25 February 2019 — 1309 mst
Why are these Democratic legislators rejecting science based
public health policy and supporting raw milk legalization?
House Bill 490, introduced by Rep. Walt Sales (R-Manhatten, HD-69). It would legalize certain sales of raw milk in Montana, and is scheduled for its second reading in the MT House this afternoon. The bill itself admits that raw (unpasteurized) milk is not a healthy fluid:
Section 1. (12) A warning placard must be posted in a conspicuous place on a licensee’s premises. The warning placard must be at least 1 foot by 2 feet and must state in large, clear print: “Research has found raw milk from cows, goats, and sheep can transmit life-threatening bacterial infections. Physicians advise elderly and immunocompromised individuals, pregnant women, infants, and children to consume only pasteurized milk, cheese, and other milk products.” [Highlighting added by FM.]
That subsection is both accurate in what it says, and dishonest by omission. It invites people to infer that public health authorities do not advise healthy adults to drink only pasteurized milk. But that’s just not so. The experts at the Centers for Disease Control do advise everyone to drink only pasteurized milk because raw milk is dangerous:
…Raw milk can make you very sick or even kill you. That’s because it can contain harmful germs, such as Brucella, Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella.
Drinking raw milk can lead to many days of diarrhea, stomach cramping, and vomiting. Less commonly, it may result in severe or even life-threatening illness, including Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can cause paralysis, and hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can result in kidney failure, stroke, and even death.
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Infants and young children, older adults, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems (such as people with cancer, an organ transplant, or HIV) have a greater chance of getting sick from drinking raw milk than healthy adults. However, healthy people of any age can get very sick or even die if they drink raw milk contaminated with harmful germs. [Highlighting added by FM.]Raw milk is inherently dangerous. All who drink it are fools, and not just fools, but damn fools. All who feed it to children are worse than damn fools: they’re acting with reckless disregard for the health and safety of children. Such people should be jailed. Their recklessness should not be blessed by the Montana Legislature.
So why are Sales and 16 other legislators, including Rep. Mary Caferro, who is carrying the Democrats’ renew expanded Medicaid bill, sponsoring legislation that blows off long settled science and one of the most successful public health programs in history just to appease a loud little band of zealots who stiffarm science and every legislative session pester elected officials to treat a public health issue as a food freedom crisis?
In the 2017 legislative session, Sales cast a vote for science based public health policy in Montana. He voted to kill HB-325, Rep. Nancy Ballance’s bill to legalize sales of raw milk. The bill passed the MT House 69–30, but died in the MT Senate. Now Sales has defected to the dirty milk camp. So have 2017 opponents of legalization Rep. Shane Morigeau (D-Missoula, HD-95) and Rep. Ross Fitzgerald (R-Fairfield, HD-17). Why? Raw milk did not become safe to drink during the last two years.
HB-490 was approved by the MT House’s agriculture committee 12–5 on 21 February, with two Democrats, Jacob Bachmeier (HD-28, Havre) and Moffie Funk (HD-82, Helena) voting Yes. Missoula Democrats Willis Curdy (HD-98), Connie Keogh (HD-91), Andrea Olson (100), and Katie Sullivan (HD-89), voted No.
The MT House has a history of anti-science votes on raw milk bills
- In the 2013 session, the MT House voted 96–3 to approve Champ Edmunds bill legalizing raw milk sales. Every Democrat voted for the bill, which failed in the MT Senate
- Two years later, there was less enthusiasm for Rep. Nancy Ballance’s (R-Hamilton, HD-87) raw milk legalization bill, but it passed 61–38. Again, it failed in the Senate.
- In the 2017 Session, the MT House approved Ballance’s legalization bill 69–30, with 13 dirty Democrats voting to ignore settled science and proven policy. Again, the bill failed in the MT Senate.
No one who supports science based public health policy should cut the Democrats in the campylobacter caucus any slack. Six years ago, I wrote:
The willingness of Democrats to throw public health considerations under the manure wagon is especially disheartening. Why do the same legislators who are working their tails off to expand Medicaid in Montana refuse to kill legislation that legalizes the sale of raw milk, a product long proved to be dangerous, especially to children?
It’s even more disheartening that after all these years some of these Democrats still are throwing public health considerations under the manure wagon. In fact, Mary Caferro has become one of the ringleaders, evincing no shame at how her support for selling dirty milk undermines her moral authority, and the moral authority of her political party, to prosecute the passage of legislation renewing expanded Medicare.
Wise up, Democrats. It doesn’t matter that you’re receiving gluts of “please legalize selling raw milk” letters from the sincere, but grievously misinformed, zealots and crackpots who pack the committee hearings on these bills, and few if any letters from the great majority, from the citizens who support policies and laws that assure our food supply is safe. The science is settled. Raw milk sickens people and kills people. Pasteurization saves lives. If you vote to legalize the sale of raw milk, you’re voting to weaken our public health system, to countenance serving a dangerous fluid to defenseless children, to subordinate science to ignorance, to abdicate your responsibility to honor Montana’s constitutional guarantee of a clean and healthy environment, and to surrender your party’s moral authority on health care. Have the courage and wisdom to vote No — and not just No, but Hell No! — on HB-490.