California legislators, food safety experts, and raw milk advocates met this evening in Sacramento to discuss improving raw milk safety. Legislators passed new language in October that required producers to meet much stricter bacteria standards — legislation strongly opposed by the raw-milk community. The Senate Select Committee is showing strong support for a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points Plan (HACCP) approach.

The latest in a series of interpretive paintings done by 5-year-old Frederick, inspired by his mother’s reading "The Omnivore’s Dilemma" and summarizing it for him. (See #1, Children of the corn | #2: Chicken Little at Magic Mountain | #3: Sequoia National Pork)
To counteract billions in marketing dollars, parents must start young.
When the subject […]

Last week marked the largest proportion of climate change naysayers gathered in one place since Dick Cheney walked into an empty room. Volunteers at the entrance to the World Ag Expo in Tulare, California, screened people as they presented their ticket.
“Do you believe in global warming?”
“It sure is cold out today. I should have […]

We just received the first of the new trees for our orchard: a peach, nectarine, and fig. Some apples are on the way via U.S. Mail. The trees are “bare root,” which means that they look a whole lot like sticks with roots. Their small size makes them good mail-order travelers, a handy option for […]

The latest in a series of interpretive paintings done by 5-year-old Frederick, inspired by his mother’s reading "The Omnivore’s Dilemma" and summarizing it for him. (See #1, Children of the corn and #2: Chicken Little at Magic Mountain.)
Michael Pollan’s chapter about boar hunting reminded some of the people in this house of my […]

The Ethicurean has learned that California’s leading raw-milk dairy, Organic Pastures, has been named in two personal-injury lawsuits related to a 2006 outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7. Meanwhile, California’s Assembly Agriculture Committee is currently establishing a “blue ribbon commission” to examine whether California’s latest, more stringent coliform requirement has any basis in food-safety science.

On our recent Pollan Painting weekend, my five-year-old son Frederick and I read with interest about the slaughter technique used at Joel Salatin’s natural poultry operation. Frederick  has some personal knowledge of poultry slaughter but was curious about commercial slaughter operations. A Google image search of “chicken slaughter” inspired him to paint this:

[See his first […]

Life is full of compromises, particularly if you have a kindergartener living in the house. On a recent stormy weekend, I made the grand announcement that I was going to read all weekend long and that it was everybody’s job to take care of me. That plan lasted about ten minutes. My […]

The hopes of more than 700 California raw-milk supporters following last week’s seeming victory in Sacramento were dashed today in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. The issue of raw-milk safety and California bacteria standards — instead of being revoked — will now be taken up by a "blue ribbon" commission charged to research and recommend a […]

 
Indiana joined Pennsylvania and Ohio this week in an effort to ban the use of growth hormone-related labels on milk sold in the state. The Indiana House Committee passed HB 1300, a bill which would ban the use of “compositional” and “production-related” claims about milk. If you cannot confirm the difference in a lab or […]

On October 8, 2007, Governor Schwarzenegger approved AB 1735. It will cripple the raw dairy industry in California.

“Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. This is my first confession. I have knowingly sold milk from cows suffering from Absencia Grassosis.”

The Walton Family, of Wal-Mart fame, may be in the ICU wing right now trying to breathe life into its organic milk supplier.Aurora’s close cousin, the Vander Eyk Dairy, met its demise earlier this summer.The disease that is killing these dairies goes by the technical name of Absencia Grassosis, loosely translated as “lack of grass.” The USDA has required that organic cows have daily access to pasture during the growing season…. Its path to wellness lies in the USDA’s demands issued in a USDA press release:Major adjustments required at Aurora’s Platteville, Colo., facility include:1) Providing daily access to pasture during the growing season, acknowledging that lactation is not a reason to deny access to pasture;2) Reducing the number of cows to a level consistent with available pasture with agreed maximum stocking densities;3) Eliminating improperly transitioned cows from its herd and not marketing those cows’ milk as organic; and4) Agreeing to use the more stringent transition process in the NOP regulations for animals added to its dairy herd.We all like to triumph in the face of adversity and the Aurora Dairy is already using positive self-talk to help itself move out of the ICU.