Illnesses point to raw milk’s popularity

[Zippyjuan]

Illnesses point to raw milk’s popularity

http://www.trivalleycentral.com/art...ional_headlines/doc4f2d805e101d9284924760.txt

38 have become sick during recent outbreak in East

By MARY CLARE JALONICK
Associated Press

Published: Saturday, February 4, 2012 12:07 PM MST

WASHINGTON — An outbreak of bacterial infections on the East Coast illustrates the popularity of raw, unpasteurized milk despite strong warnings from public health officials about the potential danger.

Even presidential candidate Ron Paul has joined the cause of consumers looking to buy unprocessed “real foods” straight from the farm, saying government shouldn’t deny them that choice.

An outbreak of campylobacter illness is a reminder of the potential hazards, however. Raw milk from a dairy in Pennsylvania is now linked to 38 cases in four states, and the farm has temporarily suspended sales. Campylobacter can cause diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain, and fever and can be life-threatening if it spreads to the bloodstream.

Consumers who want unpasteurized milk have to work to find it. It’s against federal law to transport it across state lines, and most states don’t allow it to be sold in stores off the farm. Twenty states prohibit raw milk sales altogether.

The government says the milk is unsafe because of the pathogens cows may encounter on the farm. A wide variety of pathogens besides campylobacter, can be found in raw milk — including salmonella, listeria, E. coli and others — and those sickened could suffer from stroke, kidney failure, paralysis or death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency points out that raw milk killed many people — especially young children — before the onset of pasteurization, which kills disease-causing germs by heating milk to high temperatures for a specific period of time.

The CDC says pasteurized milk is rich in proteins, carbohydrates and other nutrients, and that heat only slightly decreases thiamine, vitamin B12, and vitamin C.

While the government contends that milk is a minor source of those nutrients, raw milk advocates say that’s proof that pasteurization makes milk less wholesome and pure.

More at link.

 

[ryanmkeisling]

The evidence doesn't seem that tight. The article does point out that any food has the potential for illness. This could mean the end of that dairy's business though. It is only a matter of time before the CDC, FDA, and USDA start really cracking down on this though. A dairy here in Ca was recently accused of this as well, although many of us think that it is just the dairy industries attempt to stop the coming deregulation here in Ca that moon beam has been talking about.

 

[donnay]

Weston A. Price Foundation Kimberly Hartke, [email protected]
For Immediate Release 703-860-2711, cell 703-675-5557





GOVERNMENT DATA PROVES RAW MILK SAFE

Raw Milk Risk Extremely Small Compared to Risk of Other Foods



WASHINGTON, DC June 22, 2011: Data gleaned from U.S. government websites and government-sanctioned reports on foodborne illnesses show that the risk of contracting foodborne illness by consuming raw milk is much smaller than the risk of becoming ill from other foods, according to research by Dr. Ted Beals, MD, appearing in the Summer, 2011 issue of Wise Traditions, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation.



“At last we have access to the numbers we need to determine the risk of consuming raw milk on a per-person basis,” says Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a non-profit nutrition education foundation that provides information on the health benefits of raw, whole milk from pastured cows.



The key figure that permits a calculation of raw milk illnesses on a per-person basis comes from a 2007 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) FoodNet survey, which found that 3.04 percent of the population consumes raw milk, or about 9.4 million people, based on the 2010 census. This number may in fact be larger in 2011 as raw milk is growing in popularity. For example, sales of raw milk increased 25 percent in California in 2010, while sales of pasteurized milk declined 3 percent.



In addition, Dr. Beals has compiled published reports of illness attributed to raw milk from 1999 to 2010. During the eleven-year period, illnesses attributed to raw milk averaged 42 per year.



“Using government figures for foodborne illness for the entire population, Dr. Beals has shown that you are about thirty-five thousand times more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk,” says Fallon Morell. “And with good management practices in small grass-based dairies offering fresh unprocessed whole milk for direct human consumption, we may be able to reduce the risk even further.”



“It is irresponsible for senior national government officials to oppose raw milk, claiming that it is inherently hazardous,” says Dr. Beals. “There is no justification for opposing the sale of raw milk or warning against its inclusion in the diets of children and adults.”



According to Pete Kennedy, president of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, “Where raw milk is concerned, the FDA has an agenda apart from protecting the public health. The agency wants to restrict and discourage the sale of unprocessed dairy products. This will have the effect of denying freedom of choice."



