So they just stop counting? — GMO vote strangeness in California and Oregon

Miles Mathis on the GMO vote in Oregon:

“A couple of years ago I showed you how Monsanto (probably) stole the California GMO Proposition 37. They just did the same thing in Oregon. As I did in 2012, I have been following the vote count closely. This was easy since we got live updates from Oregon’s own state election site. As they did in California, when the vote got close, they just quit counting and reported final numbers. This despite the fact no final numbers have been tallied. No final numbers were ever tallied or reported in California, and it looks like no final numbers will ever be coming out of Oregon, either.

In California in November of 2012, the early numbers went against GMO labeling, but late numbers went for it. The late precincts were in the big cities, where yes on 37 was around 65-70%. So as the night wore on, the vote moved closer and closer to 50/50. Curiously, the vote counting stalled that night and the (final) result was reported, despite the fact that no real final result had been tallied. More than a week later state officials admitted many millions of votes had still not been counted, even in close races like Prop 37. Those complaining were told the State had a month to report final numbers.

Oregon blueberry farmers facing “extortion” from regulators?

From Eric Mortensen, The Oregonian:

“In late July, investigators with the U.S. Department of Labor visited three blueberry farms in Marion County and announced finding “widespread” record-keeping and minimum wage violations at each.

Farm labor law investigations are often contentious, especially involving fruit pickers working on a “piece rate” basis rather than an hourly wage. But these cases took an unusual turn as the labor department’s Wage and Hour Division staff in Portland dropped the hammer.

Portland shows the way with raw milk sales allowed at area farmers’ markets

From Emily Parkhurst on The Forecaster.net:

Photo of a Portland farmers market by Steve Minor, via Travel and Liesure blog. Click image above to go there.

PORTLAND — Customers at the city’s farmers markets may soon be able to buy unpasteurized local milk, hard cider, beer and wine to go with their fresh vegetables, meats and baked goods.

City Councilors John Anton and Cheryl Leeman are sponsoring an amendment to the city’s rules that would allow licensed market vendors to add fermented beverages, raw milk and raw milk products, such as cheese, to their wares.

“This is something that was initiated by citizen requests,” Anton said.

State raw milk legislation pending

From Pete Kennedy at Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund

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A number of raw milk bills have been introduced in the state Houses in the current legislative session. What follows is a state-by-state summary of the bills that have been introduced.

IOWA – House File 394 (HF 394), a bill that will allow the sale of raw milk and raw milk products to individuals on the farm and through delivery by producers, has been voted out of the House Economic Growth Committee and now goes to the full House for a vote. Dairy farmers selling under the bill would be subject neither to licensing nor inspection. State law currently prohibits any sale of raw milk and raw milk products other than cheese aged sixty days or more.

Raw milk on the radio in Portland

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Click here to go to a page where you can hear the program.

Raw milk regulations in some western states where raw milk is actually legal

There’s been a lot of hullabaloo lately over how the issue of raw milk standards has played out in the case of that farm near Edmonton, and so, for some perspective on the matter, we thought it would be useful to publish this summary of raw milk regulations in states where the sale of raw milk IS legal. I think you could fairly say that the role of regulations such as these is to prevent the spread of disease and to enable consumers to have confidence in the product. But as for whether these standards are best maintained and enforced by the state, or by producer associations, is very much an open question. From a story by Steve Brown, on  Capital Press.com

Raw milk regulations vary by state

Washington

To sell retail raw milk in Washington, a producer must obtain both a milk producer license and a milk processing plant license.

The state requires documentation of water testing, animal health and processing. State inspectors perform raw milk testing approximately once per month. Test results must not exceed these standards:

* Bacterial count: 20,000 per mL.

Seven year old child’s lemonade stand latest target of crackdown in Oregon

Here’s an excerpt from the story dated Wed. Aug. 4th, from the OregonLive.com news website:

Julie Murphy of Oregon City still smiles about her enterprise despite running afoul of county inspectors for an unlicensed lemonade stand at Last Thursday. Photo: Torsten Kjellstrand / The Oregonian

“It’s hardly unusual to hear small-business owners gripe about licensing requirements or complain that heavy-handed regulations are driving them into the red.

The men who stare at urban dairy goats

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.

The Dee Creek Farm raw milk saga

This moving story of big government vs small farm is excerpted from a post on Stone Soup titled “My Sister’s Story: How Uncle Sam Controls Your Choices” by Katrina Stonoff:

Mike and Anita Puckett of Dee Creek Farm. (via Stone Soup)

Sept 8, 2008: “I hardly know where to start. For almost three years, I have kept quiet about this, at first out of respect for families whose children were sick, and then on advice of my sister’s attorney. But all legal action ended Friday, and now I can speak. I’ll try to tell the short version of how we ended up at the federal courthouse Friday. This is all public record now — you can even download the letters of support friends and family wrote — so I feel I can speak fairly freely. Finally!

Background

My sister and her husband (Mike and Anita Puckett) ownDee Creek Farm, which is about an hour south of here, and they run it with their daughter Summer Steenbarger. They sell a variety of organically grown products ranging from pastured chickens and eggs to artisan cheese and produce. All their food is exquisite — tastes amazing and is created without pesticides, chemical fertilizers or drugs.

They never planned to operate a raw milk dairy, but after they bought a milk cow for their family’s use, people began clamoring for them to sell milk. Apparently there are some health benefits to drinking raw milk (neither pasteurized nor homogenized): people who are lactose intolerant can often drink raw milk (99 percent of the time, according to some raw milk proponents), and there’s also evidence it helps people who suffer from other ailments like asthma.* In Washington, it’s illegal to sell raw milk without becoming a licensed dairy, and licensing requirements are onerous — to the point of being nearly impossible for a small, family farm with a few cows (in Oregon, there were no dairies licensed to sell raw milk for human consumption at all, though I heard through the grapevine that someone was licensed very recently). However, it IS legal, in both states, to drink raw milk from a cow you own, as the Pucketts were doing.