Behind America’s Emerging Battle Over Food Rights by David E. Gumpert
An eye-opening history of the politics of raw milk
David Gumpert is a journalist and author of several business books, and he has now turned his eye to nutrition, specifically raw milk and the politics surrounding it. He is the author of the blog The Complete Patient wherein he reports on issues and events surrounding the raw milk movement. This book ties together much of what he has learned researching this complex issue, and he provides a nonemotional and circumspect view. He also happens to be an excellent writer.
The right to drink raw milk is a battle amongst the raw milk consumers, health authorities, dairy interests, the unfortunate few who have fallen sick after drinking raw milk, the legal agencies who represent them all, and the raw milk diary farmer just trying to realize a dream. Farmers want to produce healthy, bacteria-free milk from humanely raised cows. They all but bend over backwards to comply with licensing and safety laws. But they are constantly pushed off balance and fined into bankruptcy by governmental abuses surrounding food safety issues: farm raids, sting operations, confiscation of property, stiff fines and penalties for minor infractions, burdensome regulations, and legal entanglements.
The media and the health care industry constantly pump out the message of the dangers of raw milk and the safety of pasteurization. We hear of every person sickened but rarely of the many people who claim to have recovered from various illnesses by drinking this natural product. Those stories are considered anecdotal and written off as meaningless. Scientific studies showing the health benefits of raw milk are ignored.
David writes about several of the children who have become extremely ill from drinking raw milk. The stories are indeed moving and provide a glimpse of what could possibly happen to a small minority of individuals who consume contaminated milk. But then, people get sick from all sorts of foods, and no governmental body pursues the elimination of those foods with the fervor shown toward raw milk. In some instances mere association has implicated raw milk, because testing showed that the strain of bacteria present in the children was not a strain present in the milk. Sometimes there was no bacteria in the milk at all.
There is clearly a demand for raw milk by people willing to take the risks, and these people are fighting for food freedom rights. Sadly, after reading this book you’ll realize that the government isn’t really interesting in making raw milk safe to protect this growing minority. Government officials consistently show themselves hostile to raw milk farmers and advocates. They won’t attend meetings where raw milk consumers are present. They refuse to talk with David and even go out of their way to avoid him. The FDA is truly unhinged over this issue and the clear goal you will get after reading this book is they simply want to outlaw it. And the dairy industry is lobbying hard to make sure that happens.
Listen to my interview with David Gumpert: Why Does Our Government Hate Raw Milk?.
Buy The Raw Milk Revolution from Amazon.
