Food freedom fest celebrates local hero

From Kimberly Hartke:

Staunton, VA–July 25, 2014—Farmers, foodies, politicians and others dedicated to advancing food freedom unite for a weekend festival in the scenic Shenandoah Valley of Virginia on September 5-6, 2014.  Organized by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense (FTCLDF), Food Freedom Fest is a fun, educational gathering for anyone who appreciates freedom of choice in food and agriculture. The funds raised will help defend the rights of small farmers and artisan food producers, as well as consumers and buying clubs.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), is trying to control all food regulation and poses a threat to the local food movement.  The September gathering is a meeting of people who see the benefit of a direct farmer to consumer relationship. This is relevant to anyone who wants to make a living off the land and keep the government out of their kitchen.

FDA the odd man out on raw milk?

Of course Canada’s not mentioned here. Still, David E. Gumpert reports some fascinating news from the wider raw milk world. From his “The Complete Patient” blog:

“A few weeks ago, the United Kingdom’s Food Standards Agency came out with an eye-opening report on raw milk. This agency, the UK’s equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, acknowledged and accepted, at least on a minimal basis, the reality of raw milk, including the following:

* The FSA sought out the opinions of more than 100 raw milk consumers via “an innovative consultation event” on “options for controls for RDM (raw drinking milk).” “The overarching conclusion from the event is that there is an appetite among producers and current RDM consumers for increased consumer access to RDM…”

Should you be able to buy food directly from farmers? U.S. local and federal governments disagree over food rights

From David E. Gumpert on Waking Times.com

Some people like to buy their food direct from the farmers who grow it. Click image for source.

“This would seem to embody the USDA’s advisory, “Know your farmer, know your food,” right? Not exactly.

For the USDA and its sister food regulator, the FDA, there’s a problem: many of the farmers are distributing the food via private contracts like herd shares and leasing arrangements, which fall outside the regulatory system of state and local retail licenses and inspections that govern public food sales.

In response, federal and state regulators are seeking legal sanctions against farmers in Maine, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California, among others. These sanctions include injunctions, fines, and even prison sentences. Food sold by unlicensed and uninspected farmers is potentially dangerous say the regulators, since it can carry pathogens like salmonella, campylobacter, and E.coli O157:H7, leading to mild or even serious illness.

New dangers beyond GMOs — “Waiter, there’s a nanoparticle in my soup…”

From Daisy Luther, at Activist Post, via SOTT.net

Photo of nanoparticles. Click image for source.

“If we didn’t have enough to worry about in the grocery aisles, with GMOs, toxic additives, and pesticide-soaked foods, we can now add a new concern: nanoparticles.

What exactly is a nanoparticle? As You Sow, a non-profit consumer advocacy group ,explains:

Nanomaterials are often heralded as having the potential to revolutionize the food industry – from enabling the production of creamy liquids that contain no fat, to enhancing flavors, improving supplement delivery, providing brighter colors, keeping food fresh longer, or indicating when it spoils. It is reported that nanotechnology is already used in food and food related products, but due to lack of transparency about the issue, concrete information has been difficult to obtain.

Where to find more raw milk news

If you’re looking to keep tabs on what’s going down in the world of raw milk, you need to read more than just The Bovine, where we try to focus on the Canadian scene, and in particular, the Michael Schmidt story.

Probably the world’s best source for up to minute breaking news and commentary on raw milk developments in America has got to be David E. Gumpert’s “The Complete Patient” blog. In case you missed it, David has written the book on raw milk. Well, one of them at least. Probably the most recent book, and perhaps the only book on raw milk that addresses the food rights, as well as the health issues involved. It’s called “The Raw Milk Revolution“. Before he got involved with raw milk, David was a business writer. David’s Jewish background has sensitized him to the early warning signs of tyranny. Here’s an excellent example, from David’s latest post:

FDA and Health Canada going after raw milk cheeses with much-touted survey?

How about that, Canadians get a voice in American federal decision making. But really we’re a separate country, aren’t we? Click image above to go to this page where you can comment.

Remember a few days ago we wrote about that article from the Ontario Farmer about how the FDA and Health Canada were seeking public input on raw milk policy? Well it seems that what they were really on about was soft raw milk cheeses. And yes, it does seem that that Health Canada is taking their comments via the FDA site (see image above), although no one at Health Canada’s media relations office ever got back to us on it.

The final solution…. Morningside Dairy saga comes to an end thanks to the FDA

From Doreen Hannes, via Morningside Dairy’s Uncheese Party blog:

“On August 26^th, 2010 the destruction of Morningland Dairy began. Having lost a two and half year battle with cancer of the State, the interment will take place on January 25^th, 2013.

People involved in all aspects of food production, be it growing, processing or distributing, should read through all the documentation [found on this blog – Hen] and understand that Morningland’s saga is the model for all independent food production under the FDA’s new Food Safety Modernization Act. Critical to this destruction are “science-based standards” as opposed to scientifically accurate controls and concerns. The Global Food Safety Initiative combined with “Good Agricultural Practices” and the “Guide to Good Farming” will ensure that an inability to feed the population will occur.  Morningland Dairy is an early casualty of these “science based standards”.

Bogus “data” from government agencies

From David E. Gumpert, on the Complete Patient blog:

“Media people love juicy data suggesting an untended-to crisis, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has the perfect juicy data for anyone wanting to write about the supposed crisis in food safety.

The scary data go like this: every year, millions of Americans are victims of food-borne illness–48 million become sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die.

The media are attracted to this data like bees to honey. Over just the last few days, two prominent food writers have used it as the basis of articles attacking the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for not doing enough to solve our food-safety crisis.

Missing raw milk academic article now returns with industry-friendly caveats

From David E. Gumpert, on the Complete Patient blog:

“When last we left the mystery of the disappearing article in an academic newsletter highlighting raw milk’s benefits, it seemed we had been witness to a serious encroachment on academic freedom.

Last month, I described the article’s eye-popping statements affirming European research findings suggesting raw milk help reduce the incidence of asthma and allergies in children. And shortly afterwards, I reported on the article’s disappearance from the academic site operated by the International Milk Genomics Consortium (IMGC) at the University of California, Davis, apparently under orders from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and its dairy chief, John Sheehan.

What’s behind the FDA’s censorship of raw milk related academic studies?

From David E. Gumpert on the Complete Patient blog:

“Why would the U.S. Food and Drug Administration feel so threatened by a scientific assessment of research on raw milk out of Europe that it would bully a dairy group into forcing the article’s removal from a major university’s web site?

After all, the assessment wasn’t revealing anything that lots of people didn’t already know. The most recent of the findings, the GABRIELA study, has been out for more than a year now, postulating that it could well be a protein in milk–damaged or destroyed by pasteurization–that confers protective effects on children from allergies and asthma.