RAW MILK - IT DOES A BODY GOOD

The following is reprinted with the permission of Jeff Everson's Planet Muscle magazine, by

Randy Roach, historian and author: “Muscle, Smoke and Mirrors."
Believe it or not, once upon a time, back about 1950, when guys like Gironda, Reeves, Grimek, Ross and Tanny, promenaded and exercised at Muscle Beach, there were no anabolic steroids. Bodybuilding did not mean the greatest massive size, with the least body fat. Instead, it stood for a 100% healthy lifestyle, clean and fresh, and sometimes raw foods, clean fresh air, no drugs, booze or smokes, and plenty of exercise in the open and clean air and sunshine.In fact, starting well back over 100 years ago, both lifestyle and bodybuilding were actually unified under one umbrella term known as “Physical Culture”.

Now my point, over all those years, many of the physical culturists promoted the muscle and health effects of raw milk, including Joe Weider, in his 1981 book, “The Weider Approach to Bodybuilding”. So, it is with great irony (and sadness) that this decade’s-long right for California health advocates to choose farm fresh milk, is being terminated by CA. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who, somewhat uncharacteristically this time, seems badly misinformed on the subject matter.

On October 8th of this year, Schwarzenegger signed anti-milk legislation, AB1735. This changes bacteria standards to include less than 10 coli forms per ml. of raw milk. When this law is activated early in 2008, it will basically clear the shelves of some 300 California stores, depriving thousands of customers of the milk of their choice!

The claims of raw milk as being dangerously unhealthy, borders on sheer fraud, as varying medical politicians, operating through both state and federal agencies, have been very successful in manifesting a germ phobic society, (Seinfeld Germaphobes), such that we have become a culture that literally fears its food. However, it was actually one of the medical orthodoxy’s own, Dr. Henry Coit, who forged the certified raw milk movement back in the 1890s because he understood the medicinal value of properly-raised cows, yielding pure, raw milk.

Technology has moved tremendously since the atrocities of the dirty distillery dairies that helped make the case for pasteurization, many years ago. The safety standards now where raw milk is processed are enormously high. Yet today, other industry doesn’t seem to care at all what they feed livestock or how it is raised; hell, destroy and over-farm the soil, fill it full of chemicals, stuff the cattle and hogs full of growth hormone and steroids, the cows will still produce milk. Why worry? Scientists can just genetically modify, irradiate (cold pasteurization), or chemically spray or boil, all milk!

Consumers of farm fresh milk are not stupid people. People who drink certified raw milk are not aimlessly lining up at dairy farms simply to acquire diarrhea. They represent hundreds of thousands of people across the United States and Canada who have researched this issue and find it more than worth the effort to seek the benefits of raw milk. Dr. Scott Connelly, the inventor of MET-Rx and Progenex, notes, “Raw milk contains higher undisturbed levels of many critical nutrients.”

It’s all another erosion of your free right to choose. Bodybuilders have always been nutrition-ally innovative, and we must protect that right. This is not just a stance to consume raw milk, but also to maintain a standard of clean, organic and biodynamic farming by knowledgeable farmers who know that healthy life begins in a healthy soil. These tillers of the land not only produce quality food for those who desire it, but also high quality source products that constitute a number of the supplements you utilize in your own protocols.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, 7 times Mr. Olympia, 5 times Mr. Universe, author of “The Education of a Bodybuilder” and “The Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding”, this is your golden opportunity to stand up and show the people of the Golden State and those who primarily built your status over the years, (bodybuilders who read M&F, went to the movies and Arnold Classic), just exactly who and what you truly stand for. Randy Roach, historian and author: “Muscle, Smoke and Mirrors."

Preface for members of the Fitness Community:

It is important for all factions of the fitness industry to be aware of what is happening in California presently regarding the right for citizens to acquire farm fresh milk due to legislation AB1735 signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This issue extends much further than the forced pasteurization of all milk. Federal agencies are also entertaining thoughts of cold pasteurizing leafy, green vegetables. How do you cold pasteurize? Look it up! This influence also continues in the form of a constant push to ban many supplements which is happening world wide.

