Raw Milk Raid on Amish Farmer Highlights Stupid FDA Tactics

Reason contributor Baylen Linnekin writes about a totally insane (and armed!) raid on an Amish farmer in Pennsylvania who dared provide raw milk and other dairy products to willing and knowing DC-area customers. The details of the raid are disturbing and so is the rationale against the purchase of the stuff in question:

Anyone who has ever brought home a dozen eggs from a grocer's shelves has purchased raw food. And once a consumer brings any food home, it's up to the consumer—not the government—to decide how (or if) he or she wants to cook the food. The notion that the government would ban raw chicken, beef or eggs—or deli meat, for that matter—from store shelves may seem ludicrous. Seen in this context, the current raw milk ban is no less absurd.

Even if consumers were unaware of the risk involved in consuming a raw agricultural product like raw milk or raw beef, FDA and USDA guidelines, along with many state and local health codes, typically require warnings about the potential dangers of consuming raw or undercooked foods. Where a warning will suffice, a ban is inappropriate. The FDA's extraordinary message when it comes to raw milk, though, is that the American people are too dim to read the very labels the agency requires.

Whole thing here, in the Washington Times.

Linnekin is the founder and director of Keep Food Legal, a nonprofit that is dedicated to defining and enlarging culinary freedom, the (radical!) notion that eaters and chefs should be free to use whatever ingredients they want in the act of cooking and chowing. Check out Keep Food Legal here.

Last fall, Reason.tv covered a raw-food raid that took place in Southern California. Check it out now: