Page 97 - Winter2014

A Campaign for Real Milk

A NEW ACT IN RAW MILK'S MORALITY PLAY
Brought to You by America's Dairyland
By David Gumpert

OCT 29, 2014: Do a Google search under “Wis- supplying a variety of foods, including raw milk,
consin raw milk illnesses, football team,” and up on at least a half dozen previous occasions, with
pop ten headings from media outlets and product no one ever getting sick. Here are key points of
liability lawyers, all proclaiming pretty much the their story:
same thing: “Raw Milk Blamed for Illnesses…” The dairy farm run by The Farm Family is
It all seems pretty cut and dried. Some a commercial dairy. The parents and their chil-
wacko parents had the nerve to bring raw milk dren are the only ones who consume raw milk
to a pot luck dinner for the Durand High School on a regular basis. In other words, this isn't a
football team on September 18. At least twenty- raw milk dairy, or even a partial raw milk dairy.
two kids got sick from campylobacter. The only The Farm Family supplied the raw milk to the
food they all had in common was raw milk. The team because that’s just the way things still work
campylobacter found in seventeen of the kids in many rural areas—dairy families not only A Campaign
was the same strain as campylobacter found in consume their dairy’s own milk raw, but make
several cows at the farm from which the milk raw milk available to friends and neighbors for for Real Milk
was produced. Left twisting in the wind of the special occasions. Not that that is the wisest way is a project of
reports: More “proof” that raw milk is a ticking to entertain—it's been well documented that the Weston A.
time bomb, unsafe under any circumstances. pre-pasteurized milk is risky stuff, with more Price
salmonella and listeria than the industry would Foundation.
MORE TO THE STORY like consumers thinking about.
Not surprisingly, this being Wisconsin, If The Farm Family’s raw milk is to blame To obtain
there is more to the story than public health and for the illnesses (and the family has doubts about some of our
agriculture officials or the media or the lawyers that), to label this situation a case of “raw milk informative
have let on. I had occasion to speak at length illnesses” is inaccurate. At worst, it is a case Real Milk
with the parents who supplied the milk, and they in which pre-pasteurized milk, not raw milk brochures,
tell a story that is much less cut and dried than intended for consumption, caused illnesses. contact the
those official accounts on Google. They asked
me to not reveal their identity, since there are NOT THE ONLY FOOD Foundation at
still regulatory and legal matters pending, The various media reports have indicated (202)
One thing that everyone agrees on is that that the only food the team members had in com- 363-4394.
the football team members who got sick almost mon was raw milk. But that is inaccurate. The Check out our
certainly became ill from food they ate at a pot team members also consumed chicken alfredo website,
luck team dinner on Thursday, September 18. with noodles. And The Farm Family mom who
The team dinners are a weekly event during the brought the raw milk didn’t like what she saw www.
football season, with several parents supplying as she helped other moms who prepared the RealMilk.com
food for each dinner on a rotating basis through chicken. Not only didn’t she like what she saw, for additional
the season. but she told them of her concerns—for example, information
The parents who supplied the milk (whom that the cream-based alfredo sauce, which was and sources
I’ll refer to as “The Farm Family”) own a dairy brought in cold, wasn’t heated fully before serv- of Real Milk
farm in the area. They have a son on the football ing. More ominous, the mom who brought the
team and have helped at these dinners before, chicken pieces (apparently commercial breasts products.
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