Reneau’s is limiting government power, not surprising for someone who endured a combined three-year investigation of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) and USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), all in connection with providing nutrient-dense food to her community through a food buyers club. Reneau was able to turn this adversity into a major legislative success.

In 2016 Reneau along with Nate and Ajnu Wilson started the Weekly Fig, a private membership association that distributed raw milk, meat and other nutrient-dense foods from local farmers to members of the food buyers club. A passage in Weekly Fig’s Articles of Association stated, “We proclaim the freedom to choose and decide for ourselves, the types of products, services and methods that we think best for healthy eating and preventing illness and disease of our minds and bodies, and for achieving and maintaining optimal wellness. We proclaim and reserve the right to healthy food options that include, but are not limited to, cutting-edge discoveries and farming practices used by any types of healers or therapists or practitioners the world over, whether traditional or non-traditional, conventional or non-conventional.” 

Weekly Fig rented out space to handle the storage and distribution of farm-produced food to its members; a short time after it had been in operation, a health department inspector barged in on the facility and conducted an unauthorized, warrantless inspection. The health department subsequently issued the Weekly Fig citations for not having the proper licenses for what they were doing. Soon after, TDA became involved sending its own inspector over to the facility. Reneau refused to let the inspector in, claiming TDA did not have jurisdiction over a private buyers club distributing food only to its members. TDA followed up by sending a warning letter to Weekly Fig stating, among other violations, that it was illegally operating a food establishment without a license and offering raw milk for sale. When TDA and the buyers club couldn’t come to a resolution on the matter, the department sent further correspondence to Weekly Fig putting Reneau and the Wilsons on notice that “future violations of the same or similar sort, i.e., unlicensed operation as a food establishment or sale of raw milk—will be considered grounds for the department to seek actions for injunction and or criminal charges.”

TDA did not take an enforcement action against Weekly Fig, but the threat of one remained over its head; so, when the 2017 Tennessee legislative session rolled around, Reneau contacted State Senator Frank Niceley to see if he could help the food buyers club with legislation.  Niceley introduced Senate Bill 651 (SB 651) which established that there was no regulation or licensing requirement for a “farm to consumer distribution point.“ Reneau testified at a Senate committee hearing for the bill; on May 11, 2017, SB651 was signed into law. A law distinguishing between the public and private distribution of food was now on the books—a major victory for food buyers clubs and farmers in Tennessee.

Unfortunately, Reneau’s problems did not end, even though there was no longer a conflict with TDA. Shortly before SB 651 became law, the Weekly Fig received a visit from two FSIS officials seeking to inspect the facility and the freezers in it. Reneau refused to let them in, telling them this was a private membership association and that, unless they had a warrant, they could not conduct an inspection of the facility.

FSIS Inspectors attempted a second inspection, and Reneau refused them again. When the inspectors provided her with copies of the laws they claimed gave them authority to inspect, she told them those laws apply to the general public, not a private membership association. In battling FSIS, Reneau showed the same courage and tenacity she did in her dispute with TDA—not accepting the government’s general assertions of authority and contesting the regulators point by point, asking for specific citations in the law to back up their claims. She grudgingly gave up ground to regulators, standing on her belief that there is a legal distinction between the public and private distribution of food.

Reneau said, “My whole life I have typically been a law-abider. I very much have a great respect for authority. It became very clear to me though, in my journey over the last 10 years with health and food and medical, that I need to be cautious about any authority exerted from those places because they had already proven themselves wrong in many cases.”

FSIS sent warning letters to Reneau and Weekly Fig after the attempted inspections and subsequently filed a court action to inspect the facility and look at the buyers club’s records. During the standoff, Reneau decided to shut down the Weekly Fig when it lost its lease and a suitable replacement within its budget could not be found; being pregnant with her fifth child made the decision easier to discontinue with the day-to-day operations. Nevertheless, FSIS pressed on with the case seeking records from the Weekly Fig.

In April 2019, Reneau had a court hearing, attending it while 37 weeks pregnant; the judge ordered that she appear for a deposition and bring buyers club records. The deposition took place in July 2019; Reneau brought her two-month-old baby with her—nursing the baby throughout the questioning from DOJ and USDA attorneys. She was worried about protecting the privacy of her club members and farmers; as it turned out, the deposition was more about getting the matter off FSIS’s desk—after two years, the federal investigation of Weekly Fig was over.

Through her experience with the Weekly Fig, Reneau has seen a side of government that most have not. She says, “I would just like to see less of the government making decisions on behalf of people as it affects their private lives. We should be able to make decisions for ourselves as long as it is not impacting other people … I just feel like the government has taken too much of a role in private life and that is where I would like to see things shift.”

Michele Reneau is active in defending faith, family and freedom, and constitutional rights—including the fundamental rights of parents to direct the upbringing, health and education of their children according to their values and beliefs. Acting on the courage of her convictions, she is someone who walks the talk.

The post How One Weston Price Chapter Leader Made an Impact appeared first on Real Milk.

