Members of the Safe Food Coalition wrote to congressional leaders expressing their opposition to a proposed Farm Bill amendment that would  prevent the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from banning interstate sales of raw milk. Amendment 30 to H.R. 2, the Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018, offered by Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-04), would attempt to expand access to raw milk by prohibiting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from fulfilling its food safety enforcement mission. The move would threaten public health.

The FDA has banned the interstate sale of raw milk since 1987 because raw milk is implicated in a disproportionate number of foodborne illness outbreaks. While dairy products account for less than one percent of foodborne illness outbreaks, the overwhelming majority of those outbreaks are linked to raw milk, despite the fact that only around 1% of Americans drink raw milk. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “raw milk can carry harmful bacteria and other germs that can make you very sick or kill you. While it is possible to get foodborne illnesses from many different foods, raw milk is one of the riskiest of all.” Children are particularly vulnerable to these risks. According to the Safe Food Coalition letter: “There is simply no justification for undoing decades of public health improvement and risking the lives of consumers on a product that has been proven to be unsafe for human consumption.”

Download PDF