Peanut Butter Recall and Raw Milk is Illegal Because...

If you go to this page of the FDA site, you will see all sorts of products that have been recalled after a huge salmonella outbreak in peanut butter. The products range from actual peanut butter to cookies and pet food that contain some sort of peanut ingredient to health food bars...kind of a broad spread of outbreak. Elderly people have died from salmonella poisoning involved in this recent contamination. It's very sad.

This is all highly processed food, even the healthy claiming protein bars, and are produced in factories where contamination is possible. In this case, the peanut butter ingredients are tainted and have affected these other products.

So, in thinking about food safety and health, my question is, why is raw milk still illegal in so many places? When's the last time you've heard of raw milk deaths or even massive outbreaks of disease caused by raw milk or raw milk products? (Of course it has happened--food becomes contaminated sometimes...but, of all the food borne disease outbreaks that I remember recently, they've been spinach and jalapeño peppers and pasteurized milk and peanut butter, but not raw milk.) Many more people have gotten sick from supposedly safe foods than from raw milk.

Here's an excerpt from an interesting article from the raw milk advocate group The Weston A. Price Foundation:

The chart below was drawn up for a Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors vote on permitting raw milk in the County. (The vote was favorable, by the way, and raw milk is once again available in Los Angeles.) Except for a brief hiatus in 1990, raw milk has always been for sale commercially in California, usually in health food stores, although I can remember a period when it was even sold in grocery stores. Millions of people consumed commercial raw milk during that period and although the health department kept an eagle eye open for any possible evidence of harm, not a single incidence was reported. During the same period, there were many instances of contamination in pasteurized milk, some of which resulted in death. There have also been many instances of contamination of other foods, including baby formula. In fact, if we withdrew from the market every food type responsible for a case of food poisoning, there would be virtually nothing left to eat. But only raw milk has been singled out for general removal from the food supply.

Both raw and pasteurized milk harbor bacteria but the bacteria in raw milk is the healthy bacteria of lactic-acid fermentation while the bacteria in pasteurized milk is the bacteria of spoilage. And the overall bacteria count of milk produced under clean conditions is much lower than that of pasteurized milk. Both raw and pasteurized milk contain E. coli, normally a benign microorganism. The most likely source of the new strains of virulent E. coli is genetically engineered soy, fed to cows in large commercial dairies. If there is any type of milk likely to harbor these virulent breeds, it is commercial pasteurized milk.

Back in the days when scientists at our universities did real research, they compared the health of children fed raw or pasteurized milk. Children fed raw milk have more resistance to TB, scurvy, flu, diphtheria, pneumonia, asthma, allergic skin problems and tooth decay. In addition, their growth and calcium absorption was superior. (www.realmilk.com/abstractsmilk.)

Of course, as with all foods, raw milk must come from healthy cows and be carefully handled and stored. The same technology that we use to pasteurize our milk also allows us to keep raw milk fresh and clean. If you are buying directly from a farmer, be sure that the cows are mostly on pasture and that the barn is kept clean. The milk should go directly from the milking machine into a stainless steel tank or clean containers and be kept chilled. It should be used within a period of one week, after which it will begin to go sour (although it is not dangerous when it does so). With these precautions, raw milk is not only healthy but a safe food for all members of the family, even babies.

To find raw milk in your area, visit www.realmilk.com or contact your local chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation.

REPORTED OUTBREAKS OF FOOD BORNE ILLNESS

RAW MILK: WARNING LABEL	PASTEURIZED MILK: NO WARNING LABEL	OTHER FOODS: NO WARNING LABEL
No outbreaks of human illness from consumption of raw milk in California.	1997, 28 persons ill from Salmonella in California, ALL FROM PASTEURIZED MILK.	Massachusetts, June 1996, 38 persons ill and possibly contributing to one death from food contaminated with Salmonella served in a Wendy's restaurant.
	1996, 46 persons ill from Campylobacter and Salmonella in California.	Idaho, September 1995, 11 people ill due to E. coli 0157:H7 traced to food eaten in a Chili's restaurant in Boise.
No outbreaks of human illness from consumption of raw milk in California.	1994, 105 persons ill from E. coli and Listeria in California	Florida, August 1995, 850 people ill from Salmonella newport bacteria in chicken served at Margarita y Amigos restaurant in West Palm Beach.
	March of 1985 19,660 confirmed cases of Salmonella typhimurium illness FROM CONSUMING PROPERLY PASTEURIZED MILK. Over 200,000 people ill from Salmonella typhimurium in PASTEURIZED MILK	Utah, January 1995, 96 people ill from hepatitis A traced to an employee of a Taco Bell restaurant in Salt Lake City
No outbreaks of human illness from consumption of raw milk in California.	1985, 142 cases and 47 deaths traced to PASTEURIZED Mexican-style cheese contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes. Listeria monocytogenes SURVIVES PASTEURIZATION!	Washington, DC, August 1994, 56 people ill and 20 hospitalized from Salmonella in Hollandaise sauce.
	1985, 1500 persons ill from Salmonella infection	Georgia, October 1993, one dead, 7 others ill from botulism in canned cheese sauce.
No outbreaks of human illness from consumption of raw milk in California.	August of 1984 approximately 200 persons became ill with a Salmonella typhimurium from CONSUMING PASTEURIZED MILK	Illinois, June 1993, 41 people ill, 25 hospitalized from Salmonella in food served at a Mexican restaurant.
	November of 1984, another outbreak of Salmonella typhimurium illness from CONSUMING PASTEURIZED MILK	Oregon, March 1993, 48 people ill from E. coli 0157:H7 in mayonnaise served at Sizzler restaurant.
No outbreaks of human illness from consumption of raw milk in California.	1983, over 49 persons with Listeria illness have been associated with the consumption of PASTEURIZED MILK in Massachusetts.	An additional 50 cases of illness caused by E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria in food served in Sizzler's restaurants in Oregon and Washington were reported to CDC in 1993.
	1993, 28 persons ill from Salmonella infection	The western US, December 1992 to January 1993, 700 people ill from E. coli 0157:H7 in hamburgers served at Jack-in-the-Box restaurants in Washington, Idaho, Nevada and California. Nearly 100 of the victims developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious complication resulting from E. coli 0157:H7 infection, and four children died.
No outbreaks of human illness from consumption of raw milk in California	1982, 172 persons ill (100 hospitalized) from a three Southern state area from PASTEURIZED MILK.
	1982, over 17,000 persons became ill with Yersinia enterocolitica from PASTEURIZED MILK bottled in Memphis, Tennessee.

