To California Raw Milk Advocates: April 15 Meeting

Raw Milk Needs You Like Never Before on April 15th

It is now official. Senator Dean Florez and Senator Abel Maldonado will hold joint hearings on raw milk in California.

Representing the CDFA and the FDA will be the chief of FDA dairy safety, John Sheehan, along with eight other university food safety experts.

Protecting our right to drink raw milk will be a very special Raw Milk Dream Team. These experts include Sally Fallon, Jordan Rubin, Ted Beals, MD., Cat Berge DVM PhD, and more to come in the next two weeks. Also joining us are powerful advocates like Walter Robb, president of Wholefoods. Together, we will argue that the raw milk industry in California has a long history of safety; that raw milk provides superior nutrition; and consuming raw milk is a matter of personal choice.

We expect a history-making showdown that will significantly impact the destiny of our food choices. These hearings will send a message to our government that living and whole, unprocessed foods are a boon to health, and are an important consumer choice.

All Raw Milk lovers should plan to attend this landmark hearing! Please bear in mind that this is an official hearing, and every participant is entitled to deliver his/her testimony in a respectful fashion.

So let's pack the hearing room with respectful yet passionate raw milk fans. Wear your favorite Raw Milk Tee Shirt and grab one of our "I Love Raw Milk" buttons at the pre-rally.

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Date: Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Time: 3 PM - 9 PM or until everyone has spoken
Location: Sacramento CA — State Capitol Building
John L. Burton Hearing Room (Room 4203)
Subject: Fresh Farm Milk-Assuring Safety and Consumer Choice
Joint Hearing of: Senate Agriculture Committee and the Select Committee on Food-Borne Illness
Chairs: Senators Maldonado and Florez

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Save the day, gather your friends and family, and join us in Sacramento to create a "living food legacy!"

Message to raw milk consumers in California - we won a battle; what to do to win the war

We are happy to announce another victory in the fight to save our raw milk supply in California.

On Wednesday, March 19th, the Hollister Superior Court blocked the CDFA's controversial raw milk standards set forth in AB 1735.

As you know, AB 1735 requires that all raw milk sold in California contain less than 10 coliforms per ml. Not only is this a highly unreasonable standard, but coliforms are harmless beneficial bacteria; they do not cause illness! [go here for background info.]

Judge Tobias of the Hollister Superior Court granted Claravale Dairy Inc. and Organic Pastures Dairy Company LLC a “Temporary Restraining Order” (TRO) enjoining and barring CDFA from using coliform counts as a measure in raw milk production as permitted by AB 1735.

The Judge ruled that he could find no evidence that coliforms at any level placed raw milk consumers at risk. He found that the AB 1735 standards did, however, place the producers of raw milk at substantial and immediate business risk, thus jeopardizing availability of product for California's raw milk consumers.

A TRO is issued when a judge finds that there is a substantial and reasonable chance (and compelling supportive evidence) that a Permanent Restraining Order will be issued at a later hearing after additional testimony can be heard.

That hearing is coming. Here's what you need to know.

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Second Hollister Hearing

When: April 25th - time TBA
Where: Hollister Superior Court, Judge Tobias proceeding
What to Expect: Attorney Gary Cox of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund will be arguing for a Permanent Restraining Order against further coliform testing of raw milk products in CA.

Why Attend:

1. Your attendance sends a message that raw milk matters.
2. Support Gary Cox by packing the courtroom with quiet but passionate cheerleaders.

What We Need Right Now: Your testimonials for submission as declarations to the judge. Please email mark@organicpastures.com with your name and your health testimonial asap.

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Sacramento Hearing

When Mid April - date and time to be announced
Where: State Capitol, Sacramento, Room number t.b.a.
What to Expect: OPDC and Claravale will assemble the "Dream Team" of raw milk experts, who will be speaking in defense of whole unprocessed fresh raw milk. CDFA will also be in attendance and will be asked hard questions about why they are limiting your food choices. Senator Dean Florez will conduct the hearing. We are asking all raw milk consumers to attend this huge State Senate hearing. If you have a compelling raw milk story please be prepared to share it on the record.

