Crackdown On Unpasteurized Milk

(AP)  Dairy owner Mark McAfee started selling raw milk in 2000, marketing it to customers who believe it contains beneficial microbes that treat everything from asthma to autism.

The unpasteurized milk swiftly caught on as part of the growing natural food movement. But the Food and Drug Administration considers McAfee a snake oil salesman and recently launched an investigation into whether his dairy illegally shipped raw milk across state lines. The agency even tried to recruit one of his employees to secretly record conversations with him.

The case against McAfee is part of a crackdown on raw milk by government health officials who are concerned about the spread of food-borne illnesses. Lawmakers and law enforcement agencies are stepping up efforts to keep unpasteurized milk out of reach, even as demand for the niche product grows.

McAfee, who was among the first in California to sell raw milk on a large scale, brushed off the investigation: "When you're a pioneer, you have to expect to take a few arrows."

Twenty-two states prohibit sales of raw milk for human consumption, and the rest allow it within their borders. The FDA bans cross-border sales.

In Pennsylvania, local officials recently busted two dairies unlawfully selling milk straight from the cow.

And in Maryland, health officials issued an emergency ban late last year on "cow-sharing" agreements, claiming they were aimed at skirting a ban on raw milk sales.

"Raw milk should not be consumed by anyone for any reason," said John Sheehan, head of the FDA's dairy office. "It is an inherently dangerous product."

But shutting down sales is tricky because the federal government has largely let states regulate the raw milk industry. The result is a hodgepodge of laws that confuse consumers, dairy farmers and regulators alike.

McAfee said he expects the FDA's criminal probe to be dropped without charges in a deal that will require him to guarantee his interstate shipments are for use only as pet food. The FDA declined to comment.

Raw milk proponents insist they are under siege by state and federal regulators intent on snuffing out the industry.

The popularity of raw milk is fueled by consumers' concerns about the chemicals and hormones used in traditional dairy farming, and a growing interest in unprocessed, organic foods.

Devotees of raw milk ascribe to it almost mythical healing powers. They feed it to babies, believing it strengthens the immune system and staves off digestive troubles. The heat used in pasteurization, they say, kills healthy natural proteins and enzymes.

"It's a magic food," said Sally Fallon, president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates consumption of natural foods.

The FDA insists pasteurization destroys harmful bacteria without significantly changing milk's nutritional value. The process also extends its shelf life.

Nevertheless, some consumers have formed cooperatives to support dairy farmers who offer raw milk. They also join "cow-sharing" programs in which farmers take care of cows that are "leased" by consumers.

Food safety officials say raw milk has sickened hundreds of people with salmonella, E. coli and other bacteria. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,000 people fell ill from raw milk between 1998 and 2005. Two died.

The FDA ban on cross-border sales of raw milk led to its criminal investigation of Organic Pastures, a Fresno dairy owned by McAfee that is California's largest raw milk supplier.

The agency ordered two of McAfee's employees to testify before a grand jury and offered to pay one of them to surreptitiously record her conversations with McAfee, according to the worker.

"The main issue was selling our products outside the state of California," said dairy worker Amanda Hall, who refused to wear the wire. The two workers' grand jury appearances were canceled last month.

Even if McAfee avoids criminal charges, he still faces lawsuits filed by the families of five children who claim his raw milk made them seriously ill.

He denies the allegations and said testing at his dairy did not detect the strain of E. coli that sickened some of the children.

McAfee also is challenging a new California law requiring lower bacteria levels in raw milk. He fears the change will put him out of business. A judge in San Benito County last month ruled for the state, but McAfee appealed the decision on Thursday. Also, a state senator plans to introduce a bill to repeal the law.

Whole Foods Co. lobbied for a law that ensure raw milk dairies can stay in business.

"It is a growing piece of our business," said Walter Robb, the company's co-president. "We want to protect consumer choice."

He and other raw milk proponents argue that the FDA should spend its time working on other agricultural practices that jeopardize food safety, such as the way large farms confine animals.

But parents like Melissa Herzog strongly disagree.

Herzog, whose 10-year-old daughter spent two months in the hospital after her kidneys failed because of E. coli poisoning, is one of the families suing Organic Pastures over the 2006 outbreak that health officials determined was probably caused by raw milk from the dairy.

