Cold Feet?

Having been away for a month, I came back to Norcal only to find this notice posted at the Petaluma Whole Foods Market. Although I am one of the few and fortunate to be able to buy Organic Pastures weekly from Corners of the Mouth, our local Mendocino health food coop, when I'm out and about in civilization, I often buy Claravale raw milk (can't help it, it's the Jerseys).

I had heard rumblings about Whole Foods pulling raw milk from its shelves about a month prior when I looked in the Roseville Whole Foods Market to find a notice saying raw milk was being temporarily pulled from shelves. A fresh scrubbed teenager brightly informed me that the laws governing raw milk were not stringent enough for Whole Foods and that they were in the process of improving those laws to make raw milk "safer". In a hurry as usual, I took note of this explanation and did not give the employee a hard time. She was obviously spouting the store propaganda. I thought to myself, "Doesn't sound like the whole story but let's see where this goes." Hmmm. Which laws? The increasingly stringent coliform count limbo game? The lumping together of "good" and "bad" bacteria making up the total coliform count?

And now this. The explanation I was given in Petaluma was that the insurance costs to protect Whole Foods Markets against raw milk contamination law suits made it impossible for Whole Foods to continue carrying raw milk, although they continue to carry raw milk cheeses. I guess the 60 days of aging must reduce the insurance premiums.

This is a sad day for raw milk. This is a sad day for every person in America that cares enough about their health to search out and consume raw milk. Since Claravale and Organic Pastures are just about the last two commercial raw milk dairies left standing, it must be a huge blow to them to lose such a high exposure, volume sales retail entity. The interesting thing about all of this is that if you read the notice in the photos, Whole Foods provides a list of small stores and coops that continue to carry Organic Pastures and Claravale. My question is this, "How is it that these tiny Mom and Pop private retail stores can afford to take the risk of selling raw milk to their customers when Whole Foods Market, the health food retail giant cannot? Or will not?

Thanks to all of you out there who continue to operate your health food stores and coops based on the integrity of your convictions. Without you, we would be cut off from life nourishing foods as most of America is.

For all of you who are not familiar with the health benefits and goings on with raw milk in our country, I highly recommend that you pick up a copy of "The Raw Milk Revolution" by David E. Gumpert. Even if you are not an advocate of raw milk, isn't it our right to consume it? And isn't it our government's responsibility to protect that right?