This news story conveys the audacity of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), and the personal impact of their actions upon my natural, healthful family – and local respectful farmers.
My wife, Julie Matthews is among the worlds leading nutritionists specializing in autism, as well as healthy pregnancy and babies. She knows a thing or two about making safe, quality food choices for herself, our baby, and her clients.
It’s perfectly legal to purchase and consume raw milk in California, and legal to own a share of a cow or goat. City dwellers contracting with farmers for direct access to healthy food is a sacrosanct relationship dating back to the dawn of urban living. I’m among countless San Francisco denizens who engage in this practice, be it for veggies or dairy.
But recently, government officials are interfering with citizens’ constitutionally protected right to choose what they eat. Our Government seems to think that we are STUPID people who are unable to engage in private contracts and make our own FOOD CHOICES and that we need to be protected…from ourselves.
I disagree.
Here’s the news story that ran on KPIX Channel 5 in San Francisco, local CBS affiliate. Find the original story here. Also see JULIE’S COMMENTS BELOW…
From Julie Matthews.
Raw milk has numerous nutritional benefits, and research studies specify its advantages over commercially produced, hormone containing, enzyme depleted, pasteurized milk. Many adults and children cannot tolerate pasteurized milk; yet have no challenges drinking natural (raw) milk. When sourced from a clean farm and healthy herd – akin to mother’s natures’ best work for centuries, raw milk is exceedingly safe and nutritious.
To be sure, motherhood is fraught with tough, sometimes risky decisions. Life itself is risky: crossing the street, playing in a pool, eating food. Nonetheless, the choices we make as parents are…ours to make! We do not need the government to protect us.
The guise of protection always accompanies reduced freedoms. In the news story, you’ll hear the sentiment of the California Department of Food and Agriculture; on the one hand saying the wish to encourage my close relationship with my farmer, but on the other – choosing to interfere in my relationship. Hogwash!
I know better than they do about what’s best for my family! And I’m not stupid – as the state seems to imply they need to save me from myself!
Despite the insulation in the news story, there is NOTHING illegal about herdshares in California. A herdshare agreement is a private contract between two private individuals. The state of California is now trying to regulate these private contracts, reinterpret laws, and force family farmers out of business or force them to become a commercial dairy.
Why?
- Has there been a dangerous outbreak? No
- Has this milk ended up on grocery store shelves? No
- Has there been an incident with a herdshare in California? No
I thought this was an interesting piece of info, France has raw milk vending machines.
http://www.dailypaul.com/220091/while-california-persecutes-raw-milk-farmers-france-unveils-raw-milk-vending-machines
I started giving my now 21 month old son raw cows when he was just 6 weeks old. He was losing weight on my breast milk alone and because I work in the food industry I refused to give him store bought formulas. Even organic formulas were note an acceptable option for my son. I supplemented 6 ounces a day of homemade raw milk baby formula using the nourishing traditions recipe. My son started gaining. Then when I went back work, my 3 month old son needed 30 ounces of milk while at daycare. I could only pump 10 ounces while I was at work. So each morning I made 20 ounces of the raw milk formula.
I am so thankful to have access to the raw milk that my baby thrived on. He never had smelly diapers or cradle cap unlike my friends formula fed babies. He has always been in the 95th percentiles for height and weight. He is super smart and is already potty ready.
I love Evergreen Acres! I have been a long time share holder and appreciate every drop of gold that I haven’t gotten from them.
It’s hard to believe that the government is trying to take my right to choose what to eat and drink from me. However, Cheetos and Ding Dongs are considered safe foods to eat? What is wrong with this picture?
As Joel Salatin has voiced – we must get back to our soil, our food, and into our kitchens to fight for our freedom to true nourishing lifestyles.
