This week’s topic of the week ^[1].

Recently a new report from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) came out telling us how dangerous raw milk is. After going to the Weston A. Price website, I find that they really manipulated the data.

Among the things that the CDC did:

Stop data collection in 2006. In 2007 three people died from drinking contaminated pasteurized milk, and 135 people got sick from a single outbreak of pasteurized cheese.

Blew milk related illness out of proportion: There are on average 24,000 food related illnesses reported each year, while only 315 are milk related (203 pasteurized and 112 non-pasteurized).

Used old data to increase the appearance of risk: The authors ignored a survey done by the CDC from 2006-2007 states that 3% of all dairy products consumed in the U.S. is raw. They used an old survey that states only 1%, and used this number to make the risk 3x as high.

Did not take population into account: Raw milk is available in the three most populous states (California, New York, and Texas). Because there are more people in these states, there is more of a chance of an outbreak in any type of food borne illness regardless of whether raw milk is legal or not.

Don’t get me wrong, I would not want to drink raw milk from a factory farm ^[2]. But I should be able to get it from local farms where the cows are pastured and treated humanely. If I can buy raw ground beef, I should be able to buy raw milk.

Raw Milk Warning – Unfair Cherry Picking By CDC, Says Weston A. Price Foundation ^[3]

CDC Cherry Picks Data to Make Case Against Raw Milk ^[4]

War against raw milk.