Don’t Ban Raw Milk Because of the E. Coli Outbreak

As someone who follows closely the relentless campaign by the nation's medical and public health establishments against raw milk, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop in the European food-borne illness disaster.

June 16, 2011 | Source: Grist | by David Gumpert

For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s All About Organics page, Food Safety page, Farm Issues News page, and our Raw Milk page.

As someone who follows closely the relentless campaign by the nation’s medical and public health establishments against raw milk, I’ve been waiting for the other shoe to drop in the European food-borne illness disaster.

The “other shoe” is for some scientist or government public health official to seek to link the European tragedy to the battle here over raw milk.

Sound crazy? I’d say. Verge on the paranoid? Definitely. After all, among all the culprits publicly linked to the tragedy — cucumbers, tomatoes, and, most recently, sprouts — dairy products of any kind have been noticeably absent.

But sure enough, it finally happened, and from CNN no less. The major media outlet published an editorial that sought to elucidate lessons from the European outbreak, and the key lesson turns out to be that the U.S. should ban raw milk (and raw juices). “Though it (the European outbreak) is not a reason to panic, this incident should force us to rethink some important food safety issues,” the editorial began. “One good place to start would be to completely ban the sale of raw milk and juice.”