Raw Milk Risk Extremely Small Compared to Risk of Other Foods
WASHINGTON, DC June 23, 2011: Data gleaned from U.S. government websites and government-sanctioned reports on foodborne illnesses show that the risk of contracting foodborne illness by consuming raw milk is much smaller than the risk of becoming ill from other foods, according toresearch by Dr. Ted Beals, MD, appearing in the Summer, 2011 issue of Wise Traditions, the quarterly journal of the Weston A. Price Foundation.
“At last we have access to the numbers we need to determine the risk of consuming raw milk on a per-person basis,” says Sally Fallon Morell, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a non-profit nutrition education foundation that provides information on the health benefits of raw, whole milk from pastured cows.
The key figure that permits a calculation of raw milk illnesses on a per-person basis comes from a 2007 Centers for Disease Control (CDC) FoodNet survey, which found that 3.04 percent of the population consumes raw milk, or about 9.4 million people, based on the 2010 census. This number may in fact be larger in 2011 as raw milk is growing in popularity. For example, sales of raw milk increased 25 percent in California in 2010, while sales of pasteurized milk declined 3 percent.
In addition, Dr. Beals has compiled published reports of illness attributed to raw milk from 1999 to 2010. During the eleven-year period, illnesses attributed to raw milk averaged 42 per year.
“Using government figures for foodborne illness for the entire population, Dr. Beals has shown that you are about thirty-five thousand times more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk,” says Fallon Morell. “And with good management practices in small grass-based dairies offering fresh unprocessed whole milk for direct human consumption, we may be able to reduce the risk even further.”
“It is irresponsible for senior national government officials to oppose raw milk, claiming that it is inherently hazardous,” says Dr. Beals. “There is no justification for opposing the sale of raw milk or warning against its inclusion in the diets of children and adults.”
According to Pete Kennedy, president of the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, “Where raw milk is concerned, the FDA has an agenda apart from protecting the public health. The agency wants to restrict and discourage the sale of unprocessed dairy products. This will have the effect of denying freedom of choice.”
“Every time there is a possible connection between illness and raw milk, government officials issue dire press releases and call for bans on raw milk sales,” says Fallon Morell. “However, these numbers fail to justify the government opposition and prove what we’ve known all along, that raw milk is a safe and healthy food.”
FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.realmilk.com/real-milk-pathogens.html.
CONTACT: Kimberly Hartke, press@westonaprice.org , 703-860-2711, cell 703-675-5557.
The Weston A. Price Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nutrition education foundation with the mission of disseminating accurate, science-based information on diet and health. Named after nutrition pioneer Weston A. Price, DDS, author of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, the Washington, DC-based Foundation publishes a quarterly journal for its 13,000 members, supports 450 local chapters worldwide and hosts a yearly international conference. The Foundation phone number is (202) 363-4394, http://www.westonaprice.org, info@westonaprice.org .
URL for this press release: http://westonaprice.org/press/press/government-data-proves-raw-milk-safe
The Bovine 
People the issue is not and never will be about safety!
I this is about inalienable rights. Such as the right to contract and
the right to choose what you put in you body.
——
“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.” — Thomas Jefferson
There is no such thing as “safe”. There are varying degrees of risk. The government has set a cutoff point for some foods, calling them “Generally Recognized as Safe”, but even the caginess of the language “Generally Recognized” bespeaks an unwillingness to say that there is never NO risk. Moreover, although some foods may be called safe, that does not mean that regulatory agencies do not have the power to ignore or remove what they see as unnecessarily added risk. These are policy questions, not rights questions.
Joe–quotes from Founding Fathers (including those who owned and slept with their slaves) are enlightening, but in and of themselves they are proof of nothing.
http://www.themetabug.com
TROLL ALERT!
Before you give Richard Lerner the time of day, check out his blog, where he criticizes Dr. Gumpert for lauding raw milk.
On his blog, Lerner writes: “OK, I’m done writing about raw milk weirdness.” But apparently he was fibbing.
He criticizes Gumpert for wasting time on raw milk when there are more important things, like prostate cancer, to write about. And then he turns around and wastes his time on raw milk. Pot calling the kettle black, here?
Hey, say anything on your own blog that you want to, but why spew your vituperative on a pro-raw-milk website?
Thanks Jan
I concluded from his first post that he could not reason if his life depended on it.
This quote comes to mind concerning Richard:
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” — Goethe
He is hopelessly enslaved by is defective thought process’s. Government schools and the media did their job well on him.
Richard said: “These are policy questions, not rights questions.”
