Raw milk testimony scheduled to be heard...

California residents: Play your part in ensuring raw milk is available to us from here on out, with no curve balls or surprises. As you write or video your 30 second testimonial How Raw Milk Has Changed My Life please send me a copy at facilitator@wewant2live.com or place it right on this blog as a comment.

...our access to raw milk is still unprotected...

Message from Aajonus:
As of January 10, 2008, our access to raw milk is still unprotected.
AB1735 has not yet been repealed or overturned and no State authority
has agreed to put in writing that they will not take raw milk off CA
shelves. In fact, the State is now testing with the new standards set
by AB1735 and plans to enforce them beginning immediately. So, even
though State officials promised raw-milk producers that raw milk will
not be banned as a result of the new standards, officials refuse to
put it in writing.

The law firm of Gross Belsky in San Francisco will be filing our
consumer's lawsuit in the next few day but we need to select
several key plaintiffs as examples for all 900 plaintiffs who have joined.

Our consumer's suit is different than the one being filed through the
WAP associated Farm to Consumer Legal Defense on behalf of
California raw dairy producers. Both producers are in communication
with us about our suit and the legal teams are also in communication.
We all agree that having several suits filed strengthens our chances
of protecting our right to food choices in California and elsewhere.

We would like the following specific types of California-resident
plaintiffs:
1. a person who wants to drink raw milk for personal reasons (such
as bodily integrity, believing foods should be in their natural state, etc.)
2. a person whose doctor has told him or her not to drink
pasteurized milk, but only raw milk.
3. a person who drinks raw milk for medical reasons, but has not
been directed by a doctor to drink raw milk.
4. a person whose religion has dietary principles, and one of those
principles is to drink raw milk such as those outlined in the Essene
Gospel of Peace.

We are ready to file but need those specific plaintiffs to represent
all other plaintiffs who have joined the lawsuit. If you would like to
be one of those specific plaintiffs, please contact me immediately so
that we can file our lawsuit immediately.

Please continue to fund our lawsuit with donations. Please tell your
friends and email lists about our plight to choose our food at
www.saverawmilk.org.

We are certain that what happens to raw milk in California will impact
the rest of the country and perhaps the world. So, even if you don't
live in California, please keep informed, spread the word and support
us in any way that you can.

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