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America’s Thanksgiving story of charity and peace | Opinion
Thanksgiving brings families together and gives us wonderful memories. Turkey is on the menu in most homes that celebrate the holiday, but the first Thanksgiving held by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag in 1621 likely had no turkey at all. And no mashed potatoes either. Duck, deer, seafood and cornmeal are believed to be the main dishes at that famous Thanksgiving debut in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
While today’s Thanksgiving is known for parades, football and shopping, the original intent was far different. President Abraham Lincoln believed Thanksgiving should be a day of praying for peace and caring for war victims.
William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.”Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation of October 1863 during the Civil War sought to unite the country and build peace. The writer Sarah Josepha Hale had written Lincoln encouraging him to make Thanksgiving a regular national holiday. Hale’s letters made a difference.
“The observance having spread from state to state this year, for the first time, takes its place among the institutions of the nation,” stated an 1863 Thanksgiving editorial in the Hartford Courant. Thanksgiving was here to stay in America.
Turkey was part of the Thanksgiving in 1863. A Chicago Tribune article titled “The Soldiers Thanksgiving Dinner” told of the joy of those getting turkey and chicken at Camp Douglas, The United States General Hospital and the Marine Hospital.
Following Lincoln’s proclamation of caring for those wounded by war, the first national Thanksgiving holiday was a success. Since then, charity has become an important part of the Thanksgiving tradition.
Lincoln’s idea of Thanksgiving as a time for giving back to those in need is something we should always make a part of the holiday. Charity at home and overseas is America’s Thanksgiving story.
At Thanksgiving in 1947, about 10,000 orphans in Europe each got a big surprise: a food package from America. The New York Times reported about this Thanksgiving in Europe because of donations from Americans. This generosity was part of the “Silent Guest” plan, in which families donated at the holidays to send care packages to Europe. This was just two years after World War II, when Europe was reeling in hunger.
Imagine the joy for a thousand orphans at the Central Children’s Home in Vienna, Austria, who were among those who received the Thanksgiving food packages. More Thanksgiving packages were given to kids in Austria who had been stricken with polio. This generosity offered these kids a bit of hope when they had suffered so much. Food donations from America saved lives and built peace after the war.
Thanksgiving today offers us a chance to help those suffering during this holiday season. You can donate to foodbanks feeding hurricane victims in North Carolina, Florida and other areas. Overseas there are starving war victims in Gaza, Sudan, Haiti, Burkina Faso, Yemen and other nations that desperately need our help.
You can donate to charities like Save the Children, CARE, Mary’s Meals, Catholic Relief Services, Edesia, Mercy Corps and many others. UNICEF has an appeal to provide food to malnourished infants as supplies are running low.
The UN World Food Program (WFP) needs our support as it tries to feed millions of starving people in war-torn Gaza and Sudan. These two areas are near famine levels of hunger. The WFP also provides aid in lesser known conflict areas like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where over 23 million people face severe hunger. But the WFP needs more resources to feed all the war victims.
There are many nations that need Thanksgiving food and peace. We can do something great to help them by donating and making charity a part of our holiday.
William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.” His writings have been published by the New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek and many other news outlets.
Why I can’t come home to Florida as a pregnant woman | Opinion
In less than a month, I turn 40. It is a huge milestone, but on Nov. 2, I had an even bigger milestone that I was scared to share with family and friends who live in Florida.
I successfully froze 17 eggs.
As I was recovering at home in California, I thought about my journey so far into motherhood. It consisted of testing my egg count, finding out I didn’t ovulate, crying to the song “Blackbird” because I didn’t ovulate, testing again a month later, celebrating because I ovulated, starting to work with my fertility doctor, having a cooler of meds delivered to my house, giving myself injection after injection after injection to find out my body was not progressing, once again getting angry and crying to the song “Blackbird,” then doing the whole entire process of giving myself shot after shot and then finally getting the procedure to have my egg frozen. This made me feel like a badass.
Saffiyah “Saffy” Johnson is the former chair of the Orange County Children’s Cabinet.I imagined what it would be like to visit home, pregnant. What it would feel like for my belly to be so big that it hid my feet as they gently grazed the sand on the beach. Lovingly describing the sounds of the waves to my unborn child, eating fresh conch fritters from a local tiki bar, and hoping I have the same craving my mom had with me: lemon custard ice cream from Joy’s in White City. Most importantly, getting love, hugs and humor from my family and friends in Florida. Those dreams came to a sobering halt the night of Nov. 5, due to Amendment 4 not passing. I quickly realized that my life would potentially be in danger if I was pregnant in Florida.
I have worked in health care for over 10 years, including seven years in Florida. I know the health-care system well and some of the challenges in the state before the collapse of Roe v. Wade. In health care, when we are looking at the chance of a mother dying during pregnancy and childbirth within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, we express it by how many women have died per 100,000 live births. This is called the Maternal Death and Mortality rate. If we looked at the rate in Florida, it was 24.1 between the years of 2018-2022. This is a little higher than the U.S. average of 23.2 for the same period. For context, I live in California now, and the rate for the same period is 10.5. Other surrounding states to Florida such as Alabama and Georgia are 39 and 32.
When we look at the maternal mortality rate for a woman like me, a Black woman, the maternal mortality rate is far higher than any other racial or ethnic group since at least 2014. In 2019, the maternal mortality rate for Black mothers was 44 and in Florida during the same year, it was 47.8. At its highest, the rate was 69.9 in the U.S. and in Florida it was 95.6! Having a child may be the riskiest thing for me as a Black woman.
Having a high rate frightens me, but what frightens me more is the answer to the following question, “With the six-week ban in place, would doctors feel secure in performing life-saving treatments for me if I was pregnant and in distress?” and the answer is no. Part of this is simply hesitancy to provide care and follow the law. Doctors have their own stressors attempting to provide the right care in normal circumstances, let alone risking prison time.
So, when I think of a future pregnancy, I’ll beg my friends and family from Florida to visit me in the safety of California.
Saffiyah “Saffy” Johnson, a longtime Orlando resident and former chair of the Orange County Children’s Cabinet, lives in Roseville, Calif.
