Our Access to Quality Foods

"All truth passes through three stages.

First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed.

Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."

Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788-1860)

Lately I've been noticing the phenomenon that, as alternative movements become more popular, they become more threatening to the mainstream. When these movements are recognized for the threat they may or may not be, officialdom often steps in to squelch the movement. Usually there is money involved, or power, which is tied in with politics and bureacracies and agencies and rules, some of which may protect us, some of which protects large businesses that are concerned with continuing to make huge profits.

This happened to homeopathy in the late 1920's in the U.S. - as homeopathy went into decline for the next 50 years, pharmaceutical companies and the medical industry did very well, profit-wise at least!

Now that homeopathy has become increasingly popular again the quack-busters have come out of the woodwork and homeopaths have come under increasing attack, especially in England, where there was some question about it continuing to be part of the National Health System. Please read this article if you'd like to learn more:http://www.counterfire.org/images/documents/a_check_without_balance.pdf

Homeopaths are learning ways to counter this backlash while continuing to be the second most widely used medicine in many parts of the world. As long as the public continues to demand it, there will be more and more acceptance, and eventually we'll understand just what a valuable system it is.

Our organic, local, high quality food suppliers are being faced with this kind of threat, as more and more people are demanding raw milk.

On the outskirts of San Jose, California, a small goat farm has been ordered to "cease and desist" the sharing of raw goat milk and other goat products. The owners, a retired couple, thought they were within their legal rights to provide the dairy products because their clients have signed contracts stating that they are herd share owners. Here is an announcement from their farm:

"Unfortunately we have to inform you that we have been contacted by the San Jose District Attorneys office and told to cease all production and supply of raw milk products.
This is despite our very hard efforts to become a legitimate Goat Share business providing Goat Share Owners with boarding services and a share of the milk from their goats. We are being told to completely close our operations until we can become licensed as a raw dairy supplier by the CDFA (California Department of Food and Agriculture).
Licensing by the CDFA requires new certified equipment and facilities and will take time and money we do not have right now. We will proceed as they request but will need help and financial support as well as legal assistance to get through this. CDFA standards are not affordable by small dairies that can quickly go out of business trying to comply with standards written for large dairies.
As you may know Evergreen Acres has become our retirement business as we are too old for re-employment in the technology sector. If we lose this we will lose all our investment in our farm and have no jobs to go to so this is a desperate and stressful situation for us that can quickly leave us homeless and unemployed."

Mike and Jane Hulme
Evergreen Acres Goat Farm
408 644 8048

Please visit their website or give them a call with any support you can give - they are lovely people who provide all kinds of services to their community.

At the same time, small food operations, ie: family farms, all over the U.S. are being raided and their animals seized, their families terrorized, and their livelihoods threatened. Farmegeddon, a new film by filmmaker Kristin Canty, tells the story of small, family farms that were providing safe, healthy foods to their communities and were forced to stop, sometimes through violent action, by agents of misguided government bureaucracies, and seeks to figure out why.

Here is a description from the Farmageddon website:

"Filmmaker Kristin Canty’s quest to find healthy food for her four children turned into an educational journey to discover why access to these foods was being threatened. What she found were policies that favor agribusiness and factory farms over small family-operated farms selling fresh foods to their communities. Instead of focusing on the source of food safety problems — most often the industrial food chain — policymakers and regulators implement and enforce solutions that target and often drive out of business small farms that have proven themselves more than capable of producing safe, healthy food, but buckle under the crushing weight of government regulations and excessive enforcement actions.
Farmageddon highlights the urgency of food freedom, encouraging farmers and consumers alike to take action to preserve individuals’ rights to access food of their choice and farmers’ rights to produce these foods safely and free from unreasonably burdensome regulations. The film serves to put policymakers and regulators on notice that there is a growing movement of people aware that their freedom to choose the foods they want is in danger, a movement that is taking action with its dollars and its voting power to protect and preserve the dwindling number of family farms that are struggling to survive."

There are limited screenings so far in various cities, and please let your friends know if they live in any of them, but we want to see it here! If you'd like to see it in San Francisco, please jump to

http://www.nourishingourchildren.org/Farmageddon.html

and fill in the number of people you know who would like to attend the screening.

Meanwhile, continue to support your local farmer, rancher, milkman or woman and know that they are in a very precarious situation if we continue to allow our government agencies and politicians to be so influenced by big businesses such as Monsanto! Join and support The Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, whose mission it is to defend the rights and broaden the freedoms of family farms and protect consumer access to raw milk and nutrient dense foods.