Haiti seeks salvation in agriculture

From Randal C. Archibold in The New York Times:

“PAPAYE, Haiti — For months after the earthquake that struck the capital, Manel Laurore pulled shattered bodies from his neighbors’ homes, hunkered in fetid refugee camps and scrounged for food and water.
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“I will never go back to Port-au-Prince,” said Mr. Laurore, 32, a former shopkeeper who was sifting soil to plant a tomato garden, referring to the capital. “It left a strong pain inside. Here the work is hard, but you live in total peace.”

His work, on a 15-acre cooperative farm in Papaye, represents a small but promising success for an ambitious program being promoted by aid workers, government officials and international donors: saving the country by developing the countryside.

Dr. Mercola on “this scary drink”

From Dr. Mercola:

“The U.S. Centers for Disease Control have long claimed that between 1998 and 2008, there were two deaths from raw milk.

This number is often used in media reporting about raw milk.

But those illnesses actually appear to have come from a form of cheese that isn’t legal under current FDA regulations, called queso fresco.

Raw milk controversy reaching England

From Lucy Siegl in The Guardian:

“Raw milk is hot right now, feted by fans for its “cow to cup” direct supply chain. Of course the milk itself never gets hot at all. Unlike “normal” milk, which is heated to 72C to achieve pasteurisation, raw milk remains steadfastly unpasteurised. Naturally, shunning the pathogen-busting work of Louis Pasteur it’s a controversial tipple.

But it is a relatively low-emissions drink compared to conventional milk (although it should be noted that all animal-based products have a substantial footprint). Unlike the 13bn litres of normal milk processed each year by three main processors in 100 sites across the UK, this raw milk is not pre-chilled, siloed, separated, homogenised, pasteurised and refrigerated before being trucked to retailers.