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Personal Liberties at Stake in Raw Milk Issue 10-15-08
Our constitutional right to liberty is systematically being attacked by
government agencies flanked by anti-competitive forces in the food industry.
Nowhere is this more obvious than on the raw milk issue. California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger recently vetoed SB201, a bill to preserve consumers' rights to
access farm fresh milk while guaranteeing its safety.
The governor, who likely consumed raw dairy in his rise to stardom as a body
builder, thwarted the freedoms of the over 40,000 raw milk devotees in his
state. He ignored the will of the people in favor of the milk processors and the
government regulators bent on crushing the raw dairy producers in their state -
two of which are the most successful in the nation.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture, whose officials repeatedly
refused to appear at hearings on the legislation, pushed The Terminator's pen on
a bill that received populist support and nearly unanimous approval by both
houses of the legislature.
Similar backroom politics killed the Farm Fresh Milk Act in Maryland last year,
which would have reinvigorated struggling small dairy farms by recognizing their
right to sell milk direct to consumers at the farm gate. Hundreds of Maryland
families participated in lobbying efforts in support of the bill, and yet it was
killed in committee (by a very close vote) because of the bureaucrats' dire
warnings of an imminent threat to public health.
In Pennsylvania, an aggressive anti-raw milk stance has created a hostile
atmosphere for over 100 family farms. Pennsylvania raw milk farms practice
humane animal husbandry and consequently offer a superior product to thousands
of consumers, many of whom consume raw milk for its healing qualities.
Bill Chirdon, the director of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture's (PDA)
Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services, is spearheading a pathogen witch
hunt that appears to be aimed at chilling consumer demand for raw dairy.
Through stepped up inspection schedules and a flurry of negative press releases
warning of pathogens in raw milk in 2008, Chirdon has managed to damage farmer's
livelihoods, thus raising the ire of consumers and farmers alike. Taking a
guilty until proven innocent attitude toward one dairy farmer in a recent case,
he even issued a press release pinning blame for several illnesses on the dairy,
prior to the return of official test results.
When the test results came back negative, he proceeded to withhold the release
of the results to the media. At the same time, he disseminated another press
release, which claimed a pathogen was found in an opened milk container from a
sick household.
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund board member, Ted Beals, M.D., a pathologist
and former laboratory chief says that the testing of an opened container,
especially from a sick household, is an unacceptable test. An opened container
may be cross-contaminated, and this is even more likely to happen in a home
where there is illness. Releasing these unorthodox test results to the media
totally eclipsed the PDA's subsequent announcement that the official test
results for pathogens came back negative. The dairy had been exonerated, yet the
public's perception remained that it was risky to buy raw milk.
Consumer choice and the survival of family farms, particularly those who
practice traditional and sustainable farming methods, are under siege by
government policies informed by institutional bias against unprocessed milk.
Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation
www.westonaprice.org and the nation's leading champion of raw dairy for its
nutritional benefits, www.realmilk.com has a dire warning of her own. "The right
to produce and consume raw dairy is vital to the health of the family farm and
our citizens. The future of sustainable agriculture and the health of our nation
depend on a new paradigm that respects the essential liberties of farmers and
consumers."
Bureaucrats and Big Business with wanton disregard for our freedoms, may stir up
such resistance that they end up stimulating demand for raw dairy, rather than
curbing sales. Their campaign of oppression may be just what we need to bring
that new paradigm about.
© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.