Today in History: November 26, Mumbai terror attacks of 2008 begin
Today is Tuesday, Nov. 26, the 331st day of 2024. There are 35 days left in the year.
Today in history:On Nov. 26, 2008, teams of heavily armed militants from the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba stormed luxury hotels, a popular restaurant and a crowded train station in Mumbai, India, leaving at least 175 people dead (including nine of the attackers) in a rampage spanning four days.
Also on this date:In 1791, President George Washington held his first full cabinet meeting; in attendance were Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of War Henry Knox and Attorney General Edmund Randolph.
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In 1917, the National Hockey League was founded in Montreal, succeeding the National Hockey Association.
In 1941, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull delivered a note to Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Kichisaburo Nomura (kee-chee-sah-boor-oh noh-moo-rah), setting forth U.S. demands for “lasting and extensive peace throughout the Pacific area.” The same day, a Japanese naval task force consisting of six aircraft carriers left the Kuril Islands, headed toward Hawaii.
In 1942, the film ‘Casablanca,’ starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, premiered at the Hollywood Theater in New York City.
In 1973, President Richard Nixon’s personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, told a federal court that she’d accidentally caused part of the 18-1/2-minute gap in a key Watergate tape.
In 2000, Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris certified George W. Bush the winner over Al Gore in the state’s presidential balloting by a 537-vote margin.
Today’s Birthdays:- Impressionist Rich Little is 86.
- Football Hall of Famer Jan Stenerud is 82.
- Author Marilynne Robinson is 81.
- Bass guitarist John McVie (Fleetwood Mac) is 79.
- Football Hall of Famer Art Shell is 78.
- Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is 71.
- Football Hall of Famer Harry Carson is 71.
- NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett is 68.
- Country singer Linda Davis is 62.
- Actor-TV personality Garcelle Beauvais is 58.
- Actor Peter Facinelli is 51.
- DJ-music producer DJ Khaled (KAL’-ehd) is 49.
- Country musician Joe Nichols is 48.
- Pop singer Natasha Bedingfield is 43.
- Actor-singer-TV personality Rita Ora is 34.
‘Hungry for this kind of food.’ Raw milk use surging in Florida despite law banning sales for human consumption
The customers came from far and wide on a sunny November morning. They strolled past raw buffalo ice cream, raw chocolate milk and camel milk, grabbed raw cottage cheese, raw butter, raw lemon yogurt, all labeled “not for human consumption” or “for pet consumption only.” Some requested raw milk in their coffee orders at the truck next door.
They were gym rats, granola moms, young couples, Donald Trump supporters, single men trying to be healthier, and immigrants from countries where raw milk is a way of life, not a forbidden fruit. Some were trying raw dairy for their first time. Others came prepared, speeding out of the store with giant coolers so that the milk would not rapidly spoil when exposed to the warm South Florida air. One man wore a hat that said “in raw we trust.”
Tucked away in a far-west corner of Broward County, the Southwest Ranches farmer’s market has quickly become a hot spot for the state’s raw dairy consumers, even though Florida law forbids the sale of raw milk to humans. Customers come despite the legal barriers, risks of illness and warnings from public health officials not to consume unpasteurized milk. And they are not alone: Raw milk has surged in popularity across the state and the rest of the country over the last few years, a trend in part driven by online influencers within rightwing, anti-establishment circles of the web.
A way of life once relegated to certain segments of the population has permeated the federal government with the arrival of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a staunch supporter of the beverage who has claimed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has subjected it to “aggressive suppression.” Yet despite raw milk’s popularity in Florida and the state’s newfound reputation as a bastion of the right, it is one of the few in the country to completely prohibit the sale of raw dairy products for human consumption, allowing them to be sold only as pet food.
The result is a thriving market that sells people whatever they like as long as it’s packaged in a container that says “not for human consumption” or “for pet consumption only.”
Signs above the raw dairy products at Southwest Ranches Farmer’s Market state that raw dairy products are not for human consumption per Florida law. (Abigail Hasebroock / South Florida Sun Sentinel)Carolina Hernandez, 30, bought the Southwest Ranches market four years ago and has seen it grow from what she says was a failing business into a subject of social media acclaim that attracts influencers and customers from around the country.
“I feel like our country and our community, it’s hungry for this kind of food,” she said as she sat a picnic table outside of the market. Under the name of the market, her navy blue shirt read “God is Good.”
“They’re desperate to find real, natural food.”
The market used to only offer raw milk, but now, Hernandez said, it sells “the whole world of raw dairy heaven,” many of its products coming all the way from Amish country in Pennsylvania. Of course, Hernandez added, “It is a pet food item. So, I sell a lot of raw milk for pets, for cats and dogs.”
‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’The resurgence of raw milk is not new. For a long time, proponents have battled with scientists and government officials over the restrictions placed on consumption in the U.S. Federal law prohibits the sale of raw milk across state lines, and the FDA warns it can pose a “serious health risk.”
But the rules surrounding the industry are largely left up to the states. And few states are as strict as Florida.
In the vast majority of states, raw milk sales to people are legal. Most states, including Texas, Georgia and New York, allow people to buy the milk as long as it is purchased directly from farms for consumption. Several other states, including California, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, allow raw milk sales in regular retail stores.
Florida is one of only a few states, including Louisiana, Maryland and Indiana, that forbid raw milk product sales except as pet food, according to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.
But the law hasn’t stopped Florida’s raw milk industry, which has flourished in recent years.
Outside of Southwest Ranches Farmer’s Market, several other raw dairy operations dot the region, including Marando Farms in Davie. Others are not brick-and-mortar shops and act only as a pick-up place, such as Heritage Hen in Delray Beach, which sells raw milk, eggs and micro-greens, according to its website. Similar to Heritage Hen, Raw Milk Boca offers raw milk, kefir, yogurt, cream, butter, beef, eggs, sourdough bread, pizza dough and mushrooms. Local farmer’s markets also sell the product; at the Delray Beach Green Market, customers can buy raw dairy at a couple of stands.
As long as products are labeled as pet food, buyers can do as they like.
