Free to consume

I expect lawyers to use words carefully.  And I expect the ABA Journal to use words carefully, even when the words are written by a freelance writer who is not a lawyer.  Imagine my disappointment and surprise, then, to read that the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund had sued FDA and HHS claiming that "the various federal regulations that ban the sale and consumption of [non-pasteurized] milk violate constitutional rights to privacy, travel and due process."

In fact, no federal regulation prohibits the consumption of raw milk.  For that matter, no state regulation prohibits the consumption of raw milk.  It is the sale of raw milk in some places or the placing of it into interstate commerce that is banned under various state and federal regulations.  The federal regulation challenged in the lawsuit is 21 CFR 1240.3, which provides, in part,

that "no person shall cause to be delivered into interstate commerce or shall sell or otherwise distribute” any milk or milk product “in final package form for direct human consumption” unless the milk or milk product has first been “pasteurized or is made from dairy ingredients (milk or milk products) that have all been pasteurized.”

This language is taken from FCLDF's complaint, which gets this part right, at least. There are very, very few acts of consumption that are actually prohibited.  Drinking raw milk is not one of them. 

(Disclaimer: I am a vegan. I do not drink milk.  This is not a rant about raw milk; it is about inaccuracy.)