As a political issue Raw milk raids by Federal officials may not seem that important. However, from a personal liberty, function of government issue, it is important. Further, it is yet another waste of government resources to track down and arrest harmless US citizens and police your life.
If we are not even free anymore to decide something as basic as what we wish to eat or drink, how much freedom do we really have left? – Ron Paul
The big cheese government officials who engineered the raids on raw milk farmers, including tax payer salaries workers at the FDA and CDC, the law enforcement agents leading SWAT style raids, get paid a nice cushy salary with benefits and pension most private companies do not. But most important it is another step towards big brother control and goes against my understanding of why the USA was founded.
Legal language like ‘conspiracy’ to sell raw milk were used. Gee Wiz, next thing you know it the police state will be shutting down little girls lemonade stands.
Does the Fed raid even simple Amish raw milk farmers? Yes. This video illustrates what I am talking about and it is worth viewing.
From my understanding it took about a year of preparation and under cover surveillance to orchestrate these sweeps on Milk smugglers. What were you doing last year? I imagine working hard to earn a living not collecting on the tax payers tab.
Do they raid organic health food stores? Yes.
Guns drawn and all.
Is America still the land of the free?
What can I say, I live in Eastern Europe and my wife’s family has a farm, I have been drinking raw milk for years. It taste great, is healthy and most of all in the countryside no one cares if you do or you do not. She grew up on it as everyone in the countryside did. If you leave it out in the heat it makes great Kefir, you do not even have to add yogurt cultures.
In fact, I am going to the countryside this weekend and drink some raw milk, thank goodness this is not the land of the free America or I could be arrested. In the EU, Europe, raw milk and dairy products are perfectly legal and this freedom is protected by law.
Therefore, explain to me why, in the USA, it is OK to use tobacco products, consume alcohol, fly on energy drinks (all of which can and do result in fatalities) and do any number of self destructive behaviors, but drinking raw milk gets cracked down on?
Personal liberty issue of raw dairy
I guess the issue is who’s life is it anyway? What is the role of government in people’s lives? The ‘got raw milk’ issue is only an example.
As adults you should be free to choose how you want to live your life. If you want to do a behavior and understand the cost and benefits of this and does not hurt other people’s lives, why should there be a middleman called the US government policing your action.
The problem is government laws rarely increase freedom, but rather incrementally take freedom away. Step by step, day by day new laws and regulations are passed that curtail people’s personal liberty. The USA is becoming an increasing litigious Byzantine society. What will it look like in one hundred years if the USA still exists?
The rational for government protection is gone. One hundred years ago pasteurization protected people from bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis. Today the concern is more about E. coli O157:H7, Listeria, and Salmonella. So in all fairness there is a reason the FDA involved.
You can read the pros and cons of raw milk but that is not the point it is more a personal freedom issue:
- Why Raw milk is should be controlled by the government – but come on, pesticides and antibiotics and growth hormones are OK? Everything in life has risks, inlcuding getting up in the morning.
- Why Raw milk is healthy – This site looks a little cheesy, but makes some points.
Farm sanitation and effective testing has made most of this a moot point. Besides the heavy worded warnings by the CDC,and the reality some people have become ill, I have not personally heard people dying from raw milk. I do know many people do die from OTC medications. People become ill from walking around in NYC in January, should this be banned.
28 States do not restrict raw milk sales in the USA.
One legal solution for raw milk sellers is they could label the milk for sale as:
- Pet food, not for human consumption or
- Milk detergent, not for human consumption
- Low-temperature vat pasteurization seems to be a compromise
Once ‘100% pure milk detergent’ is sold, in the privacy of people’s homes it could be hard for the Feds to check what you do with it, that is if you use it for natural soap or drink it. Although I would not put anything past the Feds and it would not surprised me if a story like that wound up on Drudge report.
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