“It’s like a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ state,” said Jojo Milano, the owner of Delilah’s Dairy, a goat milk dairy farm.
Many in the community treat the law with a sort of “wink wink” attitude. That includes Edward Yauner, who was at the Southwest Ranches Farmer’s Market on a recent Saturday picking up raw milk and eggs. He had switched to the milk and other unprocessed foods in an effort to lose weight, and he hopes the Trump administration’s reinstatement will make raw milk and other “banned” foods easier to get.
“This food is for my pet,” Yauner said, using air quotes, then added, “My pet has been doing very, very well.”
Edward Yauner, 27, at the Southwest Ranches Community Farmers Market. He says he has switched to raw milk and other unprocessed foods in an effort to lose weight (Scott Luxor/Contributor)Still, many sellers fear losing their license or getting into trouble with the state for selling the milk too openly to people. Some declined to speak to the South Florida Sun Sentinel on the record about their businesses out of fear of punishment; others were careful in what they would say.
The Delilah’s Dairy website writes in its FAQ section, “Raw milk is for animal food consumption only. Do not tell me you are buying it for yourself to drink.”
When someone would call Milano asking for raw milk for their baby, she told the Sun Sentinel in 2011 that she would say no. “I don’t know if it’s a ruse,” she explained. “If you don’t follow my rules, no, I’m not selling you milk.”
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Hernandez says that she can’t suggest the milk is for humans, but consumption of it is a personal decision.
“As a business owner, I cannot say that it is for human consumption, right?” she said. “I cannot refer the dairy for any human, right? And it is more of a personal decision, more of a personal research, whoever wants to consume raw dairy … Unfortunately, because of the law, we are not able to recommend anything. But, like I said, it’s a movement, right?”
The state’s strict laws are also at odds with the reality in many countries outside of the U.S. Many South Florida raw milk consumers have roots in Latin American countries like Colombia and Cuba where unpasteurized dairy is readily accessible.
Hernandez emigrated to the U.S. from Colombia when she was 12 and sees the market as a connection to her childhood.
“The change in food is 100% different,” she said. “I feel like we are very familiar with this type of food in my country.”
A growing obsessionOn an idyllic farm in the middle of Utah, Hannah Neeleman films herself harvesting raw milk from the family cow, Tulip. She wears a cozy flannel as she pours the milk into glass jars. Later, she’ll use the raw milk — sometimes from a sheep instead of a cow — as she prepares recipes like whipped cream, banana pudding, and mozzarella cheese, to an audience of over 10 million followers.
Elsewhere on the web, doctor influencers Paul Saladino and Eric Berg have shared videos to their millions of followers analyzing the health benefits of the milk and denouncing the stigma and legal barriers. Saladino was once a major proponent of the carnivore diet, a trend that often coincides with raw milk consumption and involves consuming mainly animal products like eggs and steak and little in the way of fruits, vegetables or grains. Later, Saladino quit the carnivore diet and began eating more fruit.
People like Neeleman, Saladino and Berg have all helped usher new demographics into the raw milk renaissance. Their videos found a convert in Jensen Dowdle, a 25-year-old man living in Polk County who says his raw milk habits began as a sort of fusion of the “two different worlds” of influencers, as well as his upbringing.
“I grew up with a hate of the government,” he explained. “Just an intense distrust that was kind of nurtured from the very start.”
After his first child, Dowdle gained 30 to 40 pounds. He began watching Saladino and Burg for diet tips and found them not only promoting raw milk but other practices like intermittent fasting and reducing carbs. Then his wife introduced him to Ballerina Farm, who helped “romanticize country living.”
“You see that, you go, ‘OK, she’s drinking it and her kids are, and you see, online, people like RFK and all these people who go a little more into the science of it and push against what health agencies are saying,” he explained. “So it kind of got me a little curious myself.”
The craze has made its way to many similar consumers across Florida. Data indicates an increasing number of people are opting for raw milk in recent years, while influencers like Saladino have even visited the Southwest Ranches Farmer’s Market, according to Hernandez.
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“We definitely do know that there is a growing number of people that are seeking this out as a commodity,” said Benjamin Anderson, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Global Health at the University of Florida. He and other researchers have found a “rising trend in both the demand and the supply of raw milk” across the state over the past couple of years.
The growing popularity of raw milk is due, in part, to the “politicization of public health,” Anderson said, which ties into other choices such as vaccine hesitancy. Raw milk influencers also have gained a substantial following among those on the right like Dowdle, a shift that coincides with increasingly anti-establishment sentiments surrounding health.
Neeleman and her family are Mormon, and though they are not outspokenly conservative, they promote more conservative living and gender roles along the lines of other popular internet trends like the “trad wife,” an aesthetic based around women whose primary identity is being a homemaker.
Dowdle voted for Trump and considers himself “very conservative,” though he added that he is not a “cult follower” of Trump.
“There’s things about the MAGA agenda I really love and it makes me very proud of my country,” he explained.
As a conservative raw milk drinker, Dowdle questions why the Florida government, despite its embrace of the anti-establishment right wing, is so late to the trend. Most recently, Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo put out guidance against fluoridation of the water supply. Throughout the pandemic, Ladapo has repeatedly recommended against the COVID vaccine.
“If we are coding raw milk for the GOP, like what is holding back the holy state of Florida from getting this done?” Dowdle asked.
Anderson believes most of Florida’s raw milk sellers are homesteaders, many of them born out of the COVID-19 pandemic when people were stuck at home and began turning to new practices such as baking homemade sourdough bread, growing fresh vegetables in a backyard garden, and even farming. He and other researchers identified more than 115 producers of raw milk in the state, but only 30% of those had registered for a permit that allows the sale of pet food.
“I do see a rise in the number of sources of raw milk that are really the small homesteading operations,” Anderson said. “Individuals that are setting up because they have a perspective on farming as a part of their life and how that fits into society. And so there’s some social ideology here that’s playing a role and that is, I think, driving some of the increases in more raw milk production.”
Meg Connolly is another recent raw milk convert. The digital marketing consultant and real estate broker who lives in Miami first gave it a try in 2022 after hearing about it in a California coffee shop.
