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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] [Fwd: [SANET-MG] Creation: Raw Dairy Choice Campaign]
  • Date: Mon, 04 Jul 2005 23:29:31 -0400



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] Creation: Raw Dairy Choice Campaign
Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 14:49:55 -0700
From: Chrys Ostrander <chrys@THEFUTUREISORGANIC.NET>






Dear Folks,

Today, July 4, 2005, is a fitting time to declare independence.

I'm declaring independence as a human being with the right to provide for my own dietary sustenance and to freely associate with my friends and neighbors to this end.

Today I'm launching an independent campaign I'm calling "The Future is Organic Raw Dairy Choice Campaign".

I've decided to pare down my involvement in dairy regulation reform activism to concentrate on making the unregulated shareholder dairy model a legally recognized option for consumers and producers across Washington State.

I've developed a position paper as well as a website with background information. The position paper is reproduced below. Links to the webpage are at the end of the paper.

I hope you are enjoying your Fourth of July and are reflecting on what this day truly means to us as Americans.

I also hope you will join me in the struggle for recognition of a right we already have - namely, to privately keep dairy animals and consume the goodness of the products they provide for us.

Chrys Ostrander
33495 Mill Canyon Rd.
Davenport, WA 99122
509-725-0610
chrys@thefutureisorganic.net
http://www.thefutureisorganic.net <http://www.thefutureisorganic.net/>

"From each according to their ability to each according to their need"
Karl Marx - "Critique of the Gotha Program" 1875

"The purpose of agriculture is not the production of food, but the perfection of human beings"
Masanobu Fukuoka - "One Straw Revolution" 1978

============================
The Future is Organic Raw Dairy Choice

*You could become a producer of your own fresh raw milk and cheese for you and your family...
But **WATCH OUT! The Washington State Department of Agriculture might take ENFORCEMENT ACTION against you if you partner with your friends and neighbors to do it.


/“The acquisition of raw milk from Cows or goats by a consumer for use or consumption by the consumer shall not constitute the sale of raw milk and shall not Be prohibited if … the owner of a cow, goat, cow shares, or goat shares Shall receive raw milk directly from the farm or dairy where the Cow, goat, or dairy herd is located and … the milk is obtained pursuant to a cow share or a goat Share. A cow share or a goat share is an undivided interest in a Cow, goat, or herd of cows or goats, created by a written Contractual relationship between a consumer and a farmer…”
/*Colorado law titled: /Concerning Limited Distribution Of Raw Milk To Consumers Who
Have A Consensual Or Contractual Relationship With Producers/, enacted on April 22, 2005

*/“There is no doubt that heat-treatment /[pasteurization]/ is detrimental to milk. Evidence shows that untreated milk has a higher nutritional value providing more available vitamins and minerals than pasteurised milk. It contains anti-infective agents which can both restrict the growth of contaminating bacteria in the milk and give the consumer protection. Not at least, it has a better flavour, with none of the deterioration in quality caused by heat treatment.”
/*/The Case For Untreated Milk/ by Dr. B. M. Pickard, The Department of Animal Physiology and Nutrition, The University of Leeds.
Originally Published by The Soil Association (The U.K’s Organic Agriculture Organization).

*/“SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) The increasing concentration of the dairy industry is leading to the demise of small family-owned dairy farms and the domestic dairy industry, said dairy farmers from around the nation who met with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer … The dairy farmers, who came from throughout the Northeast
and as far away as Wisconsin and California, called on Spitzer to take the national lead and begin investigating industry consolidation in New York for possible antitrust violations..”
/*News item from the Capital Press, the Pacific Northwest’s premier agricultural newspaper, May 7, 2004

*/"The one major impediment to [a healthy small-farm economy] is the anti-raw milk agenda scaremongering propaganda and compulsory pasteurization laws. Fortunately, there is a way around these laws with our cow-share, herd-share and farm-share programs. In fact, now that we are rolling back the propaganda and creating more and more customers for raw milk and related products, these pasteurization laws can actually work to the benefit of farmers. If people can’t get raw milk in stores, they will make the effort to come to the farm, or pay for the service of having products delivered to their doorstep. The farm-share system also allows for other value-added products proscribed by health laws farm-butchered meat, sausage, baked goods and so forth could be ‘provided,’ not ‘sold,’ to farm-share owners."/*
/The Economics of Food/ by Sally Fallon, August 2004, Acres U.S.A.
Sally Fallon is president of the Weston A. Price Foundation
_www.westonaprice.org <http://www.westonaprice.org/>


_All over the country, families like yours and mine are becoming dairy farmers. We're buying shares in herds of dairy animals and are contracting with small family farmers to board and tend our herds, keep them milked and make the milk available to us. The “shareholder dairy” model helps consumers obtain the freshest, most nutritious milk and dairy products possible while it helps support small and micro-scale neighborhood dairies. Because the milk is not being “sold” (it is being acquired by consumers who have become producers of their own dairy foods), some state governments, like Colorado, do not require shareholder dairies to be encumbered by expensive licensing programs. Licensing in these states is reserved for dairy products that are presented for sale to the general public. However, compliance with licensing requirements is financially prohibitive for most small farmers who would like to diversify to include dairying in their product mix. A reasonable level of cleanliness is all that is necessary for small-scale and micro-scale shareholder dairies to produce safe, healthful products for their shareholders.

Unfortunately, the Washington State Dept. of Agriculture designates unlicensed shareholder dairies as illegal. Even so, there are a number of shareholder dairies operating in Washington State and there are more consumers and producers considering starting up shareholder dairies all the time.

