Ruling steams raw milk farmer

December 28, 2005

For those who haven't heard, there has been an outbreak of E.coli

O157:H7 traced to raw milk from Dee Creek Farm in the

Oregon/Washington area. As I last heard, 18 people (15 children) were

affected, 2 very seriously. The legal firm that was involved in both

the Jack-in-the-Box and the Odwalla juice E.coli outbreaks is

becoming heavily involved and lawsuits are pending. As the following

article shows, there will be ripples from this that will probably

spread beyond Washington & Oregon.

Ruling steams raw milk farmer

December 27, 2005

Portland Tribune

Jim Redden

http://www.portlandtribune.com/archview.cgi?id=33254

The owner of California's largest organic dairy is, according to this

story, protesting an Oregon Department of Agriculture decision that

prevents him from selling raw milk in this state.

Although Oregon law prohibits raw milk from being sold to the public,

the department had allowed Organic Pastures Dairy to sell raw milk in

the state as pet food. Ron McKay, the administrator of Agriculture

Department's Food Safety Division, was cited as clearing the way for

those sales in an Oct. 4, 2004, letter to the farm's owner, Mark

McAfee, stating, " There is no prohibition on the sale of raw milk or

dairy products made from raw milk to cats and dogs. "

But Dec. 19, Agriculture Department Director Katy Coba sent McAfee a

letter saying state law requires that all milk sold in Oregon be

pasteurized, even raw milk sold as pet food, stating, " We are

requesting you to discontinue distributing in Oregon unpasteurized

milk from cows and dairy products made from unpasteurized milk from

cows. "

McAfee, who sells the vast majority of his farm's raw milk in

California, where such sales are legal, was cited as saying he was

outraged by the reversal and will appeal the department's decision,

adding, " I feel like I'm about to be placed on a bioterrorism watch

list. "

The story says that according to McAfee, a couple of hundred gallons

of raw milk produced at his farm have been sold for most of the past

year through Whole Food Market stores in Oregon, including the

downtown Portland store at 1210 N.W. Couch St.

Although the cartons have been labeled " For pets only, " McAfee, whose

Web site endorses the " Raw Foods Revolution, " which it calls " the

idea of eating foods that are unaltered, unpasteurized, unheated and

absolutely unchanged in any way from what nature intended, " was cited

as acknowledging that people also have drunk the raw milk because of

its supposed nutritional value, adding, " People want raw milk because

it is better for them than pasteurized milk. "

Coba's letter was sent to McAfee shortly after an E. coli outbreak in

Washington was traced to raw milk provided by the Dee Creek Farm in

Woodland, although McKay was cited as saying the recent letter was

not related to the outbreak, and that the department officials asked

the Oregon Department of Justice about the sales before the outbreak

and only recently were told they were illegal.

Despite McKay's explanation, McAfee was further cited as saying the

timing of the letter makes it appear department officials believe his

farm's milk is unsafe, adding, " There have never been any problems

with my farm's milk. It is routinely tested and never found to be

contaminated. "

McAfee said he has requested a hearing on the new interpretation of

the law. He said people who want to drink raw milk will obtain it

from unlicensed farms if they cannot buy it in stores.

McKay said McAfee is not entitled to a hearing in this case.

The story adds that a Seattle lawyer has been retained to represent

several children sickened by E. coli in the Dee Creek Farm milk. Drew

Falkenstein, an attorney with the Marler law firm, declined to

release the names of his clients but said their families will

probably authorize a lawsuit against the farm in the near future.

Falkenstein was cited as saying that the " cow-sharing " program that

enables people who want to drink raw milk to buy shares of cows and

then receive portions of their milk is an apparent ruse to get around

Washington laws and rules that require dairies selling raw milk to

the public to be licensed and inspected by the Washington Department

of Agriculture, adding, " This (cow sharing) is a conscious effort to

avoid regulation. "

Numerous calls for comment to Dee Creek Farm were not returned.

December 28, 2005

Yeah, I have heard of it here (my state!). I think it's a little

putzy for the parents to sue. The whole point of the cow share

thing is that you recognize you are taking your own risks. I.e.

if I buy a goat, and drink it's milk, and get sick, that's

my problem. If the neighbor feeds the goat for me, and I

get sick off the milk, it's still my problem. The same issue

exists for farm slaughter. Right now, I can buy a beef,

have if slaughtered, and not have the FDA involved. But if

people start suing the farmer they bought the beef off of,

then pretty soon it will be very hard to find grass-fed beef.

I'm not sure what to think of e.coli O157:H7 and raw milk.

THAT strain of e.coli hasn't been around very long,

only since we started intensively grain-feeding cows. So

all our " traditional " ideas of raw milk being safe might

not be as accurate as they were before that particular

bacteria existed?

