There is no “Easy” Solution, Only a Simple One: Change the Laws
Repealing prohibition through ideology and laws...
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This is Part III of a 4-part series about some of my personal experiences over the years as a Raw Milk Mama and activist. It includes details I’ve never shared before, and experiences that are difficult to write about.
These are real and true personal experiences and will be quite difficult for some to believe. It was difficult to believe even living them.
Black market definition: The illegal business of buying or selling currency or goods banned by a government or subject to governmental control, such as price controls or rationing. (American Heritage Dictionary, online)
Part I here – Raw Milk is Flooding DC
Part II here — The Black Market is a Race to the Bottom
Fringe “stupidity” or food for humanity?
Americans are, if anything, an independent bunch. We swing the flag of freedom as part of our core identities.
And sometimes, “freedom” is a hammer we use to bludgeon opposing views with. Your freedom, my freedom, collectivism, individuality, these are all inescapable aspects of the clash of opinions in society.
Yet, there are some things so fundamental to being human that it feels justifiable to push back in anger against anyone we perceive as taking those fundamentals away…
True freedom, at its core, means individual responsibility.
There is no storybook hero who will come and save you. You must learn to take responsibility in greater and greater proportion as we work hard together to build a new food system and grow food security together.
In the case of 1920s America, “the law” took away the ability of Americans to peacefully assemble and imbibe adult beverages. It took away our right to decision making, simply because some disagreed with that decision.
Americans lost the freedom to make that choice free from the threat of prosecution.
By this same time, another kind of prohibition had taken a firm hold in Chicago. Raw milk. Mandatory pasteurization laws began in 1909, gained momentum, and by 1916 most milk coming into Chicago was pasteurized.1
Corruption of the initial swill dairies of the late 1800s prompted this action. Deeply corrupt investors created horrific conditions for the cows, leading to “swill milk” and unacceptably high infant mortality rates in the late 1800s and turn of the century.
It wasn’t the clean, safe raw milk farms supported by the Medical Milk Commission that caused illness. Once again, business interest and greed led the way to harming ordinary people and criminalizing the natural, normal human behavior of sourcing fresh, local food from clean sources.
Something had to be done.
Momentum for pasteurization picked up. After all, it was the “efficient” answer to the problem of swill dairies. Don’t change the practices that led to it, simply pasteurize the milk.
It was a betrayal of our children. And of the very freedoms that previous Americans fought so hard for.
Mandatory pasteurization laws didn’t stop with Chicago. Since the mid 1900s, a deep cultural divide has subverted our right to make an informed, honest choice when it comes to the milk we drink.
A Cultural Divide
It might seem like alcohol and raw milk couldn’t be further apart.
One is an intoxicant that all-too-easily leads to addiction, poor behavior, ill health, violence, accidents, and far too often death.
While raw milk, on the other hand, is a symbol of goodness - “a land flowing with milk and honey” as the bible puts it. It is the first drink of all baby mammals, it is life-giving, life-affirming.
Raw milk and the products produced from it have consistently been an enormous factor in food security – and thus civilizational health – throughout history in most cultures.
If one considers the spectrum of “wholesomeness,” one might put alcohol on one end of the spectrum, and milk on the other.
Why then, if raw milk is so different from alcohol, does it get some of the same treatment as prohibition-era alcohol – banned, banished to the fringes, sold underground? Mothers who give it to their children are vilified, ridiculed – like we are stupid – especially in mainstream media. And farmers who produce it honestly and safely are scrutinized as common criminals.
Perhaps it is because centralized control always profits only a few elites at the top no matter what the product is?
Policy Failures
The alcohol prohibition mindset of the early 1900s didn’t work. It was a policy failure on every level. It led to violence in the cities that eventually trickled out to rural areas. It consumed a mountain of federal funds designated to enforce it. Some say as much as $300 million ($5.4 billion in today’s money).
And, it created a black hole to the tune of about $11 billion (approx $198 billion today) of lost tax revenue for the government. As much as I personally don’t like or agree with the massive taxes applied to alcohol, this is simply a historical fact.2
One can only imagine the decent things these funds could have supported.
The end of 1920s alcohol prohibition was anticlimactic.
