Heads I Win, Tails You Lose...In New Twist, FDA Says Illnesses from Pasteurized Milk Really Fault of Raw Milk
Thursday, January 13, 2011 at 09:28AM 
I'm beginning to understand why the dairy group at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration usually declines to comment publicly about controversies over raw milk. Because on the few occasions when it has commented, it's come up looking either totally repressive, totally ignorant or, most recently, totally delusional.
In the Humboldt County raw milk situation, the FDA submitted a 28-page document at the tail end of the consideration process, with the catchy title, "Raw Milk Misconceptions and the Danger of Raw Milk Consumption". All I can say is that I'm worried about whether these people are playing with a full deck.
As Mark McAfee laments in a comment following my previous post, the document is notable for an almost religious fervor against raw milk. In that vein, it's not dissimilar from the legal brief submitted last April seeking to refute the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund suit against the agency. That was the brief in which the agency declared, we have "no absolute right to...any particular food."
But most notably in the submission to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, the FDA makes a number of amazingly outrageous statements that suggest people out of touch with any semblance of their own version of scientific thinking or rational analysis. As a prime example, the FDA states that a number of dairy illnesses attributed by various scientific studies and by the Centers for Disease Control to pasteurized milk were, indeed, the fault of raw milk. Yes, you read that right. "In The Verbal Argument by Mark McAfee, the author cited various foodborne outbreaks where pasteurized milk was implicated. For these cited outbreaks, FDA was able to find scientific literature describing these outbreaks. In most cases, the implicated milk was contaminated post-pasteurization. Ironically, in many cases, the actual source of contamination was raw milk."
As one example, a 1983 outbreak of illness from listeria monocytogenes in pasteurized milk in Massachusetts, the FDA explains, "The likely cause of this outbreak was the high levels of L. monocytogenes contamination in the starting raw milk. During the outbreak period, raw milk was sourced from farms that had dairy cows infected with listeriosis. In addition, multiple serotypes of L. monocytogenes were isolated from raw milk obtained from these farms after the outbreak."
As another example, outbreaks of illness from salmonella in pasteurized milk in 1984 and 1985, "The 2% pasteurized milk was likely contaminated by raw milk post-pasteurization. Both the FDA lab and a private lab confirmed that the outbreak strain of Salmonella was heat sensitive and would not survive pasteurization. The implicated plant had an unusual setup of its processing line: pasteurization was an early step followed by separation and fat standardization. Investigation at the implicated plant revealed a potential cross-connection between tanks that contained raw milk and pasteurized skim milk."
As a third example, of its logic, it points to a 2006 outbreak of illness from pasteurized milk that sickened 1,300 prison inmates in California. "During investigation, it was noted that pasteurized milk produced before the outbreak had high bacteria counts. In addition, about 100 different C. jejuni strains were isolated on the dairy farm with 3 isolates matching the human illness strain. These observations suggested that either the starting raw milk had very high levels of pathogen contamination from the dairy environment or the milk was contaminated post pasteurization."
So you have that straight now? If you start with raw milk that's dirty and contaminatyed because the farmers know it will be zapped in the pasteurization process, and the milk is so filthy it isn't or can't be completely zapped, or the processors don't handle the milk correctly, the problem is raw milk...and therefore raw milk is mortally dangerous.
The filth of conventional raw milk is well known in the dairy industry, and I addressed it in my book, The Raw Milk Revolution, as follows: "A study published in a 2004 issue of the Journal of Dairy Science found that in milk samples taken from 861 bulk tanks in twenty-one states around the country, 2.6 percent contained salmonella and 6.5 percent tested positive for listeria monocytogenes...the reality is that the farmers whose milk contained the pathogens could rest assured that the milk wasn't a public health hazard because it would be pasteurized."
I think Mark McAfee hit the nail on the head: "It is a religion mindset....there is no data that will convince a person that believes something religiously."
