Over, and over. Regulation doesn’t protect us. It eliminates competition for big businesses.

Shana Milkie and her husband Pete Crusbach pay a little extra for a gallon of milk.

“It works out to the equivalent of $7 a gallon for the milk,” says Milkie.

Shana and Pete and their three children all drink unpasteurized milk, often called raw milk. That means it’s unprocessed. The milk goes from cow to cup.

“From about here up is cream so we shake it up before we drink it to mix up the cream and the skim milk,” says Milkie.

Since they started drinking raw milk 6 years ago they’ve seen an improvement in their overall health. Not enough to pin entirely on milk, but Pete says it’s definitely a factor. He says it tastes better too.

“Once you’re used to the taste of raw milk, you taste pasteurized milk, it will taste burnt. It tastes horrible,” says Crusbach.

Ted Beals is a pathologist trained at the University of Michigan and an advocate for raw milk. He says pasteurizing milk might make it safer to drink, but it also kills all the good stuff.

“This milk actually has beneficial bacteria in it,” says Beals, “Fairly large numbers of them and those are essentially all killed off by pasteurization.”

In 1948, Michigan became the first state to require that milk be pasteurized before it can be sold in stores. Pasteurization heats milk to about 140 degrees, which kills off harmful bacteria. The process is backed up by government health organizations.

Casey Barton Behravesh is with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Chances of raw milk being contaminated are much higher than for pasteurized milk so avoiding raw milk is your best option,” says Behravesh.

The CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Michigan Department of Agriculture all say raw milk is unsafe for human consumption. The only legal way to buy raw milk in Michigan is through what’s called a cow share program. Customers pay for a portion of a herd and can then buy the milk. Richard Hebron runs a cow share program with the Family Farms co-op in Vandalia, MI.

In October of 2006, Hebron was stopped by the state police while delivering raw milk.

“Pulled over by a state police officer. And was accompanied by the MDA. And then we were escorted to a rest stop where they searched the truck and took all the contents,” says Hebron.

Hebron was never charged with a crime, but he was fined 1,000 dollars for transporting raw dairy across state lines. Ted Beals admits there are risks to drinking raw milk.

. . . .

“You can’t belittle the fact that there are people that might get sick from unpasteurized milk,” says Ted Beals, “But from a public health point of view the relative risk doesn’t make any sense at all.”

It’s impossible to study possible health benefits of raw milk because the FDA considers it a dangerous food. Most raw milk drinkers believe that buying unprocessed milk is the right of an informed consumer. And they believe the benefits are worth the risk. (Read more from publicbroadcasting.net)

The administration has not produced a full-fledged plan to meet that objective, but White House and Agriculture officials said in recent interviews that they are developing policies. Among the first is a decision to use $85 million freed up by Congress as part of a recent appropriations bill to experiment with ways to get food to more children during the summer, when subsidzed school breakfasts and lunches are unavailable. The government’s next significant forum for debating how to improve access to food is scheduled for the coming year, when Congress is to renew the country’s main law covering food and nutrition for children. Meantime, the White House has been convening frequent meetings with officials from several federal departments — including Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, in addition to Agriculture — that deal with youngsters’ well-being. (Read more from washingtonpost.com)

Here’s a crazy fucking idea: How about stop arresting people who want to grow and sell their own food???

-A state agent from the Ohio Department of Agriculture pressured the Stowerses to “sell” him a dozen eggs, then returned with a SWAT team to detain the family’s children and confiscate food supplies.

-The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund

The word for this is protectionism:

Late last week, Maryland’s Dairy Industry Oversight and Advisory Council sent three recommendations to Governor Martin O’Malley. The council is charged with developing recommendations for the Governor on ways to improve the economic viability of Maryland’s struggling dairy sector.

The recommendations are:

* Fully fund the Maryland Dairy Farmer Emergency Trust Fund as soon as it’s fiscally possible;
* Establish uniform gross weight limit rules for raw milk haulers on state and federal highways;
* Not allow the sale of raw milk in the state.
(Read more from americanagriculturist.com)

A lawsuit brought by an Ohio family whose children were held at SWAT-team gunpoint while their food supplies were confiscated is scheduled to go to trial this week.

