What do you think? Government prohibiting raw milk sales
Richard Hebron, 41, was driving along an anonymous stretch of highway near Ann Arbor, Mich., last October when state cops pulled him over, ordered him to put his hands on the hood of his mud-splattered truck and seized its contents: 453 gal. of milk.
Yes, milk. Raw, unpasteurized milk. To supply a small but growing market among health-conscious city and suburban dwellers for milk taken straight from the udder, Hebron was dealing the stuff on behalf of a farming cooperative he runs in southwestern Michigan. An undercover agricultural investigator had infiltrated the co-op as part of a sting operation that resulted in the seizure of $7,000 worth of fresh-food items, including 35 lbs. of raw butter, 29 qt. of cream and all those gallons of the suspicious white liquid. Although Hebron's home office was searched and his computer seized, no charges have been filed. "When they tested the milk, they couldn't find any problems with it," says Hebron. "It seems like they're just looking for some way to shut us down."
Although I understand the logic behind wanting to prohibit the sale of something which could potentially be disease-carrying - especially when it is for mass-market consumption, I guess I am wondering if it is really the government's role to be prohibiting small farms from selling unpasteurized milk to those locals who feel raw milk is a healthier choice for them?
This bothers me. Let me clarify. I'm not concerned in the least that free citizens are choosing to drink raw milk. But that it is considered a crime to sell a nutritious liquid that has been enjoyed for thousands of years does trouble me!
Maybe I shouldn't be able to grow my own spinach and strawberries, either? I mean, they could be contaminated.
posted by Crystal Paine at 11:18 AM
29 Comments:
I agree that it's annoying when the government gets involved in this way. Nontheless, governments do have the just duty to protect their citizens, especially when commerce in a particular area is as heavily subsidized by the government as US farming is.
Oh, I am so glad we are seizing raw milk when there are families that cannot afford milk at all.
Is it just me? Am I the only one who thinks that as a country we need to get a grip and begin accepting personal responsibility again rather than looking to the gov't to regulate every little thing.
I feel like we are mourning the lost of personal responsibility in our country and this is just one more example of it.
We have looked to the government to take responsibility of things that are actually our responsibility, and they have accepted that, but it is time we quit asking them to be responsible for us and began being responsible for ourselves.
I guess this is a little off topic, but I kind of see this as yet another symptom of a larger problem.
I think it's too much government. Personally, I'd rather buy milk from the stores but people have been bringing milk straight from the barn to the table for centuries and the human race hasn't died out yet.
I personally think the government has far bigger fish to fry than taking legal action against producers & consumers of raw milk and find it rather disgusting that this is their priority over real issues like border security and crime protection.
Giving up our freedoms inch by inch in the name of security is not going to take us to a very nice place. The new RFID tags that will be required for all cattle in the name of tracking disease is all ready expanding before it even starts implementation. Now ALL farm animals are supposed to be tagged: bunnies, chickens, horses etc. If an animal dies, is slaughtered, or has babies it is supposed to be reported in 24 hours. Why? Back to raw milk specifically, consumers need to be educated. We should have choices. I don't think anyone thinks raw milk should be mass produced. The safeguards are in place for mass consumption. But, if your educated and know your local dairy farmer and want to give your family that it should be an option, which it is not. We get our milk from a local dairy. They cannot sale raw milk, but several of us do sign up for cream top (they have to enough buyers) . It is pasturized but not homoginized. Sorry to get on my soapbox, but I feel like so many of us are sleeping as freedoms are taken from us. There is always tension between freedom and safety. I wish the government would focus on securing our borders to ensure our safety rather than tracking farm animals.
Laurie
Well, I can certainly see how this is disturbing. I'm a city girl myself, and had never even thought it POSSIBLE to consume raw milk, butter, cheese, etc. I can certainly understand folks' dismay over the government stepping in; they certainly have bigger issues to worry about (you know, like terrorists? World peace? Our own people homeless and starving in our own land...but I digress.).
However, it is the government's job to protect us with just duty and cause...annoying that they performed a 'sting', but we have to remind ourselves that the FDA, USDA and other bureaus exist to protect the masses.
*sigh*
Mrs. Pears' comment made me think of a letter I have been forwarded before called "The Death of Common Sense" While the letter was supposed to be for laughs, it is hauntingly true if you think about it. If anybody is interested, you can find said letter at this link: http://infohost.nmt.edu/~armiller/commonsen.htm
Far too many issues in modern America are caused by a lack of responsibility, common sense, and many other things. If people could just be expected to research and make decisions for themselves, the government perhaps might not need to focus on ridiculous "issues" like raw milk consumption by citizens making their own choices.
Too much government is a bad thing. :) That's my approach to most things when it comes to topics such as this.
