I don't post much here, but thought this might be of interest to some people.

Today on the BBC Newshour, they had a story about the French raw milk cheese called
Camembert going pasteurized "for health reasons" because pasteurization would kill E.
coli. If you did not know, France is apparently one of few countries in Europe that has not
banned raw milk in stores.

They interviewed one Camembert cheesemaker who naively agrees to let the government
"protect the public". But I was impressed that they interviewed the owner of a French
cheese shop in London who is vehemently opposed to pasteurization of raw milk cheese
for several reasons -- including health reasons. I wrote a letter promptly which was read
on air discussing the fallacies of pasteurization being healthier than raw milk. Before
reading my comment that clean raw milk actually kills E. coli and other bacteria, the
announcer stopped reading and said that pregnant women need to be protected from raw
milk.

So then I figured that a great way to get the BBC News to investigate the real story behind
raw milk would be to flood them with e-mails from people who drink it and don't want the
right taken away. So if you have time over the next week or even two, write a 2-4 sentence
note to the BBC (at the link http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/newshour/
institutional/haveyoursay.shtml and click on the link that says "A stink about cheese" on
the bottom right to hear the report that ran) stating health benefits of raw milk,
particularly to pregnant women and young children. If you have any studies to cite, all the
better. If you have studies showing dangers of pasteurized milk that would be excellent
too. Many of the ideas you might want to touch on in my mind might highlight the double
standard to which raw milk is suggested. Here are a few ideas:

- Pregnant women are also warned about the dangers of mercury in fish, but fish has not
been taken off the market.
- E. coli outbreaks are common primarily in industrialized products such as green onions,
lettuce, spinach, fruits, juices and pasteurized milk, perhaps these foods should be
removed from the marketplace so as not to endanger pregnant women.
- Why does all Camembert have to be pasteurized? Why not have both pasteurized and
raw and let the consumer choose?
- Should breast milk be pasteurized?
- Raw milk from clean, pastured animals has beneficial bacteria that protect a growing
fetus. Raw milk from animals fed a diet of pus, blood and grain does not.
- Why should weapons be more easily obtained than pastured raw dairy? A gun is
generally used for violence against others. People should be allowed to drink and eat what
they want even if the government thinks we are harming ourselves.
- A far more effective method of protecting pregnant women would be to remove access
to sugar, artificial sweeteners and packaged food. Eliminating glucose tolerance tests
during pregnancy would also protect the fetus.
- Recommend that they interview an expert on the subject such as Sally Fallon of the
Weston A. Price Foundation (westonaprice.org), author of Pasture Perfect Jo Robinson
(eatwild.com) or Mark McAfee of Organic Pastures Dairy (organicpastures.com)
- Your own personal experiences with raw dairy. This would be particularly effective if you
are a doctor, scientist, farmer, mother or pregnant woman, man, child or live anywhere in
the world!
- Consider congratulating them on acknowledging the fact that there is a controversy over
this issue and recognizing that there may be more to the story than what we have been
hoodwinked into believing

Please feel free to pass this on to anyone you know who wants to protect consumer rights
to eat the foods we want -- despite what the government thinks. If you decide to write to
them, cool. If not, please no hate mail.

Best,
Adrienne