Posts Tagged ‘FDA’

What is the matter with the FDA

What is the matter with the FDA?

We’ve been drinking raw milk and eating raw milk cheese for years. We love it and it’s been very good for our health. I make kefir out of raw milk and I’ve made cheese on occasion as well. Thousands of people in my state drink raw milk legally and we are thriving, healthy and not getting sick. There are many other states where it’s legal as well, so what is going on?

It seems like Big Ag,  and the large milk companies,  are getting threatened by all the people who are clamoring for REAL FOOD.  And it also seems like the FDA is more invested in protecting big Ag, then they are in protecting us.  They are supposed to work for us, the American people!

We are tired of over processed junk and want to feed our families real food, from real farmers. The FDA is fine with allowing us to eat genetically modified food – food that’s not been proven safe – and won’t even allow us labeling.  They’re fine with High Fructose Corn Syrup (soon to possibly be called Corn Sugar) and vegetable oils that have been processed using toxic chemicals, and they’re even fine with us eating raw fish.  How come we can go eat sushi, raw fish, in every Japanese restaurant in the country but the FDA is cracking down on Raw Milk and Raw Milk products?  Do you want to only be able to buy meat that’s been cooked? What right do they have to insert themselves into our food choices like this.  Even if you don’t drink raw milk, this issue is important to everyone.

They talk about the dangers but we’ve been drinking raw milk for years, from a good farmer who tests his milk and we’ve never gotten sick.  People around the world drink raw milk and have for thousands of years.  Raw Milk is dangerous when the cows are raised in CAFO’s, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, and fed genetically engineered grain – which has never been tested as safe for human consumption –  and given antibiotics because the conditions are so unsanitary. Any food you eat has potential dangers. Like the recent outbreaks of Salmonella in Peanut butter.

If you are raising cattle on grass and using good practices, raw milk is very healthful and delicious as well. We see news stories about food related illnesses in the news all the time and it’s very rare to ever see a story about raw milk. Raw milk is legal in California, where I live. I buy it in my local store. We’re a big state. If raw milk was so terrible people would be getting sick and we’re not.

Here’s a great article about raw milk:

Drink it raw  – Why is unprocessed milk the only illegal food in North Carolina?

by Suzanne Nelson

http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/drink-it-raw/Content?oid=1202527

The FDA has been raiding farmers and buying clubs for NO reason in the past month.

Here’s an article about the raid at a private buying club in Venice, CA.

Raw-food raid highlights a hunger

Some people balk at restrictions on selling unprocessed milk and other foods. ‘How can we not have the freedom to choose what we eat?’ one says. Regulators say the rules exist for safety and fairness.

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/25/business/la-fi-raw-food-raid-20100725

And two farmers have recently been seriously harassed to the point where they are in danger of being put out of business.

The first is Joe and Denise Dixon, owner of Morningland Dairy whose cheese was one of the products taken from the Rawsome club raid.

http://hartkeisonline.com/2010/10/11/family-farm-ordered-to-destroy-50000-pounds-of-cheese/

http://morninglanddairy.webs.com/recallinformation.htm

http://www.ftcldf.org/aa/aa-22october2010.htm

The second just happened this week.

Another FDA Cheese Bust: Award-winning Artisan Raw Cheese Producer in Washington State.

http://www.ftcldf.org/news/news-25october2010.htm

Here’s a great article about why the media is not covering the FDA’s action by the brilliant David E. Gumpert,

http://chelseagreen.com/blogs/davidgumpert/2010/10/25/why-major-media-won%E2%80%99t-cover-the-morningland-case-and-thereby-give-fda-free-reign-over-small-food-producers/

Here’s a great article about raw milk by Pete Kennedy of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund,

http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/fdas-ace-in-the-hole/

What can we do? We all need to chip in, to protect our farmers and our food choices, join the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund: http://www.ftcldf.org/

We, the people,  need to protect our access to healthy food, as the FDA seems to have no interest in doing it for us.

I am one outraged mom!

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Read more posts about this issue at Farm Freedom Friday here:  http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/11/save-farm-freedom-friday.html

Read more, great Fight Back Friday posts here: http://www.foodrenegade.com/fight-back-friday-october-29th/

Read more, great Pennywise Platter Thursday posts here: http://www.thenourishinggourmet.com/2010/10/pennywise-platter-thursday-1028.html

Read more, great, Real Food Wednesday posts here: http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2010/10/real-food-wednesday-102710.html

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