Raw Milk and the Freedom to Chose

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=498103576907552

Take a minute and watch the above video.

    In several states around the country, raw milk is illegal for sale and big agricultural is working very hard to spread that into other states.

Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund Raw Milk Map

From what I can gather about the above video, this farmer is being forced to dump out the entire "batch" of milk on his farm because he delivered part of that batch of raw milk to a purchasing consumer. I have several problems with this:

1. Who is to say that a knowing and willing consumer cannot purchase whatever food they would like to feed their family? People are still allowed to drink diet soda and smoke for crying out loud. 
2. The milk was still on his farm. It could have been used to feed his own family or even just give it to the hogs as slop! This country makes such a big deal about there not being enough food and how such a large portion of our agricultural production goes right back to feed our livestock due to our over-indulgence in meat.
3. There was never a lab test that popped positive for campylobactor or listeria or any disease causing bacteria.
4. Had he given the milk away, this wouldn't be an issue. It only matters when money is involved.

Dirty milk could pose a health risk and I do not dispute that. Dirty beef could as well but it is shoved down our throats like there is no tomorrow. But why is milk given this holy grail target status by the FDA? What does homogenization do? What does pasteurization do? Wait, who's in the Superbowl this year? I wonder when the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition comes out? Is Taylor Swift on her 20th or 21st boyfriend? ... And suddenly our food isn't as important...  Hence why it is so hard to get legislation passed to gain back our food freedom. I believe deep down congress will do as elected and be the voice of the people. It is great that thousands of people are concerned about their food but we really aren't going to get a government ear until millions are concerned. Now that I have your attention, let's go back to how we adulterate raw milk into a "safe" product.

Homogenization: forcing milk through a very very fine metal screen in order to break up the fat molecules. This helps the casein in milk bind with the much smaller fat cells and the casein helps keep the fat cells from floating to the top. In essence, the main reason for homogenization is to lengthen shelf life so that milk doesn't have to be rushed across the country overnight just so it won't spoil after a week or two of distributin among local stores. Homogenizing milk also enables farmers to blend milk from several cows into one large vat or tank which helps to standardize the color, taste and texture. The American consumer now prefers bland and consistent over flavorful and varied.

Pasteurization:  The heating up of milk to at least 1to varying degrees for various lengths of time; the lower the temperature the longer the time. This is done to potentially kill dangerous bacteria (most milk doesn't contain these dangers) in milk that could cause infections, sickness or even death. Doing so also kills enzymes in milk that would otherwise speed up the decomposition process resulting in rancid, rotten milk.

They both have very negative effects.

Homogenization: A lot of milk's proteins, amino acids, minerals and vitamins are attached to or contained in the fat cells. Homogenization destroys some of these minerals and vitamins. Our bodies recognize the natural form of milk and these larger fat cells. Broken down, these mini fat cells can then go directly into our blood stream through our stomach. They are turned into something our bodies don't recognize so the fats are either held in the stomach or just flushed out as garbage.

Pasteurization: While milk has less than a 1% chance to contain harmful bacteria, it has a 100% chance to contain beneficial bacteria and enzymes, vitamins and minerals. Lactase, the enzyme that helps digest the lactose in milk, is destroyed in pasteurization. Is it a wonder more and more people are becoming lactose-intolerant? We aren't giving ourselves a fighting chance to digest it if we don't have the enzyme that was supposed to accompany lactose... Vitamins and minerals are also destroyed  or depleted during the process.

And both lead to longer shelf life which means more and more time for unstable vitamins to break down...

Before this article gets any longer, I want to end it with my proposal.
Not everyone wants raw milk. That's fine. At least give people that do, the chance and freedom to do so. How can we make this legal you ask? I propose we have consumers who wish to purchase raw milk sign a hold harmless agreement/waiver effective for such a duration of time. This paper would be filed with the farmer and consumer. If the consumer ends up sick (because that is what the fear mongering around raw milk is all about), that farmer has the incentive to make absolutely sure that person understood the risks and signed that legal document holding the farmer harmless. It would also hold the consumer harmless if the FDA demands they seize your milk without a warrant like some almighty force without consequences. Now, could this open the door for lower standard farmers to not worry so much about cleanliness since they would be held harmless? Possibly but not likely.

     These deals would be done on a very personal level. The consumer has the chance to see the cows and production facilities. If the farmer refuses, I wouldn't sign the agreement as a consumer. It is in the small scale farmer's best interest to make sure his milk is the safest and best in town. His business lives and dies by word of mouth marketing. If Suzy Q gets very sick and goes around saying it was because of farmer Johnson's milk, his business takes a huge hit. If she has a legitimate claim, it should. Those checks and balances have been removed from our farmer consumer relationship in the ever growing industrial-agricultural "dependent" society.

    Let your voices be heard and they will hear you.

Feeding Tilapia

Looking down from above the rain barrel and through the glass

Many of you know we are currently raising Tilapia in two aquariums in our house. What you may not know is that we produce the majority of the largest ones' feed. And get this, it is much closer to their natural diet of plants. Duckweed and fairy moss are two of the fastest growing, yet smallest plants in the world. They have all kinds of benefits amongst being very easy to grow. The picture below shows the glass we placed on top of a rain barrel in an effort to grow through the "winter." I use that term loosely because admittedly, GA has a very very mild winter. Either way, the glass magnifies the suns rays as well as helps to keep heat in at night; it isn't air tight by any means, but it gets the job done.

