Second, some hard facts:
http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130611-909875.html?mod=wsj_share_facebook
A
Worth the While Fight – Tinia Creamer
Whether
you want to use real, raw milk or not is not the issue. The issue is
do you believe American Citizens... WV citizens… have the right to
make food choices? Do you believe citizens have the right to co-own
livestock and use their animals' products?
Raw
milk is a safe food when handled properly (like all other foods) but
that is not the issue. Yes, it has been used for thousands of years.
Our grandparents and great grandparents, people much healthier than
we, know from experience raw milk is safe.
But
can it become, like produce, meats and pasteurized dairy products,
contaminated as well?
Sure.
Any food source or water source can.
The
CDC's own data has proven raw milk is a low risk food. We consume
high risk foods each day that the government makes no attempts to
outlaw - produce like spinach and tomatoes, meats, and seafood –
all of which are higher risks foods than raw milk.
Think
of the raw foods sold all over the state, served openly in
restaurants, such as raw oysters, raw fish in sushi, steak served
tar-tar, rare hamburger, eggs served over easy. All we see is a
warning label telling us we consume this at our own risk. Our right
to do so isn't circumvented.
When
it comes to milk, it is.
Why?
This
isn't a safety issue. This IS A FREEDOM ISSUE.
When
citizens are not free to use a naturally occurring food source that
has been used in civilized societies all over the world for thousands
of years, there is a Freedom problem.
Our
government allows (sad that we must speak in those terms) our
citizens access to tobacco. Alcohol. Pharmaceuticals over the
counter, known to cause side effects and death. But WV's government
says we, the citizens, aren't to be trusted with milk the FDA and AG
Dept hasn't had a hand in.
Beyond
that, WV is the only state that feels it has the power to tell the
citizens that we cannot co-own a dairy animal herd and use our
animals' products. If you want to co-own Jersey cows with me, fine,
but you cannot co-own AND use the milk from your cow or the goats we
both own.
You
cannot give the milk away. If it means saving the life of a calf that
needs colostrum, you cannot give it away. If it means allowing soap
makers
access
to a local, humanely produced milk product for their milk soap, you
cannot give it away.
This
boils down to NOT BEING ALLOWED to bypass the FDA and Dept of
Agriculture. You are not able to cut ties with the hand they have in
your milk.
How
is that freedom? You are not allowed to have milk unless they approve
your choice in milk and have a hand in the process. How long before
this applies to many other aspects of the small farm community? If
you believe only in local milk that is unpasteurized, you are simply
out of luck.
How
can the state of West Virginia tell us we cannot enter into a legally
binding contract with someone and share a herd of cows? How do I have
rights a man who doesn't have land to keep a dairy animal does NOT? I
have land, and so I am allowed by the state to use milk from my own
cow. No
one else.
Based on current law, not even my family living here can use it. If
you aren't lucky enough to have the land or time, you are denied a
right I have. . .
Whether
you want to use raw milk or milk of any kind is not the issue.
Whether you believe raw milk is safer than factory farmed pasteurized
milk is not the issue. The issue is do you believe citizens have the
right to make a decision about their diets on their own without
government interference? Do you believe we have the right to co-own
livestock and use our animals’ products?
This
is a Control issue, folks. This is about having control over the
consumers. This is about pushing BIG Agriculture over the small,
sustainable farms of WV. This is robbing hundreds of thousands of
dollars of income from struggling farmers right here in WV.
This
is not Mountaineers are always free. Mountaineers have the most
restrictive laws on this issue in the entire USA. This is not
freedom. And this is not something of which West Virginia can be
proud.
A great point point about health and safety:
http://www.realmilk.com/safety/real-milk-powerpoint/
RAW Milk West Virginia Dairy Farm WV SB30 RAW MILK BILL Herd Share
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