Wiki says……….

Retinyl palmitate, or vitamin A palmitate is the ester of retinol (vitamin A) and palmitic acid, with formula C₃₆H₆₀O₂.

Palmitate is the major component of palm oil…………………………

Retinyl palmitate is a synthetic alternate for retinyl acetate in vitamin A supplements, and is available in oily or dry forms. It is a common vitamin supplement, available in both oral and injectable forms for treatment of vitamin A deficiency, under the brand names Aquasol A, Palmitate A and many others. It is a pre-formed version of vitamin A, therefore the intake should not exceed the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). Overdosing preformed Vitamin A forms such as retinyl palmitate leads to adverse physiological reactions (hypervitaminosis A).^[1]

Retinyl palmitate is used as an antioxidant and a source of vitamin A added to low fat milk and other dairy products to replace the vitamin content lost through the removal of milk fat. Palmitate is attached to the alcohol form of vitamin A, retinol, in order to make vitamin A stable in milk.^{[citation needed]}

Retinyl palmitate is also a constituent of some topically-applied skin care products. After its absorption into the skin, retinyl palmitate is converted to retinol, and ultimately to retinoic acid (the active form of vitamin A present in Retin-A).

Notice it says….” added to low fat milk and other dairy products to replace the vitamin content lost through the removal of milk fat.”

And, isn’t palm oil used in some of the natural peanut butters?

Yet another reason to drink raw milk and take your cod liver oil

I’m just sayin’

Can you see what’s wrong with this picture?

If you guessed there shouldn’t be a plastic baggie floating up out of the expensive pastured chicken in my pot, you’d be right.

I forgot to take the little goody bag out before cooking my chicken!

DANG it!

http://www.ftcldf.org/aa/aa-26april2010.htm

Okay, the rest of the meeting.

Sorry to disappoint, but, if you were waiting for me to let you know what the Board decided, they didn’t.

After Armand addressed what Bruce Salsbury of Lorenae Dairy said, he presentd the board with a 55 page science report on raw milk and offered to make each member a copy and Fed Ex it to each one of them.

No one took him up on his very generous offer so he encouraged them to read it and even quoted from a few of the (impressive)studies in it, still, no one seemed impressed.

After mentioning the sub-committee to Karen Prescott several times and not getting an answer, or so much as a change in the expression on her face, Armand finally had to press her on it. She said they had presented the idea to the State Milk Board Advisory Committee?

 Yes, the Milk Board has an Advisory Committee. Apparently made up of the same people only different? They all hold similar positions to the Milk Board members,   ( health dept. employees, dairy farmers, etc.), but the only person that is on both the Advisory Committee and Milk Board is the secretary, Gene Weisman.

Karen then said, after more pressing, or pulling may be a better word, the advisory committee hadn’t made a decision because of budget issues and she had no idea when they would decide.

We literally had to drag each little bit of info out of her. She wasn’t volunteering anything!

I addressed the board after that and we reminded her that they (the Board) were supposed to be forming the sub-committee before this Milk Board Meeting and we had been wating for a phone call since she had said she would be calling soon to let us know who the members of the Raw Milk Sub-Committee would be.

After stammering a bit she said they wouldn’t know anything until the Milk board Advisory Committee met again.

And, again, more dragging to get her to tell us she thought that might be sometime around the end of June. Thanks.

I then asked Karen if all action against anyone selling raw milk would be on hold until this could all be reviewed she said “yes”.

The Milk Board’s legal advisor (not sure if she is an actual atty. or not) spoke up and said that there would be action if the law was broken by bringing milk into Greene County. I said that that WAS the issue to be reviewed, the law says a consumer may purchase raw milk and have it delivered to him for his or her own use. She mentioned the A.G.’s opinion said that milk may only be purchased on the farm and that was what the Milk Board was using to make their decisions and the Board would not be able to really tell us anything until a decision had been made by the court in the Bechard case. She then said that no one could bring raw milk in to the county unless they had a food permit. Karen piped up at that point and agreed it was a food permit violation.

