Raw Milk Movement Takes Hits From Courts, Health Officials
Eliza Barclay at NPR has the story on the escalating tension between raw milk advocates and the FDA, which was spurred on by the recent injunction against a Pennsylvania farmer for selling raw milk across state lines to private buying clubs. Another blow came with the results of a health study:
On Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also threw a heavy dollop of concern into the mix with a study showing that most disease outbreaks linked to dairy products are caused by raw milk.
The study, published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, looked at 121 disease outbreaks caused by dairy products between 1993 and 2006. It found that raw milk products caused 60 percent of the outbreaks, 84 percent of the hospitalizations, and 2 out of 3 deaths. The rest came from pasteurized milk.
The study also found that states where the sale of raw milk was legal — states like Pennsylvania — were twice as likely to have outbreaks as states that don't allow it. The outbreaks were all caused by bacteria, such as E. coli O157, which can lead to severe illnesses, according to the study.
