One last thing. Trust me, you'll want to keep reading. About half-way through the blog there's a quote from the FDA in response to the buyers and sellers of raw milk who've basically filed suit because of harassment and claim that banning interstate sales of raw milk is unconstitutional. The FDA's response reads, "plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish."
WTF?!? Really? That's their position?
Unbelievable!
Check it out, share and leave comments!
The War Over Raw Milk Heats Up
The FDA has long banned interstate sales of raw milk. Many states restrict or prohibit the sale of raw milk entirely.
Raw milk drinkers and sellers began fighting back in early 2010, filing suit against the FDA and claiming that banning interstate sales is unconstitutional. The case is now pending while the crackdowns continue.
Raw (unpasteurized) milk contains enzymes and bacteria have been shown to strengthen your immune system, develop healthy bacteria in your intestines and reduce the risks of everything from respiratory disease to obesity. Pasteurization destroys both good and bad bacteria.
The FDA officially banned interstate sales of raw milk in 1987, but it wasn't until 2006 that a crackdown began. Agricultural departments in several states, with the help of the FDA, started to stage raids of small dairies and buying clubs.
Daily Finance reports:
"On occasion, people do get sick from drinking raw milk. But the number of people sickened by raw milk compared to other foods does not seem to warrant the FDA's focused, expensive campaign ...
No government regulations of interstate commerce in peanuts, kale, or cantaloupes have been suggested, despite the much greater number of people sickened by consuming these foods. Sushi, a raw food that provides a greater opportunity for illness than raw milk, is legal in all 50 states, too."
Sources:
Daily Finance July 20, 2010 (full article from Daily Finance below)Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Millions of Americans get sick every year from eating contaminated foods. Among them, at least 325,000 will be hospitalized and 5,000 will die, according to FDA statistics.Why is Raw Milk being targeted?
Many foods are responsible for these illnesses. Most recently, romaine lettuce sold to wholesalers was recalled in multiple states after concerns of E. coli contamination, and a few weeks later romaine lettuce-based, ready-to-eat salads were recalled due to possible Salmonella bacteria.
Americans are no strangers to such recalls.
One of the most memorable occurred in 2006, when all spinach was pulled from store shelves. Alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, beef and jalapeno peppers have also been recalled in recent years after serious illnesses have been reported.
Yet, only one food -- raw milk -- has been unfairly singled out and targeted by the FDA, the USDA and even the FBI as a "health risk" worthy of armed raids and crackdowns -- a food that also happens to be so low on the food-borne illness risk scale it's hardly measurable.
According to CDC data, from 1993 to 2006 there were only about 116 illnesses a year linked to raw milk -- that amounts to less than .000002 percent of the 76 million people who contract a food-borne illness in the United States each year!Raw Milk Safety Standards Often Exceed Those of Pasteurized Milk
This is the reality of the "dangerous" food the FDA has launched an attack against -- seizing raw dairy products from private food coops, arresting small raw dairy farmers and threatening distributors with fines and jail time. They've also devoted an entire section of their web site to extolling the "dangers of unpasteurized milk."
Meanwhile, ground beef sold in supermarkets across the United States, with the FDA's gold seal of approval, commonly contains meat from hundreds of animals, often from different parts of the world.
The animals are not only raised in concentrated feedlots that are breeding grounds for dangerous bacteria and viruses, but they are fed an unnatural diet of grains, which creates a much higher level of acidity in the animal's stomach, which E. coli bacteria need to survive.
Despite this, there is no federal requirement for meat grinders to test their ingredients for E.coli prior to selling them. And most retailers do not test either. So not only is your meat being raised in ways that are known to encourage disease-causing organisms, but little to no testing is being done to make sure the meat is safe before it reaches your dinner plate -- and the FDA is A-OK with this.
It may also surprise you to learn that Chinese-raised fish, which are commonly sold in U.S. supermarkets, are often fed a diet of chicken waste and human waste, while toxic sewage sludge is used to fertilize many U.S. crops -- and again this is all within the realm of FDA regulations.
But raw milk -- a food that promotes the growth of healthy bacteria in your intestine, which in turn has a significant, beneficial impact on your overall immune function and health -- has been literally outlawed in many states.
The dairy cows used to produce most of the pasteurized dairy sold in the United States are raised in similarly deplorable conditions, which is why the milk has to be pasteurized in order to make it safe for human consumption.
But high-quality raw dairy farmers march to an entirely different, and superior, drummer. California, specifically, (where raw milk is legal) has its own special set of standards for raw milk for human consumption, in which farmers must meet or exceed pasteurized milk standards, without pasteurizing.
The conventional dairy industry, realizing that increasing numbers of consumers are recognizing the health benefits of raw milk and going to great lengths to obtain it, has redoubled their efforts to make sure that raw milk sales are not able to grow, and certainly not able to become mainstream, where they could begin to threaten their very own livelihoods.