What We Need Right Now: We will be selecting a consumer panel in the next few weeks, to represent the most compelling testimonials. Please your name and your story to mark@organicpastures.com so I can sort through them and get the best testimonials for this panel.

We cannot stress it enough - this will be a huge day for raw milk consumers and producers. Everyone must come! We need thousands of people, wearing raw milk tee shirts and lapel pins. Bring your children. Free lapel pins and raw milk will be handed out to all attendees!

The Primal Diet restores health and life - a prime example

Mom Enjoys a Bowl of Bison

Last fall, my 87-year-old Mom was hospitalized for a ten-day period during which time she became quite weak and stopped walking. After the hospitalization, I was naturally concerned about her nutrition. Having been myself on the Primal Diet for three and a half years, I felt confident that the diet could help anyone. And whenever possible, I give my mom these foods. At the same time, I was well aware of the supposed dangers of giving an elderly person raw foods, including raw dairy, meat, and honey—especially after an illness—and naturally did not want to put my mother at risk in any way.

At this first stage of her healing, Mom was primarily bedridden and couldn’t get around without a wheelchair or walker. She had no appetite, or ate with little relish and would often stop eating after a few bites. On palpating her stomach, I found a great deal of tension. Her skin was very dry, and seemed to hang loosely on her arms. She expressed little interest in the people or events around her, and was in constant pain.

It occurred to me that Mom was starving, so I decided to feed her as much of the diet as she would eat. I began with small frequent meals, including coconut butter; a green drink with cream; an egg smoothie made with kefir, honey, and green banana; small bites of raw, buttered cheese (sometimes with honey as well); and chocolate candies (carob, honey, and butter). She ate everything, savored it, and commented often on how tasty things were.

(Yet why should I be surprised at Mom’s enthusiasm over this food? She grew up on a farm and always had access to raw milk, cream, butter, and cheese. Her family had no refrigeration--everything was kept in running well water, in the milk house that her dad built. She’s always said that’s why she has such great teeth and bones!)

The next day, I mixed (with a fork) a heaping tablespoon each of raw butter, honey, and a scant one of cream with a half-cup of raw ground bison, as well as a little egg. When Mom asked, “What is it?” my past flashed before my eyes, including vivid memories of Mom’s admonitions to wash my hands after cutting raw meats. Many concerns as well as questions of honesty arose, yet I thought about how good I felt on the diet, and how much I wanted her to regain her former vitality. So I responded: “Yorkshire Pudding. Do you want some?” She did. Since it was a little messy (the egg), I fed her the first bite. Her response was “Oh my God, that is so good!” And to my amazement, began to eat it as fast as I could feed her, delighting over every bite.

For the next few days of my visit she ate everything with great relish, and especially the ground bison, which always drew exclamations of delight (I often had to make seconds). I have kept with this protocol on subsequent visits. During that time, I did many other things as well, including reading to Mom, singing with her, giving her massage, and playing good music. She responded by leaps and bounds. Within two months, I felt confident to bring her to my home for a five-day visit (something I had thought would never happen again). She was walking on her own by then, having regained strength, balance, and muscle tone, though sometimes still needing an arm to lean on.

I am so grateful for the diet, as it may have saved Mom’s life. Yet equally important, I believe it gave her the sustenance she needed to walk again, and to relax, laugh, converse, and once again express interest in those around her. These past few months have been a rich time for me, for Mom, and for the whole family. I want to thank Aajonus for his dedication to the diet, and for his unique understanding of wellness, as it gave me the insight I needed to support my mom in her healing journey.

Beth D.

Califormia

Mom recently drew again, for the first time in ten years. In a conversation with her great-granddaughter, she expressed interests and asked questions in a way that I hadn’t heard for years.

We Want To LIve is the greatest work on health...

I am re-reading my new revised and expanded copy of Aajonus' 'We Want To Live '. I'm even more amazed as I revisit every paragraph. Absolutely brilliant. One day I hope to finally meet the man and get him to autograph my copy. I want to congratulate him personally on producing the greatest work on health and wellness that this (or any other) milennium has ever produced.
Mr. Ray, in Alabama

A Cancer remedy called Coley's Toxins

Perhaps you have not heard of this one, right?

