¡Join the fight!
In a rundown of the ongoing joing Department of Justice/Department of Agriculture antitrust hearings, most recently held in Madison, Wisconsin to examine consolidation in the dairy industry, this article from Dairy Today drops some eyebrow-raising information:
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack noted that dairy farms numbered 110,000 a decade ago but are approaching 60,000 today. At the same time, the top 10 food retailers now control 82% of food retail sales compared to 65% a year ago. Read more...
Legal sparring has begun between raw milk farmer Michael Hartmann and the state of Minnesota's Department of Agriculture over E. coli linked to his milk products. Via MPR News:
Southern Minnesota dairy farmer Michael Hartmann has asked a district court judge to remove a state embargo on the sale of raw milk food products from his farm. Read more...
I'm excited to announce a late addition to our Fair Food Fight Night discussion on antibiotics. Read more...
it is produced in sanitary conditions. That includes raw milk, raw veggies, raw fruit, etc.
I think some critical thinking skills should be employed here...When the tomatoes/peppers outbreak occured last year, did we pass a law banning raw veggies? When summer rolls along with its annual e coli outbreak in beef, do we pass a law banning raw beef? So why do we have a law banning raw milk? With all these other raw foods, including eggs, we are required by law to have a sticker on every container stating the risks of raw food / how to handle them / how to cook them / to prevent illness. So why is raw milk handled differently? Correct -- the law has nothing to do with science -- it is 100% political. Read more...
The number of people sickened by an E. coli outbreak in Minnesota has increased from four to five today. Raw milk is believed to be the source of the outbreak.
Over at Simple Good & Tasty, you can read a statement written on behalf of Michael Hartman and family whose Gibbon, Minnesota dairy was identified as the likely source of the tainted raw milk last week (Fair Food Fight coverage of the outbreak here). From the May 29 Hartmann statement: Read more...
Are you a farmer selling raw milk in Minnesota? In the wake of four people getting sick from allegedly drinking raw milk, a crack down on selling raw milk is underway by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. If you sell raw milk in Minnesota, and you've been meaning to cover your bases legally, ASAP would be a very good time to do so.
A Star-Tribune article this morning indulges in a little muckraking about Hartmann Dairy, the milk operation that Minnesota Health Department Officials suspect of selling tainted raw milk. Read more...
An arrest was made yesterday at Conklin Dairy Farms in Plain City, Ohio. A Conklin Dairy Farms employee identified as Billy Joe Gregg, Jr. was arrested yesterday. Interview with Sheriff Tom Morgan here. No other arrests have been made yet. Read more...
UPDATE May 27: Suspect arraigned and bail set at $100,000 via Washington Post. (Something tells me this fellow isn't going to spend a mere 90 days in the poke.)
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An animal welfare group, Mercy For Animals, has emerged with a video showing workers at Conklin Dairy Farms in Ohio. Images show workers beating cows with crowbars and stabbing them with pitchforks.
The welfare group's site is mercyforanimals.org. I'm not linking to the site because the video automatically starts playing when you pull up their website. I've seen a lot of these videos, but this one is particularly gruesome. I don't recommend watching it. Read more...
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle vetoed his state's controversial raw milk bill yesterday.
"I recognize that there are strong feelings on both sides of this matter, but on balance, I must side with the interests of public health and the safety of the dairy industry," [Governor Doyle] said in his veto letter to lawmakers. Read more...