No, I didn’t continue to debate the issue with the Board’s legal advisor. I’m not familiar with the “Food Permit Ordinance” Greene County has. When I asked for a copy of the ordinance the legal advisor stated they were published regularly. I, of course had to ask where are they published? Her response was “at the Office of Adiministration website.”

Um, could you give me that website?

“It’s the Office of Administration website.”

Okay

maybe  here?

I did, however, remind everyone that science no longer supports that raw milk is dangerous, or, that pasteurized milk is safe. I also stressed that there is a large volume of raw milk sold in SW-MO and NO ONE is getting sick. We just want to be able to keep doing what we have been doing, customers meeting their producers to pick up milk.

A member of the board, a dairy farmer, then asked me “so you’re telling me he (meaning Armand I guess) can milk a filthy cow and just sell the milk?”

I answered “no, then people would get sick. Great care is taken by raw milk producers in the care of their cows and their milk.”  honestly, the rest of that little discussion (which was only a few sentences) is a blur because I was trying so hard not to cuss.

So, nothing was decided. We’ll wait for the Bechard’s next hearing on june 4th. Hope to see you there!

Read the law and the A. G.’s opinion for yourself, I’d love to hear what you think………..

 The Law…..

Missouri Statutes
TITLE XII PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
Chapter 196 FOOD, DRUGS AND TOBACCO
FLUID MILK AND FLUID MILK PRODUCTS

196.935. State milk inspection required on all graded fluid milk or milk products pasteurization required, exception.  

No person shall sell, offer for sale, expose for sale, transport, or deliver any graded fluid milk or graded fluid milk products in this state unless the milk or milk products are graded and produced, transported, processed, manufactured, distributed, labeled and sold under state milk inspection and the same has also been produced or pasteurized as required by a regulation authorized by section 196.939 and under proper permits issued thereunder. Only pasteurized graded fluid milk and fluid milk products as defined in subdivision (3) of section 196.931 shall be sold to the final consumer, or to restaurants, soda fountains, grocery stores, or similar establishments; except an individual may purchase and have delivered to him for his own use raw milk or cream from a farm. (emphasis mine)

AG’s opinion….

” Conclusion

It is the opinion of this office that section 4 of House Bill No. 1280 prohibits a dairy farmer from selling raw milk to the general public from a distribution center set up by the dairy farmer and located away from his farm premises.”

Signed by Atty. Gen. John C. Danforth, 1973

Is it just me or does that sound like he’s talking about a roadside stand or something? We have been told by the Board that according to this A.G. opinion, raw milk cannot even be delivered to someone who has prepaid. The Milk Board is using this “opinion” to say NO RAW MILK CAN BE BROUGHT IN TO GREENE COUNTY.

Honestly, when we walked in to the meeting I was so shocked by what I was hearing, I forgot I even had a laptop.

My son, Joey, and I carpooled with Armand Bechard and his daughter Kezia.

Because I was driving we were, of course, a few minutes late. when we walked in the door of the tiny conference room Bruce Salsbury of * Lorenae Dairy was addressing the board, saying things about people selling milk without a permit and basically how *dirty some of the farms and cows are ( I can’t remember exactly how he worded it), how this wasn’t right and needed to be stopped.

My mouth had to have been hanging open.

After rambling like this for a couple of minutes one of the Milk Board members asked Bruce what it is that he wants from the Board and he said (notice the quotation marks) “ I want you to stop the milk pirating.”  Another member then asked him what he meant by “pirating” and he replied “No milk should be allowed to be sold unless it is grade A.  People are selling milk to their dairy co-ops and then dipping out of the tank and selling directly to customers, that’s pirating.” ….”I want you to stop it from coming in to Greene County”  “No one should be able to sell milk without a permit.” …..”I’ve got 1/2 a million a year invested in this and I’m losing 50 thousand a year” (not sure what he meant here). I got what I needed (equipment? bottler? not sure which one he said) and you (meaning the board) said I could only sell at the farm, then I got a permit and was allowed to sell at the Farmer’s Market and now I’m selling so much raw milk I don’t have enough for the co-op (I’m assuming he has contract for a certain amount for the commercial dairy co-op he belongs to). I need you to require anyone selling milk to have a permit and stop any other milk from being brought in. Then, you can loosen the regulations and I’ll be able to do the marketing I need to do (no one is allowed to market raw milk.)