If raw dairy really caught on, you would think that the dairy industry would simply follow suit and begin producing raw products to meet the demand. But this would be virtually impossible with the way their overcrowded farms are run.
Their business depends on pasteurization, and that is why their powerful lobbyists will stop at nothing to persuade government agencies to keep raw milk bans in full force.
Unfortunately, as is often the case the FDA has jumped on the Big Business bandwagon and is doing everything in their power -- even arresting small farmers! -- to protect the interests of the Big Dairy industry.
The Raw Milk Revolution is Upon Us
Right now the "war" between the FDA and consumers looking to secure their right to purchase and drink raw milk is reaching a peak.Get Informed and Protect Your Food Freedom
Earlier this year, the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF) filed a lawsuit against the FDA over their raw milk ban, claiming it is unconstitutional. The FDA's rebuttal contained the following extremely concerning and outrageous statements, which make it very clear they believe you have no right to unprocessed food:
If you go by these assertions, it means the FDA has the authority to prohibit any food of their choosing and make it a crime for you to seek it out. If, one day, the FDA deems tomatoes, broccoli or cashews capable of causing you harm (which is just as ludicrous as their assertions that raw milk is harmful), they could therefore enact such a ban and legally enforce it.
- "There is no absolute right to consume or feed children any particular food."
- "There is no 'deeply rooted' historical tradition of unfettered access to foods of all kinds."
- "Plaintiffs' assertion of a 'fundamental right to their own bodily and physical health, which includes what foods they do and do not choose to consume for themselves and their families' is similarly unavailing because plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish."
- The FDA's brief goes on to state that "even if such a right did exist, it would not render the FDA's regulations unconstitutional because prohibiting the interstate sale and distribution of unpasteurized milk promotes bodily and physical health."
- "There is no fundamental right to freedom of contract."
By joining the campaign to make access to healthy raw milk a right for all Americans, you are not only standing up for raw milk; you're taking a stand to protect your freedom of food choice.
For more information, I urge you to listen to my interview with Mark McAfee, the founder of Organic Pastures, one of the largest producers of raw milk in the United States, along with this video with health and business journalist David E. Gumpert.
You can also find lots of valuable information in Gumpert's book, The Raw Milk Revolution, and on McAfee's Web site www.OrganicPastures.com.
Finally, if you're interested in purchasing raw milk, RealMilk.com can help you find a high-quality source in your area.
The War Over Raw Milk: A Battle Heats Up
In the holy war over raw milk, the lives of our children are at stake, or so the faithful on either side of the battlefield assert. And, if you had been at the Rawesome food buying club on June 30, when Los Angeles police officers, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Food & Drug Administration and at least one Canadian agency knocked on the door, guns drawn, you might believe the war was more literal than figurative. As one Rawesome member said, "Why do you need guns?" when the enemy is, as far as anyone can tell, millions of microbes too small for the human eye to see, and surely, for the man-made bullet to destroy.The FDA has long banned interstate sales of raw milk, and many states restrict or prohibit the sale of raw milk entirely. Raw milk drinkers and would-be sellers, who had previously purchased raw dairy products through legal loopholes began fighting back in early 2010, filing suit against the FDA claiming that banning interstate sales is unconstitutional. The FDA responded in late April, insisting that "plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish." The case is now pending while the crackdowns continue.
The Raw Milk Debate
Raw milk is milk that has not been heated to at least 145 degrees, a temperature sufficient to kill the living things present in all mammals' milk. These enzymes and bacteria have been shown to strengthen the immune system, develop healthy bacteria in the intestines and reduce the chances of everything from respiratory disease to obesity. Anything that yogurt manufacturers say about the "good" bacteria in yogurt is also true of raw milk.
Pasteurization, on the other hand, destroys both the good and the bad bacteria (like E. coli); it, along with homogenization (a process in which the fat globules in cream are broken to such a small size that they remain suspended evenly in the milk), allows milk to be transported over great distances and have a much longer shelf life. The widespread use of pasteurization and homogenization meant that dairies no longer needed to deal directly with consumers, as in the days of the milkman delivering glass bottles to your doorstep.
As the FDA sees it, the most important benefit of pasteurization is the virtual elimination of the dangers of bacterial infections. It was a huge concern in the late nineteenth century, as dairies moved closer to cities to provide nourishment for the newly industrial and urban population. But the concentrated quarters of the cows and a change in diet caused disease to start spreading. Pasteurization, say scientists, greatly reduced its spread.
The FDA officially banned interstate sales of raw milk in 1987, but it wasn't until 2006 that the so-called "crackdown" began. Agricultural departments in several states, with the help of the FDA, started to stage raids of small dairies and buying clubs that were "replete with undercover agents, sting operations, surprise raids, questionable test-lab results, mysterious illnesses, propaganda blitzes, and grand jury investigations," writes journalist David Gumpert, who has followed the raw milk war and written a book on the topic.
