Veterans for Ron Paul at the White House, 2/20/2012

The Feds know better than you what you should put in your body: e.g. Milk

As a libertarian I believe each individual should take care of themselves, which includes personal, rational calculations of risk and responsibility.  It is not the role of government, that has no incentive to act on behalf of an individual's well-being, to decide what is best for any competent individual.  To say otherwise negates Natural Law and our Constitution.


My great uncle, my maternal grandfather's brother, died at 18 months old, so the family legend goes, from drinking tainted milk.  I have stood above the little gravestone with a carved lamb on top, thinking about the 1920's, and felt grateful for widespread use of Pasteurization.


My political philosophy has since evolved.  While it is obvious to me that pasteurized milk is a good thing, it is also obvious to me that government has no business telling me or anyone else what they can and cannot put in our bodies.  (Qualification: While someone is entirely reliant on the .gov for income, living expenses, and the like, the .gov should have some say--but this is likely an incompetent individual.  If reliance on the .gov is temporary, as soon as the person is self sufficient, the gov holds no sway over what that person ingests.)


I choose to drink pasteurized milk.  I would appreciate the ability to drink fresh milk, if I trusted the source.


Washington Times:
The federal government said Tuesday that fresh milk is 150 times more dangerous than pasteurized milk — a finding that bolsters the government’s argument as it goes after farmers who sell unpasteurized milk across state lines.


After a 13-year review, the taxpayer-funded Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said states where so-called “raw milk” is available had twice the rate of dairy-related disease outbreaks as states where those sales are banned.


And disease outbreaks from fresh milk are more serious in nature, according to the study, which found 200 out of 239 hospitalizations during the study stemmed from cases of fresh milk.


(Note well: 239 hospitalizations over 13 years in a country of 350 million.  Aren't you glad your tax money went to support such important work?  Why the heck doesn't anyone focus on this fact?)


“Restricting the sale of raw milk products is likely to reduce the number of outbreaks and can help keep people healthier,” said Dr. Robert Tauxe, director of CDC’s division of foodborne, waterborne and environmental diseases. “The states that allow sale of raw milk will probably continue to see outbreaks in the future.”


Fresh milk devotees say pasteurization — the process of heating food to kill off bacteria — removes some of the health benefits of milk (Probiotics--healthy bacteria for your gut), and argue that when consumers know their suppliers, diseases from raw milk are not an issue.

Link

Health Impact News Daily:
The Power of Numbers in the War Over Raw Dairy–How the CDC Came to Admit a Death Wasn’t Categorized Correctly


In this age of the Internet, it’s amazing how quickly certain statistics can catch on.
Take the statistic I came up with in my Feb. 11 post, after having assessed data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control–that there have been on average 39 illnesses from raw milk cheese between 2000 and 2008. It’s the first time I’m aware of that anyone has presented the data that way.


Within days, National Public Radio had a story about the controversy over raw milk cheese, and included this statement, “On average, about 40 people report getting sick from raw milk cheese a year nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The idea was to suggest that raw milk cheese doesn’t seem to present a huge public health problem.(40/350000000--a really small %, should be irrelevant even to a collectivist, no? And yet we are pushed...)


There’s another related number that has been around much longer, and it’s this: Between 1998 and 2008, there have been two deaths from raw milk. This number comes up repeatedly in media reporting about raw milk, courtesy of the CDC, even though I have reported that those illnesses appear to have come from queso fresco cheese, a soft fresh cheese that isn’t legal under FDA regulations requiring a minimum 60 day aging period.


The CDC hasn’t responded…till now. It all came about as a result of an inquiry made by Mark McAfee, the owner of Organic Pastures Dairy Co., in December, when he challenged claims on the Centers for Disease Control web site stating that raw milk is dangerous. The agency actually agreed to make some slight changes to its language on the site, but when he inquired about statistics concerning raw milk illnesses in California, an official with the agency’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Parasitic Diseases, Janell Routh, stated in part. “From 1998-2008, more outbreaks associated with unpasteurized dairy in California than in any other state (13). There was 1 death reported in that time, from Salmonella Typhimurium.”


McAfee expressed surprise about the death. The state wasn’t reporting it, he said. His requests to Dr. Routh for more information went unanswered. Finally, he threatened to file a Freedom of Information Act request.


An answer came back last week from an unnamed official of the CDC’s information office (cdcinfo@cdc.gov): “The death mentioned in an earlier email was from an unpasteurized dairy product, queso fresco, made from raw milk.”

Link

Infowars.com:
The vaccine-pushing, disease scare-mongering agency known as the CDC has put out a stunning piece of propaganda attacking fresh milk (raw dairy), claiming it is “150 times more dangerous” than pasteurized milk. This is all part of their anti-American agenda to crush food freedom and criminalize fundamental farming practices upon which this very nation was founded. (Yes, George Washington and the founding fathers drank raw milk, grew hemp and even smoked a little weed as medicine.)


But what the CDC won’t dare reveal to the public is the far more horrifying truth: Pasteurized dairy is produced in the dirtiest milk factories imaginable, where blood, pus, e.coli and other truly dangerous pathogens are routinely bottled into milk containers and fed to consumers.
That’s the whole point of pasteurization, you see: To kill everything that might be alive in their ultra-dirty milk. The real purpose of pasteurization is not to simply “make milk safe” as is claimed by the CDC, but rather to allow the dairy industry to operate DIRTY. It’s so much easier to just cook the crap out of the milk (yes, there’s fecal matter in it) than to clean up their operations, get it?

Link

"All we wish is to be left alone..."--Jefferson Davis

President Obama: You inspire us!

Via: Ammo.net

H/T zerohedge.com