Raw Cheese Ordered Destroyed—With No Evidence of Contamination
October 19, 2010
After a shockingly violent FDA raid on a food co-op, the FDA’s war on raw milk and cheese continues by forcing a family dairy to destroy $250,000 worth of its product.
As we wrote a few months ago, the FDA is continuing an aggressive campaign of harassment and legal intimidation meant to eliminate raw milk products. The latest attack began July 30 with the Rawesome Raid, where a closed-circuit video shows gun-toting FDA agents storming a raw foods co-op in Venice, CA, ordering everyone in the store up against a wall and frisking them, then filling seventeen unrefrigerated coolers with items such as raw milk, raw honey, and raw cane syrup. (“I still can’t believe they took our yogurt,” said onre Rawesome volunteer. “There’s a medical marijuana shop a couple miles away, and they’re raiding us because we’re selling raw dairy products?”)
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) was assigned to do lab tests of all the seized food, which they did—seven weeks later, though no samples were sent to the various cheese producers for independent testing as required by FDA regulations. No one seems to know how the foods were handled, or whether they were cooled properly, in the seven weeks between the confiscation and the testing. A press release issued by CDFA saying its lab “detected” Listeria monocytogenes in two varieties of raw-milk cheese from a family farm in Missouri called Morningland Dairy.
Morningland Dairy immediately recalled 68,957 pounds of raw-milk cheese (made with cows’ milk and goats’ milk), even though the FDA acknowledged that no one had become ill from eating the cheese. The FDA, together with the Missouri Milk Board, wanted to determine the source of the infection, so the FDA tested their plant thoroughly. On September 14, the dairy received a verbal declaration from an FDA official that all swabs used to test their cheese plant and their milk barn came back negative (i.e., clean). Three days later, two FDA officials closed that investigation.
Suddenly, on September 27, Morningland received a “destroy all” order from the Missouri Milk Board. They had to destroy all their cheese, even though the cheese stock had never been tested or found to be contaminated. This is nearly 50,000 pounds of cheese, worth approximately $250,000.
Note that the only thing the FDA raiders could complain about following the Rawesome Raid was two allegedly contaminated packets of Morningland cheese, tested seven weeks after confiscation, after having been left who-knows-where all that time. If the FDA really doubts the health of Morningland cheese, the agency should test the cheese at the dairy, as the dairy owners suggest. But no: branding Morningland as dangerous purveyors of raw milk products is the only way FDA can justify the outrageous behavior of its Gestapo-like raid.
According to the Raw Milk Cheese Association, FDA regulations say the cheese produced from raw milk—that is, milk not heated above 104 degrees—shall be aged for 60 days or longer at a temperature of not less than 35°F. (The 60-day clause goes back to the 1940s.) So does aging kill bacteria or not? If it does, as FDA regulations would indicate, and if the FDA’s own tests found no bacteria at the dairy in question, then might we not conclude that the bacteria grew because the FDA placed the cheese in unrefrigerated coolers, with no record of how it was stored, until it was tested seven weeks later?
The media is raising the profile of the raw milk debate. As a recent Time magazine cover story on raw milk points out, advocates question why this age-old product is under such unrelenting government attack while the practices of vast feedlots and food processors are not. Scott Trautman, a Wisconsin farmer who lost his only corporate customer last year because he was selling raw milk on the side, believes the crackdown on raw-milk microdairies is essentially a way for Big Dairy to eliminate the competition. Megacorporations are “going to pick up these farms for 10 cents on the dollar,” he says. “That’s the endgame in all this.”
Friends of Morningland have put up a website, The Uncheese Party. They are asking supporters to sponsor a cheese to help the family meet its large legal bills and loss of sales.
The eggs that were recalled recently… Think scaring people into feeling the FDA needs more power was the goal? I do.
How about families whose children are taken away and remanded to the state if the parents don’t agree to treat any diagnosed illness the way the doctor thinks they should?
Having a home birth with a midwife in many states can get the midwife arrested even though it’s safer than hospital births in many cases.
I’m terrified of our government! We keep voting them in, but, really what are the choices? Anyone not mainstream who would stand up for us can’t get into office. There are too many people who fall for this garbage.
I am sure the conventional dairies with their low standards and the pasteurizers are behind the attacks on raw dairy producers. What if they had to keep their products clean, have clean facilities, if they couldn’t dump a cow patty in the bucket and just pasteurize it to acceptable standards? Where would the obscene profits be in a system like that??
I grew up on raw milk as well. I am healthy and never got sick from raw milk. I know the FDA does this sort of thing whenever they want, but I still find it offensive that they don’t believe we deserve the freedom to choose and accept responsibility for our choices. I would like to see THEM shut down. I believe that they have outlived their usefulness in most areas.
