The fundamental rule of feral disinformation is that once a useful lie develops a life of its own, you can no longer depend on it remaining useful. Case in point:
For a long time, sowing distrust of health and safety regulations and of the agencies and research institutions behind them was good politics for the conservative movement. It aligned with the movement's antigovernment, pro-business agenda and it played to the pre-existing paranoia of much of the far right. In the case of the dairy industry, attacks on the EPA help producers get away with practices such as dumping wastewater while pressure on the FDA made it more difficult to introduce more regulations and labeling requirements.
On the whole though most businesses are not uniformly anti-regulation, particularly when those regulations shield them from lawsuits and costly reputational hits to their industries, making this story a decidedly mixed bag.
Chelsea Brasted writing for Axios:
Louisiana lawmakers approved a bill to remove the state's total ban on raw milk sales, joining the majority of the country where the product is already available, if and when Gov. Jeff Landry signs the legislation.
...
The big picture: Commentators for conservative media like The Blaze, QAnon, Infowars and Gab have been sharing what they describe as the benefits of raw milk, according to an analysis from left-leaning Media Matters.
- The Blaze, for example, published what it called an investigation on "the truth about raw milk the government doesn't want you to know," calling raw milk "close to a perfect food" in its headline.
- The Media Matters analysis found more than 13,000 TikTok posts with the hashtag #rawmilk, and the top 581 videos had amassed over 231 million views by May 3.
Reality check: Nearly all store-bought milk is pasteurized, a process that kills the bacteria that can lead to harmful diseases and illnesses like listeria, typhoid fever, tuberculosis and diphtheria, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
- Pasteurization "offers the same nutritional benefits" without the health risks of raw milk, the CDC says.
And for you animal lovers out there...
Coates' intentions for the product appeared clear that day as she stated that "many people [are] looking for healthy choices and even be able to use it for their pets."
Brasted then quotes this article from the LA Times:
Federal officials say they have found high levels of active H5N1 — a highly pathogenic avian influenza — in raw milk. Observations and studies have show that barn cats who drank the contaminated raw milk have suffered horrific symptoms — including blindness, brain swelling and neurological issues — as well as death.
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