I just wanted to take a moment to tell you that I just recently discovered you blog. I am in LOVE with it! This is exactly the type of support I needed to find in my life right now.
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~Ali
Thanks for posting this, Crystal. As farmers who are *looks around and whispers* raw milk drinkers, we are very aware of big brother government that looks out for the interests of the big dairy farmers. It is very for the average family to find good milk for their families to drink. I grew up on store milk. But if we did not have access to real milk, I would have to consider whether or not to feed it to my kids.
As for the article, I felt that the writer did a great job for the most part. I didn't agree with everything in it, but at least he got it printed! :-)
We cant drink the deadly raw milk, but alcohol and cigarettes are legal. Hmmm?
Our family has decided that raw milk is better for us than homogenized, pasturized milk. Its a decision that we made after much reading and research.
Just my thoughts.
I think it is absolutely ridiculous! I know there are ways to sell your own raw milk if you want to by wording your sale of it correctly, but I think the government has much better things to do than to go after people selling milk that is not pastuerized. There are so many other ways people get diseases, and I have not heard of too many huge outbreaks among natural people who drink their own milk. There has been more people who died from eating spinach recently that I heard about! Anyhow, I do much better with raw milk than store milk and wish I had a cow again!
I thought one part of the article was especially interesting:
"Between 1990 and 2004, U.S. health authorities traced 168 disease outbreaks to dairy products; nearly a third were linked to unpasteurized items, according to the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest."
Since there's only two choices, pasteurized or unpasteurized, this means that two-thirds of the outbreaks were from pasteurized dairy. That's twice as many disease outbreaks from pasteurized dairy as from raw dairy. It's interesting that they wrote it to make the raw milk sound dangerous.
I tell ya, this is just nuts. Are they going to make it illegal to sell red meat because some people think it isn't heart-healthy? There goes the spinach, strawberries, lettuce, and green onions! Goodness, what about all of the poultry and eggs that could carry salmonela? *gasp*
It astounds me that the cops are wasting tax-payer money by causing problems for people who want to drink/eat raw milk product, and the people who can supply it. As if they don't have enough work that they should be doing, with real crimes and all....
I think the reason government does control the milk (and should) is because of the massive mega farms. I would have no problem buying my milk from a neighbor with a few cows, but in these big mega farm it is difficult to keep diseases at bay. I would not buy raw milk from a mega farm. Sorry. The same goes for meat. I would have no problem buying a side of beef from a smaller beef farmer, but I do want somebody keeping track of the huge slaughtering houses and the life of the animals slaughtered. We got raw milk from a cow named Molly until we got goats. We also got some meat from her barnmate.)
I do think that raw milk is healthier than pastuerized (and was raised on it), but I am not going to risk the many diseases that may be missed because of the mass production of the mega farms.
I would love to be able to find a source of raw dairy products!
My dad grew up on a dairy farm and drank lots of raw milk as a boy, but we were NEVER allowed to drink unpasteurized milk. He feels it is not safe.
Our family will not be drinking it regardless of what the government does. I would have to contend with Dad as to why I thought it was okay to risk the health of his grandchildren.
I would rather stand up to the government. :)
It seems like the raw milk debate is a good opportunity for believers to submit to those in authority over us even though we
disagree with that authority. Now we have something in common with those who think drug/smoking laws are ridiculous and an infringement on their rights.
My sweet husband drives over 2 hours (one way) every-other week so we can buy raw milk from pastured cows, because it is illegal to buy/sell raw milk for human consumption in the state of AR.
An excellent book on the subject is The Untold Story of Milk by Ron Schmid.
I am learning that most of what the government does is NOT to protect the masses, but to pad the pockets of the few.
Rediculous! Doesn't the government have better things to do then tell us what is good or not good for us to eat? If they are going to go after raw dairy products, then why are so many products with high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils on the shelves? Those are proven unhealthy, regardless of contamination. And raw milk has been proven HEALTHY as long as it is disease free. And why not let the consumer decide if they want take that risk or not?
BTW, you can buy raw goat's milk in the STORE in my state. Though the farm has to go under more stringent inspection, it has passed with higher numbers than local farms that sell pasteurized goat's milk. So there's some food for thought when it comes to dairy safety.
