OPEN FORUM: When Did Things Change?
November 2nd, 2011 | 
Author: By LAURA & MONTE BLEDSOE
We love our valley! Our little family moved to this valley over 30 years ago. We had both been raised in “the city” so it took some time to make adjustments to a rural life. We caught on quick and there has been no turning back!
One of our favorite rural experiences was to purchase fresh, raw milk from the Marshall dairy in Logandale. The Marshall family had a small herd of dairy cows and a small dairy right next to their home. We would find at their little dairy a chest refrigerator full of beautiful gallon jars of whole milk, the cream on top was always at least 2 inches thick! We would put some money in the till, (remember the honor system?), take a full jar of milk and on occasion read the reprimand that if we did not remember to return the jars the milk would have to go to the pigs. We had never tasted such good milk in our lives! This was country living!
Today life in our small town and in fact our nation is quite different. I don’t know how it happened, but all of a sudden it is illegal to sell raw milk.
Come to find out as many of you have read, it is also illegal to sell or provide meats which have not been government certified (USDA), even if you produced and processed it yourself. It is even illegal to sell or provide your vegetables that are not “certified”.
When did all of this happen? When was I asked if I wanted to have the government make those choices for me? I don’t ever remember voting on it, do you?
It appears that the story (Health District Crashes Party At Quail Hollow Farms: Progress, October 25, 2011) and video of the “incident” on our farm on the night of October 21 has spread via the internet far and wide. We express appreciation for the Moapa Valley Progress for the excellent articles written about it last week.
Thanks to many of you, our farm CSA members and guests that night, the story and video footage taken has spread via the internet like wildfire.
We are amazed at the outpour of both outrage over the situation and overwhelming support that we are receiving daily. We are receiving messages from across the nation from Alaska to Florida and across the world from Australia to the UK. Obviously this incident in our back yard has hit a nerve!
So many of you have asked what you can do about the ever increasing choke hold we feel pertaining to our food choice liberties.
May we suggest a few things:
1- Plant a garden. Gain more “food independence” by producing your own food.
2-Research the subject. There are many great books, videos and articles written and produced on the deplorable state of our government sponsored food.
3-Know our county, state and federal laws.
4-Contact our local, state and national representatives and tell them how you feel about the government intrusion into our personal food choices. (http://www.conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm#Nevada)
5-Eat and buy local! The biggest thing that we can do to make a difference is to vote with our dollars. For every dollar we spend purchasing prepackaged convenience and fast food, we are supporting large corporate and government subsidized food and politicians. For every dollar we spend purchasing local unbarcoded foods we send a message to those large corporate and government sponsored politicians that we are literally putting our money where our mouth is. More than our pleas and phone calls, they will respond to where the dollar goes. It is as simple as that!
6- Join the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund (farmtoconsumer.org). They are fighting for both farmers and consumers throughout the United States and Canada to preserve our food liberties.
We want to personally thank all of you who have sent us your love and support. There is nothing like a small town to come together in times of distress. We love our valley!
Posted in Opinion
2 Responses to “OPEN FORUM: When Did Things Change?”
Leave a Reply
In recent weeks, there have been a number of people who got sick, and some died from eating tainted cantaloupes.
Every one of those melons was grown and processed at USDA inspected and approved farms and packers.
Recently there have been some massive recalls of meat, in various forms and types.
All of that meat was grown by ranchers following USDA guidelines, processed in USDA inspected and approved packing plants, was given the appropriate USDA stamp of approval, and sent off to wholesalers to be sold to the public or to restaurants.
It seems like every year, there is a massive recall of lettuce, spinach, or some other leafy vegetable, because of illness suspected of coming from them.
This happens all-too-often.
If the USDA, SNHD and other bureaucracies are so efficient in determining what food is edible, then why do we continue to have the outbreaks of tainted food?
I’m sure we all remember “Mad Cow Disease”.
The beef production in North America and Western Europe, came to a dead stop.
You even had to scrape your shoes in a pan of disinfectant solution in order to board a plane to or from countries involved.
I grew up in San Francisco.
In those years, most of our produce came from Truck Farms located South of the City.
There were no health inspections, in the field, in the grocery store or restaurant, or any place else.
We ate the produce, we enjoyed it, and we stayed healthy.
I think the entire bureaucracy has gone power mad, and is enforcing regulations that they have devised, not for our good, but for them to have more control.
It is time to put common sense back in to government, and let the people decide, not a bureaucrat.
Jim Scanlon
New Braunfels, Republic of Texas
As with any other food, I think, proper regulations are always necessary and correct. At the some time I believe that there is a lot of misinformation taught to the public regarding raw milk. No one has died from raw milk in the last ten years. In comparison, hundreds of people die from bacterial contamination of organic fruits and vegetables every year. Why is this health hazard not spoken of by the media?