Over 50 years ago William B. Coley M.D. discovered that deliberately introducing certain bacteria in to a person's body would stimulate their immune system to start fighting cancer. That launched a 40 year venture on his part with cancer research and cures. This didn't get picked up by mainstream medical research, that I can see. When I read about Coley in a book by Ralph W. Moss, I realized this was at least one discovery that went before the Primal Diet--a diet which has been so successful in my dealing with advanced spinal cancer. Here was yet another researcher who found that bacteria were not such a horrible threat to us all!

What can I say except that the Primal Diet (which is so rich in bacteria from meat, dairy and other sources) has seemed to produce lots of flu and cold symptoms, vomiting, diarrhea, ear infections and etc. No wonder I have been losing skirmishes but winning the war! For my full story thus far, you may refer to this blog (cancer section) where 4 parts of the story were posted starting November 1st 2007.

Raw healthy cheese can be made in your kitchen!

I am sharing how I make unsalted raw cheese, of the cottage cheese variety. Why? Because it's delicious, and it is another way of using raw milk to get and stay healthy! Aajonus Vonderplanitz' book We Want To Live, and the other book The Recipe For Living Without Disease, have uses for cheese, and so I use mine.

Raw milk and raw milk products are so valuable in maintaining or regaining good health! In my case it has been a regaining of health. (For more on this, you may wish to look further down in the blog in the cancer section to my story first posted in four parts on November 1st, 2007.)

I usually use the full fat milk, though I imagine skimmed milk could be used as well. If you use the full fat milk, the fat will float to the top of the bottle. I have my stainless steel strainer ready to house the cheese, once the milk has clabbered or solidified after a few days.

Now to the procedure: at first, I take a quart of milk in a covered glass bottle (or put the milk in a quart glass jar or bottle) and set it on the kitchen counter until it solidifies or clabbers. In the summer time it will solidify within a few days or less. I take some care not to jostle the bottle by moving it around too much, and I definitely do not shake or stir it. Somehow that lack of motion helps the good bacteria to do their job and make it in to cheese, right there in the bottle. Since the milk will expand as it clabbers, you may want to take a few spoon-fulls off the top before starting the clabbering process.

If it's too cold on or around my kitchen counter, I encourage the bottle of milk to make itself in to cheese by placing warm bottles of water surrounding the bottled milk (but not touching it) and I cover all of them (the bottle of milk and the bottles of warm water) with a towel. I might repeat the process of replacing the warm water perhaps once in the morning, once mid-day and once before bed time. This simply gives the bottle of milk a warmer environment, which it needs evidently, in order to become cottage cheese. You can tell when it has "cheesed" by slightly tilting it, and you will see that it has solidified, or you may see bubbles in the bottle. If so, these bubbles will likely be visible mostly down to or near the bottom of the bottle.

When the bottle of milk has clabbered, and having used the full fat milk, I use a dull knife to scoop the cream off the top and put that in a small jar. That cream will have become sour cream. Scraping the cream off the top first, has several advantages. The sour cream does not solidify in the same way as the cheese (milk) part does. If you put the sour cream in to the same strainer as you put the cheese (milk) part, the sour cream will ooze through the strainer and be lost in the liquid whey and it will be wasted. That sour cream is valuable fat since it's raw fat and is loaded with good bacteria, so you may want to save it and use it separately. I definitely do!

After having taken out the fat, I use the same dull knife to gently take the cheese out in to the strainer. I use a conical stainless steel strainer and provide enough space to drip in to a bowl below it. (That whey that dripped through in to the bowl can be used or discarded.) You may use another type of strainer, or a cheese cloth. This process as a whole may take some practice. I had a few "failures" at the beginning, but I found it was worth it. From experience I learned that it was usually due to an environment that was too cold, or, too much jostling of the milk by me, or in transport to me. You can always use the soured milk and cream anyway, even if you didn't make cheese with those first few batches.

Use this if you will, and lots of good health to you!

Barbara