Members of Congress Drink Raw Milk
in Support of Food Freedom
September 15, 2015
Story at-a-glance
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In support of food freedom, two members of the US
Congress recently sat down for an illegal meal of
hemp scones, non USDA-inspected steak, non-inspected
eggs, kombucha, and raw milk
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A number of bills have been introduced, aimed at
improving consumer choice by loosening regulations
on small farms that sell foods such as raw milk,
beef, kombucha, and hemp
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The Interstate Milk Freedom Act of 2014 would allow
raw milk to be sold nationwide, across state lines.
The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015 would amend
the Controlled Substances Act to exclude hemp
By Dr. Mercola
Life is about making choices. But today, regulations, red
tape, and massive industry lobbying efforts are eroding some of
our most basic freedom of choice.
It's hard to fathom how we have come to a point where
natural, unadulterated, and wholesome foods are forbidden, while
foods containing concoctions of untested synthetic chemicals and
toxic pesticide residues are permitted; but such is the case
when it comes to raw milk and a number of other artisanal foods.
In support of food freedom, two members of the US Congress
recently sat down for an "illegal" meal. As reported by The
Independent Journal:1
"Reps. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) and Thomas Massie
(R-Ky.) ate their meal... at Jezebel's, a Denver restaurant.
The reason they aren't under criminal investigation,
though? Because they were in Colorado, and while the dishes
they ate are against the law to buy, they brought the food
themselves.
Their meal of 'forbidden and restricted foods,' as
Polis called it, was to bring attention to federal rules
they hope to change that limit how food can be sold."
On their menu were hemp scones (which, despite the fact they
cannot get you "high," are made with a controlled substance, as
far as federal law is concerned); non USDA-inspected steak from
Massie's own farm; non-inspected organic pastured eggs from a
relative's backyard chicken coop; kombucha; and raw milk.
PJ Media2
quotes Rep. Polis saying:
"These are decisions what do you put in your own
body? What's a more intimate decision than that? It really
should be entirely up to people. It should be up to the
person. You shouldn't have the federal government telling
you what you can and can't eat."
Members of Congress Push for New Raw Milk Legislation
The two Congressmen are promoting a number of bills aimed at
improving consumer choice by loosening regulations on small
farms that sell foods such as raw milk, beef, kombucha (a
fermented beverage), and hemp.
This includes the Milk Freedom Act of 20143
(HR 43074)
and the Interstate Milk Freedom Act of 2014 (HR 43085),
the latter of which would allow raw milk to be sold nationwide,
across state lines.
HR 4308 would also prevent the federal government from
interfering with trade of raw dairy products between states
where distribution or sale of raw milk is already legal.
Last year, Rep. Massie said:6
"As a producer of grass-fed beef, I am familiar with
some of the difficulties small farmers face when marketing
fresh food directly to consumers.
Our bills would make it easier for families to buy
wholesome milk directly from farmers by reversing the
criminalization of dairy farmers who offer raw milk.
The federal government should not punish farmers for
providing customers the foods they want, and states should
be free to set their own laws regulating food safety."
Other Farm- and Consumer-Friendly Legislation in the Works
Together with Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Rep.
Massie also introduced the PRIME Act7
(Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption Act, HR3187)
this past summer.
Passage of the bill would allow states to pass laws allowing
the sale of custom processed meat. The Farm-To-Consumer Legal
Defense Fund wrote a
must-read paper detailing the benefits of the PRIME Act.
In a press release,8
Rep. Pingree, who raises grass-fed cattle in Maine, said:
"More and more people want locally produced food, but
because of the way the system is set up for processing meat,
farmers and ranchers sometimes end up sending their animals
hundreds or even thousands of miles to a giant
slaughterhouse.
That is just crazy and defeats the whole point of
locally produced food. If we can change the federal
regulations a little to make it easier to process meat
locally, it's going to help farmers scale up and give local
consumers what they want."
I urge you to take action today and let your representative know
you support the PRIME Act. A vote for the PRIME Act is a vote
for supporting local farms, rather than factory farms.
Will Efforts to Decriminalize Hemp Finally Succeed?
A fourth bill, introduced by Rep. Massie in January, is the
Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2015 (HR5259),
which would amend the Controlled Substances Act to exclude
industrial hemp from the definition of "marihuana." A
complementary bill (S.134) has been introduced in the Senate.
The first bill to try to extract industrial hemp from the
controlled substances list was introduced in 2005, by former
Rep. Ron Paul. He reintroduced similar bills in 2007, 2009, and
2011 all of which failed.10
Senator Ron Wyden tried getting an industrial hemp bill
attached to the Farm Bill in 2012 and 2013, and both of those
attempts failed too.
Considering all the benefits of
hemp (the non-drug oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis),
it doesn't make sense to prohibit its use. It certainly does not
belong on the controlled substances list!
Consider this: The US government now allows OxyContin a
supremely potent and addictive opioid drug to be prescribed to
children as young as 11,11
but they won't allow you or your children to eat hemp?!
Where is the sense in this? There is none.
In the same vein, raw milk is banned in many states on the
basis of claims that it's unsafe and may make you sick. Yet
toxic pesticides are dumped on our crops by the tankful, and
that's touted as perfectly safe and completely unrelated to
skyrocketing rates of health problems.