“Every time there is a possible connection between illness and raw milk, government officials issue dire press releases and call for bans on raw milk sales,” says Fallon Morell. “However, these numbers fail to justify the government opposition and prove what we’ve known all along, that raw milk is a safe and healthy food.”



FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.realmilk.com/real-milk-pathogens.html



CONTACT: Kimberly Hartke, [email protected]

 

[gunnysmith]

Raised on raw milk, born 1944, still alive.
But back then I had a better chance of dying from raw milk than being killed in the womb.
How times have changed

 

[otherone]

Let's see if our beloved government shuts down McDonalds and Burger King to stem E.Coli.

EFFING TOOLS OF BIG BUSINESS.

 

[anaconda]

It is my understanding that lactose intolerant individuals can drink raw milk just fine, because the enzymes have not been destroyed by the pasteurization. I bought raw milk at Whole Foods in the past. But they stopped carrying it because of the milk police.

 

[Zippyjuan]

At the other end of the "preserved" spectrum for milk is "ultrapasturized". This is milk heated at a higher temperature for longer periods of time than "standard" pasturization which reduces nutritional content further- killing off even "helpful" enzymes. Where are you most likely to see this today? Actually on Organic milk ironically. Organic milk typically has a longer supply/ delivery chain to major retailers like Safeway or Krogers or WalMart than the standard milk (which is often produced and delivered locally in large volume) and it has fewer suppliers. That means that the stores have a short time frame to try to sell the milk before it "expires" (the sell by date is not necessarily the same as the last day it is safe to drink though many consumers may think so and act that way- dumping anything past its date).

How can you tell if your organic milk is ultrapasturized? Look at the expiration date. The standard pasturization date is about two weeks from when it is processed. If the date is longer than that, you can be sure it has been ultrapasturized- and most of the organic milk I see locally has been.

Organic Valley says that ultrapasturization gives their milk a shelf life of 70 days. http://www.organicvalley.coop/products/milk/pasteurization/

Their take:

Safety and Nutrition

All milk, both conventional and organic, is a living organism when it comes out of the cow’s udder. Changes caused by live bacteria within milk can be minimized by refrigeration and pasteurization. Additionally, while the milk inside the cow's udder is sterile, it may become immediately contaminated as it exits the udder by micro-organisms residing in the teat canal, on the surface of the udder, or on the milking equipment. Pasteurization insures the safety of the milk as it goes from our farms to your table.

Today’s farmers are producing cleaner milk than we have ever seen in history. Unfortunately, scientific studies show that antibiotic-resistant bacteria are present on modern farms. These include antibiotic-resistant forms of bacteria that can cause food poisoning, such as Campylobacter and Staphylococcus. Pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli Listeria monocytogenes may also be present in raw milk. Pasteurization neutralizes all these pathogens.

Pasteurization has no impact on the butterfat molecule. Scientific studies do not indicate any significant nutritional difference between the protein quality of pasteurized milk versus raw milk. Riboflavin, the most important vitamin in milk (delivering 25% of our Recommended Daily Intake), is also unaffected by pasteurization. In terms of nutritional value, the primary changes that occur in pasteurization include a negligible loss of vitamins A, C and B, and Folic Acid.

Many people believe the enzymes in raw milk aid digestion and calcium absorption; however, their specific health benefits are debated within the scientific community. Both the UHT and HTST pasteurization processes reduce enzymes in the milk.

 

[donnay]

How can you tell if your organic milk is ultrapasturized? Look at the expiration date. The standard pasturization date is about two weeks from when it is processed. If the date is longer than that, you can be sure it has been ultrapasturized- and most of the organic milk I see locally has been.

It says right on the container-- "Ultra-Pasteurized."

My contention has always been that Ultra-pasteurized is not good at all--organic or not!

Dear Editor,
Writer Sally Squires' article Raw Milk: Udderly Foolish? (8-7-07) is one of the most shallowly researched articles I have read.

I spent 38 years researching and experimenting with raw milk. All health departments', including US-FDA and CDC, health-related claims against rawmilk were by survey, not science. That is, health departments call people whose doctors reported diarrhea or vomit 2-16 weeks later and ask what s/he ate. If whoever answers the phone in the household says that the person drank raw milk, that is automatically concluded as the cause of sickness. Theperson likely had a cold or flu, medication or been on a binge the night before.

