The Country That Banned Milk Summary

What would we think about a government that has banned milk? Is it oppressive or is it cautious? Is it overkill or is it necessary in order to prohibit and contain disease? Skyler Reidy, the author of “The Country that Banned Milk”, has the belief that raw milk is better than pasteurized milk for the consumer and the producer, yet the government says otherwise. In this situation, the government wins. According to laws in twenty different states, “Sale of raw milk for human consumption is prohibited” (Procon). Raw milk, while it has some good qualities, also comes with some bad ones. Sometimes, unpasteurized milk contains a lot of very harmful bacteria including, but not limited to, Salmonella, E. Coli and Listeria. The US Government has

However, instead of making raw milk sound good, he tries to make pasteurized milk sound bad. Americans always have some kind of “fad” diet and the majority of them desire to better health so Reidy plays at that to interject his opinion. He also mentions religion multiple times throughout the article and says “Real milk comes to us exactly as God designed it” (Reidy, “The Country that Banned Milk”). Religious people wouldn't want to change the ways of God, so Reidy words it so bluntly, almost saying “You are going against God if you drink pasteurized milk”; no Christian wants to go against their God. Religion plays one of the biggest roles in this article and Reidy visits it often. Reidy also uses bible quotes and relates them back to what is going on in the milk industry, making it seem like a much bigger deal than it is. According to him, the government is playing a much too large role in Americans milk purchases. He says “a government that would interfere with this right stepping beyond its natural limits” . He wants his readers to be able to see that a government that is oppressive to the extent that they would regulate perfectly good milk, should be stopped. He also asks his audience questions like “Doesn’t a man have a God-given right to the milk his herd produces?” in order to get a structured response from his audience. Reidy also offers the sentiment of the “Right to Milk” which gives off the impression that our rights are being infringed upon, which relates to every American. When somebody tries to take their rights away, Americans riot. They fight for what they believe in and Reidy hoped that if he got the entirety of America on his side, maybe they would fight for the legality of raw milk. However, he knew he had some convincing to do even