Lisa
http://WWW.lisascounterculture.com
Nourishing Food Workshops and Coaching
Good job speaking out on this very important subject. I am also livid that the government makes it harder and harder to access clean, healthy, nourishing food that hasn’t been monkeyed with by big ag and big food biz. So many people are suffering as a direct result of the governments food policies, and they don’t even know why they are suffering. They think they need to go to the doctor and get pills which leads them to even more suffering, when it’s the factory food and the bogus US food pyramid that are making us sick and depressed. And they want to protect us from raw milk? How about protecting us from GMO’s and neurotoxic food additives? I’m more concerned with being protected against the food that the FDA green lights! Who wants this crack down? Who exactly is worried about people accessing raw milk from local farms? Who? Not farmers, not moms who read up on nutrition and research clean local food. In the absence of any harmful raw milk incidents, why do they care now? There’s not a problem, so don’t be trying to fix what’s not broken!! Could it be that the milk lobby or whoever they are called up their politician friend and said, “hey it sucks that people are starting to find out that there’s puss in our milk, they’re informing themselves and going for local raw milk… what can you do to kill that competition”? I thought it was very interesting that the milk folks had a “down with alternative milks” ad playing during the superbowl. I think they are freaked that people are realizing that processed milk is hard to digest and are switching in droves to alternative milks. Well, they can proclaim that their milk is the real deal, but no tv ad or strong arming of local farmers and raw milk consumers will get me to go back. Shame on them. And government officials, how about looking more closely at foods that are harming people and crack down on those? Like GMO’s. They haven’t been proven safe. How about looking into that newfangled idea a little more closely rather than coming down on a natural and pure food that has nourished people for thousands of years and which is being accessed perfectly legally in one on one consumer to farmer agreements that should be none of your concern??
So with that said, I just would like to know what else I can do. What government official should I call and send letters to? What petition site has a petition that I can add my name to? What exactly is a good way for me to stand up and be counted when it comes to this issue?
The California Department of Food and Agriculture dedicated tax dollars to CREATE a “public safety issue” when there was NONE! This type of activity is just one reason the state is in such financial straits. State employees wasting our tax dollars to create their own job security!
I am disgusted to witness how our government agencies, the FDA and state regulatory agencies continue to try to legislate our FREEDOM of choice and access to healthful foods and a healthy food chain. I encourage all to GET ANGRY and ACT to write or meet with your government representatives. Let them know your opinions. Watch your government’s legislative committees and proposed bills! Testify before state and federal committees to get the message out. Join together as noted above to write and submit a bill. Complaining, blogging and letting your opinion be known is good. BUT if you want to see REAL CHANGE, it is each of our responsibilities to take an active role in our government to protect our food chain, access to healthy food and freedom of choice.
PLEASE!! The government does not have any idea of what they are doing, other than trying to control the population. When my children were young, I lived in northern Idaho, and all we drank was raw milk. There was NEVER any problems every. Obviously, the government is trying to ensure that we get as few wholesome foods as possible. Look at the FDA ignoring the dangers of GMO food. The people need to start rising up and protesting!! My heart goes out to all the people affected by government stupidity!!!
Awesome job Julie and Martin! and Ruby is looking so darling and so healthy! she is lucky to have you as parents!
Trudy
I am an ‘older’ mom of a disabled child (all grown up now), and she has thrived on raw dairy for over 33 years. In fact, she takes no pharmaceuticals…that’s right folks, none, nada! Her peers of similar disability take an average of 19 different prescriptions. I, too, am a certified nutritional consultant because I have such a passion about feeding whole, unadulterated food to my family. I am sickened to watch how our food chain has deteriorated into less and less access to healthful foods. I don’t know what it’s going to take for “the sheeple” to realize just how hot this “tepid water” is getting! Somehow, someway we MUST stand together or we will not HAVE any of our farmers left that are willing to feed our families! I feel so bad for younger mom’s these days because they have even a harder time than I did accessing healthful foods for their children. “A Nation of Sheep will beget a government of Wolves.” (Edward R. Murrow).
I have chills reading your comment Marietta. It’s the real truth! Thanks!
Well I am not a Mom, but as a Dad my wife and I have chosen raw milk for our family. We live in Florida where it is illegal to buy/sell raw milk for human consumption. In order for us to get it we have to buy milk labeled “for pet consumption only”. I find this to be utterly ridiculous. Rather than demanding safe practices for all farms, our government has decided to make safe/clean dairy farming illegal, and unsafe practices of handling the cows and getting the milk acceptable by pasteurizing the milk and destroying many of its great qualities. Another one of America’s way of lowering the standards and safe practices of corporate farms in order for larger profits.
