Several states consider loosening raw milk restrictions as FDA tries to tighten them

Friday, February 25, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: raw milk, restrictions, health news

(NaturalNews) As the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) evaluates ways to further restrict Americans' access to raw milk and raw milk products, several US states are considering legislation to loosen the regulatory noose that limits freedom of food choice. Texas, Oregon, Minnesota, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin all have pending legislation to legalize raw milk sales, relax sale restrictions that make buying the product difficult, or for the first time decriminalize raw milk sales with restrictions.

Recently, the FDA decided to target raw milk cheese, suggesting that it is more dangerous that pasteurized cheese and thus may require increased limitations. But the very data the FDA is using to make this claim clearly shows that contamination often happen after production, both in raw and pasteurized cheeses. In other words, both raw and pasteurized milk products can become contaminated after production (https://www.naturalnews.com/031471_raw_milk_c...).

Despite this and other propaganda efforts to falsely demonize raw milk, consumer demand for the unpasteurized, unhomogenized, farm-fresh food continues to rise. And the rhetoric coming from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the FDA, and various state health agencies and officials hellbent on telling people what they can and cannot drink, is losing ground to the simple grassroots efforts pushing for more raw milk freedom.

In Texas, House Bill 75 and Senate Bill 237 would eliminate the restriction allowing raw milk sales only on the farm, and instead allow them to take place at "any other location where producers customarily sell their products directly to consumers including a farmers' market, farm stand, flea market, food cooperative or fair." The Minnesota legislature is set to have a similar bill presented before it.

Oregon's HB 2222, also known as the Family Farm Act, would expand the maximum herd limits for producers of raw milk in the state, and would offer some tax and other exemptions to local farmers.

New Jersey's bill A743, perhaps the most aggressive of all, would fully reverse the state's current ban on raw milk. Farmers who obtain a valid raw milk permit under a new state program and comply with testing requirements would be permitted to sell raw milk both directly to consumers and in retail stores.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/02/24/raw...

http://farmandranchfreedom.org/