Free Lance WriterA journalist by trade, Cookson Beecher spent the past 12 years working as an agricultural & environmental reporter for Capital Press, a four-state newspaper that covers agricultural and forestry issues in the Pacific Northwest. Before working at Capital Press, she was the editor of a small-town newspaper, the Courier Times, in Skagit County, Wash. She received her B.A. in political science from Hunter College in New York City, and before moving West, she worked for publishing companies in mid-town Manhattan. In the 1970s and 80s, she and her family lived in North Idaho, where they built a log home and lived a "pioneer life" without running water and electricity for almost ten years. She currently lives in rural Skagit County of Washington State.
As Minnesota state officials continue their investigation of a cluster of 4 E. coli O157:H7 illnesses--three of which have been linked to raw milk from an organic farm near Gibbon, Minn.--the farm's attorney has released a statement criticizing the state for leaving the farm's owners in the dark about the investigation. According to a May 29 statement composed by attorney...
Feds find gap between small-scale ranchers and customers eager to buy locally raised meat Back in the 1990s when Bruce Dunlop, owner of Lopez Island Farm in northwest Washington, would drive around on his "home island," he couldn't help but notice that as beautiful a sight as the flocks of sheep grazing in green pastures might be, something was wrong--very...
Bucking a 60-35 vote by the Wisconsin state Assembly in favor of raw milk legislation that would allow dairy farmers to sell unpasteurized milk directly to consumers, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle on May 19 vetoed the legislation in its entirety, citing public health concerns as the reason. "I cannot ignore the potential harmful health effects of consuming unpasteurized milk that...
A California raw milk dairy farmer has managed to fend off the federal government's legal attempt to put him and his dairy under tighter scrutiny through strategies such as unannounced inspections. But in the same case, the federal court, Eastern District of California, in its recent April 20 decision (pdf), granted the federal Food and Drug Administration's motion for summary...
It could be 'forever': Whole Foods and PCC Natural Foods pull raw milk from dairy departments In an unexpected "super-sized" version of its announcement last month that it wouldn't be selling any more raw milk until it developed a consistent set of national standards, Whole Foods has recently gone a step further and decided to discontinue raw milk sales altogether.In...
Company predicts raw milk will be back in stores ‘in short order’ The controversy over raw milk has entered surprising new territory--the Whole Foods stores in California, Washington state, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Effective March 12, the company pulled raw milk--milk that has not been pasteurized--out of its store dairy departments in those four states. Retail stores in those...
Time was that when consumers and merchants bought food from farmers in the surrounding area, it was relatively easy to figure out where food that got people sick came from. Clusters of ill people were generally neighbors and family members who could compare what they had eaten or drunk and come up with ideas about the likely source of the...
Four years ago when Dakota Provisions built its $120 million meat-processing plant on a 114-acre site near Huron, South Dakota, its No. 1 objective was to lead the industry in food safety, according to the company's website.The plant, which harvests, debones and cooks turkeys, has the capacity for 8 million live turkeys per year and produces a complete line of...
Cargill's Feb. 9 announcement that it will be using a third-party remote video auditing program to monitor food safety practices at its beef processing plants in Fresno, Calif. and Milwaukee, Wisconsin comes as good news to food safety advocates, consumer watchdogs, and beef producers.Looking long range, the company will be piloting the project as a food safety tool in its...
To no one's surprise, raw milk dairyman Mark McAfee, owner of Organic Pastures Dairy Company near Fresno, Calif., has come out swinging against the federal Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) legal attempt to put him and his dairy under tighter scrutiny."It's ridiculous to come after us like this," McAfee said in a Jan. 25 interview with Food Safety News. "It's...
I bought the 1887 White House Cook Book at a yard sale and enjoy opening it up every Christmas to see how much things have changed through the years. Here are a few "tidbits" from the 1887 edition:Medicinal foodSpinach has a direct effect upon complaints of the kidneys; the common dandelion, used as greens, is excellent for the same trouble;...
With government health officials warning that raw milk can make you sick--or even kill you--and raw milk advocates telling consumers that pasteurized milk is a "dead food" whose health-giving nutrients have been destroyed by heat, the battle over this contentious issue continues.Earlier this month, on Dec. 8, the U.S. government lobbed a legal spear into the camp of California raw...
A boy and a girl, both under 10 years of age, and a man in his 30s -- all in Washington state but in three different counties -- were infected with E. coli linked to raw milk from the Dungeness Valley Creamery near Sequim, Wash.Washington State Health Department spokesman Donn Moyer said one of the infected people was briefly hospitalized...
Based on the growing popularity of raw milk, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture has been keeping track of the regulation and sale of raw milk in the United States.According to the association's most recent updated survey released in April 2008, 29 states allowed the legal sale of raw milk, in some specified manner, for direct human consumption....
Small-scale produce farmers are keeping a wary eye on proposed federal food safety legislation, fearful that if the final bill calls for cumbersome paperwork, high registration fees for those involved in interstate commerce, and an onerous trace-back system, they won't be able to continue farming."Who can be opposed to food safety," said Steve Torok, owner of Steve's Garden near Bellingham,...
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