The bad rhetoric about raw milk as a carrier for disease began in late 1930′s when, as Knudsen Dairy employee Alton Eliason testified, conglomerate Knudsen Dairy began a ruthless conspiracy to eliminate its small competitors and ensure less spoiled milk. Knudsen began pasteurizing its dairy products but few people bought them because they were inferior in taste and health-giving properties. Knudsen claimed that pasteurized dairy was the only safe dairy and hired doctors, without research, to testify that raw milk caused diseases. They paid and worked with health officials to outlaw public and farm sales of raw milk. They paid writers to tell gruesome tales about dirty raw milk being a carrier of disease. City dwellers began to believe that anyone who drank it was crazy or stupid. However, the people who worked with raw milk and drank it regularly were not fooled. The campaign to force pasteurization down people's throats is still alive today and your article continued it.

"Over 290 billion glasses of raw milk have been consumed in the USA since 1960 without one epidemic and not one scientifically associated case of sickness," reported biological attorney Raymond A. Novell. "However, pasteurized dairy has been scientifically proved to have caused numerous epidemics, including one that affected 197,000 people; and that fact is from CDC."

The above information as well as the scientifically proved health benefits of consuming raw dairy are compiled in Dr. William Campbell Douglass. M.D. and my Report In Favor Of Natural Milk from Mayo Clinic, Hartford Hospital and numerous other reputable and peer-reviewed sources.
Many people are allergic to pasteurized dairy but need dairy for their good health. I am one of them. After about 9 days of drinking raw milk whenI was 22 years old, all of my Diabetes I symptoms subsided. As long as I drink raw milk, I do not have to take insulin. Now, rationally, how could a diseased person get well when drinking raw dairy and seriously diseased from drinking pasteurized dairy if raw milk were dangerous and pasteurized milk were healthy?

Did the article you published help anybody who might be suffering because they do not have raw milk? There are 3 million associated members of Right To Choose Healthy Food organization whose health has benefited from consuming raw dairy. All of them would like to walk into a local store, buy anddrink the milk sold rather than jump hoops to acquire raw milk. We should have the right to choose.

Where is the intelligence in reporting? Your article is no more credible than any trash newspaper but many people will accept the prejudicial article as truth. You should be ashamed.

Healthfully yours,
Dr. Aajonus Vonderplanitz, Ph.D. Nutrition
Right To Choose Healthy Food, President
1766 T Street NW
Washington, DC 20009
310-589-0589

http://onibasu.com/archives/cl/23165.html

 

[thoughtomator]

More people than that got salmonella from Taco Bell recently and the feds didn't think it was significant enough to name the company until the problem was already solved.

 

[PaulStandsTall]

This outbreak is from http://www.yourfamilycow.com/ in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

I sometimes buy cream and cheese from this farm and I'm on their email list. Here's the details on this particular instance for anyone who is interested.

Feb 3

Dear Friends,

I know this is going to shock a lot of you, you trusted us to never do this. It was us. Food from our farm has made people sick.

The MD Department of Health reported yesterday that they have isolated campylobacter in two unopened jugs of our raw milk that they retrieved from a customer's refrigerator. The milk was bottled on January 16th and carried a best by date of 1/31.

So now the wondering, suspense and uncertainty is over for our family and farm crew and is replaced by humiliation and embarrassment. Dawn and I have shed a lot of tears over this. Now we know for sure what the growing list of emails and calls from you were pointing to. It was us. We are very sorry.

The milk that was bad was all from January 16th or a little before. We reiterate what we first advised on our January 27th “Important Notice” newsletter. Discard any of our raw milk with a “best buy” date in January. Even If you made butter or cheese from our milk during that time, discard it too. Keep track of what you discard. Let us know how much you had to dispose of and we’ll give you a full refund. If you bought at a store, return the milk to them. They will refund you and we will refund them.

Many of you who have been ill have emailed us directly. Thank you so much for honoring our family that way. It shows a trust between us that has always been our goal. It was even more meaningful when we could talk to you directly by phone. As much as Dawn and I dreaded to see those emails and make those calls, it never failed to bring healing to our souls and bring strength to our hearts to hear the forgiveness in your voices and emails. We hope the emotional healing was mutual. We are so glad that we were able to personally express our sympathy and apologies.

If you are a family or person that was made ill by the bad milk and have not contacted us yet, please do. We would love to communicate with you personally. We really do care. You won’t be the first customer we have cried with this week. My personal email is: [email protected]. If you can, please leave your phone number too. Sometimes I get so tired of emailing that I would rather just talk.

Our whole family and farm team is praying fervently for your speedy recovery. Even Jefferson, who is 5, prays at every chance he gets that God would make all the sick people better again.