At the time, Connolly said she was severely lactose intolerant and chugged oat milk every day. Her husband had to start buying it in bulk. Even her phone reflected her obsession with an oat milk-themed case.
“I was insane over the oat milk,” she said.
Connolly was dealing with a host of female health complications at the time — endometriosis, menstruation problems, fertility issues and polycystic ovarian syndrome — and those issues, coupled with her desire to ditch the sugar and seed oil content found in most popular oat milk products, led her to raw milk.
“I tried it, and I was like this actually tastes amazing. And what really shocked me was I didn’t have a reaction at all,” she said. “My dairy intolerance prior to this was so severe that if sour cream touched the same guacamole spoon, I was down for the count for 24 hours, keeled over in pain.”
“The fact that I had zero reaction to it was what made me go really deep down the rabbit hole and quit oat milk entirely and find a way to get raw dairy in the state of Florida,” she said.
Connolly turned to the Southwest Ranches Farmer’s Market to get her fix, and she said she’s seen popularity grow for the market’s raw dairy products, with crowds increasing in size.
“I would really like and hope to see legalization where we can actually just go and get it at the store,” she said.
Many other raw milk consumers once preferred vegan products, then decided that the health benefits of raw dairy surpassed them. They cite positive changes such as better skin, a lack of allergic reaction, and increased energy as a result of consuming raw dairy products. Most say they drink it raw specifically because they believe pasteurization removes nutrients and flavor.
Colette Schnabel used to be a hardcore vegan. Now the Fort Lauderdale resident has gone largely carnivore, part of a broader approach to health that she shares on Instagram to 20,000 followers.
“I wasn’t thriving,” Schnabel said when thinking back to her vegan lifestyle. “I didn’t look well; my eyes were kind of sunken in. When I eat carnivore and I stick to raw dairies, I have an abundance of energy. My skin is so plump, I’m glowing.”
Online, she refers to herself as a “biohacking mama” and works for a media organization called “Biohack Yourself,” which filmed a documentary featuring RFK two years ago that is set to release in December; she’s stood by him ever since.
Schnabel also gives the raw milk to her children, as do many consumers. She used to have them drink vegan milks — anything from pistachio to coconut — but “saw a huge difference” when she switched over. Suddenly, her daughter’s belly was no longer bloated.
Dowdle, meanwhile, suffered from allergies.
“My whole life, I’ve always had my nose plugged,” he said. “Since I started drinking three months ago, I can breathe through both my nostrils.”
At the Southwest Ranches Farmer’s Market, Eddith Grau carried a basket with raw milk and quail eggs inside. She started taking trips there to pick up raw milk to address health issues her children experience: Her son has eczema and her daughter has a milk protein allergy. The quail eggs are for her mother who is undergoing chemotherapy.
“We started with the raw milk to try something different,” she said.
Eddith Grau shops at the Southwest Ranches Community Farmers Market. (Scott Luxor/Contributor) Is raw milk healthy?While some studies show benefits to raw or farm milk consumption, scientists argue that the benefits do not outweigh the risks and that some of the benefits cited by users may have to do with other aspects of the milk rather than the lack of pasteurization.
A study published in Nutrition Today found that the loss of nutrients from pasteurization is not significant, but did find “very minor” losses of vitamin C, folate, vitamin B12, vitamin B6, and thiamine. The authors noted that pasture-grazed cows likely have more nutritious milk, and sometimes proponents of raw milk “confuse feed-related changes in milk composition with those caused directly by pasteurization.”
Other studies have found that childhood consumption of raw milk helps prevent allergies and asthma and could contain probiotics.
But raw milk is also more likely to carry disease-causing bacteria and viruses, scientists say, and it can spoil easily if not stored properly, introducing even greater health risks.
Anderson said he and other researchers are concerned about the impact of the new trend on public health. A substantial amount of current and historical epidemiological data shows drinking completely unadulterated, straight-from-the-cow milk carries “a great risk for food-safety pathogens,” he said.
This year alone, raw milk has caused multiple outbreaks, health officials say. At least 165 people were sickened from a Salmonella outbreak linked to raw milk from a farm in California. An E. coli outbreak linked to raw milk in Washington sickened three people.
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“There’s a much greater chance that you’re going to expose yourself to something and be infected,” Anderson said. And it’s not just bacteria, he added, “now we also have these concerns around viral exposures.”
For example, outbreaks of bird flu in poultry and dairy cows have been occurring in more than a dozen states in recent months, which Anderson said means the “virus is starting to change and starting to spill over or transmit between species more readily than in the past.”
The bird flu virus, known as H5N1, “replicates in pretty high concentrations on raw milk,” Anderson said. Some farm workers have already contracted bird flu, and the concern is that people who drink raw milk are at a higher risk of contracting it too.
“If that virus has the potential to transmit from human to human, that’s when we have a pandemic potential,” he said, adding: “The more people who are exposed to the virus, the more probability we’re introducing there to this potential change happening. And then if it does happen, then yes, it becomes a public health issue, and everybody is impacted because that virus can now impact anybody.”
Experts maintain that the benefits simply do not outweigh the risks.
According to the Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center at North Carolina State University: “There are no science-based, data-supported reasons that raw milk is healthier than pasteurized milk and certainly no reasons that would outweigh the risks associated with consuming raw milk.”
Because cow’s milk naturally contains protein, fat, sugar, vitamins and minerals, the center called it “nearly perfect food,” but also contended that because of milk’s makeup, it provides nutrition for bacteria.
“While dairy farmers work really hard to keep the cow and their environment clean and pathogen free, bacteria are everywhere. Most are not harmful, but if milk were to become contaminated after it leaves the cow and not subjected to pasteurization, it increases the risk of causing illness in people,” according to the center’s emailed statement. “That is a concern, particularly for vulnerable people like young kids, elderly, or anyone with a compromised immune system, but really for all humans. It is not worth the risk.”
Drinking raw milk was likened to choosing not to wear a seatbelt when in the car: “It’s a law; we know that it can save your life in an accident, but some people still don’t do it.”
