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SUPPORT HR 1830
Allow Interstate Shipment of Raw Milk for Human Consumption
Take Action Now!
HR 1830 would repeal the current ban1 on raw milk and raw milk products for human consumption in interstate commerce. This means easier access to raw milk for consumers. By rolling back FDA’s efforts to shut down the supply of raw milk, it will be easier for farmers to make a living.
HR 1830 needs co-sponsors. Your help is needed. Now is the time to mobilize!! Freedom of food choice is as stake, not just access to raw milk. FDA has made that very clear in its response to the lawsuit over the interstate ban filed by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund (FTCLDF).
ACTION TO TAKE
| Urge U.S. Representatives to sign on as co-sponsors of HR 1830. Use the online petition, “Support HR 1830”, to FAX your message to your U.S. Representative and both Senators! |
At www.farmtoconsumer.org/HR1830, you can fax your legislators and email the editor of a local newspaper and declare:
* We believe that there is a fundamental right to produce and consume the foods of our choice including raw milk.
* We believe the federal ban against transporting raw milk for human consumption across state lines is a violation of our rights.
* We should be free to obtain raw milk from sources outside our own states' borders.
* We demand the termination of an unjust law that interferes with the exercise of our legal right to consume raw milk.
* We support passage of HR 1830 into law - a bill that would effectively end the interstate ban
Be sure to follow up with calls, letters and/or visits. To find your Legislators, go to www.congress.org or call the Capitol Switchboard 202-224-3121.
SUPPORT HR 1830 – TALKING POINTS
1. The bill upholds consumer freedom of choice. The consumption of raw dairy products is legal in all fifty states. The bill enables consumers to exercise their legal right in States where the sale of raw milk and/or raw milk products is illegal or where there are no in-State sources.
2. The bill honors States’ rights. Decisions about the safety of raw milk should be made at the state and local level, not by the federal government. The bill would not force a State to legalize the sale of raw milk by producers within its boundaries nor would it force a State to allow the sale of raw milk from out-of-State producers in its retail stores.
3. The bill supports family farms by expanding their markets for raw dairy products. The bill increases the chances of survival for those dairies that are no longer able to subsist solely on the income from the dairy cooperative system.
4. The bill promotes the local food movement by connecting consumers with producers who happen to live just across state lines. Nearby markets would become accessible to small dairy farms, increasing the farms’ chances of survival during difficult economic times.
5. The bill would free FDA to focus on the pressing problems in our food system, e.g., tainted imports and under-inspected large-scale food processors.
SUPPORT HR 1830 - BACKGROUND
As Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) stated in introducing the bill,
“Americans have the right to consume these products without having the federal government second-guess their judgment about what products best promote health. If there are legitimate concerns about the safety of unpasteurized milk, those concerns should be addressed at the state and local level.”
FDA’s position is that “raw milk should not be consumed by anyone, at any time, for any reason.” In response to FTCLDF’s lawsuit, FDA claimed that “plaintiffs do not have a fundamental right to obtain any food they wish.”
FDA scoffed at FTCLDF’s assertion of a fundamental right to one’s own bodily and physical health including what foods one does and does not choose to consume for oneself and one’s family. As a matter of public record, FDA stated, “There is no absolute right to consume or feed children any particular food.”
Under the bill, the federal government
“may not take any action…that would prohibit, interfere with, regulate, or otherwise restrict the interstate traffic2 of milk, or a milk product, that is unpasteurized and packaged for direct human consumption solely on the basis that the milk or milk product is unpasteurized….”
FDA is currently pushing some States to toughen their laws on raw milk production and sales while trying to move other States to ban the sale or other distribution of raw milk altogether. Rather than meddling in the States’ exercise of their police powers, FDA should be focusing its resources and attention on the many problems that exist in our faltering industrial food system.
1 21 CFR 1240.61 states “no person shall cause to be delivered into interstate commerce or shall sell, otherwise distribute, or hold for sale or other distribution after shipment in interstate commerce any milk or milk product in final package form for direct human consumption unless the product has been pasteurized….”
2 The bill defines “interstate traffic” as “the movement of any conveyance or the transportation of persons or property…from a point of origin in any State or possession to a point of destination in any other State or possession….”
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