Bob

Why?

There are billions of people around the world that drink and consume products that are made from non-pasteurized milk.

Statistically, the number of people that become ill is very small to the point where it is insignificant.

The science says that we will never eliminate the risk of getting sick from consuming non-pasteurized milk products.

The science is not in doubt.

So the question is “if I know the risks and make an informed decision to consume non-pasteurized milk products with a statistically small chance of becoming ill, how is that a concern of ‘society’?”

Does my choice to consume said products affect anyone other than myself? Even if a case can be made that it affects my family, does it affect “society?” If there is no effect on society, why does “society” have a say in the issue at all?

A part of the problem reading these posts is the assumption that the FDA is just so dumb they are confusing bacteria with bad.

Maybe. But a part of the problem is that the FDA assumes that informed consumers are so dumb that we cannot make decisions for ourselves.

While I appreciate your call for an examination of the “science,” there is no science to examine in that people on both sides of the issue think and realize that non-pasteurized milk products may pose a health risk. Statistically, that risk is infinitesimal.

The science is settled. The statistics are settled.

The only thing to discuss is whether the FDA (or any government agency) should try and limit my ability to make informed choices that harm no one other than a small risk of harming myself.

THAT’S the issue.

Absolutely. But that is not the end of the analysis. As a society, we still have to look at the risk and make a call.

Many people here are just assuming that the FDA is going too far. Maybe you are right. But instead of just a knee jerk “this conforms with my world view, there it must be” I was just hoping for a little science on this particular cheese.

A part of the problem reading these posts is the assumption that the FDA is just so dumb they are confusing bacteria with bad. Your opponents are not that simplistic. I disagree with the FDA on a zillion things but I think this whole “they are so dumb they just don’t get it” view obscures the kind of scientific rigor this discussion would have to require.

The only answer I can think of is in my handle. The only hope I see is the libertarian movement in general and Rand Paul in particular.

Either Congress or the President have the power to overrule the FDA on this question, and order them, as far as cheese is concerned, to revert to their former reasonable standard. For Congress, it would be as simple as any of the hundreds of other “constituent service” amendments they slip in each year.

It is easier these days for cheese-lovers to attract the attention of politicians with on-line petitions

I guess the government is just making a point that they can do whatever they want, for as transparently specious a reason as can be imagined. Who knows. Actually my non-lawyer foodie friends ask me “why is the FDA doing this”, but I don’t really have an answer. It’s a bit difficult to explain fifty years of administrative law and the byzantine politics of the regulatory state, and laypeople wouldn’t believe it if you tried.

Is there anything realistically that can be done? All the artisan cheese vendors in the U.S. and France couldn’t touch the legal budget of the FDA, they’d all go bankrupt long before prevailing in court, thanks to “judicial deference” and friends.