The Southwest Ranches Community Farmers Market offers raw milk and other products. Raw milk products must packaged in a container that says “not for human consumption” or “for pet consumption only,” since Florida is one of only a few states that forbid raw milk product sales except as pet food, according to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. (Scott Luxor/Contributor)Within Florida’s raw milk circles, sicknesses have popped up. A recent post from a mother in a raw milk Facebook group warned about one of the state’s dairies, saying that her daughter had gotten sick twice after drinking the milk and was hospitalized the first time for three days.
The comments section was flooded with supporters who shared similar experiences and critics who defended the dairy and raw milk in general.
“You have no evidence and yet are brutal in casting blame,” one person wrote.
“Maybe you should check vaccine ingredients and not blame the raw milk,” another said. The woman replied that her daughter had never been vaccinated.
Many raw milk proponents argue that the spreading of pathogens can be completely eliminated so long as the milk is acquired and processed correctly. Mark McAfee, who founded the Raw Milk Institute in California in 2011, said he believes drinking raw milk is completely safe, so long as a stringent three-step process is followed in acquiring it: high standards, food safety programs for farmers, and testing to ensure those standards are being met.
“Those are the three things that need to happen if we’re going to have raw milk really emerge,” he said.
Cows need to be healthy and fed well, for example, McAfee said. And equipment used in milking the cows always must be clean to avoid contamination of any kind, along with chilling the milk almost immediately after it’s taken from the cow.
The lack of a framework for raw milk production is what leads to issues, not the raw milk itself, McAfee said.
“There are no standards nationally or internationally,” he said. “So yes, there’s lots of problems, tons of problems, because there’s no consensus.”
McAfee said he “stands with (Kennedy) 100%” on the idea to curb the current regulation on raw milk.
In August, Kennedy’s former running mate, Nicole Shanahan, posted a video of her visit to the Raw Milk Institute where McAfee explained the organization’s process in acquiring raw milk.
“The only way America will ever be better and happier and healthier is to have our gut microbiomes intact because we’re consuming whole food nutrition, and maybe big industrial complexes can change,” he said. “America is stuck on the sick paradigm, and RFK is talking about a health paradigm, and that is a transition that’s really key.”
To legalize or not to legalize?Not all fans of raw milk want to see it fully legalized. They say it could present more obstacles, expenses and liability issues for the sellers. Some who consume the milk say they prefer to buy it directly from a farm.
Grau fears that if raw milk lined the dairy aisle at Publix, its value would become diminished, similar to the way “organic” has lost its meaning. Still, she is hopeful that the reinstatement of the Trump administration will loosen some of the current restrictions.
“That is my hope with RFK Jr.,” she said.
The Southwest Ranches Community Farmers Market offers raw milk and other products. In Florida, raw milk products must be sold with labels that say “not for human consumption” or “for pet consumption only.” (Scott Luxor/Contributor)Other new-to-raw-milk Floridians, like Dowdle, think its legal status in Florida is a relic of the past.
Recently, Dowdle reached out to his local representative, Republican Josie Tomkow, and got in touch with her legal aide to talk about raw milk.
“She just hits me back with ‘Oh, this is a federal issue,’” he recalled. “‘Go talk to your federal representative.’ But part of me was thinking, okay, but it’s legal in all these states.”
Next, Dowdle reached out to State Sen. Colleen Burton, R-Winter Haven, but didn’t get a response. He plans to keep trying. He pointed to other states, like California, which he referred to as a liberal “hellscape” but where the milk is legal and farmers must meet certain safety criteria.
“Why doesn’t the ‘free state of Florida’ have these kinds of regulations so we can drink this raw milk?” he asked. “Why are we drinking pet food out here?”
Morning Update: South Florida’s top stories for Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024.
Here are the top stories for Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. Get the weather forecast for today here.
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Broward elections offices depart from downtown Fort Lauderdale and Lauderhill
After decades in downtown Fort Lauderdale, the Broward Supervisor of Elections Office no longer has a presence there. It’s now located in the suburbs.
The bulk of the agency’s operations moved into a new headquarters in northwest Fort Lauderdale, just south of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, over the summer. Almost everything that used to take place at a secondary location at the Lauderhill Mall also relocated.
Both locations permanently closed after the Nov. 5 presidential election.
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The downtown Fort Lauderdale office, on the ground floor of the county Governmental Center, was a key spot for candidates and their consultants for many years — the place they’d go to file their paperwork establishing campaign committees and where they’d submit paperwork to get on the ballot.
Now the door is locked and the window is covered. The 8,873 square feet at the Governmental Center is being “repurposed by the county,” elections office spokeswoman Lisa Arneaud said via email.
The lease on the 79,780 square feet of converted retail space once used by a Kmart at the Lauderhill Mall expired after the election.
Miriam Oliphant, left, returns to the Supervisor of Elections Office in downtown Fort Lauderdale on July 26, 2004, with a new qualifying check to run for office after the first one bounced. Mary Cooney, then-candidate qualifying officer at the Supervisor of Elections Office, checks over paperwork. The downtown office, where legions of candidates filed paperwork, closed after the 2024 elections. (South Florida Sun Sentinel file photo)The new 155,000-square-foot main office, at 4650 NW 21st Ave. in Fort Lauderdale, was finished in July and most employees and equipment moved that month.
The new facility cost $103 million for land, design and construction.
The new location was designed to increase transparency and security, both for elections workers and the ballots.
The design allows political activists, lawyers, elected officials, journalists and everyday citizens to watch almost everything that happens in the voting process — including routine administrative tasks that years ago rarely attracted much interest or attention.
The Supervisor of Elections Office has branch locations in libraries and other community buildings in Coral Springs, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, Pompano Beach and Tamarac.
Arneaud said Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott is “actively looking into opening a few more branch offices placed strategically throughout the county.”
All the offices are open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
Mitch Ceasar, former chair of the Broward Democratic Party, files paperwork at the Broward Supervisor of Elections main office on June 5, 2019, to become a candidate for circuit court clerk. Legions of candidates filed their paperwork at the elections office in downtown Fort Lauderdale. It closed after the 2024 election. (Anthony Man/South Florida Sun Sentinel)Many Florida seniors in financial straits and face losing their housing, study shows
Rent increases are forcing many Florida seniors to move, and they’re among the hardest hit in the country, a new survey suggests.