The fitness community is large and powerful and has successfully turned back such threats on previous occasions. This is about uniting and retaining our rights to choose the foods we consume for our health. A loss in California will have serious repercussions right across North America in terms of the quality of our food production.

Hi, raw-milk lovers, from Aajonus:

Emails were exchanged between Mark McAfee [CEO of Organic Pastures Dairy - a raw milk dairy in California] and me [three time heavy-weight defender of raw milk in California]*. In them, I explain my position on the raw-milk issue in California that differs from Mark and Sally's. For those of you who think that I am too critical and should be more supportive of Mark and Sally efforts, you will probably better understand my position once you have read the exchanges. I think that is was very sad that Sally made the statement that my last email was unfortunate. She and her law firm have no experience in California raw milk battles or law. I have been battling in California since 1970 and continue to win even though we have been without raw milk for long periods.

Thank you for all of your work. PLEASE continue to fax and call the governor, head of CA Agriculture and CA legislators, and donate for consumer legal action to save raw milk at www.SaveRawMilk.org. I will send a suggested reply to Gov. Schwarzenegger's ridiculous response to your letters within 24 hours. So far, you have donated $5,000 in the last few weeks. We are $10,000 short of the $40,000 needed to conclude injunctive process and begin complaint processes. Let's do it.

Also, whether you have joined the lawsuit online or faxed it to me, please email me if you have any medical support for drinking raw milk. That is, if you have the records of having been tested positive for milk allergies yet can drink raw milk without allergies, I want to hear from you. Also, let me know if you are in a minority group that has a high ratio of pasteurized milk allergies, such as 95% of Asian Americans, 74% of Native Americans, 70% of African Americans, and 53% of Mexican Americans. Of course, if you are one of the 15% of Caucasians who have been diagnosed as lactose intolerant but thrive on raw milk, let me know. Thank you.
healthfully,
aajonus
*bracketed comments [ ] are from the person running the blog


Hi, Mark,
I wish that I could share your optimism but experience tells me that I would not only be naive, I would put my raw-milk supply at risk, and resultantly my health. I am not going to be gentle anymore about this issue. It is too arduous in the midst of people who make it a huge challenge and time-consuming including those of us trying to protect raw milk.

I am alarmed because I have been through this very same situation previously, 3 times in 1990's. California health departments gave Stueve's Natural the same assurances that the State gave you. The people of California were without raw milk for almost 3 years until I got the law changed, you began producing and James Stewart distributed raw milk. I am alarmed because the state declared to the San Francisco Chronicle that the State intended to enforce the law in response to your lawsuit. I do not intend to change one word of what I stated until your dairy has been unaffected for months and the law has been changed, or you receive something in writing from the state declaring they will not enforce AB1735; I will believe something that makes them legally liable and at risk. I hope I am WRONG but from history, I do not believe that I am.

In your lawsuit, your attorney's use of other foods not having the same standards was considered moot in past legislative and legal pleadings. I am concerned that your attorney did not do proper, thorough and adequate research to discover that that argument, presented excellently by biological attorney Raymond Novell in 1998-2000, was and is considered comparing apples and oranges. Novell won every court case against Alta Dena/Stueve's Natural for decades with juries. However, the argument worked against changing the law when judges and legislators were concerned. The argument, under the present bacterial phobic-mania, put raw milk in the minds of lawmakers and enforcers as more of a bacterial threat than before. You, Sally and attorney just do not get it. The thing that strikes me as alarming is that you, Ron and Sally take your attorney's' qualifications as good and sound for raw milk and he has had absolutely no experience more that the last year and does not know the legal history of raw-milk battles in California. Probably, Attorney Novell and I are the only one's qualified to be advisors on the issue but you have chosen to follow your attorney's naive advice on the issue. I am angry, appalled and concerned that all of you have placed our raw-milk supply at risk. Stueve's Natural's president thought that I was not loyal to the cause when I thought he was being too trusting of health-officials assurances that every thing would be resolved and raw milk would be on the shelves. Every month for 2 years, he said that his raw milk would be on the shelves within the next 30 days. It never happened and I did nothing but hound the health department and legislators with complaints. We lost Stueve's raw milk on commercial shelves forever.