-- Heidi

dosdodog wrote:

> For those who haven't heard, there has been an outbreak of E.coli

> O157:H7 traced to raw milk from Dee Creek Farm in the

> Oregon/Washington area. As I last heard, 18 people (15 children) were

> affected, 2 very seriously. The legal firm that was involved in both

> the Jack-in-the-Box and the Odwalla juice E.coli outbreaks is

> becoming heavily involved and lawsuits are pending. As the following

> article shows, there will be ripples from this that will probably

> spread beyond Washington & Oregon.

>

December 28, 2005

seaorca@... wrote:

> Well, I think it's silly to mount a major lawsuit against a small dairy,

> after all they don't have the big pockets to pay out very much. However,

> I DO believe that the seller of any product has a degree of liability.

Normally they do, in this state, which is why no one will sell

raw milk! To legally sell raw milk you have to jump through

a lot of hoops and be liable, so no one sells it. To get around

the farmer's liability, people started cow share programs.

If the farmer's feel they will get sued, they'll stop

the cow share programs and no one can buy it.

The only way to ensure milk does NOT have a lot of bacteria

is to pasteurize it. What kills e-coli also kills the good

bacteria though.

> BTW, it would be the USDA involved with your beef example, rather than

> FDA. FDA generally does not handle fresh meat (othe than fish). Not that

> it would matter much.

Right. Wrong acro.

>

> E.coli O157: H7 was first isolated from a food borne illness in 1982

> (hamburger) although there are some reports of a similar complication

> called HUS (haemolytic uremic syndrome) associated with apple juice in

> 1980. As you note, cattle are the major resevoir and I'm sure that

> intensive feeding has been a contributing factor to the spread.

Most of the outbreaks seem to be associated with manure:

the Odwalla one was from apples falling on manured ground.

It doesn't seem to make most people (or cows) sick. My doc

at the time noted that MILLIONS of people probably drank

the Odwalla juice but only a handful got sick.

They have found that it proliferates in grain fed cows,

and that the cows will stop harboring the bacteria if

fed nothing but grass for a couple of weeks. Problem is,

most dairy cows are fed grain.

-- Heidi

December 28, 2005

Heidi, I agree with you. If these people had shares in the cows, what right

do they have to sue? Seems like they would have to sue themselves. Or did

this dairy just sell the milk as pet food as Organic Pasture has done. I am

now able to buy Organic Pasture milk at one of our local Save Mart stores

but we live about 60 miles from Fresno. They are suppose to constantly have

their dairy cows checked. When I lived in the country and raised my own

dairy goats, I never had my goats checked and never heated the milk before

we drank it or before I made cheese out of it. When I got into the cheese

making kick, I came straight down from the barn and made started the cheese

process. I did not make it long because I was the only one who liked it.

That was over 20 years ago. I do miss our goats but town people can't raise

animals like that. Too bad. They sure do not cause any more problems than

dogs do and at least, their fertilizer is good for the garden, lol. Organic

Pasture does not grain feed their animals so maybe that is a difference in

getting this strain of e.coli O157:H7? Their milk does make very good kefir.

Betty

December 29, 2005

>

> Heidi, I agree with you. If these people had shares in the cows, what right

> do they have to sue? Seems like they would have to sue themselves. Or did

> this dairy just sell the milk as pet food as Organic Pasture has done.

And, if this is the case, they should not sue either;

what were they doing eating/drinking pet food!?

-

December 29, 2005

The research that shows that grain -fed cattle have less E.coli O157:H7 is

rather outdated (from 1998). The original studies suggested that switching

cattle from grain to hay resulted in lower numbers of acid-resistant E.coli

(acid resitant E.coli could possibly resist stomach acid in humans and thus be

more likely to cause illness). More recent studies have shown this is untrue, no

difference in either acid tolerant E.coli (

http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/news/99july/070199b.htm ) or numbers of E.coli O157:H7

( http://www.foodsafetycentre.com.au/fsh/fshbull37e.htm ). A 1999 study

published by NIH showed that hay fed cattle shed E.coliO157:H7 longer then grain

fed cattle and could increase the potential for infection in humans. Also " Test

steers were fed diets of grain, alfalfa and grass. E. coli O157:H7 was

administered into their rumens three weeks after diet adaption. The average

duration of fecal shedding of E. coli O157:H7 was four days for cattle on grain

diet, 39 days for cattle on alfalfa diet and 42 days for cattle on grass

diet. " ( http://www.griffin.peachnet.edu/cfs/hottopics/intervention.html ).

Probably ALL E.coli O157:H7 tend to be acid resistant anyway.

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From: " Betty " <gk37@...>