The new survey from Retirement Living, an Oklahoma-based retirement planning company, used U.S. Census data to show more than 35% of seniors age 65 and older in Florida reported “feeling pressured” to move in the past six months due to rent increases. That’s nearly three times the national rate of 12.3%, it said.
The median rent in Florida is $1,719, well above the national median of $1,406, according to the report.
When seniors move out of their home, it’s in search of someplace less costly, said Jailyn Montero, the Retirement Living spokeswoman. “With inflation, with rising rent, having to pay more than what you expected to is very stressful,” she said.
Broward County has long talked about the lack of affordable housing, where there is an estimated shortage of nearly 73,000 affordable houses in Broward, and another 74,000-unit gap of affordable rental apartments.
Broward officials also say there has been a 70.5% rent increase since 2016. Rents rose by almost 39% between 2021 and 2022 alone, with the average rent being $2,693 last year, up from a monthly rent of $1,942, according to county records.
Retirement Living’s research also shows 12.1% of Florida seniors are living below the poverty line, and rising rents are putting many older adults at risk of being displaced.
“Rising rent and inflation impacts all of us, but it’s especially burdensome to seniors living on those fixed incomes,” Montero said.
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In another study, data shows that seniors aged 65 and older are the fastest-growing demographic facing homelessness, she said, attributing a 2023 report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, and “the need to relocate for affordable housing can push many to the brink of desperation.”
In Broward, outgoing Mayor Nan Rich, in her annual “State of the County” address for 2024, said $3 million was recently awarded to a developer to help build a 92-unit senior housing project that will be called Boulevard Gardens, located in unincorporated Broward, near Fort Lauderdale.
Ralph Stone, Broward County’s director of the Housing Finance Division, said Boulevard Gardens is one of 13 projects for seniors since 2018 that added more than 1,500 units to the inventory.
“We are one of the least affordable metro areas in the nation as reflected by home prices and high rent rates and that’s what’s driving seniors to leave,” he said. “Seniors who haven’t saved are living off Social Security and suddenly are stuck with very high housing costs.
“Seniors are not retiring with enough of a nest egg to afford to live in Broward County unless they are living in a home that’s paid off.”
Cities also have gotten involved in the efforts. The city of Miramar offered up a $656,000 loan to help build Pinnacle at La Cabaña, a five-story, 110-unit affordable housing development for seniors, that is being constructed in Miramar.
Timothy Wheat, a partner at Pinnacle, said recently that La Cabana is just more than half completed and will open in the second quarter of 2025. His firm is also developing 100 units of affordable senior housing in Fort Lauderdale in a project called Pinnacle at Cypress. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2025.
The data for the Retirement Living report comes from the Household Pulse Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The survey consisted of a 20-minute online questionnaire that logged how emerging social and economic issues affect households across the country, according to Retirement Living.
Nationally, 7,998,154 older Americans (age 65 and above) participated in the survey. In Florida, 535,726 older Americans took part, of which 188,042 reported that a rent increase forced them to relocate.
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash
Wilton Manors readies to grow by up to 750 new residences. ‘We have to grow smartly.’
Wilton Manors will now be able to grow by up to 750 new homes in future redevelopment projects.
Broward County is expected to sign off on the city’s request to prepare for new growth. It’s part of accommodating well-planned development, said Mayor Scott Newton.
“We have to grow,” but “we have to grow smartly,” Newton said. “This provides we have the units to give to developments that want to come in that the residents and the community wants.”
Newton said he doesn’t expect the 750 new homes to be in one lump project. Rather, “it will be many projects within that area, not just a block or two, it’s many blocks.”
Already, the city is on the cusp of major change to its downtown.
Wilton Manors has already approved plans for a boutique hotel near the landmark Five Points intersection, which is considered a symbolic crossing in Wilton Manors. Although there is a motel in the city, this would be the first hotel — and one of the tallest buildings in Wilton Manors, with seven stories rising to 90 feet, the maximum height for the neighborhood.
The 123-room Wilton Hotel & Pool Club could start construction late next year or early 2026, said developer Mark Ellert. “There’s still a lot of design work to do,” he said.
He called the prospect of more development in the area “very beneficial” because “the more locals to support the hotel the better.
“We think Wilton Manors is a very unique special little community and certainly seems to have the capacity to absorb 750 residents.”
This most recent land use plan, in the downtown, calls for the allocation of 750 residential units, including at least 10% of them (75 units) restricted to affordable housing for 30 years.
Experts said there are “huge, huge gaps” between incomes and the cost to buy a home in Broward, and many more affordable units are needed throughout the county.
Newton said his vision is to accommodate “teachers and people that work in the restaurant business. They can’t afford to be here and that’s unfair to all of us. Happy employees are ones that don’t have to drive 20 miles.”
The units for the potential new growth would be available to developers for projects “that may come in the future,” said Wilton Manors City Manager Leigh Ann Henderson.
Henderson said the city recently updated its land use and zoning regulations to promote mixed-use redevelopment along our commercial corridors. “However, the city’s pool of available redevelopment units was running low, currently there are 135 unallocated redevelopment units,” she said.
This new infusion of units, which gives the city permission to build, allows “Wilton Manors the ability to review and approve future projects.”
According to city documents, the 750 redevelopment units will encourage the development of affordable units within the City’s Urban Center Mixed Use Zoning Districts and Highland Estates.
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash
ASK IRA: Could Heat be simultaneously showcasing and highlighting Jimmy Butler?
Q: Jimmy Butler won’t ever have more value than he does right now. If they lose him for nothing in the offseason it is going to be a major setback for the organization. And they have limited draft assets going forward. I don’t think this team can beat the current version of the Celtics four games, so they aren’t really playing for a title. I think they need to move Jimmy for a quality young point guard and some draft capital ASAP. And if they don’t have a starting caliber center on the team they need to also find someone to fill that role and Bam Adebayo has to move to forward. – Ron, Columbus, Ohio.
