Just after New Year's Day, the Obama administration gave its official response of "No!" to the 6,078 signors of a petition on WhiteHouse.gov who requested federal-level legalization of all raw milk sales.

Written by Doug McKalip, Senior Policy Adviser for Rural Affairs in the White House Domestic Policy Council, the response is full of typical government double speak and sleight of hand with facts and figures.

For instance, the response starts off by saying, "We appreciate consumer concerns on food issues and understand the importance of letting consumers make their own food choices."

But is there any evidence to support either of these statements? Zero. The Obama administration has continued the Bush administration policy of fast tracking GMOs and other dangerous foods while mercilessly targeting small producers of healthful things like Elderberry Juice.

They continue to oppose consumer choice by blocking GMO labeling, something Obama campaigned for in 2007.

The Obama FDA--with folks like former Monsanto executive Michael Taylor (who also served in both the FDA and USDA under Bush and who has publicly stated he supports the continued multimillion dollar crackdown on Amish farmers and raw milk buying clubs) at the helm of the "food safety division"--had the audacity to state that people have no inherent right to choose the food they eat or what they feed their children [read FDA's response to lawsuit].

Does this sound like understanding the importance of letting consumers make their own food choices? Of course, you are free to consume tainted cantaloupe, turkey, and ground beef from large, industrial farms in the FDA's twisted universe. But don't touch that milk!

The claim that "This administration believes that food safety policy should be based on science... In this case, we support pasteurization to protect the safety of the milk supply because the health risks associated with raw milk are well documented" is also spurious at best.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was recently forced to retract its long standing claim that two people have died from raw milk consumption for the ten-year period between 1998 and 2008 (they, in fact, died from consuming "bath-tub" cheese, queso fresco cheese commonly made at home and sometimes in bath tubs).  Read "The Power of Numbers in the War Over Raw Dairy--How the CDC Came to Admit a Death Wasn't Categorized Correctly".

Many of the "raw-milk" outbreaks used by the CDC and FDA involve PMO milk (i.e., milk produced in accordance with the federal Pasteurized Milk Ordinance adopted by most states), that either was improperly pasteurized or taken, as in a recent event in Wisconsin, without permission or the knowledge of the farmer or consumer and given raw.

Such milk isn't real raw milk, milk produced by farms intending to provide it to the public as safe raw milk, often from small family farms that are grass- or pasture-based and committed to good husbandry and sanitation practices.

PMO milk that merely missed the bulk tank truck or improperly handled raw milk turned into cheese in someone's bath tub should not be counted among the raw milk outbreak statistics if the government was truly interested in either safety or science.

Dr. Ted Beals and numerous other scientists and individuals have shown that raw milk is far less dangerous than many other foods people consume on a weekly or daily basis, even when adjusted for estimated rates of consumption that are half of what is most likely happening each and every day across the US. You can read the full article on this data, "Foodborne Illnesses in America: Complex Factory Foods pose the Highest Risk", at GlobalResearch.ca.

Even more main stream groups and scientists are starting to no longer deny the relative safety of raw milk. In a recent Food Seminars International Webinar, "Raw Milk: Political Football or Food Safety Issue", distinguished professor and researcher on food safety David Warriner conceded that raw milk is certainly no more dangerous than many other foods people are allowed to consume or activities they are allowed to engage in.

Just don't try to tell this to the FDA or Obama administration.

McKalip assertions that the nutritional and health benefits of raw milk have not been scientifically verified, along with the claim that the FDA is as a science-based regulatory agency, which "looks to the scientific literature" also lack credibility.

Two major European studies (the GABRIELA study and the PARSIFAL study) have shown how the incidence of allergies is lower among raw milk consumers, and even showed the various mechanisms as to how it accomplishes this amazing feat. There are numerous other credible sources that attest to the nutritional and health benefits of consuming properly produced raw milk.

Also, why would anyone expect mainstream researchers--who have nothing to gain by showing the healthfulness of raw milk and benefits of real food, but so much to lose if such benefits were more widely publicized and believed, since by nature these foods cannot be patented, protected, and pilled for sale--to conduct useful or fair research on the subject?

The thousands of families and children who have benefited from or been healed by raw milk rightly decry the false "science" used to deny them the food of their choice from the farmer of their choice that brings healing to their body, family, and community.

McKalip goes on to say that the FDA's position on raw milk is shared by the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics - that raw milk is comparable in nutritional quality to pasteurized milk, while the health risks of raw milk "are clear."

These folks also say, and force farmers to say, that all eggs are just the same (which numerous studies have now shown to be false), a carrot is a carrot is a carrot, and all beef is the same (see Health Benefits of Grass-Fed Products).

Isn't it instead time to say to these folks, "Three strikes, you're out!"

At the end of the day, this response is unsurprising from a government long bought out by and little more than a spokesperson for big ag, big pharma, and big government.

If people were healthy, health care deform, labeling laws, and so many other government power grabs wouldn't have the appeal that they do now.

Little do most people know that these programs, like the now defunct USDA Food Pyramid (a fitting image, since the pyramids were made by destroying the lives and wellbeing of thousands of average and lower class and slave peoples) far from protecting our health and the health of our planet, are part of the master plan to destroy it.

Edited version of article originally posted at Food Clubs & Coops; posted here by author's permission. 

Last updated 1/23/2012 

This article is intended for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to be nor should it be construed as either a legal opinion or as legal advice.  The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or the position of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.