California Puts Raw Dairy Farmers in Jail; While in France, Raw Milk is Sold in Vending Machines

Given the response to my post yesterday about raw milk, here's a re-post of a previous CD post and discussion on raw milk:

Raw milk vending machine in France:

Natural News -- "65-year-old senior citizen James Stewart, a California farmer with no criminal history, was nearly tortured to death in the LA County jail this past week. He survived a "week of torturous Hell" at the hands of LA County jail keepers who subjected him to starvation, sleep deprivation, hypothermia, loss of blood circulation to extremities, verbal intimidation, involuntary medical testing and even subjected him to over 30 hours of raw biological sewage filth containing dangerous pathogens."

MP: What was his alleged criminal activity?  Selling fresh, unpasteurized raw milk.  Bail for "The Milk Man" was set at $1 million.  By comparison, bail for alleged child rapist Jerry Sandusky, former Penn State sports coach, was set at $100,000.

"NaturalNews is calling upon Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union to intervene in this extraordinary violation of basic human rights. For the record, James Stewart has no criminal record and is a permaculture farmer and fresh food advocate. His "crime" consists entirely of arranging for the distribution of raw milk to customers who actually line up to access this nourishing food (people love it!)."

Meanwhile, Natural News is reporting separately that:

"France, on the other hand, has embraced the health benefits of raw milk. There, innovative dairy farmer Michel Cantaloube has created a raw milk vending machine (see photo above). The vending machine is a tastefully-designed kiosk that blends right into the urban setting, allowing it to be set up on a street corner on a French town or even a major metropolitan area."

MP: Isn't this backwards?  We always hear about France being an example of heavy-handed government bureaucracy and "European-style socialism," but that seems to more accurately describe California's approach in this case while France takes the "laissez-faire" approach. 

Update: Great comment from morganovich, "Raw milk is illegal due to health fears but cigarettes, one of the biggest health risks in the country, are one of the most widely distributed products in the U.S.?"