I worry about these people. Or else they're beginning to worry about the fact that ever increasing numbers of people are rushing to consume raw dairy, and not only not getting sick, but in many cases improving their health in the process. Watch out for the fanatic who sees his version of reality crumbling around him.
Reader Comments (45)
You just framed the four corners of this massive disconnect between TheTwo Raw Milks in America. The FDA for whatever reasons. Including Food Inc NCIMS relationships and Deans Foods market protectionism.
Sounds like if the FDA was forced by court order to accept data from CA that showed clean raw milk that was inspected and tested and that data was compared with their dear CAFO PMO filth then the raw milk movement could make progress with the FDA. Until then they are irrelevant and an enemy of the health of the people.
Mark
You too can ignore every shred of evidence that goes against his financial empire and contribute, contribute, contribute! He has gallons and gallons of the stuff and it MUST BE SOLD!!!
$$$Freedom starts in his wallet! Invest now!$$$
Because the conventional dairy alternative - the shit/pus juice is peddled by benevolent philantrops?
No, freedom does NOT start with the wallet in this case, thank you very much FDA.
When a stinky bloated corpse ends up in the morgue and no one wants to identify or claim it...thats what the police call a John Doe...is that this person or what this ex person is???
Trolls!!
They both had badges and one had a gun and handcuffs. Both were very professional and did a great job inspecting our colostrum collection and bottling process. They both gave us great feedback and we have adopted their ideas and we are hard at work implimenting their suggestions. Both of these inspectors treated us with respect and listened very carefully to our every word. We listened to their advice as well. This is how it is supposed to be and how it is supposed to work.
These two inspectors are where my reality hits the road. They both knew the standards that we operate under and both of them recieved copies of our RAMP program. Which they appreciated and thought well of.
These guys operated in reality and with real data.
The FDA I saw operating in Humboldt was from a different planet. Planet "CAFO PMO". The FDA I saw operating in Humboldt were operating under a political excercise of defending their dogma at all expense. Even at the expense of ethics and science and data.
We have a schizophrenic food regulatory system in America. It speaks out of different sides of its same mouth depending on the goals of the immediate political objectives. They do not stand on moral or ethical ground. They blow with the winds of the political climate and their paychecks.
Our big win comes with time, happy healthy consumers and eroding faith in Praying to Planet CAFO PMO. Planet "CAFO PMO" is losing 2% of their fluid milk sales every year, regardless of their very sexed up Mooootopia Ads and Got Milk? Commercials.
Dollar voting will take them out....the dairy case is covered with probiotic products as their fluid products vanish at 2% per year.
Delicous, tested, safe OPDC raw milk thrives....the consumers know what the truth of their gut says. No lying to the gut....no need for a university study to tell you about your own very intimate gut test. No one will be convinced by FDA lies when they conflict with your Gut Test.
Mark
Mark
Is it Alice in Wonderland or Malice in Wonderland?
Mr. J. Ingvar Odegaard
It really is so stupid. Extra stupid when you think about how right our guts are. I always listen to my gut. My gut says keep typing. Here's a thank you list to my gut, for all the good decisions it helped me make:
Thank you, Gut. For making me think that at 4 years old I should pull on the handle of that pot on the stove.
Thank you, Gut. For making me get in that car with the stranger at the age of 8. After all, he had candy.
Thank you, Gut. For making me think at 12, I could beat up that older, bigger kid who took Karate.
Thank you, Gut. For helping me sleep with that fast girl in college, even though she had the clap.
Thank you, Gut. For telling me my wife wouldn't mind. She left me.
Thank you, Gut. For letting me know it was alright to drive after that last beer. And for letting me know that no one else, especially kids, would be out on the roads at this time of night.
Thank you, Gut. You never let me down. The third-degree burns, emotional scarring, bloody noses, burning urination, prolonged loneliness, and manslaughter charges have been great.
- From Prison, but Still With My Gut
John Doe.