Also, I was concerned that Sally's email stated that I had already declared that raw milk was unavailable in California. No where in my email did I state that. My subject heading stated, "Losing" not "Lost". I stated that we failed to stop enforcement of AB1735. I specifically stated. "Please act now because raw milk will not be on your shelves in California very much after January 1, 2008" in context that the state said that they were going to enforce the law after they assured you that they were not. I wish that we were all together on this but your faction of the same plight seems to be naively shooting with closed eyes and wishful thinking. Again, I hope that I am wrong. The next few months will tell unless another lawsuit can be initiated that is more threatening to the state. Our actions will move things one way or another, and time will tell.
healthfully,
aajonus

Urgent for Raw Milk Lovers in every state and country

Hi, Raw-Milk Lovers in every state and country,

We have failed to stop California's new law AB1735 that will make commercial raw milk relatively extinct in California, and eventually every state. Organic Pastures Dairy and Claravale Dairy failed to file for Injunctive relief in their lawsuit. That means that it could takes months or years to resolve in court. The same thing that happened to Stueve's Natural Dairy in 1999 which bankrupt that commercial raw dairy producer that maintained about 2,000 cows.

As everyone can see from the article below, the state's response on Friday December 28, 2007 to Claravale and OPD's legal complaint was:

"Right now, the department is preparing to enforce the law when it takes effect," Van Rein said.

As I cautioned Ron at Claravale, Mark at OPD and Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund via emails, all of the niceties and assurances from any government official is nonsense regarding raw milk unless it is in writing and legal. As the State's spokesperson Van Rien stated, the State is preparing to enforce the new law January 1, 2008, and Mark McAfee's assurances from State officials that raw milk would not be interrupted were shallow and not legally binding.

We must get our consumer lawsuit mounted immediately. To get that lawsuit going and through the Injunctive process, $40,000 is required. To go beyond the Injunctive process, it will cost a lot more. Right To Choose Healthy Food gave $25,000 to begin the process. Right now, we need at least $15,000 to see us through the Injunctive process to stop the state from enforcing AB1735.

Please act now because raw milk will not be on your shelves in California very much after January 1, 2008. PLEASE donate immediately at www.SaveRawMilk.org

At that website, you can sign-up to be a petitioner/joiner on the lawsuit. We have about 500 people who have joined so far. We would like to have 10,000.

Thank you and have a wonderful New Year!
healthfully,
aajonus vonderplanitz, phd nutrition



San Francisco Chronicle

California dairies sue to stop enforcement of standard on raw milk

Carol Ness, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, December 28, 2007

California's two raw milk producers filed suit Thursday to keep the state from imposing a strict new standard that, they say, would put them out of business.

The suit, filed in San Benito County Superior Court, is part of an all-out effort by the raw milk dairies and the estimated 40,000 dedicated raw milk consumers in California to forestall enforcement of the new law, AB1735, which takes effect Jan. 1.

It was filed by Claravale Farm, which recently moved its herd to Paicines (San Benito County), and Organic Pastures of Fresno against the state Department of Food and Agriculture.

The agriculture department hadn't yet seen the lawsuit and had no immediate comment, spokesman Jay Van Rein said.

"Right now, the department is preparing to enforce the law when it takes effect," Van Rein said.

The new standard, he added, is "just a matter of staying ahead of the curve on food safety."

For the first time, the law limits coliform bacteria in bottled raw milk to just 10 per milliliter, the same standard that pasteurized milk must meet.

The lawsuit contends that "it's not technically possible nor economically feasible" for raw milk to meet such a low limit.

Van Rein, however, said California Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura has checked with his counterparts in Washington and Pennsylvania, which also have adopted a 10-coliform limit, "to make sure their dairies have been able to comply."

The suit also contends that the raw milk producers are being unfairly singled out because there are "no standards in place for other food providers, for example beef, poultry, pork, eggs, vegetables, bakers or fin or shell fish, to comply with a coliform limit in the food stuffs they produce."

Fans seek out raw milk specifically because it contains enzymes and beneficial bacteria that are killed by heat pasteurization.

Coliform exist everywhere in the environment, and most don't cause illness, both raw milk and food safety authorities agree. Raw milk is already tested for the pathogens that do, such as E. coli, salmonella and campylobacter.