After enough states ratified the 21st amendment (which repealed the 18th amendment), “with little pomp and circumstance, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued a proclamation declaring the end of Prohibition while also admonishing the country to drink responsibly and not abuse “this return of individual freedom.” “I trust in the good sense of the American people,” the president said, “that they will not bring upon themselves the curse of excessive use of intoxicating liquors, to the detriment of health, morals and social integrity.” (Klein, C. History.com)
Is the raw milk prohibition also a policy failure?
Indeed it is.
One of the ways the FDA continues their war on raw milk is through propaganda.
Their message is that raw milk is “fringe.” And only obscure, strange Americans want it. Not people like you. It’s dangerous. The kind of stupid danger that gets you public ridicule and hopefully not a Darwin award.
The world of raw milk is complex.
As with any “fringe” movement, raw milk certainly attracts some colorful characters. The internet is filled with memes and satire about it. And some of them are right. They portray raw milk drinkers as whacky radicals emerging from their hippie domes. Or maybe right wing nutjobs who use this as a way to give the government their middle finger.
These memes are not entirely wrong.
It’s true that some aspire to advocate for raw milk only because the government warns against it. It’s like their own private declaration of independence.
But, of all the raw milk fanatics, perhaps none are quite as insidious and harmful as the Amish black market and the cultish English adherents who pretend like they’re in some kind of secret, exclusive society.
Some talk about it as though a few brave Amish farmers are saving America from some fate worse than death. Some Americans tend to look to the Amish as some kind of utopian subculture immune to modern influence and corruption. There are even some who aren’t prone to the cult mentality but talk about their “Amish food” like a stalker talks about their victim.
But are these romantic or delusional notions accurate?
No.
In my and many other unsuspecting victims' experience, the black market–led by a corrupt Lancaster PA area Amish sect–is a race to the bottom that will betray all freedom-loving Americans or those seeking true food security. This Amish black market epitomizes the bottom of human ethics, of quality, and of trust in something that–at least for a time–was based on values rather than greed.
Several years ago, some of the Amish farmers of Lancaster County did something seemingly mutinous. At first, it seemed like they were taking a stand ethically, for a cause bigger than them. Many decided to sell raw milk across state lines, defiantly in opposition to federal regulation.3
Some stood on the healthy ground of righteous change. We stood on the principles of small, participatory communities and on the promise of decentralization and local control.
I know because I was part of it.
At the time I worked with several good farmers. Some might have been deeply flawed in other areas of their lives, but they were good, clean farmers.
We proudly stood shoulder to shoulder as the FDA’s prohibition against raw milk led armed agents to violent, oppressive, and completely unacceptable enforcement practices.
We saw a wrong that could be righted.
It wouldn’t take long, we thought. We would repeal the ban on interstate transportation, states would come on board, and small farmers would be able to sell to willing and eager local customers. In turn, customers could support local farms and help breathe economic life into depressed rural communities.
But greed-driven business-men saw this as something else: an unfettered opportunity to make more money without constraints by ignoring those pesky safety standards in place on the state level.
The unscrupulous ones could ride in on the coattails of the ethical ones, subverting the goal and aim of those whose highest intentions were to empower communities with their own food sources and feed people with clean, healthy food in a secure or semi-secure local food environment.
And what happened next cannot possibly surprise anyone…
Did the FDA go from overtly draconian to ineffective and flaccid?
Decent federal agents likely don’t want to protect us from making a milk choice for ourselves. They want to protect us from fraudsters, scammers, and ruthless businessmen who freely exploit our weaknesses and desires for personal gain.
Just like the agents in Al Capone’s time, no one can look back and imagine that their game of whack-a-mole was actually keeping anyone from taking a sip of beer. Rather, it was identifying the deep corruption and insidious evil of characters such as Capone whose unscrupulous mind egged him on to higher and higher levels of atrocities.
It goes without saying that no one wants our cities, farms, businesses or communities controlled by such viscous motivating forces such as that.
But what does that have to do with raw milk?
Everything.
It was the original corruption and industrialization of dairies in the late 1800s and early 1900s that more than likely led to high levels of foodborne illness from dairy. There was also poor sanitation during this period and elevated spread of tuberculosis and other communicable diseases. Yet, it would be impossible to do the forensic detective work to know for certain that the elevated infant and child mortality came from milk, even milk produced in such horrible conditions like the swill dairies of that time.