And Now, Back to Paradise...

The water is warm and the waves are fun to splash in, but does that look like it might rain?

Look at those clouds billowing up...let's seek shelter.



Over here by this palm are dozens of thatch roofed umbrellas. Let's sit here a bit and enjoy the view of the sea.


Look--it's sunny again. Let's go play!*

*This winter break provided by the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, in conjunction with my generous Mother-in-law. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation had nothing to do with it...

President Barack Obama--Congratulations to All of Us!

Doesn't that sound good? It is almost so momentous as to be overwhelming: The first black president; the first thinker in a loooong time; the first really well regarded president by the world.

At this point, anyone taking office would be fantastic in that the only way we can all go is up from here. Bush absolutely ran this country into the ground. I don't know how anyone could do a worse job if they intended it. But, the fact that Barack Obama is a brilliant, compassionate man with solid ideas and good people surrounding him makes his ascent all the more incredible and reassuring. To think that as a collective, the American people said, "Enough!" We voted for reason, and calm, and thoughtfulness, and a spirit of mutual respect and common decency.

Today is a day of great pride for America. We can all look at each other and smile and meet each other's eyes and realize that we are truly one people and together we can accomplish a lot. Obama's presidency makes real the abstract ideas of unlimited possibility in America, of pursuing your dreams and them coming true regardless of racial background, ethnicity, socioeconomic standing.

Congratulations Barack Obama. Congratulations fellow Americans. Congratulations to all of the civil rights workers who gave so much decades ago to open up our society to the equality expressed in the Constitution that went unenforced for so long.

We are one people. All of our lives are intertwined for the good and for the ill. When we all have rights and opportunity it helps us all. When segments of society are kept down, it injures us all. Every one's own brilliance ennobles each one of us and creates further opportunities and connections that serve to strengthen our families, our communities, our relationships with the rest of the world. If we all are allowed to shine, we all are made greater.

John Dunne expressed it well:

No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.

John Donne, Meditation XVII
English clergyman & poet (1572 - 1631)

Well done Mr. President. We are so proud of you and your family. Good luck and all of our good wishes for your success!

Happy inauguration day everybody!

Coati Mundis/Yucatan Jays: Animals of a Different Feather

At the resort we stayed at, the boardwalk from the pool area to the beach wends it way through a tangled thicket of mangroves. In those mangroves are dozens of coati mundi. They are awake during the day and are always hopeful that someone will feed them. And, while they would approach us, they were still guarded and would scurry away at the slightest provocation--like say if some unnamed kid would try to pet them gently on their cute head...

They are related to raccoons and Jorge (a hotel worker who was from Mexico City and majored in TV production and is now a "friend" at this hotel) told me that they will eat anything when I asked him if they are vegetarians. They really behave very much like raccoons.

The kids adored them.






The mangroves host all sorts of animals. We found the iguana in the magroves lazing in a tree. Meanwhile these amazing startling blue and black birds were shrieking in the scrubby mangrove trees right above the coatis' heads. They are Yucatan Jays, as in jay birds as in blue jays that we get right here in Very-Republican-Town, Illinois. These are their southern cousins.






Aren't these such dramatic birds? They are beautiful aren't they? I think they are really striking.

As we would walk to the beach, a few coatis would come out onto the boardwalk and the yucatan jays would hop through the slender branches and we would hear the waves crashing to shore and the salty breezes would blow our hair. It was wonderful.

I don't know who this guy is, but I'll include him here because he was quite the magnificent fellow.