Raw milk causes most illnesses from dairy, study finds

[Major Nikon]

76. And now for the rest of the story

The CDC and the FDA have been on a crusade against raw milk for some time now. Why? Well even though raw milk represents only about 3% or less than the market share, it's a growing market. Therefore it's a threat to the dairy industry. The dairy industry is huge. Seen those "got milk?" ads? Brought to you by the dairy industry. The dairy lobby is huge, and the price of milk is highly regulated by a scheme that heavily favors the dairy industry. Read about how this innovator was crushed by big dairy...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/09/AR2006120900925.html

Read about how the dairy industry crushes competion from soy milk...
http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/04/dairy-lobby-tries-ban-soy-milk

The dairy industry contributes millions to politicians and most of that goes to Republicans...
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=a04

So now the dairy industry is going after raw milk. By reading this article, you might walk away with the conclusion that raw milk is a very unsafe product, but is it really? Try doing a web search on the 10 riskiest foods and you won't find raw milk. You'll find things like sprouts, oysters, lunchmeat, tomatoes, potatoes, and ice cream (made from pasteurized milk).
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33183857/ns/health-food_safety/t/riskiest-foods-america/

But, but, but, what about this article the OP posted? Go look at the article and dig a little deeper. Click on the actual report (which leaves a lot of information out, suspiciously), but let's look at what it does say. Over 13 years almost half of the cases of people getting sick from unpasteurized milk products were from cheese. Unpasteurized cheese also resulted in almost twice the number of hospitalizations and all of the deaths compared to unpasteurized whole milk (131 vs 71 hospitalizations). Why is that? Something called queso fresco (and it's cousin queso Oaxaca). It's often made by unlicensed producers(from goats milk usually), or in other words in the kitchens of poor immigrant communities who make it for resale. Almost all the illnesses caused by unpasteurized cheese products can be traced back to illegal Mexican style cheese operations.

So take Mexican style cheese out of the equation and what do you have? Well, you wind up with 903 illnesses, 71 hospitalizations, and zero deaths over a 13 year period from raw milk. Divide 71 by 13 years and you get an average of 5.5 hospitalized each year from the consumption of liquid raw milk. Keep in mind that about 9 million people in the US are consuming unpasteurized dairy products. The chances of getting seriously ill are almost statistically zero. Sound unsafe to you?

But, but, but, what about pasteurized milk? Pasteurized milk makes more people sick and puts more people in the hospital. According to the report, pasteurized dairy made 2842 people sick of which 37 were hospitalized and 1 died.

So if pasteurized dairy is making more people sick, why doesn't the CDC and the FDA go after them too? Well you might say that since pasteurized milk has a lower risk (due to much more volume), that's why they are getting a pass. I would say, what difference does that make? There are plenty of foods that are much riskier than raw milk that the CDC and FDA is NOT going after. If the government were really interested in public health (as they should be), they should be going after the products that are making the most people sick, shouldn't they?

Well, it turns out there's a really good reason why the government is not going after pasteurized milk. The reason is because pasteurized milk is a very safe food product. Damn safe even. So when you compare the risk of pasteurized milk to unpasteurized milk, unpasteurized milk loses, but that doesn't mean it's inherently unsafe. It's kinda like comparing a Volvo to a Prius. The Volvo might be safer, but that doesn't mean the Prius is unsafe.

Over 100,000 people in the US are hospitalized with foodborne illnesses each year. 3,000 of those people die. So why is the CDC and the FDA have a full court press going on against liquid raw milk that only manages to hospitalize 5.5 people each year and kill no one? Keep in mind that once you count up the money spent on these studies and the amount of people the government has employed in enforcement actions adds up in the millions of dollars (tax dollars). Kinda makes you go, hmmmmm. At least it does me anyway. Looks like the dairy industry is getting a bit of payback for the $4.8 million they spent in the 2008 election cycle.