A Movement Takes Shape
As early as the 1970s, proponents of healthy eating and sick people in search of cures began to consume raw milk as a health-giving tonic. At the time, Dr. Aajonus Vonderplanitz (along with cookbook author Sally Fallon) came to the conclusion that drinking raw milk from cows who are raised on a ruminant's diet -- grass, and clover, and not much else -- and treated well could be the basis for the most nutritious possible diet -- and a movement was born.
Vonderplanitz says he has been "fighting" the government's efforts against raw milk since 1977. He started an organization known as the Right To Choose Healthy Food, where he's taught raw foodists how they can sidestep the rules governing commerce, and especially interstate commerce, by organizing into private clubs and leasing animals. Cow lessees pay upfront, and pay ongoing "boarding fees" for the board, care, and feeding of the animals, and harvesting of the product through milking. As Vonderplanitz sees it, those who consume the raw milk from the animal that they are leasing are not subject to the jurisdiction of the states' agricultural and commerce departments, and the FDA, which, in many states, restricts or even bans the sale of raw milk to consumers.Vonderplanitz's organization also runs the Rawesome Club in Venice, California, and has chapters throughout the U.S. and "a few" in Canada. The private buying club, which sells only raw foods and for which you must pay a membership fee, and sign a waiver, to join, was challenged once before. In 2005, an official from the Los Angeles County Department of Health came onto the property. The officer examined the food and issued a citation to the organization because it did not have a health permit, for having food without a label and other charges. (Vonderplanitz rejects his need for a health permit because he says Rawesome is not conducting commerce.)
Vonderplanitz wrote a letter to the County Department of Health on July 22, 2005 asserting that the health official was illegally trespassing, and that the hearing notice for the day after the visit was "without legal merit." He never heard back, he says, until June 30, 2010.
Guns and Dairy
Shortly after Rawesome opened on June 30, nearly a dozen officers of the LAPD (with guns drawn), a senior investigator for the L.A. City District Attorney; a L.A. Environmental Health Specialist for the Environmental Health Food and Milk Program Food Inspection Bureau; an investigator for the U.S. FDA, Los Angeles District; a consumer safety officer for the USFDA Import Operations Branch Los Angeles District; and a supervising special investigator for the California State Animal Health and Food Safety Services of California Department of Food and Agriculture; and two other individuals without business cards who identified themselves as being with, respectively, the FBI and the Canada department of agriculture loudly knocked on the door, Rawesome members say. The officers searched the premises and seized 17 large coolers of milk and other dairy products.
The search warrant claims that the property "was used as the means of committing a felony." The only items listed on the search warrant were dairy products. On the same day, a farmer who provides raw goat milk to Rawesome members was also raided by about 20 government agents. Her computer was seized; her third computer, that is, two previous computers having been seized, and never returned, in 2008 and 2009.
Besides listing the agencies involved, Sandi Gibbons, the public information officer for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, would only say that the case was initiated by the California FDA, and that it was "in connection with a continuing criminal investigation involving state and local investigators."
As Dangerous as Romaine, Pistachios and Sushi?
Even Bill Marler, an attorney who has made his name representing victims of food borne illnesses, especially raw milk, has written recently that the FDA's actions don't make sense given the comparatively small number of the outbreaks of illness from raw dairy products -- less than 1% of foodborne outbreaks. Marler asked on his blog last month, "is raw milk treated unfairly? Have health departments brought the hammer down on raw milk, while giving a free-pass to other dangerous products?" His answer was, "yes."
On occasion, people do get sick from drinking raw milk. But the number of people sickened by raw milk compared to other foods does not seem to warrant the FDA's focused, expensive campaign. Marler highlights five cases of spinach and romaine lettuce-linked illnesses in which, despite the sickening of about 200 people, there were no recalls or publicity initiated by the FDA. Yet, while a few pages on the FDA's web site detail "The Dangers of Raw Milk," there are none on the "Dangers of Spinach" (or lettuce, or tomatoes, or green onions.)
No government regulations of interstate commerce in peanuts, kale, or cantaloupes have been suggested, despite the much greater number of people sickened by consuming these foods. Sushi, a raw food that provides a greater opportunity for illness than raw milk, is legal in all 50 states, too. French restaurants everywhere serve steak tartare, a chopped raw beef dish, with so far nary so much as an hors d'oeuvres plate seized. Yet the FDA stands firm. And though even former FDA food safety chief David Acheson recommends eliminating the interstate sales ban (on grounds that "motivated individuals" will continue to purchase raw milk, no matter what, increasing the danger of contamination), it appears the agency will, eventually, have its day in court.
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