John and Jackie Stowers are suing the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Lorain County General Health District over the raid on their “Manna Storehouse,” an organic food co-op that operated in LaGrange.

The Stowerses and their 10 children and grandchildren were detained in one room of their home for six hours while sheriff’s officers confiscated 60 boxes of fresh farm food, computers, phones and records, including USDA-certified meat from the children’s mini-farm, according to lawyers for the plaintiffs.

The state and county are accused of 119 counts, including unlawful search and seizure, illegal use of state police power, taking of private property without compensation, failure to provide due process and equal protection and a multitude of constitutional rights violations, including the right to grow and eat one’s own food and offer it to others.

. . . .

At that time, a state agent from the Ohio Department of Agriculture pressured the Stowerses to “sell” him a dozen eggs, then returned with a SWAT team to detain the family’s children and confiscate food supplies. (Read more from www.wnd.com)

I’ve been paying more attention to Food Freedom issues. Food Freedom is interesting because, like the War on Drugs, it’s an issue where the hippie, I-♥-socialism crowd agrees with the liberty crowd. We agree on the problems, but, unsurprisingly, recommend exact opposite solutions.

Last month, I watched The World According to Monsanto, which is available for free online in ten parts:

The movie presents very strong evidence i.m.o. that genetically modified (GM) foods got a pass from the F.D.A.’s testing despite indications that they caused health problems. Scientists in the U.S. and Britain lost their jobs for insisting on publishing findings suggestive of the dangers of GM foods.

Shelly Roche makes the case against GM foods in this short video:

It also seems that Big Media (surprise, surprise) has been complicit in suppressing the dangers of GM foods. During last year’s epidemic killing honey bee the mainstream press unanimously ignored the possibility of GM foods killing the bees, even when speculating about long lists of possible causes.

Fox “News” spiked the Monsanto story and fired a pair of journalists:

Anyway, back to the documentary. I could imagine the socialists in the audience saying “We need more rules! We need better rules! We need stronger government!” This is the socialist approach to everything — the force of government.

In fact, government is not our protector from powerful companies like Monsanto. Government is their enabler through the granting of privilege and elimination of competition. This has always been the case. More than anything else, realizing this made me a libertarian. Government doesn’t protect me from the powerful, it protects the powerful and grants them privileges.

To my socialist friends, I would point out:

- Monsanto has written seed laws and gotten legislators to put them through, that make cleaning, collecting and storing of seeds so onerous in terms of fees and paperwork that having normal seed becomes almost impossible. (source) More freedom would legalize competition.

- Much legislation is designed to cut down on Monsanto’s competition:

More freedom would legalize competition.

- Obama has put a former Monsanto vice president in charge of America’s food safety: Obama appoints Monsanto fox to guard food safety hen house.

- In much of the country, it is illegal to label milk “hormore free” or “rbgh free”. (source) Again, more freedom would legalize competition.

The failures detailed in The World According to Monsanto, and evident elsewhere suggest to my libertarian mind that we should get rid of the F.D.A.. Government is incapable of regulating something so important with such incentive for corruption. Private organizations like the Organic Consumer Association would do a much better job, and we would have the liberty to decide for ourselves whom to trust. Private organizations will believe in their cause and be passionate about it.

What am I personally doing about my food? I joined my local co-op, which helps me avoid GMOs, at least in my groceries.

Want more advice? Top 4 Ways to Identify & Avoid Genetically Modified Foods:

1. Look at the PLU sticker on fruit.

• 4 digits = conventionally grown
• 5 digits beginning with 9 = organic
• 5 digits beginning with 8 = GM

2. Buy local and talk to your farmers. (85% of prepackaged/processed foods contain GMOs)
3. Avoid the four top GMO crops: soy, corn, canola & cotton seed.
4. Encourage “GMO free” labeling. (which, I think, is illegal)

At first I struggled to understand everything Vandana Shiva was saying.