Please pray for our family too. We are not physically ill, but we are sick at heart and spirit. It is so hard for Dawn and I to accept and understand that we made some of our loyal customers sick when we were trying so hard to provide food for them just like we feed our own children!

To everyone who reads this, please pause a few minutes right now with our family in prayer for any and all who are sick. In Jesus Name, AMEN.

Please, please… Those of you who have not been ill, do not criticize us for being this honest. I know what the lawyers and legal counselors would say. But frankly I don’t care anymore what they say. Dawn and I have prayed, fasted and agonized long and hard over how to say all of this.

We have decided that the only way we will ever have peace is to follow our hearts, our conscience, our God and His Word. We sense all four of these guiding lights in harmony with our decision and we have peace.

If our family’s sustainable, local, know-your-farmer-shake-his-hand food production and distribution model cannot stand up to Honesty and Truth… then I guess Dawn and I are in the wrong business.

Your Farmers ~ Edwin and Dawn Shank and Family

Feb 3

Where Do We Go From Here?

By: Edwin Shank February 3, 2012

NOTE: It is very hard for me to write this materialistic, factual, moving-forward email right on the trails of the last which took so much of my heart and spirit. It somehow seems a little like talking in church…breaking the hush of a solemn occasion. But we live in a real world and I know the last message left so many practical questions unanswered. I’ll try to cover some of them here.

What Is The Safety Status Of The Family Cow Raw Milk Today?

This is a very perceptive question because the MD samples that tested positive yesterday are over two weeks old. Those sample results are very important to the PA and MD Department of Health’s on-going epidemiology study, but they are history as far as the present safety status of our raw milk is concerned.

Let me share with you the steps our family took to sort through the fog of last week and this week to double check and re-verify that the current raw milk being produced at The Family Cow is safe and pathogen free This might get a little long…sorry but it feels like 100 years.

First we voluntarily halted all sales. Even though we at this time were working with a lot of unknowns we knew it was best to totally stop sales till we knew more. Next we called our PA certified milk tester and lab technician for assistance. At their direction we pulled three pints of fresh Family Cow raw milk from our store refrigerator, making sure each was from a separate bottling, packed them on ice in a Styrofoam cooler and rushed them via “FedEx Overnight “ to QC Laboratory. (QC Lab is a “PA approved” lab, which means that PDA accepts its testing as valid.) We requested that each of the 3 pints be tested for 4 separate pathogens. The pints were all from the bottling lots immediately following the suspected date of Jan 16th.

When QC labs called at Monday lunch time to confirm that all three of the samples were 100% pathogen free…all 12 totally negative tests including campylobacter jejune!... the whole family and team was ecstatic. There were hugs and high fives all around and some tears. There were even some hugs from customers who happened to be here. (Thank you for those…you know who you are We will never forget you!)

Why the ecstasy?... because these tests are of extreme significance. They accurately, scientifically reflect the present Safety of The Family Cow Raw Milk. They prove that the ‘bad-milk’ incident two weeks ago that we suspected and MD and PA Health are just now verifying, was a once-and-past-happening.

These fresh pints were all filled in three consecutive bottling’s, spread out over a whole week immediately following the ‘bad’ incident but before we knew there had been a ’bad’ incident. They are a perfect double blind study of our family and team’s daily performance. They were completely random, unprepared-for tests. The cows had been fed, and milked all following normal procedures. The bottles had been filled, capped and dated at our filler, and placed into the refrigerator. All of the steps had been done according to our normal protocol. And all this had been done without the slightest hint when we were doing it that these pints would be used as such crucial evidence of our performance.

How Can We Be Sure This Does Not Repeat? What Corrective Steps Have We Taken?

