The FDA Continues Its Fight Against Your Health and Rights In Their Crusade Against Raw Milk

Raw milk is currently the only food that is banned under a quite disingenuous reconstruction of the Interstate Commerce Clause.  There has never been a law passed by Congress banning raw milk, however, the FDA has taken it upon themselves to determine that it is hazardous, and refuses to regulate it.  Because they refuse to regulate it, that means it cannot be sold across state lines.  The performance of most state governments on this issue have not been much better.  Retail sales of raw milk are currently legal in only twelve states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Idaho, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Washington.  Utah allows for retail sales of raw milk under the special condition that the store has to be owned by the producer of the milk.  An additional seventeen states have not completely banned the sales of raw milk, however they do not allow it to be sold in grocery stores.  This makes it difficult for a substantial portion of the urban and suburban population to obtain it readily.  In those states, the milk must be purchased directly from a farm.  Four more states, while also not completely banning it, make it most difficult by prohibiting direct sales, but the milk may be "given" as a result of purchasing a share of a cow.

  A bottle of raw, unadulterated, unpasteurized milk.
Author: Jgharston, under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

This year, there were two bills introduced in Congress that are raw milk friendly.  HR4307 and HR4308.  The first bill would prohibit the FDA and other federal enforcement agents from interfering in the interstate traffic of any raw milk product.  The second, 4308, would only restrain them from interfering in the trade in states where it is already legal.  While these bills could be considered beneficial in the sense that it would in practice increase the freedom of choice for consumers, it should also be noted that since there is no law passed by Congress banning the sale of raw milk, these laws should not be necessary.  The FDA should simply need to be given cease and desist orders by Congress.  Since they are not a law making body, they have no authority to ban any type of food to begin with.  Even Congress has no lawful constitutional authority to ban raw milk.

These bills continue to be fought by the FDA, and they currently are still only in the introduction phase, both having been referred to the subcommittee on health, even though they were both introduced back at the end of March, 2014.

Large, commercial corporations who produce milk from cows raised in factory farms, are a primary backer of the FDA's push against raw milk.  These cows are injected with hormones, namely rBST, raised in substandard conditions, and are fed a diet of primarily corn and soy.  As a result, their milk, obtained from less than healthy cows, is dangerous to drink unless it is pasteurized.  They aid the FDA in railing against raw milk, using the contents of their own product in its unpasteurized state as "proof" that it is unsafe, dishonestly hiding the fact that it is the conditions and diet they use for their cows that makes it unsafe.  They effectively use the FDA to eliminate their competition of small, raw milk farms that produce their milk from grass fed, pasture raised cows that produces a whole, natural food.  Raw milk has been enjoyed by humans safely for thousands of years, and continues to be in many parts of the world today, including many countries in Europe, who have raw milk vending machines.

The time has come to end this senseless persecution of this healthy, probiotic food, and the brave people that produce it.