At about 7:30, she dismissed the idea of seeds being intellectual property. Regardless of whether or not I agree with her, I think she oversimplifies it. Monsanto genetically modified seeds to make them grow certain chemicals in them which kill harmful insects. So, there was some intellectual innovation. This issue is covered in today’s other post.

11:00 – The Austrian Economist in me cringeD when she suggests Monsanto’s seeds are causing crop failures, because I thought she was suggesting that government needs to keep farmers from using them? If the seeds are unproductive, the free market would remove them from use.

20:00 – Here and elsewhere she talks about the destructiveness of new technologies. I remained confused about this, as the free market would get rid of harmful technologies.

The first glimpse of evil I comes at 24:00, when she talks about an agreement between U.S. and Indian governments and Monsanto, but I’m confused again at 26:30. If organic farmers are 10x more productive, why are their neighbors still using Monsanto seeds? The free market is the best arbiter of ideas.

The heart of the problem finally becomes clear at 36:00. The Indian government seems to be preventing farmers from saving seeds. She says “there is no need for state regulation.” Okay. Now I’m with her. Like all regulation, the Indian government’s seed regulation is an attempt to eliminate competition for big companies, in this case Monsanto, by preventing farmers from saving seeds.

From 36:00 until she finishes her talk at 43:00, she speaks about seeds from a freedom perspective.

“If we don’t have seed for nutrition, we won’t have nutrition. If we don’t have seed for climate-resiliance, we won’t have climate-resiliance. And if we don’t have seend for freedom, we won’t have freedom.”

I lover her passion.

from translate.google.de

“Some say that if farmers don’t want problems from Monsanto, they simply shouldn’t buy Monsanto’s GMO seeds. But it isn’t quite that simple. Monsanto contaminates the fields, trespasses onto the land taking samples, and then sues, saying they own the crop.

Meanwhile, Monsanto is taking many other steps to keep farmers and everyone else from having any access at all to buying, collecting, and saving of normal seeds:

1. They’ve bought up the seed companies across the Midwest.

2. They’ve written Monsanto seed laws and gotten legislators to put them through, that make cleaning, collecting and storing of seeds so onerous in terms of fees and paperwork that having normal seed becomes almost impossible.

3. Monsanto is pushing laws that ensure farmers and citizens can’t block the planting of GMO crops even if they can contaminate other crops.

4. There are Monsanto regulations buried in the FDA rules that make a farmer’s seed cleaning equipment illegal because it’s now considered a �source of seed contamination.�

Monsanto has sued more than 1,500 farmers whose fields had simply been contaminated by GM crops.” (Read more from articles.mercola.com)

Last December, the Feds raided a food cooperative in Ohio. There is widespread fear that the tyrants and useful idiots in D.C. are seeking to “protect” us by gaining a stranglehold over our food supply.

“The Stowers family has run a very large, well-known food cooperative called Manna Storehouse on the western side of the greater Cleveland area for many years.There were agents from the Department of Agriculture present, one of them identified as Bill Lesho. The search warrant is reportedly supicious-looking. Agents began rifling through all of the family’s possessions, a task that lasted hours and resulted in a complete upheaval of every private area in the home. Many items were taken that were not listed on the search warrant. The family was not permitted a phone call, and they were not told what crime they were being charged with. They were not read their rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the family’s personal stock of food for the coming year. All of their computers, and all of their cell phones were taken, as well as phone and contact records. The food cooperative was virtually shut down. There was no rational explanation, nor justification, for this extreme violation of Constitutional rights.” (Read more from thebovine.wordpress.com)

“The Stowers (Manna Storehouse) vs. ODA Director Boggs. This story has been reported in many places, including the Journal, but I have not seen much in the newspapers. It’s as if the swat-like team stopped in for a visit to investigate. There is much more to this story.

Buckeye Institute President David Hansen and 1851 Center for Constitutional Law Director Maurice Thompson discuss Stowers v. Boggs. This week the Buckeye Institute took legal action against the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) for an unlawful raid on the Stowers’ home and co-op, and subsequent seizure of their personal property. The institute believes ODA violated the Stowers’ constitutional rights.” (Read more from wholefoodusa.wordpress.com)

I am terrified to the depth of my soul of government control over the food supply.

