FDA's ARMED RAID on my FARMER

We went to Capitol Hill yesterday, yes, we did...my raw milk buying club...and lots of other folks...400 or so of them, from as far away as California (thank you, Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures)...to protest the FDA ARMED RAID on our FARMER, Dan Allgyer. Our Amish farmer. What did Dan do? He was milking our cow who lives in Pennsylvania and delivering the milk to me and my club members who live in Maryland. Let me be clear, folks. This was not a raid conducted in the name of "food borne illness". No one has ever been sick from Dan's milk.

FDA officials insist milk needs to be inspected and pasteurized to guarantee its safety.  Raw milk proponents flatly deny the claim, saying raw milk is much safer than the pasteurized version and want the government to back down.

"There's no record in the CDC of any raw milk killing anyone," said Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures Dairy. "But you see pasteurized milk sickening 422,000 people and 20 deaths -- and 80 people if you look at miscarriages." (See full article HERE)

It was a raid because the FDA considers our club's milk "contraband", crossing over the state line from a state where producing, selling, and consuming raw milk is LEGAL, that is, Pennsylvania, to a state where it is illegal, that is, Maryland. However, the FDA doesn't have a case, because that is not contraband, it is OUR MILK from our cows.

So, we went to Washington yesterday. Capitol Hill. Upper Senate Park, with the Capitol in the background. Beautiful day. And Mrs. Moo (a beautiful cow) came to Washington, too. And she was milked on the Hill, in the District of Columbia, where producing and selling raw milk is also illegal.  We consumed some raw milk, too. (Drank it "at our own risk" , according to the signs.) I got to pour gallons of that liquid gold and hand it out to eagerly waiting hands. Children and parents, reporters and lawyers, cameramen and women, speakers and organizers...and they ALL LOVED it.

I say "liquid gold" because it is so. The color of the milk reflects the spring grass the cows have been eating. I also say "liquid gold" because it represents a strong challenge to the Dairy Industrial Complex in this country. The Dairy Industrial Complex (DIC for short) doesn't like raw milk and it doesn't like people like me to purchase it directly from my farmer. More and more people are doing so every year, according to Sally Fallon Morell yesterday. The number of people drinking pasteurized milk are decreasing steadily, as the numbers drinking raw milk rise. If this keeps up, the DIC will cease to exist. It will go out of business. And that is EXACTLY what they are afraid of.

So they intimidate people and play on their fears of getting sick from E. coli and other harmful bacteria and they (the DIC) and the FDA and the CDC perpetuate the false information and the misinformation about the health benefits of raw milk. The truth is, folks, that we are comparing apples and oranges. When the FDA and the CDC scare you out of drinking raw milk by telling stories of illness, they are not giving you accurate information. Raw milk is not even in the top 10 foods that cause food-borne illness in this country. What is? Chicken! (see FTCLDF)

Yes, pasteurization was developed in response to people getting sick and dying from drinking raw milk. But that  milk was contaminated milk, from sick cows. Why were the cows sick? Because they were raised in what I daresay was one of the original CAFOs (confined animal feeding operations) ...in cement buildings in cities, with no fresh air, no sunlight, NO GRASS, no room to move, and NO SANITATION. Not to mention that they were fed things cows should not eat. NO WONDER the milk was bad and caused illness and death. But one CANNOT COMPARE that milk to milk from COWS RAISED ON GRASS. In the sunlight. On the pasture. THE WAY COWS ARE SUPPOSED TO LIVE. Not to mention the fact that RAW MILK IS LEGAL in many states in these United States. Legal and certified. Facilities inspected for cleanliness and cows inspected for health. Clean, pure, health-full, enzyme rich, lactase containing, delicious raw milk. And people in those states aren't dying off in droves. Hmmmmmmmm. Very interesting. In fact, it is only illegal in 10 or so states.  (See Raw Milk Nation: State by State Review of Raw Milk Laws from FTCLDF)

There is much at stake here, folks. Our FREEDOM OF CHOICE...Freedom to choose what food we eat and where we purchase it... and from whom we purchase it.  DIRECT FARM TO CONSUMER SALES. Our rights.  Our HEALTH. Someone said at the Rally for Food and Farm Freedom yesterday, "if it were up to the FDA, we (those who want to eat real food) would either starve or die of chemical poisoning." Which is of course, what much of America is doing. Dying of the chemical soup the FDA allows in our food. Dyes, food additives, food "fractions", "food products". Is it a wonder that so many American children are obese? Are diabetic? Hmmmmmmmm.  The kids at that rally were not obese. Not diabetic. Don't suffer from ADD and ADHD. Are not on the autistic spectrum. Their moms are feeding them REAL FOOD. REAL milk. RAW milk. "Children who start out on raw milk are very healthy children, as all of you know. They don't have asthma, they don't have allergies, they don't miss days at school, they don't get sick, they don't have digestive problems," said Sally Fallon Morell at the rally, to applause and cheers.

Just a few parting thoughts...thanks to the organizers, Liz Reitzig and Karine. Thanks to all the speakers for their wisdom. Thanks to my Honey for designing the T shirts you see in all the photos "FDA LEAVE MY FARMER AND MY RAW MILK ALONE" as a fundraiser for our farmer. (If you would like to purchase a T shirt and support Dan, click HERE.) Thanks to the FARM TO CONSUMER LEGAL DEFENSE Fund. Thanks to the WESTON A. PRICE FOUNDATION. Thanks to Sally Fallon Morell. And thanks to Dan Allgyer of Rainbow Acres, our brave and honest farmer, a good man, for all his hard work in raising our cows. We support you and are with you.

And one more thought...if we wait for someone else to do what we know needs to be done, it will never get done. Take part in this RAW MILK REVOLUTION folks. As Sally said yesterday, "There's no force on earth greater than the educated, committed consumer, and passionate moms." (Which, as you all know, I am one.)

...stay tuned...more photos to come.