“These guns are being drawn on basically aging hippies, all because of illegal milk,’’ said Ajna Sharma-Wilson, a Los Angeles lawyer for the Venice market owner. “This is a waste of taxpayer money.’’
The Aug. 3 crackdown in Venice has become a cause célèbre. Proponents of raw milk are part of a broader raw-foods movement that says unprocessed and organic products are healthier and urges consumers to buy directly from local farms.
Twenty states ban raw milk sales in some form and 30 allow it, including California. Fewer than 1 percent of Americans drink the product, according to the Food and Drug Administration. The Weston A. Price Foundation, a nonprofit nutrition research group that works for universal access to raw milk, estimates the figure may exceed 9.4 million people, or about 3 percent of the population.
The FDA has not explained its involvement in the August raid. The target, Rawesome Foods, provided unpasteurized goat milk and related products and operated for more than six years without a required business permit, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
It’s illegal in California to sell unpasteurized dairy without applicable licenses and permits, which require veterinary inspections and spell out sanitation requirements.
No additional information is available on the case and the warrant is sealed, said the district attorney’s office.
The FDA banned the interstate sale of raw milk in 1987. Raw-milk advocates trying to overturn the restriction have the support of Representative Ron Paul of Texas, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination. In May, he introduced legislation to allow interstate traffic of unpasteurized milk and milk products.
“These Americans have the right to consume these products without having the federal government second-guess their judgment about what products best promote health,’’ Paul said in introducing the bill.
Research shows no meaningful differences between raw and pasteurized milk, according to the FDA, but unpasteurized milk is “unsafe to eat.’’
