Is Raw Milk Cheese About To Get The Axe?

Help us protect the best tasting and healthiest cheese from a spurious new FDA attack. Action Alert!
George W. Bush’s FDA banned the import of the finest French artisanal cheeses, which are usually made from raw milk that has been cultured with special bacteria, and then aged, which makes it even safer. This ban just happened to coincide with the French government refusing to join us in the invasion of Iraq and instead criticizing us.
Now it appears that Barack Obama’s FDA is going after our best domestic artisanal cheeses, also often made from raw milk.
Late this summer the agency began accepting public comments that would “assist the agency in identifying and evaluating measures that might minimize the impact of harmful bacteria in cheeses made from unpasteurized milk.”
What is the stated rationale for this? The FDA and Health Canada issued a joint assessment claiming a higher incidence of listeriosis—the disease caused by the food-borne pathogen listeria—in cheese made from raw milk as compared to cheese made from pasteurized milk. As we have always pointed out, the real risks are from industrially produced dairy products, even when pasteurized, not from small, artisanal cheese makers.
Consider these facts about listeria. Recent evidence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that, between 2009 and 2011, cheese made from raw milk accounted for one listeria outbreak and fifteen illnesses, whereas cheese from pasteurized milk caused five outbreaks and thirty-six illnesses.
Let’s put this in further perspective. The CDC determined that between 1993 and 2006, all raw milk products combined caused 202 hospitalizations and two deaths. If the FDA is truly motivated by food-safety concerns, why not take a more aggressive stance towards Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), since contaminated meat and poultry sicken an estimated one million people and kill at least one thousand each year?
Lots of evidence shows that raw milk is healthier than pasteurized milk:

  • Pasteurization has been shown to decrease the nutritional content of the milk, reducing levels of copper and iron.
  • The FDA even acknowledges that pasteurization reduces the vitamin C found in milk.
  • The pasteurization process also impairs beta-lactoglobulin, a heat-sensitive protein that helps the intestines absorb vitamin A.
  • As our colleagues at ANH-Europe point out, “Raw milk contains a host of enzymes, immune-modulating proteins, diverse beneficial bacteria, sugars, proteins, fats, minerals, nucleotides, antibodies, and other essential elements needed to nourish a developing baby.”

What is the FDA’s real motivation? We know the agency tends to back the biggest food and drug producers, because they directly help pay the agency’s bills and are also easier to regulate for a number of reasons—it’s much less work to inspect and interact with a small number of large companies, rather than a multitude of smaller organizations; big companies have larger staffs and more resources to make a regulator’s job much easier; if a problem arises with a big company, Congress can help keep it under wraps and conceal it from the public; and, since big companies know they need to “pay to play” in order to create monopolistic conditions, they can help create a revolving door by offering departing regulators cushy, high-paying jobs.
Big food companies are also always eager to stamp out competition from smaller companies with better products. If they are wiped out by the FDA, consumers will only be able to buy the big company’s products, no matter how poor in quality or taste they may be.
If the FDA receives enough messages protesting the path they are clearly on to ban raw milk cheese, they will likely back off for fear of offending Congress, which has to listen to the voters—so please take action on this issue! For more information on it, please also see our other articles in this issue, on raw milk cheese, and two important raw milk bills Congress is considering.
Action Alert! Send a message to the FDA telling them to look into CAFOs, the real culprits behind foodborne illnesses, rather than artisanal cheesemakers. Please send your message immediately.
Take-Action

43 comments

  1. Leave our Raw milk cheese along. What is it with you anyway. What do you want to hog it all to yourselves.!!!! We want the good cheese not the cheese that is hit with chemicals and what ever else that the FDA wants to inject into it to make us sick or a disease that is a killer.!!! We are not stupid.!!!!

  2. why would you want to drink the mothers milk intended for another species. Dairy is harmful to your health, destructive to the environment and cruel to animals

    2. you are so dangerously wrong in so many ways. It is your choice. I know for a fact raw milk is one of the “super foods” & helps to prevent disease, & has helped the human body to rid itself of certain diseases, for the past tens of thousands of years. Please get facts before passing along dangerous misinformation. Google is a great resource.

      1. by superfood if you mean something that contributes to heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes then yes it is a superfood. Read a book

        1. You’re a vegan idiot. If ANYONE is “seriously misguided” it is YOU!
          Milk does not cause heart disease, cancer or type II diabetes. Catch-up with the times – that’s the high-carb, high-sugar crap you’re referring to. How many people have died eating that low-fat/high-sugar garbage, thanks to the FDA and other government shills? They’ve known for decades that sugar feeds cancer and causes production of excess insulin, which causes insulin resistance, which becomes type II diabetes. Yet that’s what was promoted – low fat, low fat, low fat.