The ordeal of the investigation has led the owners of French Broad Farm, Earl and Cheri Cruze, to shut down their herd share operation, a huge loss for the local food community in the Knoxville area. Earl Cruze, 75 years young, has milked cows for 68 years and has always been the only milker for the herd share. Raw milk drinkers in the metro Knoxville area are now out a source of their sustenance.

The department decided to lift the directive, in part, because according to County Health Director Martha Buchanan, “there is no ongoing transmission” of E. coli; the last illness KCHD connected to the dairy occurred on June 3. Buchanan indicated that the department believed that French Broad Farm was the source of the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria that sickened seven children that drank raw milk the farm produced. Interestingly, at the same time the department was investigating the dairy, it had also determined that at least four children had become ill through E. coli O157:H7 poisoning at a daycare center through direct or indirect contact with farm animals. KCHD’s investigation found no connection between the dairy and the daycare center.

What Buchanan or anyone else with KCHD never did explain was why there were no test results from milk and manure samples the department had collected from the farm over a week earlier. KCHD had gone to the farm to take milk samples on June 5 and manure samples on June 6. In addition, the department also collected an unopened container and opened container of raw milk that were produced on the suspect batch dates of May 24 and May 25.

KCHD originally sent the samples to a Tennessee lab but then on June 11 had them transferred to a more sophisticated laboratory in Iowa.

It only takes lab technicians 48 hours to make a preliminary determination on whether a sample is positive for E. coli O157:H7. Typically, if a sample is positive, a health department or other agency will issue a press release announcing the positive test and will continue with its order prohibiting the producer from distributing the suspect food. The likelihood was that all tests the Tennessee and Iowa labs took of the milk and manure samples were negative for E. coli O157:H7; it’s possible that the department didn’t announce any test results because the Iowa lab was still running tests to find e. coli.

Campylobacter, the pathogen most commonly responsible for outbreaks of foodborne illness attributed to raw milk is rarely found in samples tested in a lab; campylobacter grows and disappears quickly. E.coli, including E. coli O157:H7, is different; e. coli will often continue to grow after a sample is taken to a lab for testing. As a result it would be more likely to have a positive test result for e-coli than campylobacter. While all negative test results wouldn’t necessarily clear French Broad Farm of blame for the illnesses, they are evidence that the dairy is not responsible for the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. The more negative tests the Tennessee and Iowa labs have the greater the evidence the dairy is not responsible for the illnesses. Buchanan did say the department looked for other commonalities among the sick children such as ground beef consumption and swimming pool usage but there are possibly other common activities among the seven children KCHD is unaware of.

Something to look at would be the multi-state foodborne illness outbreak this spring attributed to romaine lettuce contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. There have been five deaths and nearly 200 illnesses in the U.S. blamed on romaine lettuce consumption, including at least three illnesses in Tennessee. From May 16 to June 1, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) identified an additional 25 cases of illness it blamed on romaine lettuce. Reports are that there is a high level of secondary transmissions from the outbreak.

Earl Cruze ran a Grade A operation, Cruze Farm Dairy, for over thirty years. Cruze Farm Dairy is a completely separate operation from French Broad Farm and is now run by Cruze’s daughter Colleen Cruze Bhatti and son-in-law Manjit Bhatti.

The Tennessee herd share law went into effect in 2009. Since that time, herd share programs have thrived in the state; hundreds of dairies have operated herd shares at one time or another in Tennessee. The French Broad Farm investigation marks the second time herd share operations have been blamed for a foodborne illness outbreak in the state.

The post Popular Tennessee Herd Share Dairy Shuts Down appeared first on Real Milk.

In Australia, the sales of raw milk and raw milk cheeses for human consumption are illegal. Officers of the Biosecurity SA and the Dairy Authority of South Australia raided Mark Tyler’s dairy farm in May because they want him to register his cow-share program, which provides raw milk to share owners. Tyler refuses to do so, claiming that his operation is a legal way for shareholders to acquire raw milk as farmers and other cow owners are legally permitted to consume the milk that their cows produce.

Tyler’s “My Cow” cow-share program allows consumers to purchase a 1% share of a cow for $27.50, in addition to a monthly boarding fee. Each share yields 6.5 liters of raw milk every month. The program has been in operation for six years.

This raid and pressure from authorities has, once again, raised the issue of whether cow-share programs should be considered a means of selling raw milk to the general public – and whether raw milk sales should be illegal at all. Raw milk sales are legal in many countries, including New Zealand.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is investigating the processing and consumption of raw milk products, and there is strong opinion in support of consumer choice. Should raw milk sales be allowed, cow-share programs like Tyler’s would be subject to official quality standards which, to many, seems like a good compromise between those who believe in consumer freedom and those who act in the interest of public safety.

Read more about the issue here:

http://www.altlj.org/news-and-views/downunderallover/duao-vol-38-3/605-raw-milk-raid-at-willunga-hill-enforcing-food-safetyhttp://www.altlj.org/news-and-views/downunderallover/duao-vol-38-3/605-raw-milk-raid-at-willunga-hill-enforcing-food-safety

The Campaign for Real Milk is a project of the nutrition education non-profit, The Weston A. Price Foundation. Donate to help fund research into the benefits of nutrient dense foods.  http://www.westonaprice.org/lab

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