Proving that de facto corporate control of community foodways using the government as its hired thug is not just the purview of North America, Ireland has moved to ban all raw milk sales by the end of 2011.
This shocking development appears to be in response to an enormous and rapid surge in the sales of unpasteurized dairy since late 2010 when Irish dairy farmers realized the full implication of a 2007 European Union directive that actually superceded an Irish ban on raw milk sales by the Department of Agricultural Fisheries and Food (DAFF) in 1996.
One farmer told the Irish Times that his raw milk sales this past summer went from zero to 400 liters (about 100 gallons) per week in nothing flat.
The surge in raw milk sales in recent months has not brought any increases in food borne illness or disease, leaving one to ponder why the Irish government is moving so strongly to outlaw raw milk with one fell swoop.
As described so eloquently by William Campbell Douglass MD, the reasons are really not that difficult to grasp:
“Pasteurization is the hammer that industry uses to nail down control of everyone’s milk money.
Without pasteurization laws, farmers can sell direct to consumers and earn a good living. With those laws in place, however, most farmers have no choice but to sell their milk to Big Dairy operations for pennies on the dollar.”
Dr. Douglass MD goes on to say:
” … responsibly produced raw milk is not the risky cocktail you’ve been led to believe. In fact, bans like this one aren’t about safety at all – and they never are.
Farmers aren’t the only ones getting the shaft here – consumers also lose big, because pasteurization kills everything in milk worth having: powerful natural probiotics and healthy dairy proteins as well as key vitamins and minerals.”
The new ban planned to go into effect by year’s end was proposed by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland and is to be enacted as statutory law on behalf of the DAFF by the Department of Health.
I find it curious that the Irish ban on raw milk sales coincides with changes to the lineup of grassfed butter produced in Ireland by Kerry Gold. Not only is the new “full fat” Kerry Gold tub butter that is being marketed as “more spreadable” than the traditional brick butter not nearly as yellow indicating poorer quality butterfat that is lower in nutrition, but the addition of the new reduced fat butter ominously indicates a more profitability based product line such as what would be promoted by the monopoly controlled Dairy industry in the United States.
It seems that Big Dairy has landed on the Emerald Isle in full force with the political and financial goal to control every drop of quality dairy produced by this primarily grassfeeding nation where cows graze on lush grass for most of the year.
Clearly, marketing control of the grassbased dairy produced in Ireland is a moneymaking opportunity with far too much profit potential for Big Dairy to pass up. Â Using the government to secure corporate control of the market by banning raw milk sales under the guise of improving public health is the crucial first step.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources: Banning Raw Milk Letter published in the Irish Times
Came across your blog by chance when arguing with somebody online about raw milk! I never drink milk of any kind myself, I loathe it, but if I were to drink it I would definitely go with unpasteruized. Anyway, I’m also Irish and if you’re not already aware of it, you’ll be delighted to know that not only did the ban NOT happen, but raw milk is now even being stocked in a small number of retail outlets around the country,as well as being sold straight from the farm and with a doorstep delivery service.
rawmilkireland.com/
So did the law pass?
I agree
i am english and not loved by your nation but you have my unerring support for your plight under the government you have. the whole of irish freedom is being snatched from you and this issue over milk sales is just a small part of your immersion into a napolionic dictatorship.
the notion of codex alimentarius is fundamental breach of civil liberty which you have fought so hard to maintain. codex alimentarius is the biggest threat to your health.
there is a new famine to be thrust upon you as agriculture is forced into the hands of the globalists and irish people who, through no fault of their own, have fallen behind with their mortgage payments are to be restricted in the amount of money they are allowed to spend on food.
as has already been mentioned, your government are no more than lackie boot boys for the banks.
i see no support coming from the catholic or any other chuches so, i’m afraid, you are on your own and you need to organise a plan of non-cooperation.
There are disadvantages when you say that you wanted to buy raw fresh milk because first of all, they have not undergone the process of pasteurization which will eliminate the bacteria from the raw milk. If in the process of production of raw milk a person gets sick then it’s a liability of the person who bought it and the company or group of people who distributed it.