          4. If you have reliable (i.e. not Big Agro generated) data to refute PStarr, let’s see it. Vague comments like “keep dreaming” are pointless.
            BTW, I have no argument with your food choices. Just stop trying to force everyone else to go on your diet.

          5. that’s like saying “I have no problem with your choice to own a slave, just stop trying to force everyone else to not own slaves”
            If you want reliable data, look it up. PCRM is a good start.

          6. doctors are pushing those low-fat diets. When I was kid, butter became verboten and margarine was good. I hated it. It was gross. My dad had to go on a diet when I was a teen-ager, and we only ate meat, vegetables, fruit, and salad. The whole family lost mass, but mostly fat, including, my brother who was already super skinny. No dairy products, but I don’t remember why. I was glad, because I hated milk. The only milk product that I would ingest was buttermilk. I used to make my own yogurt from raw milk, and it was great. Now, I don’t eat any milk products, because I have asthma attacks when I accidentally do eat them.
            Everybody should eat what they want. I used to not eat a lot of leafy green veggies, because the smell is overpowering, and the taste was yucky. Now, that I have learned to make kimchi out of them, they taste a lot better.
            Let’s not be Food Nazis. It doesn’t accomplish anything. Everybody has different ideas about food, and it is good that we don’t all eat the same things. That would be boring. I eat seaweed and cook with it to flavor certain dishes during the winter months. I wouldn’t ask anybody to eat seaweed, because it is definitely an acquired taste.

        2. If you had bothered to “Google” first, as suggested previously, you would have found out that the probiotics in raw milk keep the biotics in the human gut healthy, and a preponderance of healthy gut biotics actually boosts the entire human immune system (which is actually located in the gut) such that it can help prevent/repair/reverse heart disease, diabetes, etc. In fact since the 1960’s there has been a cartel of research Drs proving to the U.S. medical community, the problem with LDL cholesterol is not saturated fat but sugar & simple carbohydrates. This cartel was featured on the Dr. Oz Show, last year, because Dr. Oz (& his 200+ member advisory board) agrees with them. Dr. Oz remember is one of the top heart surgeons world wide. This is the new teaching, world wide… Fear simple carbohydrates, keep saturated fats to a minimum but don’t eliminate them because the brain, which is mostly fat, needs them along with the other fats, to stay healthy, & functioning properly, & help prevent Alzheimer’s. Also the pasteurization process kills the enzyme that counteracts the cholesterol in milk. Making a complicated process simply said… Raw milk has no cholesterol… Pasteurized milk is what has cholesterol… but as previously stated, world wide the belief that all cholesterol is harmful has been debunked. It may make one fat… but it is no longer the evil food product it was erroneously previously believed. Proven through worldwide research, It is simple carbohydrates, hydrogenated oil, high fructose corn syrup, that cause the diseases you are wary of. Not, unprocessed, non-tinkered with, fresh, grass fed, RAW milk. Don’t you remember the saying “clean as a milkmaids complexion?” Because, do to the twice daily contact with milk & the probiotics within, milkmaids never got blemishes, & never contracted small pox nor any of the other related viruses. The constant daily contact with the probiotics in raw milk caused their bodies to create antibodies, so they were immune to those diseases & could tend to the sick without getting sick themselves. You can Google that also. That is also why these testimonials of people who regularly drink raw milk don’t succumb to viruses & colds that come around each year. I used to be sick all winter. One viral infection after another, ’till spring. Since I have been drinking raw milk from the local farmers near me, I haven’t had a cold in decades. I haven’t had a prescription pharmaceutical in 40+ years. Food is my medicine cabinet. Thank you, Dr. Oz, Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr Chopra, Dr. Amen, and all the other DRs I am a devout student of. I have never been healthier. I was born 65 years ago, but thanks to my mentors, healthy eating & exercise & meditation, etc., my real age is in the late 40’s early 50’s. You can Google “real age” & take the test also. Take care & good health to you.

        3. W. Jones, are you capable of understanding that criminalizing animal products would be accompanied by a ban on herbs, locally grown vegetables & fruits, and nutritional supplements? You are playing into the hands of the globalists who would LOVE to forbid access to natural, healthy foods by the masses.
          P.S. I must have one foot in the grave and not know it. I’m 71, active, no meds, and I eat grass-fed beef and raw goat milk cheese and yogurt, sourced locally from people I know. I have, in fact, milked their goats. The goats, munching alfalfa and grain while being milked, didn’t appear to be suffering. Having a hand in the production of the food you eat is very satisfying.

