I don't know how many of you are familiar with Dr. Hauschka. It's a luxe organic body care and cosmetics brand. The company originally started in Germany, but its products have become very popular in the United States among people eager to spend a pretty penny on looking pretty naturally. Hauschka sources its products' ingredients from biodynamic farms, and the company as a whole is very focused on sustainability.



Hauschka's American office is located in Western Massachusetts, and the couple who head this branch have found a way to protect it from an outside buyout:



In a transaction believed to be unprecedented among U.S. companies, Kurz and her husband legally eliminated their ownership in Hauschka, and then placed the operating company, which is profitable, inside a Massachusetts nonprofit corporation. The result is a novel corporate structure that acts a lot like an irrevocable trust, with one significant exception: It has no trustees or beneficiaries, which means that the Estee Lauders and L'Oreals of the world will find it very difficult to buy Hauschka, ever. Fast Company



This ensures that Hauschka won't be compromised in its operations or in its integrity, that its missions and its products will remain the same.



The Kurzes put a premium on sustaining their business's mission and values--notions as romantic as you'd expect. "We aim to heal the earth and humanity," Susan, 58, says, pausing as if she's anticipating the skeptical retort, Through $14.50 tubs of lip balm? "Every action that is taken in this business, every intersection between the earth and end user, has a proactive healing impulse behind it." Hauschka's products back up the boast. Its raw ingredients are grown or sourced primarily from biodynamic farms and at fair-trade pricing.



A lot of people won't understand the Kurzes's actions. Their company was estimated at being worth $50 million. Big cosmetics conglomerates wanted to buy the company. The Kurzes could have sold Hauschka, retired, and not looked back to see how the brand devolved. Then again anthroposophists have a reputation for being "weird" and doing things their own way. I find it refreshing for people to maintain their core values despite outside temptations.



I must confess to being biased. I love Dr. Hauschka products, and I can't wait to some day be a rich bitch and afford a regular supply of them. Their rejuvenating mask is divine. My skin would glow after each weekly use. One tube lasted a year for two people.



For anyone who wants to try their line without investing a lot of money, I recommend their trial kits (aka travel kits). For the holidays, a portion of each trial care kit goes to Heifer International.

The Cerrito is showing "All in This Tea" twice this weekend. I'm not familiar with filmmaker Les Blank, but I love tea, and the chance to travel to China, even if only visually, appeals to me.



"As his first film shot digitally, Les Blank was a one-man crew who blended in with the environment, taking his famous fly-on-the-wall approach even further. A handheld camera provides an unpolished intimacy with the farmers' faces and their tea-stained hands. The film moves from a modern, urban setting to a pastoral China rarely glimpsed by westerners."

PBS brass have announced a number of changes to their flagship program Masterpiece Theatre. Gillian Anderson's appointment as "one" of the new "hosts" is bound to create excitement. Hell, I'm excited. I'm looking forward to letting Anderson into my livingroom again. She'll be the first woman host of the program. She won't be the first American. I wonder which of her accents she'll use when hosting?

I've become hooked on Project Runway Canada. It's more design-oriented than its American cousin. The designers on the show seem less like stereotypes, less like they're filling a previous season designer's role on the show.



For some reason the Slice network doesn't like their content viewed on this side of the border, but I wouldn't recommend their site anyway. It's highly spoilerific. Their player shows the exit interview of each week's eliminated designer right before the full episode.



MsRoyalTea has been uploading each week's new episode in segments, and so far she has not been forced to remove any.



Here's the first part of the premier episode for you to enjoy:









P.S. Is it just me, or do the Canadian designers seem less bitchy than their American counterparts?

rance and I have been drinking raw milk for maybe a year now with no ill effects. We've been quite healthy, maybe even healthier than before we started to drink it. I haven't had a cold since last December. I like the taste of whole, raw milk, too. I usually have at least one glass a day. I can't believe we may not be able to buy raw milk anymore. We're going to write our representatives this weekend.





DEAR RAW MILK FRIENDS,



There comes a time in life when conscious people must fight... ....this is one of those rare times!!



The Governor of California just signed into law AB1735 which changes raw milk standards to include "less than 10 coliforms per ml of raw milk". This will eliminate a consistent supply of raw milk in California, because high quality raw milk always has some Coliforms. In fact Coliforms are essential to the safety of raw milk. They are responsible for making Colicins which protect against and kill off harmful pathogenic forms of bacteria including Ecoli 0157H7. Never before has raw milk in California ever been tested for Coliforms, because they are good bacteria and are not pathogenic.



