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Food
Food Thursday
26Oct
Michigan Whodunit: Guess What Caused Illness That Sparked Massive Investigation (You Won't Believe the Real Cause)
Thursday, October 26, 2006 at 02:02PM Once a war gets going, the combatants often forget what sparked the whole thing. Usually, when they do remember, it turns out to be something pretty minor in the context of the fight at hand--some insult or suspected aggression. And if you probe the actual incident, you find that events weren't anything close to what was initially claimed by the war's initiators.
The Michigan raw-milk war now ongoing is turning into a perfect case in point about mistaken causes. The spark supposedly was lit last spring "with a report from a local health department about children who had become sick," presumably from raw milk, Katherine Fedder of the Michigan Department of Agriculture told me when I first questioned her a week ago about the seizure of Family Farms Cooperative's products and the search of Richard Hebron's home and the Morgan & York storage facility. In addition, mention of the sick family was made in the search warrant used to justify the invasion of the Hebron's home. I've been wanting to explore the actual circumstances of the sick children since this war broke out, and earlier this week, I got the opportunity when I spoke with the mother of the family that became ill.
I felt like a detective as I listened to Katherine Corey of Ann Arbor tell me the the step-by-step chronology of her family’s illnesses. She said the family has gone through a great deal of soul searching and agonizing in an effort to reconstruct exactly what happened. I think we can all appreciate the difficulty of trying to remember exactly what we ate or drank on what dates even a few days after the fact.
It all seems to have begun last April 13, the Thursday before Good Friday, and the weekly co-op delivery to Ann Arbor. The Corey familly ran out of the raw milk purchased the Friday before, and her husband, Joe, went to a local Kroger to pick up a half gallon of regular pasteurized milk. The father and his young son drank some of the milk that evening as part of a snack, and during the night became ill--the child vomiting and the father having diarrhea.
On Friday, Joe and son were recovering from their illness, and picked up their raw milk delivery in Ann Arbor. On Easter Sunday evening, the family ordered some Thai takeout. Later that evening, Joe, wanting to finish the pasteurized milk, poured some for himself and his daughter. That evening, Joe became ill again, and now his daughter was sick as well.
When the daughter continued vomiting for several days into the next week, Katherine called the family physician. By later in the week, both father and daughter were better. Joe concluded that the Thai food must have made him and his daughter so sick, so he called the public health department to complain. The health officials couldn't find evidence of anyone else who had become sick from the Thai food, so they inquired into the family's eating history. That is when the matter of raw milk came up, and the health inspectors apparently concluded it must have been the raw milk that made the three family members (father, son, daughter) ill.
There was just one flaw with that conclusion, says Katherine. She never became ill. And it turns out she was the only family member who never touched the pasteurized milk from Kroger. She continued to drink raw milk throughout the entire episode (except for a day when they ran out). Moreover, the family has been consuming the raw milk for a year-and-a-half without any other problems.
After all their discussions, the Corey family feels pretty certain that the culprit was the PASTEURIZED milk, not raw milk. Unfortunately, it never occurred to the father to hold onto the tainted milk; by the time he realized it was the likely culprit in the family illnesses, he had poured out the little milk remaining and thrown away the carton.
Ironically, it was the complaint to health officials that eventually set off the investigation and sting operation against Richard Hebron October 13, six months after the initial illnesses. I wonder if the MDA will now investigate the dangers of pasteurized milk, and maybe conduct a sting operation against Kroger.
Reader Comments (8)
I think that's what all of us Family Farm Coop cow share owners, and enthusiastic raw milk drinkers, figured what happened. Myself, I know I've become sick many times over the years from drinking pasteurized milk products.
As for the MDA investigating Krogers and pasteurized milk...I'm not going to hold my breathe!
The URL I provided is a link to the "Raw Milk For Me!" webpage, that I've created, to provide "Informational & activist links for the duration of the MDA's harassment of the Family Farms' Cooperative or until raw milk sales are legal in Michigan!"
It's funny, years ago I used to fear drinking raw milk. Now I fear drinking pasteurized milk. When I run out of raw milk, I simply go without drinking milk.
Maybe it's easy for me to stop drinking milk, because prior to drinking raw milk, I probably went 10 years without drinking commercial milk. The junk they sell at the stores doesn't taste very good and it doesn't make you feel very good.
Reading Dan Corrigan's comment makes me think of my two children. After drinking raw milk for a while, they refused to drink milk from the grocery store. We bought some for out of town guests and there was some left over and we were out of raw milk so I suggested they drink it. NO WAY. They looked at me like I was trying to drug them.
I have taught my children to trust their bodies and they taste a difference between raw and pasteurized milk just as they taste the difference between store bought muffins and homemade muffins. When presented with the freshest choice available, even kids will go for the best!
I pray that the state of Michigan's officials are those who aren't embarrassed to admit a mistake and make rememdy.
Living on the farm all of my life and having raised nine children on the same farm I realize the benefit of exposure.
As kids we used to run around in bare feet most of the time and a common practice was to grab a cows tail and slide through the manure while at the same time attempting to stay standing. More often then not and to our mother’s dismay we ended up going ass over teakettle, suffering scraped knees and elbows etc. not to mention being plastered in you know what. We simply brushed ourselves off with some hay or washed ourselves off with a hose and continued on. We did not acquire any infection nor were we worried about it.
We also drank and ate plenty of raw milk, non chlorinated fresh water, raw eggs and raw honey. The tradition continues to this day.
Nineteen years ago and within a couple of hours of having given birth to twins in the hospital my first wife passed away as a result of a massive brain haemorrhage.
When I brought the babies home who were premature by the way, I fed them raw milk mixed with raw honey and diluted with fresh spring water. They have not been vaccinated, have not seen a doctor since their birth and have not received prescription or over the counter medications of any kind.
The two eldest children on the other hand as well as my step son unfortunately as a result of a desire to follow the doctor’s orders, were fed formula and vaccinated, they experienced recurrent infections, received antibiotics as well as numerous over the counter medications, have had tubes in their ears and were hospitalised due to the above infections.
With respect to the remaining four children they too have not been vaccinated, have not seen a doctor and have not received prescription or over the counter medication of any kind.
Three years ago while sawing lumber on the table saw I
accidentally cut off the end of my thumb. While in emergency and after having refused their offer of antibiotics and tetanus vaccine, a litany of doctors and nurses in their attempt to convince me that I was making a serious mistake ended up walking away shaking their heads.
My explanation to them was that I was healthy, that I heal well and that I
wasn't about to have my immune system compromised by their chemical and
biological toxins.
The surgeon stitched up what was left of my thumb and I thanked her for a
job well done. I did not develop any of the dreaded infections that they stated were
possible.
As the Nuremberg Tribunal so effectively deliberated on at the Doctor's Trial at Nuremberg after World War II, the utilitarian rationale for forced medical interventions is fundamentally and ethically corrupt.
As the Nuremberg Tribunal so effectively deliberated on at the Doctor's Trial at Nuremberg after World War II, the utilitarian rationale for forced medical interventions is fundamentally and ethically corrupt. There is no greater threat to individual freedom and wellbeing then self righteous bureaucrats who use the utilitarian rationale to impose what they think is best for the rest of us.
Sincerely,
Ken Conrad
Thanks for the updates to this situation. Keep it coming.