We can see from exploring the history of raw milk prohibition, there were multiple and overlapping systemic societal problems leading to awful conditions for many city populations. It wasn’t just the milk.
But raw milk was the scapegoat and a “zero-tolerance” ideology became more and more entrenched in the American psyche over the ensuing decades.
By the end of the 20th century, estimates suggested that only 1-3% of Americans were drinking raw milk and many of them were the dairy farmers themselves.
But, America changed. Chronic illness took root in our families. Obesity increased dramatically as did diabetes and asthma.
Hungry Americans searched for answers to their health problems. And some turned to raw milk.
This renewed interest in raw milk in the early 2000s, led the FDA, and some state-level agencies, to aggressive and often violent enforcement tactics.
It was deeply unsettling, awful, and made many of us question our government.
Moving from draconian measures in the early 2000s (while Bush was in office) to now doing little where it is most needed and allowing a dirty black market to thrive, the FDA is missing in action.
Why?
Are they intending to weaken Americans’ food security by allowing a greedy black market to implode on itself?
It is now imperative that you, dear consumer, get off your comfortable couch and do your own accountability.
You are correct that the FDA is not always looking out for you.
Their history of documented lies is far too long to get into here. But, I assure you, the black market is also not looking out for you.
The constant tug-o-war between “the government” and those who want raw milk doesn’t work.
It’s a sinking ship with no life preservers.
The only way to make something right in America is to change the laws and the regulations for all. And what doesn’t make sense is allowing unscrupulous farmers to lie to their customers, and make people sick. That doesn’t work. Especially while the clean farms following the law continue to pay for black market’s antics..
The FDA and state agencies have a death grip on the food safety argument. They argue that raw milk is inherently dangerous and therefore no one should be able to drink it.
Yet, we can continue to devour raw oysters and sushi while boozing and smoking without a blink.
So we must explore different questions.
The prohibition of raw milk cannot only be a question of “food safety” anymore. The FDA has udderly failed by continuing to allow black market raw milk businesses to thrive while promoting the shutdown of honest, hard working and CLEAN farms.
Yes, safe food IS important. I will wholeheartedly embrace safe, clean food and I strive towards that in my personal life and all my advocacy efforts.
But that is no longer the only consideration.
As Ron Finley is famously quoted as saying, “The drive-thrus are killing more people than the drive-bys” in his home area of South Central LA.
We all know that chronic illness is a serious threat to all Americans at this point. The qualified stats are not a secret and are irrefutable. I don’t need to list them all here for persuasion or credibility, we all know it.
The estimated food waste in America is almost 40% of what’s produced across the board.4
Ecosystems are changing as a result of human interventions. Chemical-driven, industrial agriculture is a leading culprit. Unbelievably, food security–literally having enough food–is an ongoing struggle for many Americans and a new challenge for many more.
Food safety is not the only concern and will become less of a concern as communities struggle to find adequate nutrition. Bread lines are not food security. Food stamps are not food security, especially when the grocery store shelves cannot be filled. As it is, you can’t use EBT for “Pet Milk” anyway.
As the landscape of America shifts in the coming years, foodborne illness will not be people’s highest priorities.
Raw milk is not inherently safe as some claim. How it is produced matters. It matters more than whether or not it’s pasteurized.
Consider the Medical Milk Commission of the early 1900s. They knew raw milk was not inherently dangerous.5 It depended on the nuances–how it was produced, the lifestyle of the person, and the handling conditions. As it was back then, today some raw milk buyers actually want to home pasteurize it and turn it into yogurt and/or cheese. Some want it to make cheese exclusively.
We as Americans need to be given the dignity to weigh the risks for ourselves and to make our own informed decisions regarding food consumption. Government needs to stop trying to tell us what’s in our own best interests or not. It’s never worked. It won’t work. All it does is continue to propagate a rebellious black market industry.
How does change happen?
Today, American consumers–and I am intentionally using that word–primarily want other people to do the work. They want to outsource their own food security without even getting to know the producers who make it all happen. This is a pathway directly off the cliff of food insecurity and eventual mass starvation. Perhaps not now. Maybe not even in your lifetime. But the stage will be set and ready for whatever nefarious control freaks want to knock over the first domino.