A: Actually, Jimmy Butler has had more value before, which is why the Heat signed him away from the 76ers and then re-signed him. But I get your point regarding this season and these recent performances. And, to be honest, there just might have to be a moment when the Heat ask themselves whether they can contend with the elite in the East. That makes not only Tuesday night against the Bucks intriguing, but also next Monday in Boston. At some point – even though it is very un-Heat-like – you do have to take a long view, as well, especially when two of your next four first-round picks are committed elsewhere. At the moment, Jimmy is giving the Heat exactly what they want – options.
Related ArticlesQ: I am afraid that Tyler Herro is reverting to the norm with his shooting percentage. And Bam Adebayo simply isn’t big enough to be an effective center in a league that is swinging back to larger centers. They appear to have some good rotation quality young players but no star quality young players. – Ron, Columbus, Ohio.
A: It’s kind of interesting how recent games by Tyler Herro have come to be viewed. As he has tapered off to very good instead of otherworldly, it’s almost as if the totality of what has been shown to this point is being written off. Yes, he struggled on his 3-pointers on Sunday against the Mavericks. But he still found a way to contribute. The same thing with Bam Adebayo, even as he missed a series of close-range shots.
Q: With Kel’el Ware not in the rotation and with three other centers on the roster, why hasn’t he been sent to the G League to play and further his development?- Joel.
A: Because one thing the G League has lacked for years has been quality play at center. So you wind up sending down big men to work against power forwards, hardly able to hone the type of skills that you better can hone in practice against the likes of Bam Adebayo, or even Kevin Love or Thomas Bryant. The G League has ample developmental benefits. Honing skills of a developing center is not one of them. As Keshad Johnson pointed out of his time in the G League, he actually had been playing some center there. The G League is a quality proving ground for wings. For big men? Not so much.
Early sport specialization can sabotage your child’s athletic future | Opinion
Some 60 million children in America participate in organized sports each year. And more than 26% of those kids specialize in just one sport before puberty. Early sport specialization means that children are involved in intense, year-round training in a single sport to the exclusion of other sports.
The widespread participation is wonderful, but the specialization in a single sport is a growing problem. Researchers, health professionals and athletes increasingly warn that early sports specialization can harm kids’ overall development, well-being, and love of the game — whichever game that may be. And there is hard data to back up their claims.
Dr. Brian Hainline is the president and board chair of the United States Tennis Association and recently transitioned from the NCAA as their chief medical officer. (courtesy, Brian Hainline)What’s driving this trend is no mystery. Parents and coaches are the biggest influencers of early sport specialization and intense, year-round training, according to one survey of elite athletes. As someone who was a Division 1 athlete in college, I recognize why coaches and parents believe early sports specialization is key to athletic success. Excelling in any activity, including sports, takes years of consistent practice. But this belief is misguided, and the consequences to the developing child are often tragic.
Specializing too soon can prove costly and counterproductive for the majority of kids. Children who concentrate on a single sport before age 12 are 70% to 93% more likely to suffer from an injury than their peers who play multiple sports. That’s largely because early specialization places intense pressure on developing pre-adolescent bodies. It can overtax and over-model specific muscles, ligaments and joints that are not physiologically ready for such behavior, leading to serious long-term injuries. Approximately 50% of injuries in youth sports result from overuse, primarily caused by repetitive movements in a singular sport activity.
Importantly, early sport specialization predicts peak performance at a young age but does not predict long-term excellence. The foundation of long-term sport excellence is athleticism: agility, balance, coordination, speed, stamina, strength. Participating in multiple sports nurtures athleticism. A singular focus on one sport before puberty develops the player — but not the athlete.
Twenty-two-year-old Claire Carson, a national champion in rowing, recently warned of the risks from early sport specialization. She described how years of overtraining left her “stuck with a broken back” — and in need of disc replacement surgery — just four years after graduating high school. As a sports medicine physician, I have treated innumerable athletes like Claire. The injuries, the disappointment, the disconnect from sport and family are haunting stories that need not be.
Burnout — or dropping out of sports entirely — is another concern. Kids who specialize in just one sport face higher rates of burnout compared to their multi-sport counterparts. Other studies confirm that young athletes who focus on a single sport too soon are more likely to experience emotional exhaustion and a diminished sense of enjoyment. We must always remember that the primary reason kids want to play sports is to have fun. The absence of joy is a forerunner to burnout.
Perhaps the saddest part of early specialization isn’t the risk of injury and burnout though — it’s that it simply isn’t necessary. Before I played tennis in college, I grew up as a multisport athlete. Playing multiple sports didn’t diminish my ability to succeed on the court. And I’m hardly an outlier — about 90% of NCAA athletes participated in multiple sports growing up.
As president of the U.S. Tennis Association, I obviously love tennis. It’s a sport I’d encourage everyone to try. No two shots are the same, which allows developing brains to improve executive function, and which provides a pathway for young athletes to adapt, control their emotions, and bounce back resiliently for every serve. Indeed, the litany of benefits that go hand-in-hand with participation in tennis are unmatched by any other sport.
And yet, even though tennis is the healthiest sport on the planet, I would never advise any child to only play tennis. Trying a variety of sports enables young people to build a variety of skills, to develop athletically while growing physically and mentally strong and healthy.
Rather than training kids to be professional athletes starting in grade school, we should encourage them to play a variety of sports, learn from each of them and, most importantly, have fun. That is the best and most effective way of developing not only a fine athlete, but also a well-rounded human being.
Dr. Brian Hainline is the president and board chair of the United States Tennis Association and recently transitioned from the NCAA as their chief medical officer. He co-chaired the International Olympic Committee Consensus Meetings on both Pain Management in Elite Athletes and Mental Health in Elite Athletes. He is a clinical professor of neurology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
E-scooter riders need to wear helmets. I’ve seen the results when they don’t | Opinion
Several years ago, I noticed a growing trend at Memorial Regional Hospital South, where I work as an occupational therapist specializing in traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries. The trend, sadly, is the rapid rise of patients requiring intensive therapy after suffering a severe head or spinal injury while using a micromobility device like an electric scooter (e-scooter).
