Dear [Assembly Member Name],

As a member of the Agriculture Committee in the California Assembly, you played a key role in ending the sales of raw milk in California with AB 1735.

My family drinks a lot of milk and we drink it raw because we cannot tolerate pasteurized milk. The bacteria that you have legislated away are what I believe makes raw milk more tolerable to us. Coliform bacteria are not pathogenic. To the contrary, most coliform strains are beneficial. Those beneficial bacteria help protect us from pathogenic bacteria that may be in our environment. Dietary sources of beneficial bacteria are key to protection against pathogens like E. coli O157: H7.

Raw milk may be Mother NatureÕs best probiotic and it may be our best protection against pathogens because of the diverse population of beneficial bacteria it carries. I could ferment my garden produce to get this beneficial bacteria in my diet (and I have) or I could pay a pharmaceutical company for their product, but I am rather partial to my milk. It is a convenient and tasty solution to my need for probiotic food.

I do appreciate your concern to protect we Californians from pathogens in the food supply but, as you know, pathogens can potentially be in any food on the supermarket shelf. You have not legislated them out of California commerce. Furthermore, the oddity of the current legislation is that while you intend to fix potential problems with E. coli O157: H7, you actually are testing for the more general coliform family. There are far more good cousins in that family than bad.

Remove the new coliform requirement now. It makes no sense and works only to deprive me of a food I value.

Sincerely,

Your Name