Patrick Stone responds [posted by Quality Digest]

I worked for FDA on the front lines, my record speaks for itself. (google Patrick Stone, FDA.) Raw milk is the least of our national worries and the tax dollars spent on this project in advertisements and manpower are in the millions. Public health is the goal and if CDC says 12 individuals became ill from raw milk in a calendar year with one hospitalization, I can point out food and medical health products that hospitalize 12 Americans a month and the FDA does not go in with the cavalry. FDA has labeled this campaign by their action and public statements. I am 100% for public health every day of the year and, yes, educate the public on "risky" eating habits, but this is still America. You miss the point: its about big government waste, not raw milk.  We just had a major turkey meat recall with antibiotic resistant bacteria infecting our country across the nation. Did FDA go to that manufacturer with the cavalry. We now have super strain bug contamination from imported food that is now a part of our lives because the bacteria has been introduced and is here to stay. The only one-sided story here is from FDA.

The Times article you posted states "Although the FDA bans interstate sale of raw milk for human consumption, its sale is legal in 28 states, where statutes govern how it is processed and may require warning labels about its risks. Bills to legalize it are pending in Georgia and Wisconsin, and advocates are lobbying for similar measures in other states."

If States do not deem this a critical, top-of-the-list health problem, then the issue is tabled.  FDA has mountains of real health protection work to attend in the Import division and domestic health product field (medical devices, drugs, and biologics). Americans are being hospitalized by medical device failures, serious adverse-event drug interactions, and imported food-borne illnesses daily. This was one of the first SWAT style raids in FDA history and it's for raw milk. There are gun toting criminals manufacturing fake blood pressure medications that kill thousands of Americans. FDA is welcome to go in with SWAT for those perpetrators. Do you want to keep counterfeit pharmaceutical medications on the street? We need to look at the big picture here.