Food Rights Network

Raw Milk in the News

December 8, 2011

• “Raw Milk Freedom Riders” Take on Chicago Today: The Food Rights Network is reporting from the road today as the “Raw Milk Freedom Riders” travel across state lines from Wisconsin to Illinois with 100 gallons of milk and rally at Independence Park in Chicago. Madison, Wisconsin’s Capital Times has the story so far (12/4). Stay tuned for video and audio as well as the full report upon FRN’s return to the Dairy State.
• Rep. Pingree Blasts FDA for Raw Milk Raids: According to the Portland Press Herald, “Rep. Chellie Pingree says federal regulators should have better things to do than hassle small farmers who produce raw, or unpasteurized, milk.” The article refers to a letter the Maine Democrat (who was president and CEO of Common Cause for four years, a Maine state senator for eight, and previously ran a farm and wool knitting business in North Haven, Maine) sent to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, criticizing the agency for committing “scarce resources to activities like farm raids and what many believe to be over zealous enforcement of the ban on the interstate sale of raw milk. When consumers increasingly want to know where their food comes from and that it’s safe, why does the FDA choose to put so much energy into these enforcement activities aimed at small farmers?” she asks.
• “Maine Agriculture Department Wields a Heavy Hand”: A guest op-ed in the Bangor Daily News (11/29) by a former staff member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Ryan Parker, says of the lawsuit against Blue Hill, Maine farmer Dan Brown makes the point that “Maine taxpayers are funding an inspection regime that pursues one small farmer for nearly a year, including hours worked, reports filed and miles driven to and from farm and farmers market, and a lawsuit involving the Attorney General. Meanwhile, there are no inspections of the food available at the grocery stores across this state. No inspections of the pasteurized milk at the supermarket, milk which has actually caused more deaths than raw milk in the last decade according to the government’s own data.”

Filed under: In the News,Raw Milk

Tags: FDA, maine, pingree, rawmilkfreedomriders, rawmilkraids