Congrats,Julie! Montana “OUTLAWS” raw milk and went so far as to plant a facebook member from the state office in one of our online health food groups. We discussed cow sharing that does take place — undergroud unfortunately — and I got a call from the state to my kitchen shop. A gentle warning, one might say. Big milk and cheese producers have deep pockets, funded by Kraft Mac N Cheese types and they are working hard to stay unified against the raw movement even though the leaders themselves were served raw milk as children on the farms they were raised on. The government has a very specific charter in our nation and politicians are redefining it each day — it is intruding now in places many of us feared it would go. Smaller & a more restrained government is needed — for our family’s sake. Freedom to the people — or in a short amount of time, it will be freedom by the people. Keep doin’ what you’re doin’ — stay close! J
Unbelievable Jeannine! What country do we live in? Government plants parading as parents – this is scary! Sounds more like WWII Germany.
To all of you angry mothers and consumers.You must choose your government officials carefully.Do not let the government step into your private contracts and herd shares.I was a licensed and inspected goat dairy which also provided milk to the herd owned by the Rawesome food club.I have been thrown in jail and driven to defeat by the Cdfa.My children and neighbors watched me hancuffed,searched and thrown in jail 3 times for providing goat owners their own milk. Please do not give up the fight for food freedom.
Sharon, You are an inspiration to all! Thank goodness there are courageous people like you that stand up for the truth. This has to stop, and the only way is when people stand up for the truth and work to elect honest government officials that stand with the US Constitution and the limits of government that it lays out. Thanks for all you do!
There is another story in the news today about a farmer in Wisconsin facing three years in prison for selling raw milk. Let’s stand up for him now. Here’s the link for others: http://hartkeisonline.com/food-politics/michael-schmidt-on-vernon-hershberger/
The government should stay out of it! We have obese children and obese adults and they are worrying about raw milk, seriously. Perhaps if they begin drinking raw milk instead of buying it at the grocery store their bran fog would clear!
Julie and Martin, Thanks so much for getting this story out. You as parents are far more qualified to make the right choices for your child/family than any government office. Especially with your professional credentials!
Look at the current state of our food supply and the declining health of our children, not to mention the ever-expanding vaccine schedule and kids on meds. So much for government ‘protection’ and yet they feel the need to meddle in a private arrangement that has nothing to do with public safety.
I live in Florida and did not even know herdshares existed but I’ll certainly try to find one now! Thanks for your story and all these informed comments.
It is ridiculous for a governmental agency to encourage such dichotomous thinking. On the one hand they want to encourage your relationship with your farmer and then they want to tell you what you are allowed to buy from that farmer. Doesn’t sound very supportive for either party. As a Nutrition Professional you certainly have a better knowledge base than most consumers, and I’m fairly certain more than most governmental bureaucrats.
I find it astounding that when people are asking for more information to properly choose the government is not only not giving information but then trying to limit access to healthy food.
Good for you for speaking up in such a public way. This is a story that needs to be told.
The CDFA HAD to find someone to harrass. After being on Mark McAfee’s fanny for 5 weeks -and finding nothing, of course- they have simply moved onto the next victim.
I realize that this may sound extremely paranoid, but with Obama’s passage of the NDAA several weeks ago, I fear that our food privileges will only become more and more tampered with in time. (If you are unfamiliar with the NDAA, please research it!) Now that the military will be able to arrest anyone at anytime without a reason, it concerns me that as the government sees we are not supporting the companies they want us to support, that the little people will get harrassed or even arrested. Big Pharma and Big Ag run this country and the politicians are their puppets. We are being controlled and I am almost certain that we have only seen the beginning of this scary, scary reality.
Susan, I hear you – we’re quite aghast at the NDAA, very disconcerting indeed. And, like anyone, I can easily see a negative spiraling trajectory of this tyrannical behavior. Indeed, there is great collusion among corps and gov’t, and our world and behavior is being tightly influenced…BUT, our participation is required to be controlled – and THAT’S what is inevitably changing (like the frog in the hot water).