“What this will do is force anyone who produces food of any kind, and then transports it to a different location for sale, to register with a new federal agency called the ‘Food Safety Administration.’ Even growers who sell just fruit and/or vegetables at farmers markets would not only have to register, but they would be subject inspections by federal agents of their property and all records related to food production. The frequency of these inspections will be determined by the whim of the Food Safety Administration. Mandatory ‘safety’ records would have to be kept. Anyone who fails to register and comply with all of this nonsense could be facing a fine of up to $1,000,000 per violation.”

“Update: The Husband of the Bill’s Sponsor Does Work for Monsanto

Rosa DeLauro (D- CT) is married to Stanley B. Greenberg.

Here’s a bio on Greenberg:

Stanley B. Greenberg is Chairman and CEO of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.

He has served as polling advisor to President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Presidents Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, Prime Minister Ehud Barak, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, President Gonzalo S�nchez de Lozada of Bolivia and their national campaigns.

Greenberg provides strategic advice and research for companies, organizations and campaigns trying to advance their issues amid shifting social currents. . . .

His private sector clients include BP, Boeing, Monsanto, Comverse, Sun Microsystems, United HealthCare, the Business Roundtable, and the organizing committee for the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

�END UPDATE�” (Read more from cryptogon.com)

“The bills would require such a burdensome complexity of rules, inspections, licensing, fees, and penalties for each farmer who wishes to sell locally – a fruit stand, at a farmers market – no one could manage it. And THAT is the point.” (Read more from godlikeproductions.com)

Open your eyes, my socialist-leaning friends. Government is the problem. Liberty is the solution. Government is not the thin red line defending us from greedy monopolies. Government is the creator and enforcer of monopolies. More regulation and government aren’t the solution, they are the problem.

“The ‘food safety’ bills in Congress were written by Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM, etc. All are associated with the opposite of food safety. What is this all about then?

In the simplest terms, organic food and a rebirth of farming were winning. Not in absolute numbers but in a deep and growing shift by the public toward understanding the connection between their food and their health, between good food and true social pleasures, between their own involvement in food and the improvement in their lives in general, between local food and a burgeoning local economy.

Slow Food was right – limit your food to what comes from your region and from real farmers, and slow down to cook it and linger over it with friends and family, and the world begins to change for the better.

And as we face an unprecedented economic crisis, and it is hard to be sure what has value, one thing that always does is food. Which is why the corporations are after absolute control over it. But what obstacles to a complete lock on food do they face? All the people in this country who are ‘banking’ on organic farming and urban gardens and most of all, everyone’s deepening pleasure in and increasing involvement with everything about food.

Farmers markets. Local farmers. Real milk. Fresh eggs. Vegetable stands.

Those are things we not only all want, but things we are actively getting involved in, and things we very much need. And where they are truly good, they are growing.

The international financial corporations which have wreaked havoc around the world with astounding nonsensical ‘solutions’ that are destructive of everyone but them, are brothers to the international agribusiness giants (Monsanto, Cargill, Tysons, ADM, etc.) which are just as aggressively after their own form of ‘taking.’ Just seeds, animals, water, land.” (opednews.com)

See also: Action Alert

Written by Jeanne Roberts
Tuesday, 28 October 2008

“Five years of occupation, more than $558 billion spent, 4,182 U.S. soldiers and 655,000 Iraqi civilians dead, and it now looks like Monsanto (NYSE.MON – $71.95) is going to be the real victor in Iraq thanks to a postwar document known as Order 81.

Part of the infamous 100 Orders, Order 81 mandates that Iraq’s commercial-scale farmers must now purchase “registered� seeds. These are available through agribusiness giants like Monsanto, Cargill Corporation (a private company) and the World Wide Wheat Company (also private), but Monsanto is far and away the most significant player in the registered seed market.

Monsanto’s seeds are �terminator� seeds. This means they are inherently sterile, and any seed they produce does not give birth to more plants.” (Read more from thepanelist.com)

See also: The Assault on Iraqi Agriculture — U.S. Agribusiness Targets the Fertile Crescent