Federal bills have been introduced that will make it easier to sell raw milk across state borders—but they need our support to succeed. Action Alert!
Late last week, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), and a bipartisan coalition of sixteen other lawmakers including Jared Polis (D-CO), have reintroduced two important bills, the Milk Freedom Act and the Interstate Milk Freedom Act.
The Milk Freedom Act would prohibit the government from interfering with the interstate traffic of raw milk products. The Interstate Milk Freedom Act would explicitly allow the shipment of raw milk between two states where the sale of raw milk is already legal.
While the goals of these bills may seem rather modest, their passage would mean a huge step forward, given the lunacy of the government’s current stance on raw milk. Although Congress has never banned raw milk directly, the FDA has been aggressively targeting small family producers of raw milk for years, as in the year-long sting operation on an Amish dairy farmer, which climaxed in an early morning armed raid and the destruction of his business.
This aggressive stance toward raw milk is no doubt linked to the government’s close ties to massive dairy companies and “Big Farma”—whose agenda these two bills threaten. The truth is that the FDA’s harassment of small dairy producers has almost nothing to do with consumer safety but a great deal to do with guaranteeing the profits of large dairy producers.
The FDA warns that raw milk can carry dangerous pathogens, but these bad bacteria are often the result of the conditions and practices found on industrial farming operations. Drinking raw milk from CAFO-raised cows would, indeed, be dangerous, but drinking raw milk from an organically raised, grass-fed cow has been shown to have numerous health benefits. For more on the safety of raw milk, please see our companion article on the FDA’s war on cheese from raw milk and also our earlier coverage of this issue.
These federal bills are a welcome chance to reverse long-standing narrow-mindedness and cronyism that protects large dairy producers and increase consumer access to quality raw milk.
Action Alert! Write to your legislators in Congress and urge them to support the Milk Freedom Act and the Interstate Milk Freedom Act! Please send your message immediately.
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We consume multiple food products raw and it is fine. But when it comes to milk, why so much protest? Homogenization of milk is what needs to stop. Drinking raw milk from an organically raised, grass-fed cow from a good dairy has been shown to have numerous health benefits. For my family, after we switched to raw dairy products: seasonal allergies have disappeared. Knock on wood! I support raw milk!
Because between 1912 and 1937 some 65,000 people died of tuberculosis contracted from consuming milk in England and Wales alone
Your facts are absolutely right, but my analyst brain says- they are century old when science and hygiene were not fully developed. And also the minuses of Pasteurized, homogenized milk cannot be overlooked. Everybody’s viewpoint is different. For my family, raw milk pluses outweigh the minuses!
On average, one in six people who drink raw milk becomes ill with
bacterial or parasite infections, according to researchers at the
Minnesota Department of Health
Useless without context. How many become sick in comparison from pasteurized milk? Such “authorities” conveniently omit contrast because they are biased. Look at the evidence objectively despite your personal feelings or career protection. We’d all be dead if all the all hyperbole propaganda about everything being shouted from the rooftops was literally true. Raw milk is dangerous and should be aboided! Global warming will kill all humanity if not stopped! Vaccinations don’t cause autisum and its been soundly debunked over and over! blah blah blah Follow the money.
You should probably recheck your facts and the source of your facts. Try to get a non-biased source where it compares actual number for 100,000 instead of misleading total numbers. according to a 13-year review published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday. States that permit raw milk sales also have more than twice as many illness outbreaks as states where raw milk is not sold.
The CDC study, published online
in Emerging Infectious Diseases, reviewed dairy-related outbreaks
between 1993 and 2006 in all 50 states, during which time the authors
counted 121 dairy-related illness outbreaks resulting in 4,413
illnesses, 239 hospitalizations and three deaths.
Despite raw milk products accounting for approximately one percent of
dairy production in the U.S., raw milk dairies were linked to 60
percent of those dairy-related outbreaks. In addition, 202 of the 239
hospitalizations (85 percent) resulted from raw milk outbreaks. Thirteen
percent of patients from raw milk outbreaks were hospitalized, versus
one percent of patients from pasteurized milk outbreaks.
Seventy-five percent of the raw milk outbreaks occurred in the 21
states where the sale of raw milk was legal at the study’s onset in
1993. Today, 30 states permit the sale of raw milk, while another seven
are considering raw milk legislation changes this year.
Thanks! That provides the proper context. ANH-USA likes to take things out of context sometimes, like for MMR. (Well, duh, of course no babies died from MMR because they were nearly all being vaccinated! The proper comparison would be how many babies would have died without MMR vaccination vs the babies that did die from the MMR vaccine.)
How about if one of those babies were yours fatally injected or left to live in a diseased body and/or impaired mind from any vaccine
You’re “out of context” Measles Mumps or rubella are not fatal diseases
Drink milk right away, while its still warm. Soon it comes out of the utters. Then there would be no issues relating to raw milk. Caz more it is exposed in air. The bacteria rapidly multiplies. I rather make yogurt of that milk. Caz more beneficial in my eyes. Added healthy bacteria for ur gut.
In 3rd world countries such as mine. We have acces to buffaloes everywhere in the city. Caz local demand is met through mostly local producers. Can just go straight at them. and knock on the utters.