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Government, public health and dairy industry officials want to restrict the sale and distribution of raw milk, citing safety concerns. But small dairy farmers, organic consumers' advocates and raw milk drinkers say that safety isn't the real issue -- it's control of the dairy market. The FDA and CDC have been particularly aggressive recently in their efforts to crack down on raw milk under the pretense of public health safety.

Every time the words "raw milk" are about to come up during the proceedings, the jury is ushered out of the room. It happened Monday morning and again Tuesday afternoon. A telling moment during Tuesday's testimony was when Teresa Butterworth, witness for the prosecution and employee of DATCP's Bureau of Food Safety & Inspection whose responsibility it is to license and maintain dairy farm records, could not tell the defense what dairy plants do.

Silk Soy Milk Coupons 2013 - Silk Soy Milk Coupons 2013: Silk is a of soy milk along with other dairy-substitute items, including soy yogurt and almond milk written by Whitened Wave Meals

With Congress spending all its time trying to avert the fiscal cliff, a slew of other legislative matters are going unattended. One of them is the agriculture bill which, if not addressed, could lead to a doubling of the price of milk early next year. It works like this: In order to keep dairy farmers in businesses, the government agrees to buy milk and other products if the price gets too low. The current agriculture bill has a formula that means the government steps in if the price of milk were to drop by roughly half from its current national average of about $3.65 a gallon.

It's not unusual to spot metaphorical cash cows around Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., but real-life dairy cows aren't so commonplace in Congress. On Monday, however, an adult cow was on hand to provide fresh milk and a spectacle, as part of a rally in favor of legalizing the interstate sale of raw milk.

In France, raw milk is happily sold in vending machines on street corners, but in California -- a state which used to represent a healthy, happy lifestyle -- raw milk advocates are targeted by the state as criminals, then subjected to personal vengeance campaigns run by the DA's office.

A Minnesota man accused of violating the state's raw milk laws was just the middle man in a voluntary arrangement of people sharing food, his attorney argued Wednesday.

Alvin Schlangen, an organic egg producer in central Minnesota, is charged with three misdemeanor counts including distributing unpasteurized milk, operating without a food handler's license and handling adulterated food. Minnesota law prohibits raw milk sales except directly to consumers on the farm when it's produced.

The FDA has won its two-year fight to shut down an Amish farmer who was selling fresh, raw milk to eager consumers in the Washington region, after a judge this month banned Daniel Allgyer from selling his milk across state lines, and he told his customers he'll shut his farm down altogether.

California 'milk man' subjected to extreme torture, hypothermia, raw sewage in LA County jail