Increasing numbers of Americans are seeking out unpasteurized, or raw, dairy products — both for the health benefits and the flavor. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), meanwhile, has released a report that’s clearly an attempt to squelch the growing enthusiasm for obtaining farm-fresh foods like raw milk and cheese.¹

The report is only an estimate, made using a model relying on publicly available outbreak data, so it’s far from an exact science. Further, the outbreak numbers are very small. According to the report, dairy consumption causes an average of 760 illnesses and 22 hospitalizations a year. Of those, they claim that 96 percent are caused by contaminated unpasteurized milk.

Statements made in the study suggest it may be used as cannon fodder for government to act against the interest of food freedom, especially in terms of loosening the nonsensical regulations that make it difficult if not impossible for so many Americans to access this natural food.

For instance, the CDC said: “An easing of regulations has allowed greater access to unpasteurized milk in recent years, and this study shows that illnesses and hospitalizations will rise as consumption of unpasteurized dairy products increases” — an assumption that paves the way for raw milk regulations, already a topic of heated debate, to be tightened.

Also curious is the fact that the study specifically looked at raw dairy contaminated with escherichia coli (E. coli), salmonella, listeria and campylobacter — the latter of which is commonly found contaminating produce and CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) chickens!