All raw milk pathogens are tested separately to assure safety.



Sadly, the reality is that the Governor probably did not even know what he was signing because it was slipped into the regulation without discussion or debate. When he finds out what he signed he will ask for a "CDFA head on a silver plate" I am sure. That's right. There were no open discussion or hearings on this change. No raw milk consumer or raw milk producer was advised or invited to attend the secreted meetings. The staff at the State Ag Committee now says that AB1735 was not supposed to be an area of conflict. It was just law to align California Raw Milk laws with Federal Raw Milk laws.



To any raw milk producer or consumer this is WAR!!

The CDFA and FDA hate raw milk!!!



Only the government and pasteurized GOT DEAD MILK policy makers were involved in AB 1735 and of coarse there was no discussion. This was a "strategic sneak attack"... to get rid of the looming raw milk threat to the GOT DEAD MILK industry.



We now ask that you all please shower the Governor with emails and letters. Do not blame him but ask him to correct a horrible mistake immediately. We ask that you call your state assemblyman. We ask that you write your local newspaper. We ask that you blog. We ask that super moms and dads morph into raw milk ninja fighters and protect your families. The internet and your voices are your greatest tools. But they must be heard. Tell everyone about how raw milk has changed your life.



Demand that the "eight new words introduced by AB 1735" that effectively kill California Raw Milk be immediately removed!



There is more to this story, in September of 2006, during the height of the huge Ecoli 0157H7 spinach outbreak that sickened 197 and killed 3, CDFA mandated a recall of organic raw milk in California. After seven days of press drama, raw milk famine, fanfare, thousands of tests (including fresh manure from all cows and all milk products) and extensive research, neither the FDA, CDFA or DHS could link any illness to raw milk. The kids supposedly sickened did not even have matching pathogen tests linking them as a group! There were only two sick kids and they did not share the same pathogens. There were never four sick kids as advertised. Suffice it to say there was great government embarrassment and liability after the true facts were collected and exposed.



In the end, the government official statement said that "there was no connection between raw milk and any illnesses" (Fresno Bee front page CDFA statement reference).



CDFA then settled with OPDC for a large cash settlement payment and a mutual release of liability in exchange for not being sued for the "false recall". OPDC signed this settlement several months ago.



AB1735 is "CDFA Payback" for this settlement embarrassment and the "false recall". This sneak attack was because CDFA knows full well that they do not have the political support or the science to address raw milk consumers or producers to their faces.



We need your help to save raw milk in California. The entire raw milk movement is being attacked when raw milk is attacked in California or any place. You the consumer is being attacked and being denied your right to chose living whole foods.



It is time to fight for your health and your lives, because that is exactly what is on the line. Sterilized and preserved food brings on immune depression, allergies and illness. Antibiotics then make it all that much worse. 80 percent of the human immune system is made up of bacteria in our gut. When they die we die!! We need good bacteria badly. The crisis in MRSA and VRE infections are directly associated with weak immune systems and antibiotic abuse. Most all chronic diseases and immune depression are healed by whole bio-diverse and enzyme rich foods....raw milk. Raw milk is at least 800 times more biologically diverse than even good yogurt.



Please go to www.organicpastures.com for specific directions on what to do and who to call. Addresses, contact information and legislative representative names are available here:



http://www.organicpastures.com/ab1735_landing.html



High on our priority is our Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Secretary of Agriculture A.G Kawamura, and all the state legislators.



This a raw milk health revolution....do not let it be our generation that lost this fight. We owe it too ourselves and our children to win this and place these GOT DEAD MILK protectors on notice that this is a democracy and due process and representation still matters. Sneak Attacks will not be tolerated by the raw milk consumers or producers of California or our nation.



You are requested to attend a rally and press conference at 1130 at the Fresno Farmers Market at Shaw and Blackstone avenues on Saturday October 27th. I will be speaking to the press and they need to hear your voices loud and clear. We expect a huge turn out and we need everybody that can come. Raw milk will be on sale for all that come. Movie stars are invited...Arnold needs to hear from you.



Try your best to attend the rally wear a shirt that supports raw milk and your right to eat whole living foods!



Stand now and be counted!!! See you in Fresno at the Farmers Market on Saturday.



Only living milk brings life!!





Mark McAfee

Founder OPDC

1-877 RAW MILK

http://www.organicpastures.com





"When you are right you can not be too radical, when you are wrong you can not be too conservative". MLK.



Raw Milk and Living Foods are Right!!