Food Rights Network

Raw Milk in the News

November 2, 2011

• Raw Milk Moms Rode Yesterday: This “caravan full of mothers,” calling themselves the “Raw Milk Freedom Riders,” planned a trip “from Pennsylvania to Maryland on Route 1,” ending “at the FDA headquarters at 10903 New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring, MD,” where they planned to drink raw milk and eat cookies “in support of farmers across the nation willing to supply fresh milk to mothers across state lines risking their business to serve their customers.” Did they make it? Check here for archived live radio coverage. The FDA released a statement yesterday claiming that “the FDA has never taken, nor does it intend to take, enforcement action against an individual who purchased and transported raw milk across state lines solely for his or her own personal consumption” and attempting to minimize the protest and urge people to drink pasteurized milk. From 1980 to 2005, however, there were ten times more illnesses from pasteurized milk than from raw. The Complete Patient blog quoted Raw Milk Freedom Riders organizer Liz Reitzig as saying that “she was contacted by two FDA officials on Friday and Monday, who said they wanted to encourage some sort of followup communication about the charge that the FDA has “criminalized” consumers transporting raw milk from one state to another (typically, from a state that allows raw milk sales, like Pennsylvania, to one that prohibits such sales, like Maryland).” They interpreted the FDA press release as a pledge not to enforce the ban on individuals. The organization Stop Foodborne Illness also organized a webinar yesterday, for consumers to hear “from those who have been personally impacted by consuming raw milk.” Did they ask the Raw Milk Freedom Riders or the farmers who have been raided by the FDA and state agencies to speak?
  
• Michael Schmidt Travels to Maryland: Raw milk hunger striker Schmidt was able to travel to Maryland to protest with the Raw Milk Freedom Riders, and spoke to The Complete Patient and the Owen Sound Sun Times. “My condition is there is a dialogue started to get advice on how we can move forward from this stalemate,” he told reporter Denis Langlois. To David Gumpert, he had a message for ”those who have pleaded with him to end his hunger strike out of fear the food rights movement will lose its most important leader.” He said, “The movement can only be strong if there are 1,000 leaders, not one leader. You have to become a leader of your own body.”
• L.A. Times Covers the Excessive Raids on Rawesome: “If this were a terror plot against LAX, or against the mayor, I could understand it,” said L. Arik Greenberg, an author and lecturer who used to shop regularly at Rawesome. “But these are people who want to get milk from a farm and drink it.” (10/28)
• Jessica Mosby interviews Farmageddon Director Kristin Canty: The WIP writer asks Canty about making the film and about raw milk raids, while explaining that she started drinking raw milk to reduce her allergy attacks (10/27).

Filed under: In the News,Raw Milk

Tags: farmageddon, FDA, rawesome, rawmilk, rawmilkfreedomriders, rawmilkraids