Yet, the authorities continue their war against producers of raw milk, even those who have not made anyone sick.

I guess we can conclude that even though pasteurization is no guarentee of food safety, it is a guarantee that corporations will maintain control of our food supply.

It is also a terrible shame when people twist logic to suit their agenda. Raw milk is available to those who accept the risk. If anyone wants to raise a cow, and consume it's milk, there is no regulation against that.

The fact is, if you sell a food product that makes someone sick, you will be held liable. Those of us in the food industry know that the "head in the sand" approach demontrated by the raw food fanatics is a sure path to bankruptcy.

Perhaps someone can explain to me, and all the small organic farmers, and all the vendors at all the farmers markets, why pasteurization is "a guarantee that corporations will maintain control of our food supply".

Might I suggest you read the entire article before you start spewing rhetoric? The milk was already pasteurized when it was placed in contaminated containers.

And why did you even bring up raw milk, this has nothing to do with it. For example some of the Juices that Umqua packages and sells are also being recalled because of the risk of contamination. In other words it isn't a milk issue, it's a packaging/plant issue.

So what does this have to do with raw milk? Because I haven't heard anything about regulators showing up with guns drawn (no joke) into the processing plant responsible for this outbreak. Yet we have seen innumerable cases this year alone, of armed regulators raiding farms and suppliers of raw milk who have made no one sick.

Why do they not show with guns drawn on the operators of this dairy plant which is clearly making people sick? Could it be because food safety is the excuse which they use to enforce the iron fist of the corporate monopoly on milk production?

It is very clear to me that the shill tone of the regulatory and "food safety" community about the dangers of raw milk has nothing to do with food safety. I accept that raw milk can be risky if it is not produced with the proper precautions and practices. I am a licensed Wisconsin cheese maker (the only state in the U.S. which requires the licensing of cheese makers) with formal training in HACCP, SSOP, producing safe dairy foods, and pasteurization process control. I should also mention that the cheese maker who trained me has been drinking raw milk for over 50 years from dozens of different farms, and has never gotten sick from it.

I maintain that the regulatory and "food safety" community are NOT interested in making milk any safer -- raw or pasteurized. Rather, you have shown time and again that fear, paranoia, and violent repression are the tactics of those who are against raw milk, while pasteurized milk which makes people sick is basically given a free pass in comparison.

And why, must I wonder, is there so little research and so little discussed on this blog about the long-term chronic health effects of consuming the standard American diet of highly processed foods -- foods which also happen to be highly profitable for our corporate masters, and very easy to regulate for the government?

This whole thing stinks to high heaven.

Again, I must ask, why did the regulators not show up with guns drawn to shut down and put out of business the operators of this dairy plant? I'm not suggesting that they do this, I'm simply asking why the double standard?

The first thing to understand is that most bacteria are good, and protect your product from the few bad ones. As a cheesemaker, I am particularily attuned to this fact -- cheese starter cultures have a powerful selective effect against pathogenic organisms. The more bio-diverse your starter culture (and your secondary ripening cultures), the less chance a pathogenic contaminant will have to proliferate.

Encouraging a positve bacterial pressure is very important. Chlorine use should be minimized, as chlorine encourages the conditions for organisms like listeria and pseudomonas. Chlorine should never come into contact with milk or with the milking area.

In any case, a farm's food safety plan has to be tailored to that farm's particular needs and size. Animal health, labratory milk quality testing, and possibly even manure and/or enviromental swabbing to identify hazards are all steps that can be taken to produce safe raw milk.

But I would emphasize that the most important thing is to have the animals on pasture. Confinement-style dairying simply cannot produce safe raw milk, no matter how clean and sanitary the milking enviroment is, or how well you clean udders. Alta Dena is the classic example of this.