FW: Pleasant Valley Dairy Has Not Been Shut Down

[Guest guest]

From former Snohomish chapter leader,

Emmy McAllister. Great news!!

Sent: Thursday,

January 10, 2008 8:25 PM

Subject: Pleasant

Valley Dairy Has Not Been Shut Down

Hi, Everyone,

I am sending you this message

because some of you are under the impression that the WSDA shut down the raw

milk operation at Pleasant Valley Dairy. That is not the case. Not

even close. Pleasant

Valley Dairy was never

shut down and both its raw milk operation and its raw cheese operation are

alive and very well indeed! They are now having every batch of their milk tested before they distribute

it! What a boone to their customers!

Here are the facts

that Joyce Snook, one of the owners of the dairy, presented to me on December

20:

On Monday, the 10th of

December, a representative of the Food Safety Division of the WSDA took, and

paid for, half a gallon jug of raw milk from the refrigerator at the dairy for

testing. That milk had a pull date on it of Dec. 20, 2007. The WSDA

tested the milk on Friday, December 14th. They had also taken a

sample of milk from the bulk tank on the 10th for testing, but they

didn’t run a test on it for the bacteria they were looking for.

On Monday, Dec. 17, Joyce was

informed that the testing on the milk in the jug had shown the presence of

campylobacter bacteria in the milk. She was not presented with a written report

of this finding. Joyce was

asked to remove all the milk with a pull date of Dec. 20, 2007, from the

shelves of the retail stores where it was still for sale and to request

everyone possessing milk from the dairy with that pull date to please return it

to wherever they purchased it from for a full refund of their money. The

dairy did a “voluntary recall” for the batch of milk dated Dec.

20. They were never told to stop distribution. Joyce said the WSDA

had not tested any other milk with the same pull date yet – “they

don’t have a control test: they haven’t been able to replicate it yet,

so that’s all we’re going on.” Another sample of milk

was taken for analysis from the dairy on Monday, the 17th.

Joyce was told that it would take at least 48 hours to get results; she

had not yet received results as of the morning of Thursday, the 20th.

On December 17 the WSDA also asked

Joyce to supply them with a list of her retail vendors as well as a list of her

personal customers. Joyce did give the WSDA her list of vendors, but

declined to give them the list of her personal customers, believing this to be

“an invasion of privacy” and certainly contrary to the wishes of

the majority of those customers.

Subsequently, Coles, the

head of the Food Safety Division of the WSDA, left a message on Joyce’s

voicemail that in the interest of public safety and to comply with state law,

Joyce was required to supply the WSDA Food Safety Division a list of all her

personal raw milk customers by 5 pm Thursday, the 20th. Joyce

said she would comply with the law and that her local Food Safety inspector was

working with her to the best of his ability.

I told Joyce on December 20 that,

based on what she told me, what I saw was that the Food Safety Division was

acting in accord with its responsibility to protect public safety, and that

their requests had not only been reasonable, but also backed up by state law..

that I couldn’t see that she was being singled out or persecuted in any

way…that they were just doing what their job required them to do and

asking for her customer list is right there in the state statutes.

The following day, Joyce sent out

this message:

Greetings to all of you from Joyce,

Wow , it's already Friday. I have escaped into the cheese room enjoying the

solitude. I wanted to send a brief update regarding our WSDA

experience.

Thursday was our ultimatum day with the agency and I was honestly going to let

whatever will be will be. (underneath I was planning a rebellion) They

required a customer list and they wanted the quantity's of milk we sent out on

2 other dates.

To make a long story short all things fell together perfect. I am forever

grateful for Emmy McAllisters input and insight from outside of the

state. I was able to comply with the WSDA and we shook hands at

parting. I'll fill in the blanks later.

Our plan is to celebrate the birth of Jesus first and foremost then get

back on the wagon Wednesday December 26th with milk available Friday December

28th.

Merry Christmas !

Here is

Joyce’s most recent report, dated Jan. 5:

Our 300 gallon tank is full of fresh milk this a.m.

and the sample sent to the lab. We have them run 8 tests, Campylobacter,

coliform, E.coli, E. coli 0157:H7, Lactobacillus, Listeria species, Salmonella,

Aerobic Plate Count, and Staphylococcus aureus. The lab owner will get us a

reduced price list on Monday. That will set the tone for the amount we

need to increase our price per 1/2 gallon. s e-mail to me on Dec. 27th

said ‘Once we have all the laboratory test result paperwork into the WSDA

Food Safety office, we will mail you copies of these reports for your records.”

My friends, living here in Colorado

where raw milk is available only from the farms via cow share programs, has

given me an even greater appreciation of the accessibility of raw milk in Washington,

where raw milk dairy farming is a respected fledgling industry, supported by

state statutes. Those statutes don’t always say exactly what we

would like them to say, but I believe that the raw milk dairy farmers in

Washington can best protect and maintain their legal status by knowing the laws

that support their industry, by complying with them to the best of their

ability, and by changing the ones they want to change over time in the

prescribed way of doing so.

I further believe that they can best

protect and maintain their legal status by co-operating with the Food Safety

Division, just as responsible professionals do in other food industries, for if

they do not, they would only confirm the belief widely-held by bureaucrats and

legislators: that they are a bunch of anarchistic mavericks who care more about

doing things the way they want to do them than they care about the health and

safety of their fellow citizens. I believe that we raw milk consumers can best

help our treasured raw milk dairy farmers by encouraging them to present

themselves as conscientious, responsible business people.

The raw milk industry is still very

tenuous in Washington.

I believe that Coles has the power to get the state legislature to

abolish the entire raw milk industry if she chose to do so. I really

believe that. We tread on dangerous ground here. If we accuse food

safety officers of being tyrants, and if we treat them as tyrants, then I

believe that they are much more likely to behave like tyrants – and we

might lose our entire raw milk industry as a result; conversely, if we treat

them with respect, try to see the situation through their eyes, and work with

them to protect the public safety, we are much more likely to accomplish quick

and reasonable resolutions to potential health threats. This perspective

is coming to you from one who has testified before the legislature in Olympia several times on behalf of the raw milk industry

in Washington

as some of you know. And some of you know I am like a mama bear

protecting her cubs when it comes to defending the raw milk industry and the

raw milk farmers. But there is a time and a place for everything.

All my best to you,

Emmy McAllister, Volunteer Chapter

Leader

Weston A. Price Foundation

Snohomish, WA