There is no universal helmet law in the United States. Helmet laws vary by state. Some states require all micromobility and motorcycle riders to wear helmets, others have laws that apply only to certain age groups, and some states have no helmet laws at all. Each state sets regulations regarding safety equipment. In Florida, the only mandated state statute is that a minor under the age of 16 is required to wear a helmet — a statute that is on the books but rarely enforced.
Michelle Weinberg is an occupational therapist, certified brain injury specialist and certified stroke rehabilitation specialist at Memorial Regional Hospital South. (courtesy, Michelle Weinberg)Florida drivers are likely aware of the development of commuter traffic and the rise of micromobility devices on our roadways. Since the advent of e-scooters, who among us has not seen a rider hugging the shoulder or swerving through traffic, headphones on, one hand on the phone? And while micromobility devices are a cost- and energy-efficient way to travel, the lack of bicycle lanes; constant construction; and an influx of mopeds, motorcycles and bicycle riders — all sharing an increasingly congested Florida roadway — have made commuting on e-scooters all the more hazardous.
For almost 20 years, I have helped guide individuals recovering from brain and spinal injuries. For most of that career, patients recovering from stroke, brain cancer and a variety of accidents filled the rooms I worked in. However, in the last few years, the rise of e-scooter accidents has been astonishing. In 2019, trauma surgeon researcher Leslie Kobayashi and her colleagues recorded that during a 13-month period, over half of all intracranial hemorrhages and fractures in their operating rooms were related to e-scooter injuries. Additionally, 98% of patients were not wearing a helmet, and nearly half had a blood alcohol level above the legal limit. Encouraging helmets for all riders, discouraging e-scooter operation while intoxicated, and educational programs are imperative and will benefit the public health system.
We know what happens when these measures aren’t taken. Emergency rooms in Tampa reported the highest number of e-scooter accidents among people aged 21-30 years old in 2023, where little regulation controls the use and availability of e-scooters and where the lack of Florida helmet laws provides no additional guard rails. According to a 2023 study, the rate of head injuries increased directly after e-scooters were introduced in Tampa in 2019. In A review of the medical literature published from 2010 to 2020, found these same increases in traumatic injuries not only for e-scooter riders but for those in their path, including pedestrians and cyclists. These findings suggest that the head and upper extremities are increasingly more vulnerable with e-scooters, helmet use is poor, and falls are the most common mechanism of injury. Micromobility accidents can result in long-term functional impairments and require extensive rehabilitation. Acquired head injuries disrupt a person’s ability to engage in daily activities and can cause a lifetime of detrimental effects. The rehabilitation process is wide-ranging, costly and complicated.
The quantifiable data demonstrates the significance of promoting helmet use. I have witnessed countless individuals recovering from post-traumatic accidents because they were not helmeted. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that helmets can reduce the risk of head injuries by as much as 69%, highlighting the need for comprehensive regulations that mandate helmet use across all states.
As a society that prides itself on individual liberty, we must find a balance between how we travel and how we travel safely. For e-scooter riders, wearing a helmet is a crucial preventive measure as essential as a seatbelt. It would be prudent as a state, if not as a country, to implement simple statutes that can significantly mitigate the risk of traumatic brain injuries. In the mean time, by advocating and educating our community to wear helmets, we can reduce the incidence of such injuries and enhance the overall community’s health and safety.
If you ride an e-scooter, or know someone who does, I hope you wear a helmet. And if not, they make a great holiday gift.
Michelle Weinberg is an occupational therapist, certified brain injury specialist and certified stroke rehabilitation specialist at Memorial Regional Hospital South. She resides in Surfside.
Are Trump’s picks his idea of a sick joke? | Letters to the editor
Is this Donald Trump’s joke on America?
Why didn’t anyone give him a competency test before he ran again, instead of taking his word that he was sane?
Matt Gaetz for attorney general? That would have made America the laughingstock of the world — if we aren’t already.
Pete Hegseth, a Fox News weekend co-anchor, to be Secretary of Defense? What are his qualifications? Boy, will I feel safe.
It gets worse and worse every day. Is this some warped sense of payback to America for not electing him to a second term in 2020? Is he picking all his appointees out of a fishbowl? Or is it his new buddy Elon Musk’s advice to him to destroy this country, and send everyone to the moon instead?
Rosanne Gordon, Boca Raton
The bone spurs exemptionIn a recent letter to the editor, a writer said she considered Donald Trump a veteran.
He never was. He avoided the draft with “bone spurs.” How dare a reader put him in that category.
Now, Trump is filling his Cabinet with media personalities including Dr. Mehmet Oz. Who’s next, Clarabell the Clown, from Howdy Doody?
God help us. Will there still be a United States of America in 2028?
Fred Brown, Boynton Beach
The voters approveThe newspaper’s negativity toward the governor is becoming worse with every edition.
Maybe Gov. Ron DeSantis should run this state into the ground, like California. The last election proved that the voters approve of everything being done in this state, and in the United States.
Richard Simeone, Orlando
Inflation is still hereLetter writer LaDonna Vieweg wrote that “inflation is already gone, so let’s stop pretending that Trump is not inheriting a thriving economy.”
In what world does she live? I’m here to challenge facts, not buttress the incoming president. The last time I checked, the current inflation rate (for the 12 months ending in October) is 2.6%, up from 2.4%. And yes, food and housing are much higher now than before the pandemic. How about nearly 22% on average?
When people struggle mightily to pay for housing and groceries, “historic” and “bipartisan” bills are irrelevant. Another big lesson learned, I hope.
Kevin Schoeler, Fort Lauderdale
About immigrant laborAnybody who thinks that the deportation of criminals who enter the United States illegally is an immoral act is in serious need of the definition of morality.
If our economy is dependent on illegal labor, as writer Thomas Kennedy claimed in a recent commentary, our economy needs to be reconstructed so only legal immigrants are gainfully employed, and that their earnings mostly stay here to support our economy.
Osvaldo Valdes, Hollywood
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