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We all know the story of the shepherd boy who found entertainment in telling villagers his flock of sheep was being attacked by a wolf. The first time the boy sought help, the villagers came running, only to find the boy was joking. The same thing happened a second time. Then, when a wolf finally did attack, the villagers ignored the shepherd, and he lost his entire flock to the wolf. Is a modern-day version of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” unfolding in New York? You decide.

The movement to convince President-elect Barack Obama to name a reformer as secretary of agriculture (or a re-named “secretary of food”) just got some clout, with a New York Times columnist now pushing it. It could be he will—-he seems very much the pragmatist. At the same time, though, many raw milk consumers and producers alike have been wondering how the President-elect feels about raw milk, one of the more contentious food/agriculture issues around. And in this arena, I’m afraid I have bad news.

The undercover agent takes two guises in our national consciousness. At one extreme is the highly trained professional who risks his or her life to go after the worst drug dealers and mobsters. At the other extreme is the apolitical and poorly trained apparatchik, designated by a bureaucratic superior to infiltrate a group deemed subversive or otherwise troublesome to authorities. The infiltrator may even become a provocateur as a way to give the authorities an excuse to crack down. Government agents did a lot of this during the 1960s, while monitoring civil rights and far-left organizations. At this end of...

The big surprise today wasn't that Mark Nolt was found guilty on four citations of selling raw milk without a permit, and fined $1,051 on each citation. That was nearly a foregone conclusion, since Mark refused to engage a lawyer. No, the big surprise was the seriousness with which the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture took the case against Mark, and the resulting show of force it put together.

Feta Cheese Made From Raw Milk Has Natural Anti-food-poisoning Properties ScienceDaily (Apr. 3, 2008) — Eating Feta cheese made from raw milk in small seaside tavernas when you are on holiday in Greece could be a good way to combat food poisoning, according to researchers speaking April 3, 2008 at the Society for General Microbiology's 162nd meeting being held at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. "We were able to isolate lactic acid bacteria found in raw sheep milk from small farms in Macedonia, northern Greece. Several of these friendly bacteria naturally produce antibiotics that killed off dangerous food-poisoning bacteria like...

Mark McAfee had just a few hours to celebrate yesterday’s issuance of a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of AB 1735--what he called “a big win for California raw milk and producers”—before he learned about the next phase of the government’s campaign against Organic Pastures Dairy Co.

Like a fighter down for the count who gets back on his feet at the last moment, and then stuns spectators by knocking the opponent back on his heels, the team of Organic Pastures Dairy Co. and Claravale Farm scored a big win in a California courtroom today. Superior Court Judge Harry J. Tobias rejected the state’s heavy hitters from office of the Attorney General and the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and granted OPDC and Claravale a temporary restraining order prohibiting enforcement of AB 1735 and its ten-coliform-per-milliliter standard that had threatened to shut the dairies down.

The California raw milk situation is on the verge of becoming as dire as the state’s two producers predicted it would since they learned about AB1735 at the end of last year. Now the stage is set—Monday afternoon in California’s San Benito County Superior Court in Hollister—for a judge to hear a request from Organic Pastures Dairy Co. and Claravale Farms to issue a temporary restraining order barring enforcement of AB1735 and its coliform standard.

The one bit of encouraging news for small dairies has been the growing market among health-conscious consumers for unpasteurized milk and dairy products like yogurt, butter and cream... Small dairies have rushed to meet this need via a completely new business model. Instead of selling milk in bulk to processors who offer take-it-or-leave-it prices of $1.50 to $2 a gallon, some small dairies sell directly to consumers at whatever price the market will bear, typically from $5 a gallon to as much as $10 a gallon. At those prices, dairy farmers actually begin thinking in terms of a long-forgotten word:...

The "safety" argument can be extended so that pretty much anything is justified. The New York Department of Agriculture and Markets has in the last few weeks helped demonstrate the problem more vividly than any of us ever could imagine, though. While the agency has been preparing its legal arguments over the last few weeks in preparation for trying to throw Barb and Steve Smith into jail for insisting on proper search warrant protection, Ag and Markets has quietly been playing another game with two other New York raw milk farmers, Jerry Snyder and Chuck Phippen—depriving them of their right...

The search warrant used by NY's Department of Agriculture and Markets to go after raw-milk producers Barb and Steve Smith in December had more holes than Swiss cheese. Gary Cox of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund has put together a motion that might best be termed “Search Warrants 101.” He argues that the December search warrant the Smiths supposedly defied in December “is facially defective…and must be quashed.”

New York state continues to tighten the screws on Barb and Steve Smith, the operators of Meadowsweet Dairy in Lodi. Over what? Over their decision to establish a herd share organized as a limited liability company, and make raw milk dairy products available exclusively to the LLC’s 120-plus shareholders. The immediate issue concerns a search warrant issued to the NY Department of Agriculture and Markets in December...Now Ag and Markets has returned to the state judge who issued the warrant, and obtained a “show cause” order as to why the Smiths shouldn’t be held in contempt of court...

No one can accuse the fine public servants of California’s Department of Food and Agriculture of sitting on their hands, and letting raw milk coliforms threaten the health and safety of California consumers. No, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. The junior he-men, working on behalf of the senior he-man-terminator, are out there…fighting the common enemy, raw milk coliforms.