Good question! There are many small adjustments…here are a few of the big ones.
Major Improvement to Our Hot Water System. We have used the down time to make these renovations. Extremely hot water is needed for washing the milk tank, milking system and bottler. We suspect a hot water heater that was making hot water (140-150 degrees) but not super-hot (160-170 degrees) played a part in this. We replaced the older heater with a high tech, computerized “tank-less” system that consistently delivers 180 degree water or hotter if we wish.
A SMART Monitoring System: About the time this all was happening, Agri-Service, the local dairy supply and service company that also installed our new hot water system, was putting the finishing touches on a web based monitoring system for dairy. The timing was perfect…well, actually I wish it would have been a month earlier! This system monitors a whole handful of control points in the milking, cooling and washing process. And yes, one of the critical control points is hot water. If the new water heater loses capacity slowly like our old one did, run out of propane on any other of imaginable problem, the computer of this system will send an email alert to our smart phones instantly. This system is up and running now. Neil, Rodrick and I are beyond impressed! It makes so much sense…fix the problem before it becomes a REAL problem!
We Are Outfitting Our Own Laboratory: Then we will be able to initiate a new test and hold protocol we have long dreamed of. By test and hold, we mean we will test every lot of milk we bottle and hold it till the test show that it is clear to go. This is a major food safety improvement! I’ll explain more later how the new testing protocol differs from what is required by PDA, but let’s just suffice to say that it’s the difference between looking in your rear-view mirror vs. the windshield while driving. My Dad is installing the cabinet today and Neil is purchasing the petri film, incubators and other equipment we will need. We will still use the state approved QC labs for all the official required testing, but this will give us an extremely proactive monitoring edge right here on the farm.
So When Do We Sell Milk Again?

I wish I could tell you, but wedon’t have that answer for you at this time.

Wednesday afternoon during two separate consultations with PDA and PDH, we were told that there was nothing that would be illegal about us resuming sales. After a lot of serious discussion among our family, we decided to bring the raw milk back. Based on the renovations that we had made and the fact that we had so many clear pathogen tests even before we made the changes, we felt 100% confident in the decision. Thursday, we sent out announcements and informed our ecstatic customers at drop points and retail stores that we were bringing the raw milk again. We were just getting ready to put a newsletter out to everyone when PDA contacted us and instituted a whole new round of testing.

So this is where we are today. Waiting, selling lots of other foods from our farm and drop points, but the store fridge is empty. PDA says they will have their lab technician’s work over time to get the new testing done ASAP. We are co-operating with them to the best of our ability. We’ll let you know the second we have approval to go again.

Please be patient friends. We will survive. You will survive. The Family Cow Raw Milk will survive and be back even better and safer and healthier than before.

Thanks so much for all your prayers and kind emails. They are exceedingly precious to our family. It makes us value each of your friendship and support more than ever!

All the Best of Food and Blessings and Best of Health to All

Your Farmer ~ Edwin

 

[agitator]

http://www.trivalleycentral.com/art...ional_headlines/doc4f2d805e101d9284924760.txt


More at link.

AP is of course a U. S. Government propoganda outlet- like the CNN, MSNBC, US Voice of America or Radio Free Europe (The US is obvously not at all libertarian in their own country) and promoting just about anything opposed to freedom.. Not to say they don' have some good things to say- just to be aware of the perpective they have.

...

 

[bossman068410]

Zippy do you make the establishments position on everything?

 

[Zippyjuan]

This outbreak is from http://www.yourfamilycow.com/ in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

I sometimes buy cream and cheese from this farm and I'm on their email list. Here's the details on this particular instance for anyone who is interested.

Feb 3



Feb 3

Thanks for sharing that info!

 

[Zippyjuan]

Zippy do you make the establishments position on everything?

Such as my bit on ultrapasturization and why it is not good?

 

[Liberty74]

There is vitamin C in milk? LOL

 

[PaulStandsTall]

Thanks for sharing that info!

No problem!

Ultra pasteurization is a crime when it comes to creme. All great cooks know it takes unhomogenized raw, or batched pasteurized creme in order for the fat to cooperate in dishes which require whipped creme.

In crab bisque, it doesn't matter though. (Side note: Bisques used to be thickened with the crushed-into-powder shells of the seafood, not creme or processed emulsifiers, like lecithin. Talk about getting a calcium RDA!)

 

[GunnyFreedom]

I am going to want all kinds of data on this. I am introducing legislation to legalize raw milk in NC in the next month, and I am sure this will be brought up.

 

[Tod]

I had raw milk continuously for 4 yrs when I had dairy goats. Never had a problem.

 

[mosquitobite]

boooga booooga boooooga!

People drank raw milk for centuries....and we lived to tell about it!

 

[donnay]

No problem!

Ultra pasteurization is a crime when it comes to creme. All great cooks know it takes unhomogenized raw, or batched pasteurized creme in order for the fat to cooperate in dishes which require whipped creme.

In crab bisque, it doesn't matter though. (Side note: Bisques used to be thickened with the crushed-into-powder shells of the seafood, not creme or processed emulsifiers, like lecithin. Talk about getting a calcium RDA!)

Right and you cannot make yogurt or cheese with Ultra-pasteurized milk.