I used to boast that our milk was the most expensive in America ... at $18.50 Cdn per gallon, but if Organic Pastures has hit the $18.99 mark = "good on ya!" Part of my job is educating people about what real food, really costs
the price of silver moved from $4 per ounce, to $30 just since I got involved in the Campaign for REAL MILK. Why that matters is because the REAL dollar of the United States of America is predicated in silver. As O'Bama and his Bankster pals and the race traitors in high places shovel $ into the maw of their criminal enterprise, all that phoney 'money' has to be reflected down to the grassroots level hyper-inflation is inevitable..
Jason Hommel is one of the world's experts on silver. He's predicting $500 per ounce.
we'll see REAL MILK at $50 per gallon ...
Buckminster Fuller explained how the way citizens spend their money, is more powerful than the way they cast ballots in elections
More power to you, Mark ... for showing people how to make REAL FOOD available to those who want it. That's what crypto red fascist John Doe is really against - freedom to make one's own choices
more likely it's a fiery dart lobbed by the enemy.
Mark - I am impressed you can say all you say on an Iphone! Don't let the goofs on here rattle you. I have the utmost respect for you and David Gumpert! Thanks for all you guys do!
FDA folks are not nutritionally conscious as are most human beings too! The ones seeking and drinking good raw milk (and various other products from raw milk like raw butter, raw cream, raw cheese) from healthy cows are the ones who are nutritionally conscious. We know who we are :-)
nancy j
aka
"What Did We Know About Dioxin, and When Did We Know It?"
"What Did It Take to Forget What We Knew?"
"The CDC was brought in to add weight to the bogus analysis
of dioxin's effects. After 4 years and $63 million in federal funds,
CDC concluded that an Agent Orange study could not be done based on
military records, and furthermore concluded, without data, that
veterans were never exposed to harmful doses of Agent Orange!
When the CDC's protocols were examined, however, it was found that
three changes had been made to its study in 1985, in an apparent
attempt to dilute any negative effect that might be found. Congress
learned in 1986 that administration officials, not scientists, had
forestalled CDC research on the effects of dioxin.
In 1990, Senator Daschle disclosed additional political interference
in the Air Force's Ranch Hand study of Agent Orange effects. A 1984
draft report's conclusion was substantially altered, and the study was
described as "reassuring."
The Ranch Hand study is still ongoing, despite new allegations of
fraudulent methodologies coming to light every few years. It will cost
taxpayers over $100 million.
Monsanto, a manufacturer of Agent Orange, was happy to duplicate the
methods of federally funded studies. By omitting five deaths in the
exposed group and putting four exposed workers in the control group,
they were able to hide a 65% higher death rate in the workers exposed
at the Nitro plant. Another study of workers exposed in 1953 at a BASF
plant was also shown to be falsified, as all the data had been
supplied by the BASF company.
Thanks to the efforts of Admiral Zumwalt, who as the commanding Navy
Admiral in Vietnam was responsible for some of the spraying, and whose
son died from lymphoma, probably as a result of dioxin exposure, many
more illnesses were finally linked to Agent Orange, and have been made
service-connectable over the past decade."
"Reporting on the conference, Reuters pointed out, "Observers say
conclusive research could have far-reaching and expensive consequences
in terms of compensation claims for the US and Agent Orange makers,
Dow Chemical and Monsanto."
Here we have evidence that The CDC is not above falsifying documents, using fraud in studies and overruling it's own scientists when it didn't like the results they got.Why?Obviously to protect Monsanto and Dow Chemical from liability.
Now the war is on the American people.Monsanto is still producing and promoting the use of herbicides(Agent Orange was an herbicide ) and these herbicides still have the same consequences for those exposed to them as they did in Vietnam.Are we stupid enough to trust the CDC's testing and opinions when it comes to tracing "pathogens"?When illnesses are traced back to raw milk by Pulsenet(CDC's system),should we trust that they are being honest with us?Are they still protecting Monsanto from liability for the many food related illnesses that are really cause by pesticide residues in our food?
