{"id":2017,"date":"2012-02-19T17:23:22","date_gmt":"2012-02-19T23:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/realfoodhouston.com\/?p=2017"},"modified":"2012-02-19T17:32:17","modified_gmt":"2012-02-19T23:32:17","slug":"how-i-saw-the-raw-milk-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/2012\/02\/19\/how-i-saw-the-raw-milk-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"How I saw the Raw Milk Debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was one of\u00a0about 2,400 people that listened to the livestreaming of the Raw Milk Debate at the Harvard Law School Food Law Society.\u00a0 There wasn’t really much debate but each side was given a reasonable\u00a0time to present its arguments.\u00a0 Sally Fallon Morrell, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation<\/a>,\u00a0was the first speaker and gave a good overall summary of the health benefits of raw milk.\u00a0 David Gumpert, author of the Raw Milk Revolution and blogger at The Complete Patient<\/a>,\u00a0the second speaker,\u00a0spoke primarily about the safety of raw milk, citing government statistics as his backup data.<\/p>\n

Those speaking against raw milk were Fred Pritzker<\/a>, food safety attorney, and Dr. Heidi Kassenborg, Director, Dairy & Food Inspection\u00a0 Division, Minnesota Department of Agriculture<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Fred Pritzker talked about the sad plight of victims of food poisoning and the potential\u00a0liabilities of raw milk dairy farmers.\u00a0 He also\u00a0implied that\u00a0we as citizens have no basic\u00a0right to choose to eat\u00a0the\u00a0foods we believe are healthy and beneficial.\u00a0 Dr. Kassenborg apparently assumed that if something was already written into law or regulations,\u00a0it must be accurate.\u00a0 As proof of\u00a0the dangers of raw milk, she\u00a0cited\u00a0specific laws,\u00a0court decisions, and\u00a0the claims of\u00a0health organizations\u00a0against raw milk such as the outlawing of the sale of raw milk across state lines.\u00a0\u00a0Neither Fred Pritzker nor Dr. Kassenborg refered to any\u00a0research or documentation\u00a0in support of the risks of drinking raw milk.\u00a0 They both seemed to\u00a0think that their position–drinking raw milk is dangerous–was\u00a0a given and didn’t need to be proved, in other words,\u00a0 “everybody knows”\u00a0drinking raw milk is risky; therefore, nothing further needs to be said.<\/p>\n

It is legal to sell raw milk in Massachusetts, and the makeup of the audience, and, therefore, the questions after the debate were more pro raw milk than anti\u00a0raw milk.\u00a0 One person\u00a0asking a question\u00a0mentioned he had noticed that neither Fred Pritzer nor Dr. Hassenborg addressed the government data used by the pro raw milk speakers.<\/p>\n

I enjoyed the debate but, like some of those asking questions, I admit I was\u00a0surprised that neither of the anti raw milk speakers seemed interested in trying to counter\u00a0the safety data presented by the pro raw milk team.\u00a0 Both Fred Pritzker and Dr. Kassenborg seemed to rely more on the “everybody knows” stance about the dangers of raw milk, as if it wasn’t necessary for them to have any proof or backup data.\u00a0 It was refreshing to\u00a0learn that\u00a0the pro raw milk side had the data, studies, and raw milk safety facts, whereas the anti raw milk side\u00a0depended, at least in this debate,\u00a0on emotional stories and childhood memories of\u00a0‘dirty’ farms\u00a0to support their position.<\/p>\n

Especially enjoyable was the glass of local\u00a0raw milk I was drinking\"\"<\/a> with my supper while listening to the debate.<\/p>\n

The debate will be archived on YouTube if you missed it: http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/HLSFoodLawSociety<\/a><\/p>\n

David Gumpert has a more detailed and interesting post<\/a> about the raw milk debate on The Complete Patient.<\/p>\n

You might also be interested in these other posts on Real Food Houston:<\/p>\n

John Sheehan, the Man Behind the FDA’s War on Raw Milk<\/a>
\nI Want to Drink Raw Milk<\/a>
\nDrinking RAw Milk Is Safe — Based on Government Data<\/a>
\nMilk — Why Homogenized, Pasteurized? Follow the Profit!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was one of\u00a0about 2,400 people that listened to the livestreaming of the Raw Milk Debate at the Harvard Law School Food Law Society.\u00a0 There wasn’t really much debate but each side was given a reasonable\u00a0time to present its arguments.\u00a0 …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,63,6,119,19],"tags":[26,25,64,24],"class_list":["post-2017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-rights","category-food-safety","category-raw-milk","category-raw-milk-safety","category-real-food","tag-food-freedom-2","tag-food-rights-2","tag-food-safety-2","tag-raw-milk-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p70SEj-wx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2017"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2025,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2017\/revisions\/2025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realfoodhouston.com\/wp-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}