A close up of the fair moss right after taking a scoop

Growing duckweed and fairy moss to feed the fish has dozens of benefits both for the fish and the farmer.

• The plants have roots that reach down about 1" at most. Those roots filter the water taking up excess nutrients. 
• Excess nutrients being removed means there is less decay in the water which means more oxygen is available. 
• They can be grown in very little amount of space. 
• They grow/multiple amazingly fast. 
• They are very nutritious for the fish.
•  They help regulate the temperature of the water by acting as a layer of insulation. 
• If left uncovered in the open or atop a pond, these tiny plants offer the perfect place for small creatures of flight such as honeybees (another very important farm creature) a place to land in order to drink safely. The same could be said about flies and mosquitoes but that is why I am very pro-dragonfly: the number one predator of mosquitoes. And so far, we only have seen dragonflies on the plants anyway.

 Each day I take one small aquarium net full of the plants and put them in with the fish.This gives the remaining plants a bit of room to spread out.

Close up right before taking a scoop to feed the fish

And in less than 24 hours... voila!  The rain barrel is jam-packed full of nutrient rich food! Yes, we have a rain barrel instead of something more volume efficient. The plants only need water 2" deep at most but the extra volume of water means the water temp will fluctuate less dramatically which is a concern of ours with this being outdoors. The tilapia, because of how much they eat, poop a lot. I use a gravel vacuum to get the majority of the big hunks out and dump it into a small surface opening. Those extra nutrients keep the plants growing. Note: Have stale, pure water is not a good growing environment for these tiny floating plants. While it isn't one big connected system, this is basically going to be our aquaponics set up minus the extra vegetables and salad greens. Man I can't wait to do this on a larger scale and teach other people this stuff!

Does the system really want new small scale farmers?

      So there it was, the perfect farm starter property. Yeah, it needed about $15,000 of work before it was move in ready, but with 23 acres of pasture plus a pond and a usable barn for a list price of 94,900, it was a great deal. All I had to do was get a loan...
 
      I spent 5 hours Tuesday on the phone with online banks, major banks, local banks, credit unions and military only banks. These are the reasons I was told I cannot get a farming loan for a primary residence mortgage through their specific insitutions:

•  Navy Fed- We don't do anything over 10 acres but it is waiverable. Oh, you're going to be farming on it, we don't do farm loans.
• USAA- We don't do farm loans.
• Ifreedomdirect- we don't do farm loans. You're going to have to call one of the local banks. See if you can get a cosigner for the loan to give them assurance there will be continued income after you get out of the military.
• NCB (a local bank) for farm loans, we don't do conventional or VA. They can only be 5/1 ARMs. Oh, you're getting out of the military in 9 months and won't have a gauge of your future income, sorry no can do.
• First State Bank (another local bank) Getting out in 9 months? Sorry, we can't help you.
• Wells Fargo We don't do farm loans.
• Bank of America. We can do farm loans. How much is the current mortgage you have now and what is the list price of the next property? Oh, we can't give you a mortgage for a primary residence of a farm if the purchase price is less than the current property's mortgage; it is seen as an investment property because it is downsizing. (This is where I went off on the guy explaining that my net worth is more than the list price of the property and how I have zero debt, 3 cars paid off blah blah blah) Wow, sounds like you have been listening to Dave Ramsey (In a completely joking manner as if it would have no bearing on the reliability of a borrower to pay back a loan). As a matter of fact, I am helping to lead one of his classes as we speak. Well, good luck to ya...
• Adams County Bank: we can't give you a mortgage because your current income will end in 9 months. "Well, what if I use a cosigner?" We won't cosign for mortgages if the cosigner isn't living with you.
• Farm Service Agency (a division of the USDA) We could only lend you a mortgage if you have 3 years farming experience. Me: "What constitutes farming experience?" Your taxes must show you had ownership or financial liability with some sort of agricultural product for the past 3 years.

          If you go to the Veteran's Administration page for guidance on VA loans, it specifically says they will back loans for farms as long as it is the service member's primary residence. Dear VA, tell that to all your military specific banks. And is it just me, or does it seem wrong that they can deny me a loan because I am in the military and know when my paychecks will stop? What other full time job could that be applied to? I may have to do my online fundraising in two steps: one very large one to help pay the mortgage in full and a small one to purchase livestock and equipment.

           In the meantime, we are going to have a yard sale, save as much as we flippin can, we have stopped adding to the kids college funds and our retirement (that was a couple years ago that we stopped), and we'll complete Financial Peace University.
   
          In the time since I wrote the last article, Morningland Dairy (having done honest business in Missouri for 30 years where NO ONE ever got sick from their cheeses) did end up having their 50,000 pounds of cheese disposed of despite zero appeals process and zero secondary testing or even their own primary testing. The state governor didn't want to get involved in the dispute between the state milk board and one small farmer! In South Carolina, the Federation of the American Farm Bureau is quietly working to ban the sale of raw milk in the state; one of few states remaining with the right to sell raw milk. WAKE UP AMERICA! Things aren't this difficult for the small farmer for no reason...If raw milk is SO DANGEROUS, why not just educate people to the POSSIBLE dangers. Why are cigarettes still sold by the billions???? Legal in every state... We know they are horrible for the body and contain these fun little things called toxins and this addicting substance called nicotine... Why do we have to sneak around to get our "raw milk fix" when cigarettes are legal?

        Pretty soon, we are going to see the opposite of what happened throughout the 1900s and all the highly skilled and informed people are just going to leave the country, tired of the infringements, corruption and socialism.