Our state's farmers' as well as consumers’ interests would be better served if independent, private, unregulated shareholder dairies were recognized as legal instead of operating "under the radar" as is the current situation. Farmers would more easily hear of the shareholder dairy model as a new "marketing" opportunity that they might not otherwise know about. Others who don't like to do things that aren't on the up and up might then enter into the shareholder dairy model. Having the shareholder dairy model as a legal "marketing" option would increase small-farm viability generally in the state (“marketing” is in quotes because the farmer is only marketing their dairying skills, not the milk). Taking the lid off shareholder dairies would allow for more information exchange among producers and between producers and educational outlets such as WSU Extension and WSDA with the aim of improving management practices and product safety. It’s certain that many consumers would find the shareholder dairy model a very attractive alternative to purchasing commercial dairy products. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms are extremely popular and have improved small farm economic viability significantly in Washington State (providing mostly fruits and veggies). A CSA is a marketing model whereby consumers pay a farmer for a season’s worth of produce in advance. This is often termed a “CSA Share”. Shareholder dairies operating above board in an environment of acceptance have the potential of surpassing CSA farms as agents of increased economic viability in the small farm sector.

One successful shareholder dairy in Washington State, a highly diversified organic farm, obtains 14% of its annual gross income from the shareholders of its one cow. Add to this the revenues from selling the yearly calf and the valuable manure (reducing the need for off-farm inputs) and you have a formula for small farm viability. This farmer, under contract with his shareholders, receives the equivalent of $60 per hundred weight for milk compared with $10 per hundredweight that dairy farmers receive from the conventional market. Not too shabby.

The shareholder dairy model is not necessarily a good fit for all aspiring dairy producers. For them, becoming licensed facilities is the preferable choice. Thanks to efforts by the Washington Sustainable Food and Farming Network, the WSDA Small Farm and Direct Marketing Program and the WSU Small Farms Program, there is some progress being made in reforming dairy regulations and addressing some other environmental and local permitting issues that are currently restricting small and micro-scale farmers from becoming licensed dairy producers. These efforts deserve support (contact the Network at www.wsffn.org), but it's the shareholder dairy issue that really needs championing by a committed group of producers and consumers united in a grassroots effort to affirm the legality of the shareholder dairy in Washington State.

If we can normalize the practice of consumer producers setting up shareholder dairies around the state, we will have made an important contribution to the decentralization of the dairy industry, the revitalization of the small farm economy and the overall health of the families who become shareholder consumers of fresh raw milk.

It is perfectly legal at this time in Washington for a person and their family to own their own dairy animal, to keep and maintain that animal, milk that animal, bottle the milk, consume the milk and/or process that milk into cheese, yogurt, etc. and consume that processed dairy food. All of this without any contact with or license from any regulatory body whether federal, State or local (except where local zoning prohibits the keeping of farm animals such as in a city). These dairy products are not sold retail or wholesale to the general public.

There is no reason, considering that the above is legal, to arbitrarily make illegal or subject to licensing an arrangement whereby one household and a neighboring household own a dairy animal in common and make their own arrangements for the keeping and maintaining of the animal and the milking/bottling/processing/consuming of the milk from that animal.

Further, by extension, there is no reason to arbitrarily make illegal or subject to licensing an arrangement whereby private individuals purchase shares in one or more dairy animals and make private arrangements for keeping and maintaining the animal(s) as well as the milking/bottling/processing of the resulting milk for the sole and private use of the shareholders. In such an arrangement, the milk and milk products are not sold either at retail or wholesale to the general public nor would the milk ever be sold to a milk processing plant.

The centralization of the dairy industry hurts both the farm economy (restricting market access for smaller producers) and the environment (water pollution and odors resulting from huge concentrated herds). The centralization of the dairy industry also hurts the health of dairy consumers and their control over their own food supply. What we need in Washington State is to make small and micro dairy operations viable once again. It would be advantageous to be able to describe and promote the shareholder dairy model to Washington farmers and concerned consumers. We need active and concerned farmers, consumers and activists solidly behind the effort to unshackle the shareholder dairy.

We need to tell WSDA that only daries that produce and sell milk and milk products to the GENERAL PUBLIC should be licensed and regulated. Unregulated shareholder dairies should be allowed to flourish if that is what those producer consumers choose for their milk supply.

We need to tell WSDA to listen to the consumer as well as the producer. What do we want, as consumers, regarding our food supply? Do we want to be limited to only dairy products from huge, polluting operations that are contaminated with hormones, antibiotics, pesticides and filth - that have had all the nutrition cooked and processed out of them? Do we want consumers prohibited from forming free associations to provide for our own sustenance? Or do we want to revive our rural and urban fringe economies by revitalizing the small-scale dairy industry and empowering consumers to regain control over our food supply?

Please join a growing up-swelling of Washingtonians and demand the official recognition of the private, unregulated shareholder dairy. To get involved, contact Chrys Ostrander at:
The Future Is Organic Raw Dairy Choice Campaign
chrys@thefutureisorganic.net
Ph: 509-725-0610
_www.thefutureisorhganic.net <http://www.thefutureisorhganic.net/>

_More information on the benefits of raw milk, the detriments of pasteurized milk, the history of the raw milk movement and efforts to defame raw milk through misinformation, go to
www.thefutureisorganic.net/dairy/RawDairyChoice.htm <http://www.thefutureisorganic.net/dairy/RawDairyChoice.htm>






  • [permaculture] [Fwd: [SANET-MG] Creation: Raw Dairy Choice Campaign], Lawrence F. London, Jr., 07/04/2005

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