Interview with David Gumpert Takes a Look at the 100-Year War Against Raw Milk

As more Americans embrace the farm-to-table movement, tensions between consumers, farmers and food safety officials in the dairy industry have grown increasingly contentious when it comes to the sales of raw milk.

David Gumpert, author of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Food Rights, spoke with Steve Goss of Atlanta’s NPR station about these tensions in an interview on November 18, 2013.

In the interview, Gumpert discusses the history of raw milk and pasteurization, how farmers are penalized in states that ban the sales of raw milk, and how some consumers are finding loopholes in state laws that will allow them to buy it.

At one point, Goss points out that states that allow the sales of raw milk also mandate warning labels, and asks if there is a parallel between tobacco and raw milk production.

“Tobacco products are, from any vantage point, much more dangerous than raw milk and so you’re pointing out an inconsistency or, I guess some people would say, a double standard. Raw milk is riskier, in my view, than pasteurized milk but both raw milk and pasteurized milk are not very risky in the whole scheme of the food pyramid,” responds Gumpert.

Despite the risks, Gumpert believes that consumers should have the right to decide what kinds of foods they put into their bodies and the information necessary to make those decisions. Although this means fewer regulations on raw milk, he concludes that there should be regulations on food suppliers that taint the food supply, such as pathogens, antibiotics and GMOs.

Learn more about Gumpert’s views in the complete broadcast here.

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