          1. What about the animals? They don’t have a say in this. What if people wanted to eat human babies? Would that be okay?

    3. “..Dairy is harmful to your health”..
      Really? How old are you w. JOnes? I’m 59, have been drinking raw milk most of my adult life and haven’t been to a doctor my whole adult life. I never get sick. My 16 year old son hasn’t been sick in 10 years, and we drink raw milk exclusively.
      How’s your record?

      1. 59 is very young. Disease has not set in yet. I’m 54 and have perfect health. I’m sorry you feed your child animal products. that is child abuse.

        3. So, WJones, have you turned in all your neighbors for child abuse? It’s your civic duty, you know.

        4. JOnes…I’m 67 and have been drinking raw mild since childhood. I have no health issues at all. Am I old enough?

    4. Please keep spreading “your truth” to as many as possible. I prefer to be a part of an exclusive raw milk club than have the demand go up. We need to keep the numbers small to maintain quality. Folks please encourage people like this and nod your head in agreement to their wisdom…they are doing us all a favor in the end.

    5. Over the thousands of years humans have developed in different parts of the world they have biologically adapted to different foods, plants, nutrients, climates, etc. The genetics of humans differ – this is surprising to many but the latest genetic research backs it up. Epigenetics comes into play here. For most, drinking milk of other species is fine. I agree, factory farming of milk is cruel and bad for the environment also. Small organic farms would be the ideal.

  3. Stamp out real food this is what they do….. black market cheese anyone, ha ha ha….. I already have to buy pet milk for myself here in florida…. Ha ha ha!!!!! It’s not really very funny is it, and btw w. raw milk is known as white blood verhy nutritious and people of all cultures have used it for thousands of years, especially when made into cheese its a super food…. this is why they go after it, and competition reasons too but the former is the main reason!

    1. Add these three letter agencies to your list: the FBI, CIA, NSA, BLD, and the IRS. These people know how many times we breathed yesterday. We are under constant surveillance through our smart phones, computers/gadgets and t.v.s even when they’re turned off!!! Ever wonder why America is aborting her own children and yet bring in or allow foreigners to move in by the millions, of which has been going on for years? We are systematically and methodically being replaced. I agree with you. Food and false vaccine inoculation would certainly kill off, or for certain cripple the American populace.

      1. I’m not on board with some of your post, but I do think we need to remember HHS also and maybe the USDA.

        1. Thanks for sharing! It’s a good thing we humans aren’t cookie cutter.
          I think it speaks well of us when we can be objective and share our thoughts and opinions without instilling heated argument.

  5. I can no longer eat dairy products because I know from a lot of tests it
    would prevent herbs I take that stopped prostate cancer after refusing
    surgery. But when I did, I bought raw milk direct from the farmer (still
    legal in some states). If I could not get it, I would use none.
    The government has a right to specify what they think, but NO RIGHT to prohibit what we choose to believe about nutrition, even if it kills us! As with medical procedures, there would be a lot less malpractice cost if each individual had a right to choose options instead of medical or government opinions. (If I believed doctors I would have been already dead four times.)

  6. I grew up on raw milk in RSA.You let the milk sit at ambient, it turns sour then turns to Yogurt. Had my last checkup 40 yrs ago. Touch wood.

  7. growing up in Europe did not hear about any problem related to cream cheese, and I think there are many much more important issues e.g. dangerous chemicals in drinking water,

  8. Anything the government can’t regulate or tax, the public shouldn’t have access to it. It’s harmful to your health to not want to pay your fair share.

  9. HERE is the obvious.
    If RAW milk was so dangerous no one would be alive today because your ancestors in the West grew up on it and so did their cows. Can I have a duhh moment here?
    But they did not grow them on factory farms on cement floors and no access to sunlight and open pasture but they do NOW and that is when raw milk became dangerous.
    Certified raw milk is perfectly safe and NO ONE has ever died from it. EVER!

  12. During the last 18 months, I have been experimenting with Rife Machines – with remarkable success, too – BCCs and a host of other conditions. They’re very effective in eliminating pathogenic microorganisms. I decided to conduct some tests on foods. I found that I could keep roasted pork safely in the refrigerator for three weeks or longer and milk for two weeks or longer. Here is your perfect replacement for pasteurisation or UHT. Raw milk is great, but if you must kill the bugs, the Rife frequencies (using a plasmatron emitter) will do so without denaturing the proteins, enzymes, colostrums, vitamins and so on which are so important. Select your frequencies carefully and you will even leave the symbiotic bacteria unharmed!
    As for the FDA – those criminals and the commercial PhRMA thugs who pull their strings need to be put to trial for multiple crimes against humanity – starting with, but not limited to – Genocide. And the trials should be held in states like Florida. I think you can guess why.

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