A tale of two calves — a taste test of raw and pasteurized milk-fed veal calf meat

.

Cava is pleased to welcome dairy farmer and activist Michael Schmidt and invites you to a unique Glencolton Farms Veal Dinner.

Please join Chefs Chris McDonald and Doug Penfold and their guest Michael Schmidt at Cava on Tuesday, June 1st for an evening showcasing the special veal of Schmidt’s Glencolton Farm.

Here is a rare opportunity to taste and discover the gastronomic value of raw milk versus pasteurized milk in a unique context.

Does “free range” labeling make organic farming look bad? — is that an accident?

Judith McGeary, Esq., Founding Board of Director Member, Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund and President, Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance takes a closer look at the research sited in this Atlantic Monthly May 2010 Article.

Is Free-Range Meat Making Us Sick? by James McWilliams

The author, James McWilliams tries to claim that sustainably raised foods are “making people sick,” but the studies he cites show no such thing.

While McWilliams portrays “free range” as the alternative to factory farms or CAFOs, this is simply wrong.  Under U.S. law, “free range” means only that the animals are given “access to the outdoors.”  http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FactSheets/Meat_&_Poultry_Labeling_Terms/index.asp

While some small sustainable farms use the term, “free range” operations are often still factory farms, in which thousands of chickens or hogs are housed in a large building with a door leading to a dry lot with no grass in it.  “Free range” operations often use the same poor-quality feed, antibiotics, vaccines, and hormones as regular CAFOs, contrary to McWilliams’ claim in his concluding paragraph.

Is Massachusetts the first “domino” in a secretly planned nationwide crackdown on raw milk access?

David E. Gumpert reports on the Complete Patient — an excerpt:

Is there a secret plan to dry up access to raw milk in America?

“The general assumption about the after-hours announcement May 7 that the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources was withdrawing its proposed ban on buying clubs was that the move was prompted by a torrent of calls and emails from consumers opposing the ban.

But is it possible we have all seriously misunderstood the MDAR move? Is it possible, in fact, that MDAR withdrew the proposed ban because it wants to make the ban even more restrictive than originally planned?