"I don't have anything good to say about raw milk," she said. "It was a horrible experience."

[baileyccc]

Cow milk is for a calf, goat milk is for a baby goat, mother''s milk is for human baby''s and pasteurized milk
is for cross species feeding of humans. The FDA knows a profit when it see one.

[frankbowers]

IN REPLY TO SHANEV 137
YOUR IGNORANVE ID BIGGER THAN YOUR NAME AND A LOT MORE ANNOUNCED THAT WHAT YO WISH TO BE WITH A NAME OF NO DISTINCTION OF SHANVE137

I see one spoke of refrigated truck for raw milk shipments. I think yhou need to stop the next tanker you see and look for a referr on it there is not one. You are so mis led once it has been bottled it is referred but while it is raw it is n=in a big truck such as GAS OR OILS are carried. FACTS OR IN YOYR FACE

[frankbowers]

IN REPLY TO SHANEV 137
YOUR IGNORANVE ID BIGGER THAN YOUR NAME AND A LOT MORE ANNOUNCED THAT WHAT YO WISH TO BE WITH A NAME OF NO DISTINCTION OF SHANVE137

I see one spoke of refrigated truck for raw milk shipments. I think yhou need to stop the next tanker you see and look for a referr on it there is not one. You are so mis led once it has been bottled it is referred but while it is raw it is n=in a big truck such as GAS OR OILS are carried. FACTS OR IN YOYR FACE

[frankbowers]

This is one more crockof human B/S. I was reared on raw cow milk and as a child we sold it to stores all over the town. I did not then nor now have any problems then what so ever and if one was to think of it Americn as a whole had no problems I for get just when pasturied milk come about but at the age of 70 until I was in the army, I joined when I was 17, all the milk I drink was raw as they called it and when it soured we mad butter milk and dranked it just the same the ice box, NO REFRIGATOR, run out of ice we had sour milk often. I think this is just another case of unclean diary helpers the illegals who peeandcrap wipe their assonthe middle finger then or in the same hole and then forget to wash off is the problem, not the cows as the dieasea would most likely kill the cows, why the public is so misled but the rich and famous I will not ever know.
THIS John Sheehan just got his retirement scam paid for for life with this statement of scare or scare tactic.
We should check his roth ira''s and saving accout for large sums of money coming in with out his name attached so he will not be paying tax on it like the illegals of the country who ship all their money back home. Frank Bowers of Austin, TX

[kaiyo4u]

I think raw milk is better for you than pasteurized.

I''ve had both and am still healthy. Wasn''t the
E-Coli outbreak then from spinach? We have had more and more food borne illnesses simply from lack of FDA inspections....

There is evidence that the homogenization of milk is detrimental to people. From what I have read, the homogenization process breaks up the fat molecules to a point where the body cannot digest them. They suspect it is these broken down fat molecules that are scarring our arteries and causing the plaque build-up.

[shanev137]

They weren''t shipping it cross country in non climate-controlled conditions conducive to bacterial contamination.

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Go ahead and show me proof that dairies are shipping unrefrigerated raw milk for thousands of miles all the way across the country.

Yea, I didn''t think you had any.

[klc3z4]

"It''''s really funny how people from the 1700''''s and 1800''''s survived isn''''t it.

I''''m sure none of them drank raw cow''''s milk because it was too dangerous."

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People in the 1700s and 1800s only transported the milk as far as from the barn to the house, milked the cattle before every meal, and used the product nearly immediately. They weren''t shipping it cross country in non climate-controlled conditions conducive to bacterial contamination.

[baileyccc]

The FDA needs a massive over hall. There long standing record of making the wrong decisions and answering to no one must end.

[grammawhamma]

I live in Wisconsin surrounded by dairy farms. How many dairy farm families do you think go out and "buy" pasteurized milk for their own consumption? I''m willing to bet the answer is very close to ZERO. They all still look healthy to me.

[republic1776]

Drugs, Alcohol, firearms, Tabacco, and now milk.
What happened to "We The People"
Of course this is California, leading the way of wackey.
Currently, California is trying to ban mylar baloons!