Families Suffer in West Virginia because of State’s Raw Milk Ban

Many families in West Virginia are suffering because of the state’s ban on raw milk sales. There is the 11-year old child who is allergic to the pasteurized milk sold in grocery stores, but her mother is unable to purchase raw goat’s milk from local farms. There is the family who missing out on an estimated $20,000 per year because they are unable to sell the extra milk produced by their two dairy cows.

West Virginia has some of the strictest raw milk laws in the country: raw milk sales, from both cows and goats, are entirely illegal. West Virginia also prohibits the practice of herd sharing, through which consumers can purchase a share in a cow, goat or herd to gain “ownership” access to the animals’ raw milk. Brad Cochran, the Director of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources’ Public Health Sanitation Division, stands by the assertion that raw milk is unsafe to drink – despite research and thousands of anecdotes that prove otherwise.

“They say it has bad stuff in it and unless you strip everything away it is going to kill you. But I am still alive,” says Rylee, the 11-year old girl who is denied access to the raw goat’s milk that provides crucial nutrients and health benefits.

“The government needs to trust us as parents to read the studies and extract our own opinions and beliefs,” adds Rylee’s mother.

Read more about their story and others’ raw milk plights here:

http://www.wowktv.com/story/23542795/jackson-county-wv-mother-and-farmers-criticize-states-raw-milk-stance

The Campaign for Real Milk is a project of the nutrition education non-profit, The Weston A. Price Foundation. Donate to help fund research into the benefits of nutrient dense foods.  http://www.westonaprice.org/lab