Yes, reality is scary – and it may get worse, but we the people must not relinquish our perspective and understanding of what is RIGHT, and how things SHOULD be, and we cannot succumb to the fear being pushed upon us. For if we do, we remove ourselves from the collective equation of what’s unfolding in our world. Every voice matters and we need every player in the game, sitting on the sidelines feeling that we’re losing, and will just continues to lose the game, really feels crappy and is antithetical to the energy of CHANGE. Our perceptions of the future DO influence our reality, this is why the “hope” of “nourishing hope” is so instrumental.
Thanks for sharing.
Martin
Please don’t limit the scope to just Big Pharma and Big Ag. Don’t forget Big Finance, Big Defense, Big Media, what else? Maybe we should say Big Industry, or just Big Money.
Well said Gene!!!
Wow! The hand of the government is getting a little too deep into our pockets. I grew up on a farm and drank fresh milk every single day. I quit drinking milk after leaving the farm and only having access to store bought milk (can you even call it milk?) I am a mom to four and provide raw milk to my children because of the nutritional benefits. We have two shares in a local herd. And I am so thankful that we can at least have that access. It does cost considerably more than running down to the local supermarket and picking up a gallon of milk off the shelf. But I would do without milk before I would force my kids to drink that stuff.
I agree Martha. The reason question is why is the other “milk” so cheap! I think we know the answer to that!
Hello! I am a mom who feeds my children raw milk…GASP! Even my 11 month old twins get formula made from Raw milk because one was failing to thrive on store bought formula after I stopped nursing at 8 months. She has a heart condition and could not afford to slow her weight gain. She is now thriving and gaining on raw milk formula, and has never been healthier! She amazes her drs every appointment. Keep fighting the fight! ….Ron Paul has a new fan!
I completely subscribe to your way of thought, Julie. Every mother should have the right to feed their children what they believe to be healthful, beneficial (and sometimes even controversial) food products if the research has been done and the drawbacks and benefits explored. Though I do understand the need for some regulation with certain types of foods and additives, when it comes to the government regulating something whole, fresh, natural and completely within reason I am a bit apprehensive- though not entirely surprised- perhaps they want a piece of that pie shared between farmer and buyer? Whats next? Regulations and taxes on my garden? Good on you for getting the story out there to serve as support for those who fight the good fight.
As a mom of a child with autism, I completely respect and understand the mission of removing government interference from using nutrition, supplements, etc., to attain personal health. I also understand that there will be a certain population that will find the consumption of raw milk extremely beneficial. Unfortunately, I also had to live out the nightmare that can happen when the wrong person consumes store bought raw milk, as my nephew’s consumption led to HUS. His hospitalization (2 months) and need for complete life support was, to say the least, traumatizing for our entire family. With all of this in mind, it is becoming increasingly difficult to make healthy choices, as the “one-size-fits-all” approach in any area can lead to a negative outcome. (Having had this sent to me, after having this experience, I felt this additional perspective is important if we believe in empowering others to make completely informed decisions.)
We are a raw milk family, by way of herdshares. The co ops and farmers I have personally spoken with have said the reason they do not work with the government anymore in their production is because their animals were “always sick and dying, and they were paying more to pump drugs into them to keep them alive till slaughter”. Then when they tried organic green farming, their animals were so healthy and the rest “just made sense”, it was logical so they discontinued the government standards for farming. Raw milk’s composition is more similar to fish with it’s omega 3,6. It contains beneficial bacteria that our guts needs in order for cell turn over. It is broken down easily and absorbed differently than homogenized milk. My parents generation was raised on raw milk and eggs and their health was much better then, than what it is now that they drink homogenized milk. Eczema, allergies, bowel issues, can all improve with the consumption of raw milk. My own child’s sensory issues dissipated as well eczema. Children need full fat for their development, it is especially needed during pregnancy. Low fat store bought milk is generally full of hormones and is more protein than calcium (Harvard study released just this week). Cows farmed by the government are milked on average 300 days a year, fed GM grains, more often than not pregnant, receiving either BHT or and never allowed outside. How can this make sense to anyone that this would create a safe product to consume? We should never have to be told my any government entity that sugar, preservatives and food colorings which are in most of our foods are okay, but a product that doesn’t contain any of these harmful additives must be unsafe for us. “you can fool some people all the time, all people some some of the time but not all people all the time”- Abe Lincoln.