I believe that the government interferes way too much. Smoking/drinking is regulated, and I am in full agreement with that. Nicotine and alcohol are drugs, though. Milk--not so much. If the government keeps this up, they'll have to ban EVERY food that is unsafe. And, that's pretty much EVERYTHING we eat, right? ;)
I also understood those statistics quoted by Kristina to mean that more disease outbreaks came from pasturized (2/3) than unpasturized (1/3) dairy products, but I'm not sure that it follows that pasturized products are thus more dangerous. We can't assume that just because 2/3 of outbreaks came from pasturized products, 2/3 of _all_ products consumed are pasturized. In fact, I suspect that only a tiny fraction of products consumed _aren't_ pasturized (since their sale is so widely illegal), which suggests that per unit consumed, unpasturized products are more dangerous. Also, although it is clearly true that unpasturized dairy hasn't killed off humanity as a whole yet, it certainly has killed or sickened individual humans, and I'd hate to be one of them.
I grew up on raw milk from a local farm. I remember my mother making REAL whipped cream from the cream that settled to the top of the gallon jar. You know, none of us had a cavity growing up on that milk, and were very healthy! It was also less expensive, buying it straight from the farmer. I do believe the purchase of raw milk should be a personal choice!
Ruth, PA
As a Mom who has been feeding raw milk, butter and cheese to my four children for 8 years now...this really makes me angry. Does anyone believe that the founding fathers would have put up with this? We need to fight to change the laws! Write letters to your representatives and make phone calls! It is NOT the government's business to protect us from ourselves....it is no one's business what I choose to buy and feed my children. That is between the farmer and the customer. If people knew the truth, how much safer and healthier raw milk from a local farm is compared to milk filled with hormones, anti-biotics and other chemicals from huge corporate agricultural operations....that is truly who the government wants to protect....the pockets of big AG!
Ok....stepping off of my soap box now :)
That is a good point made by anonymous about matching the statistics of disease to the percent of dairy consumed. I hadn't thought of that, but it's highly probable that less than 1/3 of the dairy consumed is raw. I should have realized that :)
Anyway, to answer the original question, my understanding is that pasteurization of milk was needed originally because of unsanitary conditions on some farms and no refrigerated trucks to transport the milk into cities. I would agree that milk from a large factory type dairy probably needs to be pasteurized for our safety, although it would be better if they were instead expected to keep the milk sanitary. On the other hand, raw milk from a small farm that is careful about sanitation and has refrigeration equipment is most likely to be perfectly safe and should not be banned by the government. The government should protect us from invasion from foreign countries, but I don't think it's their job to protect us from ourselves. If you drink raw milk, do your homework before you pick a farm to buy it from. If you would like to find one, check our www.realmilk.com
It seems that in the United States, it's becoming so that it's illegal to be stupid. A lot of laws out there really do step on our personal freedoms. Now, I'm not saying it's stupid to drink raw milk, but if someone chooses to go that route, they should do it at their own risk. We should encourage people to be more educated, to think for themselves, and make decisions for themselves. Now some things like drugs hurt more than the user, so I'm okay with regulations about that. In the end, though, I think the more we rely on the government to tell us what's good for us, the less freedom we have. And the more we're okay with that, the less right we have to disagree with the government. And I agree with some of the other comments here - there are bigger issues at stake, like poverty, homelessness, drug trafficking, terrorists, etc. etc.
I know in NH some dairies can sell raw milk, but they are limited on how much they can sell. They can only sell X amount of gallons. I forget the exact amount. I think it is so that they can keep the amount from getting to large. I think the logic is that if the farm is small than sick cows can be more easily spotted. We had a retired farmer in our town who had about a dozen Jerseys and they sold raw milk to locals.
I'm glad there are so many people who are upset by the government stepping in and cutting out healthy food. I wouldn't be surprised if the governement is doing this so they can poison us with their so called "better" products. I wonder how many people had cancer when we were living off of fresh food, from farms without being chemically altered.
I am one of MANY people who are allergic to whatever the "good" stuff they put in milk to be able to sell it in the store. When I was growing up we always had milk from the farm up the street, but since they have made it illegal I've been forced to live with congestion and cold like symptems. I'm sure the government would tell me to just take some drug with side effects that are twice as bad as my problem. That seems to be the way they work.
To sum it all up, I'm against the government controlling what we eat. If it TRUELY is bad, then let those of us who want to eat and drink it suffer.
One time we were given this milk that was ultra pastuerized. It would not go sour!
That is supposed to be better for you? I agree that it is not as safe to drink raw milk from a mega farm, but if someone has ever milked a cow you know that sometimes they get matistis. When we had our cow and had to treat them, we milked the milk onto the ground. I think often when they pastuerize the milk they allow themselves more leeway when comes to cleaning and infection. They figure it will be killed and not show up as well, but that is what we are drinking.
The number of comments on this post shows what an important issue most people feel government over-control has become! Raw or pasturized is less the issue than who gets to decide--the government or each individual. Sadly, most people shake their heads, throw up their hands and say, "Oh well, what can you do?" Until we start thinking like free people and let the government catch up, we will be living as the government chooses.
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