Example of misrepresentation in Raw Milk Control and Debate

This is an ongoing debate.. raw milk products. The federal government position is that raw milk is a hazard and should be banned as a food product nationwide. Their jurisdiction though does not cover in-state sales. States themselves vary in the decision and approach. Nevertheless, raw milk has a reputation for being the most deadly food on the planet.

Let's lay aside for a moment the argument that say "raw milk has been consumed for as long as [people knew it existed without serious consequence", and the history of pasteurization itself as a means to counteract pooor animal husbandry (money saving at the cost of health).  Lay all the debate aside on the value of the milk itself as a nature perfect food, full of unique nutrients and microbes   Instead I'd like to share a simple fact, the government lies about this openly.

Perhaps this is a shock to you, but it is absolutely true, and I present a case in evidence.  Lets take a closer look at the best known and most deadly "raw milk pathogen outbreak" in recent history. I am referring to the 1985 Jalisco Cheese Company incident. This was a horrible incident where pregnant women dies, many along with their unborn children,  birth defects abounded, children died, it was a truly tragic event.

The investigation ensued as did dozens of lawsuits. The official government position as of today is  this:

The source of the pathogen was "Mexican style cheese made with raw milk".

Point #1.  let me point out something... while this is quoted as a "raw milk" problem, the product sold was soft unaged cheese.  It is not referring to raw fluid milk at all. Soft cheese is made from slightly aged slightly fermented milk. This in itself makes the end result more dangerous than the ingredient of raw fluid milk.  It is foolish to say that an ingredient is as dangerous as a processed derivative   Logic blocks you from making that foolish assertion.

Point #2. Even though the government agencies openly quote this as a raw milk statistic, there was never any proof that the milk itself was to blame. The reality is that there were 26  million gallons of milk produced at the same time from the same dairy and ONLY the cheese from jalisco showed any problem. Now I ask you, how is that logically possible? How can one very tiny operation like Jalisco purchase ALL of the raw milk, not once for consistently for months, that had the bacteria in it ? Defies logic to assume that. And there were no tests on the raw milk, nor the dairy, nor the cows that showed any presence of the pathogen.

Point #3. There WERE in fact multiple tests showing the exact pathogen found in the sold cheese that was present in the Jalisco plant, in the refrigerators, the ants crawling around, even the workers themselves. The evidence obviously shows that the plant and workers themselves were infested with the pathogen.

Point #4, there are confessions that unlicensed employees (presumably untrained) were operating the pasteurization equipment. the one thing that would have kept such deplorable conditions within the plant from infecting customers was improperly handled itself.  In fact, the cheese sold was made from PASTEURIZED milk! IT is NOT a raw milk product!

So all the test done showed conclusive evidence, the pathogen was well established within the jalisco plant, but no where to be found in the dairy nor the herds producing the milk. One would think this is pretty conclusive evidence of where the source lied, and in fact not related to raw fluid milk in any way.

But .. alas,  Jalisco itself as a small company  did not have the funds to properly compensate the victims. So, the only options. the only option for prosecutors and lawyers in these many cases was to attack the money behind the ingredients... the dairy itself. So unfortunately they did, and the victim of that decision and approach is ... raw milk.  Raw milk was yet again falsely implicated in something that it had absolutely to do with.

How many more of hte "cases" listead on the government statistics are like this? I do not know. I know that this is one, a highly prominent one, and one that is pointed to today as proof that raw milk is too dangerous to exist. The government officials, the CDC and the FDA know the truth, they know the reality, they know they are lieing. And yet they do.

Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/07/12/us/witnesses-clash-over-blame-for-deaths-from-bad-cheese.html

http://thecompletepatient.com/sites/default/files/attachments/FDA%20Response%20to%20McAfee%20Citizen%27s%20Petition.pdf