Human Development BA
Hold on to those freedoms tightly! It is illegal to sell raw milk here in Manitoba, Canada. How I wish I could get some healthy fresh milk for my family!
I love the part where the gov’t regulators are going to meet with the herdshare farmers, consumers, and “representatives from the dairy industry.” Really? Like BigAg needs to be at the table if this is really all about food safety…
I find the government’s position erodes quickly when you watch their actions and throw in a little bit of logical thinking.
Hi Kati,
Stay tuned…the meeting is tomorrow. We’ll let you know how it goes. We hope to have people (at the table) get educated and informed on the benefits (economical, etc, etc) of herdsharers in California (yes, including educating Big Dairy). Not only that…but there are too many herdsharers to regulate it would be futile….Yannick, Ca. State Grange
I would be livid too, Julie! State agencies are being allowed to “make-up” laws on the fly. This trampling of our liberties, and in this case food choices, is way out of control! My family have been raw milk consumers for over 6 yrs. We drink Organic Pasture’s Dairy raw milk. Raw milk has helped my son’s asthma improve and I truly believe had I not incorporated raw milk into my daughter’s diet her autism would have been much worse. While Organic Pastures Dairy is a certified and state licensed raw dairy I feel it is wrong for Gov’t to harass private farmers and consumers who form contracts with each other. It is all about power and control of Big Industry monopolies. Our own Gov’t is not protecting us (like they say they are) … it is protecting Industry and its cozy relationship. That is why our health and rights are in the gutter in this country. What I want to know is how in the heck does a state agency like the CDFA get the power to police private citizens and threaten them?! On what basis?! And why do our elected officials ignore our calls, emails, petitions but have no problem listening to Industry lobbyists?! I know the main anwer to that question is money but where have all the morals and integrity gone?! Now, we have to worry about the public schools taking away our kid’s healthy home prepared lunches in exchange for fake food!!
Thanks for standing in the gap and speaking out. God bless you and your family.
This is crazy! The government should be more concerned with child hood obesity and getting guns and drugs off the streets than worrying about shutting down goat farmers. What is this world coming to? It is insane, that the government can take away your rights to feed your babies the way you want to…wait…isn’t this America Land of the free?
Goooooo Julie! Ruby is growing so fast and so beautiful and HEALTHY! The two of you are the most amazing and conscious parents and Ruby is the evidence of how important it is to be informed parents and not succumb to government pressure or intervention in making choices for our kids.
Dear Friend
Ilove to hear what you said.
“The point is – it’s none of the state’s business, and we mothers will not allow government regulators to dictate what our family can and cannot eat!!! ”
In most of the countries there is licence to sell poison in bottles in the form of cheep,colourful sugar and so many kinds food items with lots of additives and creams about which nobody knows what it contain.
As all of us know milk allergy and many kinds of food allergy is increasing in proportionate to increase in Asthma,autism,behavioural and brain disorders and even cancer particularly in children.
MILK SUPPOSED TO BE A RICH NUTRITION BUT NOT DRINKABLE TO CHILDREN DUE TO “ALLERGY” why???
So when experts finds new ways to deal with this problem like consuming raw milk govt. has to support them to make it scientific.
I remember my grandpas times ,they used to consume raw milk and raw eggs which were giving good health -but that time milk and egg were pure so they lived long and had good health even in old age .
Go ahead Julie wish you all support .Know that food and politics are closely linked.People can take only what is available so there behaviour and needs are being controlled and exploted sometimes .
Dr.Satheesh Nair
Hello, I have been watching and viewing documentries of what is happening in our country in regards to our food. It is outragious!!! what they are doing to our food and not letting us, the people, make the choices for ourselves and our families. You are right, we are not stupid. Let us live FREELY!
Go Ron Paul!!
Concerned Citizen
Good job. Inform yourself and whenever the opportunity arises inform other people!