When Georgia’s Department of Agriculture held its hearing a couple weeks ago on a proposal to require that all raw milk be dyed charcoal, raw-goat-milk producer Bob Hayles was the first to stand up and speak out against the regulation. Dozens of others followed him, and the agriculture agency decided shortly after the session not to implement the regulation. While many farmers and consumers feel they scored a major victory, Bob doesn’t agree. “Everyone thinks we won something important. But all we won was a battle, and it was a small battle.” The event convinced him that a much more...

It’s not been an easy year for Ronald Garthwaite, the owner of Claravale Farm, California’s “other” producer of raw milk, with about 50 cows and five per cent of the market after Organic Pastures. Last June, he had to sell his Santa Cruz County farm because he was unable to get local officials to approve the permits he needed to continue in operation. He moved to San Benito County and quickly obtained all the permits and seemed to finally have found a new and welcoming home, with his partner, Collette Cassidy. As part of the move, he built a new...

You have to assume that California authorities did advance planning about their decision to go after the largest seller of raw milk, in the largest consuming state, with the most liberal distribution rules. In warfare, it might be said they decided to “cut off the head” of the enemy. But Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures definitely won’t go quietly.

Californians’ easy access to raw milk—it’s available in 350 health food stores and 40 Whole Foods grocery stores around the state—has been placed in serious jeopardy by a few words about a bacteria standard included in Assembly Bill 1735, a piece of agriculture legislation signed into law a couple weeks ago by Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneger, and due to take effect January 1. Also in jeopardy is the mini-empire built up by Mark McAfee, owner of Organic Pastures Dairy Co., the dairy that supplies about 95% of the state’s unpasteurized milk, consumed by more than 100,000 Californians each week. Mark has...

For nearly ten years, Barbara Smith held a New York state permit to sell raw milk. But because her Meadowsweet Farm is located a half hour drive from the nearest substantial town, Ithaca, and New York regulations require each customer to come to the farm for milk, she never could get more than 20 or 30 customers. So last spring, she decided that a better way to reach the many consumers she knew wanted regular access to raw milk was to give up her raw milk permit, and distribute via a cowshare arrangement. Consumers could buy in for $50 a...

The latest battle in the raw milk wars broke out today in south-central Pennsylvania. A group of ten state police and agents from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) descended on the 100-acre Nature’s Sunlight Farm in Newville, and confiscated about $25,000 worth of raw milk products, along with packaging and equipment. Though Pennsylvania is supposedly one of the more liberal states with regard to raw milk distribution, allowing farmers with permits to sell it not only from their farms and in farmers markets, but also in retail establishments, farmers say the...

New York agriculture authorities have come down hard on yet another local dairy farmer for supposedly selling milk with a pathogen. But this farmer claims it's part of a state-sponsored fear campaign, and vows to fight the state by refusing to pay the expected $300 fine.

Traditionally in this country, the states resist intrusion of Washington’s authority into their locally-oriented turf, which has long been part of the beauty of our federal system (though at times a problem, particularly in the area of civil rights). But we may now be seeing widespread coordination to stamp out the scourge of raw milk. Ohio agriculture officials previewed the trend for me last November when the head of the state’s dairy division declared, "When I go to (national) meetings of my cohorts, (raw milk) is the No. 1 issue that comes up.” The federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA)...

The parents of a young boy hospitalized by illness they think was caused by raw milk experience provide a diary-like account of their experience with the healthcare system. This is Part 1 of a two-part item.

The story of how Gelhaus and her family came to spend this holiday working and frolicking on a farm isn't about charity, but rather about how a seemingly straightforward business investment turned into a legal crisis—and then evolved into something much bigger, something involving community and caring. Because the legal part wasn't resolved until earlier this month, Gelhaus and others involved in the story didn't want to talk about it until now.

The Raw Milk Wars Heat Up in Ohio The state is aggressively pursuing farmers who make unpasteurized milk available to consumers. Will a Democratic governor declare a cease-fire? Going Underground So intense is ODA's campaign against raw milk, the agency earlier this year even sent a written warning to Organic Pastures Dairy, the Fresno, Calif., dairy that tangled with California agriculture officials?against selling raw milk via mail order to Ohio residents. ODA's spokesperson readily acknowledges that it has no jurisdiction in California. Mark McAfee, president of Organic Pastures, replied to the agency that the FDA doesn't prohibit interstate sales of...

Raw Milk and Spinach: The Double Standard California agriculture and public health officials took completely different approaches to concerns about health problems at a California raw milk dairy and farms producing contaminated spinach.

Press Conference: Organic Pastures Dairy Company - Fresno, California, Friday, September 29 at 2 pm ALERT: RAW MILK NEEDS YOU NOW Our access to raw milk is at stake! Please join fellow raw milk drinkers for a press conference at Organic Pastures Dairy in Fresno, California, Friday, September 29 at 2 pm. On Sept 21st Organic Pastures Dairy (OPDC) received notice from the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) of a "possible" link to bacterial contamination of OP milk and milk products. As of 9/22 all pathogen tests by state investigators, outside labs and OPDC have proven negative for...