You cannot have food security from 1000, 2000, 3000 miles away. You more than likely can’t even have real, true food security from 100 miles away.
Consumers who are getting their food from the Amish and raw milk black market are NOT being responsible for their food any more so than people getting sodapop and blindly trusting the FDA, or any other entity for that matter. Mafia-like bosses like Amos Miller ARE the problem. Not only do they offer dirty food, they are creating a mindset where consumers mentally check out. These consumers have outsourced their trust and it is causing problems.
We must be strong enough to break out of the “us vs government” propaganda and get down to the common ground we all share. It’s easier to believe what you want to believe than to challenge yourself to look a little further than what you already “know.”
We need to change the laws. This is the time to do it.
We can again look to history for examples.
In 1929 Capone and his colleague were arrested for carrying concealed deadly weapons. They were convicted and sentenced to 1 year in prison.6
Their violence had, at least for a moment, caught up to them.
8000 miles away in a whole different world, the people of India protested the prohibition against making their own salt. One does not need to stretch the imagination to see how utterly foolish it was to compel the Indian population against making salt. But the British tried. And it gave the famous leader, Gandhi, just the topic he needed for an epic act of peaceful noncompliance.
The juxtaposition is obvious between Capone’s violent grip on a centralized black market and Gandhi’s populace movement. A few days before Capone’s sentence concluded, Gandhi–along with tens of thousands ordinary Indians–embarked on the pivotal journey that unraveled British control of the Indian population: the peaceful “Salt Marches.”
They faced ridicule, oppression, violence and arrest. But they kept marching until they reached the seashore where they bent down, scooped up sea water that they evaporated and turned into salt.
This simple, normal human behavior that humans have engaged in since the beginning of time was, in those moments, a powerfully peaceful way to reclaim their power.
On November 1, 2011 I spearheaded a similar march, actually a drive, a “raw milk freedom ride.” It was powerful and made a substantial difference!
Today, we’ve got our own version of “salt marches” to start. And I promise it won’t be easy. But we must embark and we must stay the course.
Food security transcends neighbors’ fights at the grocery store over canned goods. And it transcends coercive price controls over milk–raw OR pasteurized–and it gets to the heart of knowing that you know how (or where) to grow or secure your own food, peacefully, as humans have done throughout history.
It is only through the perversion of our laws and societies that raising and producing food is relegated to 1% of our population and hugely controlled by an elite few.
We have to take this back, and not through the ignorant adoration of “rebel” or “rogue” farmers, but by taking responsibility once again for ourselves and our communities whatever the cost or whatever the risk might be – because the alternative is far worse.
The quickest and most effective way is to work towards a change in the laws. It would make a rewarding difference for many American farmers–both English and Amish alike–who want the option and the opportunity to provide their community with clean, safe fresh milk.
Laws don’t change because politicians get up and make inspiring speeches. They change because hard working Americans work hard day after day, sometimes year after year, to make small shifts that open doors for ordinary Americans.
Laws change because we do the work, we change Americans’ minds by pointing out day after tireless day that drinking milk–whether pasteurized or raw–is a choice. A totally natural and normal human behavior. Drinking milk, making cheeses, yogurt, and kefir, is something that sustained and nourished many of our ancestral communities for thousands of years. And it can sustain us again.
We don’t have to have hundreds of acres and an expensive “dairy farm.” We have to have grit. And more of us need to learn the process and joy of milking 1 or 2 cows, a handful of goats in all the little postage stamps of land we have access to. We have the tools to produce and process local raw milk at the hyper local level and with the highest standards in place.
It’s such a normal thing.
It’s only because of a prohibition mindset and the complete subversion of what is considered normal that we’ve lost touch with something so nourishing and allowed both prohibition and a black market to subvert our true freedoms.
At this point, we can change the laws with a tidal wave of support. We can usher in a new realm of food security for everyday Americans.
It simply comes down to this:
We can choose between safety and transparency-driven legal raw milk sales and consumption, or play Russian roulette through imbibing filthy black market mystery milk from thousands of miles away.
Part IV – The Solution…
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