[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Griff

I've been reading up on the subject and still think the risk is worth it to me because it is more than balanced by the likely health and lifestyle benefits. In poisonings per portion it still falls behind deli meats and shellfish. Size of serving plays a factor in all food poisoning cases so people need to use common sense. I don't have firm conclusions about the large scale producers of raw milk products. This is a case where the USDA's ruination of the "organic" label has a real impact. If dairy cattle have enough pasture you avoid a lot of the manure handling and feed issues that are sources of problems.

This argument really illuminates the issue of government over-reach because it is far more than a left vs right or rural vs urban issue. It comes down to choice. From my classroom experiences, I know that people given choices are much happier than people forced to comply. People choosing balance their own needs and values, becoming at the same time more responsible for themselves.

At issue is the fact that the government has to get involved at some point. Until the passage of the Clean Water Act, it was a free-for-all as far as pollution was concerned. We are paying for this today since it is virtually impossible to find completely uncontaminated seafood. This is also something that the consumer cannot do for themselves. It is possible to smell a fish going bad. It is not possible to know if the fish or shellfish came from contaminated waters or if rules about placing them in uncontaminated waters to detox were followed.

We basically allowed a giant 'tragedy of the commons' to occur for decades with the air and water that we consume. Even if someone were to eat organic food and drink water from a source miles from the nearest city, a blood test would still show trace amounts of compounds in their blood that probably did not exist 100 years ago.

It seems that scientists are constantly reassessing safe exposure levels since the data takes large population samples and decades to quantify. Drinking so much of this at once will kill a person. Being exposed to so much will increase the risk of cancer by such a percentage.

For everything that modern chemistry has given us, it has also made us human guinea pigs.