It's also well worth noting that the vast majority of
foodborne illnesses in the US are actually linked to
factory farmed and highly processed foods, not raw foods.
Raw milk from organic grass-fed cows is teeming with
bacteria, yes but they're the health-promoting kind.
Disease-causing bacteria are the result of industrial
farming practices that lead to diseased cows, which then produce
contaminated milk.
The Main Opponent of Raw Milk Is the Dairy Industry
While Congress has never outright banned raw milk, it's the
only food banned from interstate commerce. This makes it
challenging for small farmers to share their raw milk products
with people living across state lines. As a result, private
agreements called herdshares are often formed between farmers
and individuals, which entitle you to the benefits of owning a
"share" of a cow, such as a certain amount of milk each week.
Despite these legal agreements, federal agents have
repeatedly conducted aggressive
armed raids against peaceful raw-milk farmers. The question
as to why that is can be easily answered when you consider that
major milk manufacturers are a primary lobby within the Food and
Drug Administration (FDA), and the US food system revolves
around money.
What we have is not a "free market" but a massive collusion
between government and big business, which are facilitated
through lobbying.
Regulators often take their power and influence and join
private lobbying firms in return for big paychecks, going from
regulating an industry to working FOR that industry, and then
back again, like a perpetually revolving door. Laws are adopted
behind a public interest veneer such as protecting your health
by restricting raw milk sales but underneath they are products
of negotiation between industry leaders and government officials
to eliminate the competition and enhance their economic status.
Raw Grass-Fed Milk Is Actually Safer Than Pasteurized
Producers of organic raw milk, which is a far superior food
product, present a significant economic threat to the larger
pasteurized milk industry, so when the US Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) sends in armed agents to shut down a raw
milk producer, it's really nothing more than a Mafia strong arm
tactic aimed at shutting down the competition. It has absolutely
nothing to do with consumer safety.
The FDA warns that raw milk can carry disease-causing
bacteria, but what they completely overlook is the fact that
these bacteria are the result of industrial farming
practices that lead to diseased animals, which may then in
turn produce contaminated milk. The two are not interchangeable,
yet they make no distinction whatsoever between disease-riddled
factory farmed milk and the milk from clean, healthy, and
grass-fed cows...
You definitely want to avoid drinking raw milk from a
conventionally-raised feed-lot cow. But drinking raw milk
produced by grass-fed cows from clean, well-run farms is
actually far LESS dangerous than drinking pasteurized milk. Not
only does raw milk contain good bacteria that are essential for
a healthy digestive system and help "crowd out" pathogens,
high-quality raw organic milk also has its own built in "immune
system" that actually protects you against food
poisoning. Pasteurized milk does not have this protective
quality.
The reason why the dairy industry is so threatened by
small-scale organic dairy farms is because they simply
cannot produce safe raw milk in a confined animal feeding
operation (CAFO),
and therefore they cannot compete for a share of the raw milk
market.
In fact, CAFO milk is so hazardous that despite
pasteurization, data12
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows
there are about 412 confirmed cases of people getting ill from
pasteurized milk each year. Meanwhile, only
about 116 illnesses a year are linked to raw milk. Yet you never
hear about armed raids on CAFOs, do you? That's because they
don't occur, despite the fact they pose a far greater risk to
your health.
According to research by Dr. Ted Beals,13
MD, featured in the summer 2011 issue of Wise Traditions,
the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation, you are
about 35,000 times more likely to get sick from other foods than
you are from raw milk, so truly, if the government allows us to
play Russian Roulette with pasteurized dairy products and other
inspected-yet-still-contaminated foods, we really should be
allowed to drink raw milk and eat privately slaughtered beef if
we so choose...
But the fight for food freedom isn't just for those who
happen to love raw milk it's for everyone who wants to be able
to obtain the food of their choice from the source of their
choice.
Where to Buy Raw Milk, and What to Do If It's Not Legal in Your
State
Raw-Milk-Facts.com and
RealMilk.com are two excellent websites to peruse if you're
looking for raw milk. They can tell you what the status is for
legality in your state. On a positive note, in the last 12
months, 33 states have opened up the legal status for raw milk.
So, it's getting easier to obtain.
EatWild.com and
WestonAPrice.org also provide lists of certified organic
farmers known to produce safe, wholesome raw dairy products as
well as grass-fed beef and other organic produce.
You can contact your local
Weston A Price chapter leader directly if you have
questions. Other organizations that can help you locate raw and
farm-fresh foods in the vicinity of where you live include:
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Local Harvest This Web site will help
you find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources
of sustainably grown food in your area where you can buy
produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies
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Farmers' Markets A national listing
of farmers' markets
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Eat Well Guide: Wholesome Food from Healthy Animals
The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of
sustainably raised meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs from
farms, stores, restaurants, inns, and hotels, and online
outlets in the United States and Canada
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Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA)
CISA is dedicated to sustaining agriculture and promoting
the products of small farms
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FoodRoutes The FoodRoutes "Find Good
Food" map can help you connect with local farmers to find
the freshest, tastiest food possible. On their interactive
map, you can find a listing for local farmers, CSAs, and
markets near you
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