Unforeseen danger # 342 the law...

After much research and tasting raw as compared to pasteurized milk I have decided that raw milk is the way to go.  This said, I would normally go out and buy a cow or goat and sell the milk I couldn't use to neighbors, but in the state of West Virginia you can't sell raw milk or buy it out of state and cross state lines to bring it home.   This angers me more than most laws that get in the way of making a living on the farm.  People who only see a portion of a thing and then act as if they have an intimate knowledge of the whole.  In most states it is illegal to sell raw milk to the public.  So illegal in fact that sting operations have been set up to catch these criminals in the act.  How much money has gone into the catching of the raw milkers? Money that could have gone into schools to teach people the benefits of raw milk I'm sure, and money that could be shaved off of the national dept.   Upon further contemplation of this subject I considered other dangers to the food supply that make laws like these look ridiculous.  Take raw eggs for example,  warnings abound on the subject of eating them uncooked but we can still buy raw eggs, right? Raw meat? Hell even raw spinach these days presents a danger to the public at large but I can buy it right off the side of the road if I wanna.  So why such a big deal with raw milk?  There are many reasons I'm sure, but the biggest I suspect is not your safety, but for the profit of the milk industry.  You can produce more, safer if you cook it.  It lasts longer on the shelf so you can truck it further.  Why do you think milk is one of the only things we can't buy raw?  How many other laws out there keep us from selling products out of our homes, and make criminals out of the resourceful?  No wonder we are such a welfare nation...

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