Sorry Richard but some of us do not worship government and believe that all of our rights emanate from the whim of some bureaucrat in a government office.
And yes slaves are part of the history of every nation and people on the face of the earth. Some where even white. In this country they were called indentured servants and were often in worse place than the black slaves.
Get over it. It’s history.
You are probably so deluded that you think slavery is dead in this country….
Instead of having chattel slavery today everyone is a slave and the slave owner is called government. And from your comments it looks like you buy into that paradigm 100% in thinking that our rights come from government.
Richard makes a good point. I like Joe’s Jefferson quote post. Both have something to offer. Richard’s “Founding Fathers” comment regarding “sleeping with slaves” is cute, however, I’ve never met a human who didn’t do or think something irrational at some point in their existence.
Richard Lerner’s insinuation into this forum of the old canard about ‘Jefferson sleeping with his slaves’, is a wonderful example of a red herring … ny little half-truth will do, to denigrate the reputation of the Founding Fathers … because liberals cannot abide the fact that America was created by white Christians for their posterity.
The Campaign for REAL MILK is – first and last – a movement of white Christians re-awakening to our racial heritage = the Bible = which is why it’s now targetted by the over-educated ignorami who are bent on globalism aka known as ‘a socialist world government’
“we must secure the existence of our people, and a future for white children”
You’re joking, right. Please tell me this is what passes for humor around here.
http://www.themetabug.com
No, you’re an ass.
LEAVE.
Gordon’s nutty, but you’re worse. You’re from the government, apparently. There’s really nothing lower than that these days.
2 centuries ago, the guys who signed the Declaration of Independence were patriots = heroes of the Republic. Today, believing what they did, and especially acting upon such belief, gets one pigeon-holed as a “nut” / if not a “domestic terrorist” … when armed thugs in govt. uniforms invade a dwelling to seize private property, how are the minions of the FDA + O’Bama ( properly, Barry Suetoro) any different than the British tyrants of 1776?
But this, too, shall pass. meanwhile, I console myself by reading the book of Obadiah
Gordon~
Just don’t get elected to anything. 🙂
We’ll be safer.
your friend,
Ned
From the book, “HARVEST FOR HOPE” by Jane Goodall. A Guide to mindful eating. The renowned scientist who fundamentally changed the way we view primates and our relationship with the animal kingdom now turns her attention to an incredibly important and deeply personal issue – taking a stand for a more sustainable world.
A great lady and a great book published in 2005. In this provocative and encouraging book, Jane Goodall sounds a clarion call to Western society, urging us to take a hard look at the food we produce and consume – and showing us how easy it is to create positive change.
Each individual can make a difference.
Heroes like Percy Schmeiser, a third generation farmer who fought Monsanto and won. Look at these people. Look at Ghandi. And just do it!
Interesting note; soon to be released film on Planet of The Apes comes to theatre near you this August 2011. The Apes who represent the animal kingdom fight back humans. Why is such a film popular? Why does it strike a cord with our reality? Because we humans realize what bad we have done to the environment, the animal and plant kingdoms, ourselves, our children, our health, and the wrong ways in which business and politics has operated.
This book, Jane Goodall, dedicated to the thousands of small farmers who are valiantly struggling to survive, especially those who have embraced organic practices; to those who stand up to speak out against the bullying tactics of agribusiness; to the men and women who work tirelessly to reintroduce the citizens of the fast food nations to real, wholesome food. And to the billions of farm animals held in torment around the world.
Humans are following a path that could easily lead to the end of life on earth as we know it. We have so far to go to realize our human potential for compassion, altruism, and love.
It is time to rouse such good people from spineless acceptance of the status quo.
It is estimated that only 0.1 percent of applied pesticides reach their target pests, meaning that all kinds of innocent bystanders suffer.
Percy Schmeiser, unlike most unfortunate farmers who quietly reach out-of-court settlements, decided to fight back. he said his Bavarian grandparents had emigrated from the old country in the 1800’s to escape imperialism or socialism. “They wanted to escape the evil land barons, emperors, and kings that were controlling all the peasants’ crops and food,” he says. “Now the corporations have become the greedy land barons, emperors, and kings, trying to take control over our food supply. There is nowhere left to flee, we just have to stand up and fight.”
Stand up and FIGHT!
The Milkmen are back!
Y’know guys, I am just not feeling the love. Maybe it’s me.
However, my last post was about baseball, and the next one will probably be about yesterday’s NY Times editorial by Drew Westen (or baseball), so feel free to tune in.
http://www.themetabug.com