Bill Marler,
You always use CDC and their subsidiaries ,the state Health Departments,for your evidence that links an illness to a food.Why should we believe them now when they have a history of lying in order to protect corporations from liability?
http://www.verdant.net/monsanto.htm
"Monsanto has denied ever having given Bliss any waste containing
dioxin or PCBs. So far, officials of U.S. EPA are taking
Monsanto at its word and, instead of investigating the chemical
giant, are investigating and harassing the citizens who have
brought these documented facts to light."
Apparently the EPA is also working to protect Monsanto.And now we learn from Wikileaks that The State Department is also working to promote Monsanto's interests.Maybe when we deal with the federal government we are really dealing with Monsanto.Would you put your child's future in the hands of Monsanto?
I did not know that they let residents at the home for the criminally insane have internet privileges. How did you swing it?
When I finished my 30 minutes about all the good things that raw milk can bring your family and all of work we do to assure that it is safe and delicious....one of the men in the back of the room called out and said...if the FDA hates you...I already love you....
Another raised his hand and said...I have a story about your raw milk. He said....if my daughter drinks pasteurized milk she could die. It causes her to stop breathing and she needs care by paramedics and a shot of epinephrine to stop the anaphylaxsis. She drinks your milk all the time...it is awesome...our whole family drinks it!!
Then came the questions....lots of them for 20 minutes. Then came the sampling and the praise.
Visalia is in Tulare County and it is one of the biggest CAFO dairy counties in the USA. But what I have found is that even the dairymen know what is right and connect with me with mutual respect. It is the processors that they hate and that pay them like dirt...it is the FDA that loves the processors ( NCIMS ). It is the FDA that is the real enemy of the common American and their health. Not any one person at the FDA....no...it is the culture of the FDA and their CAFO and PMO protection and greed and dogma that makes the FDA culture so dangerous to our country and its people. When a culture of corrupt blindness becomes so powerfully in love with itself...it needs to be torn down and rethought. It no longer serves the purpose for which it was created. The FDA should not be anywhere near our food supply.
Mark
I called you on this a few weeks ago.
I despise the FDA. The FDA said that VIOXX was okay and my great aunt was one of the first causalites of this drug. She died.
The one drug that saved my son's life without stunting his growth (budesonide) was held up by the FDA and the government would not give the hospital and doctor that wanted to give this drug an exemption for my son when he was an infant. We were able to get it and he thrived without any severe stunting of his growth. But, I will not go into details how we did so. It is a moot point now because it has been approved for nearly 10 years now with no major side effects noted.
I also took Seldane for many years as an adolescent and young adult. Approved by the FDA as a great allergy drug. It was pulled because it can cause heart problems. So where am I if I develop heart problems in my 40's?
So anyway . . . . if the FDA says that raw milk is bad . . I don't believe them. The health of my family and 100,000's of thousands of other families out there that regularly consume raw milk without illness proves this point. We are closing on 1,000,000 families . . . . . keep those numbers growing everyone:)
The FDA is only interested in helping big Pharma, big Ag and the overseas Import market. It could care less about small local farms (why has the approval of the very safe wormer "Zolvix" been held up?) and the average taxpaying American.
Kind regards,
Violet
www.kilbyridgefarmmaine.blogspot.com
I see every day what these chemicals have done to these men and women. The burn pits from this current war, is the current plague along with the vaccinations they are forced to get.
Bill do you have any idea why the FDA has not listed raw milk on its top ten most risky foods list but consider raw milk to be highly dangerous ? So dangerous that no one should ever drink it for any reason and at any time. Yet each and every other risky food is pretty much available in most all stores in America.
If anyone should know, I think you would.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/MindMoodNews/risky-foods-ice-cream-tuna-cheese-potatoes-greens/story?id=8753705
Do you have any idea why this is?
Thanks for checking on this,
Mark