I kept having to lean over and ask Armand “did I just hear that right?” I couldn’t believe it!

Armand then addressed the Board and gave the perfect response when he said “ I’ve been self employed in one way or another most of my life, and I would be ashamed. I think it’s a problem that  because Bruce isn’t making enough money he’s asking the government to shut down his competition.” 

Oh yes he did!

That’s all I can post for now, I’ve been gone all day! More tomorrow!

*(if you click on the link above it will take you to a video of Lorenae Dairy, is it just me or does he stick his hands in to the cheese after it was pasteurized? too bad there’s not any beneficial bacteria left in there to fight off any germs he may have accidently introduced)

Chad, our usual Jefferson City reporter for the Springfield News Leader, is out of town  and to my knowlegde there won’t be anyone there recording the meeting either (hmmm I wonder if it’s because the meeting is at 8am??)

So you can all stay informed, I may live blog the meeting!

Very simple, flavorful, and forgiving.

Found it on one of my new favorite blogs…..http://notlazy-rustic.blogspot.com/2010/04/thai-basil-chicken-gai-pad-krapo.html

I’ll definately be spending some time perusing the archives.

Thai Basil Chicken or Gai Pad Krapo

To have a godly woman, known by her fruits, available to  share her wisdom, answer questions and give encouragement, is valuable beyond measure!

If you don’t know anyone like this then I encourage you to head over to In a Shoe and register for…

Giveaway: Evenings With Victoria Botkin…..

“How does a wife help her husband be the man Christ wants him to be? How can she inspire him to love her? How can she discover the forgotten joys of being the helper God designed her to be? Beginning March 1, Victoria, beloved wife to Geoffrey Botkin, will host weekly online mentoring sessions for women as a homemaker’s resource to the worldwide Christian community. Mother to five boys and two girls, Victoria draws insight from 30 years of applying Scripture to marriage with one of America’s most visionary men.” 

Hurry up, they’ll be choosing a winner Friday!

We really like dates!

I like to puree them and add dried fruit or nuts for a Lara type snack bar, eat them right from the box, and wrap them with bacon for a delicious hors d’oeuvre!

Not only are they yummy they’re very good for you too!

Check this out from “wholefooddelights.com”

 MEDJOOL & NEGLET NOOR DATES ARE GOOD FOR YOU

“Medjool dates are large moist dates (2 ½ times as large as a normal date), while the smaller Deglet Noor dates are a drier date. These dates provide fiber, potassium, and magnesium nutrients that defend us from heart disease and cancer. Evidence shows that eating fiber-rich foods reduces our risk of colon, rectum, and breast cancers. Soluble fibers have been linked to low blood cholesterol levels and scientists believe they may help lower blood pressure and stabilize blood sugar. Four medjool dates provide 570 milligrams of stroke-reducing Potassium and 10% of the U.S. RDA of essential Magnesium. Potassium works with sodium and magnesium to regulate blood pressure and to control the proper rhythm of the heart. One study showed that eating even one serving daily of fresh fruits or vegetables high in potassium can reduce the risk of stroke by 40%. Potassium is necessary to maintain fluid balance in cells, transmit nerve signals, release energy from carbohydrates and proteins, improve the delivery of oxygen to the brain, and aids clear thinking. Magnesium is very important because it plays a major role in almost every major biological process. It is essential for maintaining the heart, good nerve function, bone formation and many general metabolic processes. Magnesium has been shown to be an essential component of more than 300 critical enzymatic reactions. It activates enzymes that control energy release from glucose and fats, and releases energy stored in muscles so it can be used.”

Co-ops usually have large quantities of dates resonably priced, so, this is how I usually get them. Recently, I didn’t use up my dates quickly enough and when I went to get them they were as hard as rocks!! If this happens to you, simply soak them in water for about ten minutes, and they are as good as new!