in what they were allowed to purchase.

Michael Pollan on contemporary food movements, from vegan raw foodies to “born-again carnivores”

Here’s an excerpt from a recent story from The Ethicurean blog by Bonnie Azab Powell:

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“Pollan nation: In what is ostensibly a five-book review for the June 10 New York Review of Books, journalist Michael Pollan has an epic essay charting the emergence and character of the food movement. Or, as he puts it, “‘movements,’ since it is unified as yet by little more than the recognition that industrial food production is in need of reform because its social/environmental/public health/animal welfare/gastronomic costs are too high.” (Pollan, of course, has been indispensable in the rise of this movement, yet he omits his 2006 best-seller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, from his list of its catalysts — among them Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation, Marion Nestle’s Food Politics.)

This collection of movements is a “big, lumpy tent,” says Pollan: