Underground Raw Milk Trade Almost as Widespread as Illegal Drugs

Do you drink raw milk? If you do and you live in one of the states where raw milk is illegal, you’re part of an underground market that is second only in size to the illegal drug trade.

In all 50 states it is legal to drink raw milk if you own your own dairy cow, but it’s not legal to sell the raw milk if you live in one of the 46 states that have adopted the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO). Recently in Colorado, officials have veen cracking down on the raw milk trade by shutting down a number of merchants.

In the United States, it’s estimated that close to a million people drink raw milk, which has long been touted for it’s possible superior health benefits over pasteurized milk.

A recent story on the raw milk trade on MSN News has more details here.

“Apart from illegal drugs, raw milk — milk that’s unpasteurized and unhomogenized, just as it comes out of the cow — may be the most briskly traded underground commodity in the United States. By a conservative estimate, some 500,000 people in the U.S. drink the stuff, says Sally Fallon, president of the Weston Price Foundation, which is dedicated to spreading the word about raw milk — and making it legal. Her guess is that the true total is closer to a million. Even the Food and Drug Administration, which is doing its best to keep raw milk out of the mouths of citizens, has acknowledged that about 3 percent of U.S. milk drinkers drink it raw.”