I think this is an implorable tactic and the exact reason the FDA should be dismantled. The FDA is a biased institution and does not have the knowledge or ethics to do what is right for the health of the people in America. People all over the world do make and consume raw milk products that are not only safe, but are also superior to processed milk products because they contain natural, “good” bacteria that enhances digestion and keeps the stomach free from harmful bacterias.
We need an FDA tea party! Honest citizens with no corporate ties to run that organization.
This same thing has happened to the award-winning Estrella Family Creamery in Montesano, WA. The FDA shut them down after they refused to recall all of their products. After finding Listeria bacteria in a particular batch from a cave where soft cheeses are aged, the creamery voluntarily recalled several cheeses, destroyed the cheese from that cave, and temporarily shut down production while it improved its facilities. The FDA seized ALL of the cheeses, even though only one batch aged in a particular cave tested positive for the bacteria. To her credit, the owner of the creamery told the Seattle Times that this whole thing is not really about the cheese, but “[i]ts about liberty and freedoms.”
I haven’t read all the other replies; there are so many, so I don’t know if this was address. However, on a trip to Europe to Italy and France, I ate ALL raw cheese and milk products. They were wonderful; so fresh and full of flavor — better than any I’ve had in the US. Never suffered any ill effects at all. I just think our government wants to create more fear again.
This is outrageous. I’ve eaten Morningland Dairy Cheese for years & I noticed the health food store was no longer carrying it. I think any commercial cheese would rot if left out of the refrigerator for a week. What I get at the grocery store often has mold all over it after I’ve had it for a couple of weeks & I have to throw it away. That never happened wwith Morningland Cheese.
I am 74 and I have eaten Morningstar cheese for years…because it is raw (see WellFedNeighbor site for more info). There is such a push against natural foods right now. Obama has appointed so many biotech people such as Monsanto execs to posts on Ag, food and water (see organic bytes for more into). This is a national push. There were local state, federal and Canadian troops doing the Rawesome Raid in CA (see Natural News for more into). This is no small issue. If S 510 passes, and the House bill that Leahy and Franken introduced passes, there will be no local growers. A large sum of money is in Senate bill S510 for FDA to hire even more people to close down and intimidate growers and sellers of natural foods and supplements…and next there will be Codex Alimentarus which will outlaw supplements.
PUT SIGNS on your car windows. Sign petitions at Organic Bytes and Farm to Consumer sites. Confront your local politicians. Morningstar had several families employed at this small Southern Missouri Ozark Farm. Look into Well Fed Neighbor…local MO org to develop local foods, sales, etc. Write newspapers and sign your names…we need to stand up before it’s too late.
It is interesting how many commentors were surprised &/or outraged by the gestapo-type actions of the FDA. The FDA has been carrying out these kind of raids against various businesses since the mid-80s, that I’m aware of. My first awareness was when the FDA, accompanied by police, broke into Dr. Jonathan Wright’s medical office in Tacoma, WA with guns drawn, held everyone at gun point while they illegally took patients records. Years later the case against Dr. Wright was dropped but other doctors across the U.S. promoting natural healing or dealing with patients with chronic pain have not been so lucky. One pain doctor (from VA, I think) was labeled a “pill-pusher” and sent to jail for 15 years……some of his patients commited suicide because it is impossible to find pain doctors in this area.
The FDA has totally lost its mission and has been on the trail to shut down anything natural: Doctor’s promoting preventitive healing or healing foods…private food groups…small &/or family businesses…pain doctors, etc. (The USDA is no better.)
Big Pharma, mega-corps promoting factory farms and genetically modified seeds or poisonous products and draconian rulings impacting family business is what the FDA supports regardless of the negative results reported by research.
Our only defense against this un-holy war is to become conscious and to become active! ! ! ! ! Write letters, sign petitions, and most important, vote with your dollars……stop buying processed products or you will surely be eating foods contaminated with genetically modified ingredients that continue to genetically modify the genes within your body once injested. Add to that exposure to HFCS, hydrogenation, BPA poisoning if you use canned goods, toxic release in air and absorption in body of chemical cleaners (when vinegar and baking soda can replace most products). This is a quick list off the top of my head. There are many others. We need to get back to basics people – and spread the word.
It might sound out of this world, but I do believe Humane Society Of the United States is behind this thugery. PETA likes to do these things too, and guess who was trained by ALF? The power that runs HSUS. They got the chickens in CA. The beef in Ohio, why not spread out and condemn the cheese and dairy producers. With the power, money and legal support along with the minds to mastermind a control, I can’t get the HSUS out of my mind.Time will be coming when we won’t be able to buy OTC vitamins thanks to these thugs too. Get ready, the ride is not over, it is just beginning.
We used to purchase this cheese when our children were young – very wonderful from biodynamically raised cows… this is just terrible that the govt agencies can get away with this!
As someone who grew up on raw milk, I think this is really an extreme and scary tactic. Too bad that much was lost… for nothing.
I do not know why in the world, the government agencies spend a lot on time in this, rather than concentrating in important issues such as Monsanto and FDA corruption. ~