Public health authorities have a contentious history with raw milk, which many see as dangerous.

The federal government doesn't allow raw milk to be sold across state lines for human consumption.

California has the nation's biggest raw milk industry, and its vocal consumers have maintained pressure on state government to keep raw milk available. California is one of just a handful of states to permit raw milk sales in stores; many more allow retail sales directly from the farm.

Raw milk proponents see AB1735 as a way for the state to effectively ban raw milk without actually saying so. The two dairy owners were not informed of the proposal as it went through the Legislature and weren't offered the chance to make their case against the coliform limit. Passage was routine.

The lawsuit asks that the law be declared unconstitutional and the court keep it from taking effect.

In addition, the owners of Claravale and Organic Pastures met for more than two hours last week with Kawamura to make their case that the limit is overkill and can't be met. They also have met with AB1735's legislative sponsors to argue for repeal.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/28/BAAPU5K48.DTL

California Raw Milk will live!

The following is quoted from a newsletter from Mark McAfee who runs the Organic Pastures Dairy Farm in California:
fffffff"It will be a happy, healthy New Year indeed! California consumers have spoken loudly against AB 1735's biased, scientifically unsupported restrictions on raw milk. Your passionate voices have been heard.
In the last three weeks, the California raw milk battle front has been abuzz with tremendous grass roots effort, back stage political activity and high level meetings. As a result, the course of California raw milk history has been changed.
Here is a brief update of the progress:
Three things protect your raw milk in California:
1. The Secretary of Agriculture has offered political support.
A.G. Kawamura has dedicated himself to safe raw milk for California, declaring that "AB 1735 standards will not act as a de-facto ban on raw milk." Secretary Kawamura made this statement adamantly and repeatedly at a December 20th meeting with Claravale and Organic Pastures dairy representatives. He pledged to review our four-inch stack of documentation entitled "AB 1735: The Unheard Argument" and promised to work with us to assure the continued availability of raw milk.
2. A new law will be introduced in January reversing AB 1735. An investigation has exposed certaiin CDFA employees who met without authorization and, using erroneous data, advised staff members of the Assembly Agriculture Committee to place "eight special anti-raw milk words" into AB 1735. All CDFA agency legislative matters and bills must be reviewed and authorized by the Governor's office, as required by the Executive Branch and administrative policy and procedure. Instead, highly misleading information was used to rapidly and secretly pass AB 1735 on a "consent item" basis without discussion or open debate. Assemblymen and State Senators who voted for AB 1735 are now very upset that they were misled, and support immediate repeal on procedural grounds. The Attorney General's office might step in, having noted an aberrant violation of established process in furtherance of a "biased agenda that is far from being a consent item."
3. A lawsuit is being filed this week in San Benito County. Part of that lawsuit includes an injunction which legally secures raw milk producers against enforcement of AB 1735 until a new law can be passed.

While the raw milk fight is far from over, the safety of the California raw milk supply has been secured with multiple layers of strategic political, legislative and legal efforts. Hearings will soon be announced as part of the new bill and legislative process that will start in January. Your participation will continue to be essential to deepen the protections put in place.

Keep sending a powerful message: In order to strengthen our work going forward, we ask that you take pictures of yourself and your family holding raw milk bottles from Claravale and/or Organic Pastures Dairy. Write on the picture: Please support repeal of AB 1735." Then mail them to the Governor's office, your State Assemblyman, and the State Senators' offices. The impact of a personal plea with a picture of your family is worth a thousand words.

Congratulations to all who participate in the "grass roots raw milk revolution." Your thousands of letters and calls made all the difference! California raw milk is SAFE from AB 1735 and those that sought to eliminate this sacred healing whole food.

Warmly, Mark McAfee, Founder of Organic Pastures Dairy"

Post Script: a US Senator has introduce legislation that allows transportation and sale of unpasteurized milk and milk products, as long as the milk both originates from and is shipped to states that allow the sale of unpasteurized milk and milk products....

Stay informed regarding raw milk in California

Keep yourself informed regarding the California state raw milk issues and actions.
Your actions count and may make the difference.