Rally for Raw Milk Rights in Chicago Next Week

Next week the Raw Milk Freedom Riders, a group that staged the recent demonstration* outside FDA headquarters to protest the agency's interstate ban of raw milk** and related arrests and prosecutions, is taking its civil disobedience campaign on the road to Chicago. From the group's just-issued press release:

On December 8, a group of mothers and others will defy the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) ban on "distributing" fresh milk across state lines by transporting 100 gallons of raw milk from Wisconsin to Chicago's Independence Park and distributing it to customers waiting at the park.

Federal law 21 CFR § 1240.61 prohibits interstate movement and distribution of raw milk for human consumption. The FDA regulation applies to individuals, or "agents" acting on their behalf.

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The Freedom Riders say that the FDA's statement leaves the door open for FDA to pursue farmers, buying clubs and individuals acting as "distribution agents."  The Wisconsin to Chicago Raw Milk Freedom ride will challenge the FDA's use of force against raw milk distribution.

Whole thing here.

A look at what peace on the raw-milk front looks like here. My thoughts on the FDA's ongoing raw milk crackdown here. Reason on me on raw milk here and here.

*Full disclosure: I helped organize the demonstration.

**TMI disclosure: I am not a consumer of fluid milk (raw or pasteurized), though I do like me some raw- and pasteurized-milk cheese.

Baylen Linnekin is the director of Keep Food Legal, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving and increasing "culinary freedom," the right of all Americans to grow, sell, prepare and eat foods of their own choosing. To join or learn more about the group's activities, go here. To follow Keep Food Legal on Twitter, go here; to follow Linnekin, go here.