Openn Letter

Woodside, NY 11377

26 May 2011

Kenneth Clayton
Associate Administrator
Agricultural Marketing Service
United States Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave., S.W., Room 3069-S,
Washington, DC 20250

Dear Mr. Clayton:

My name is Kathleen Shannon and I am a first year Veterinary Technology student at LaGuardia Community College. I am writing this letter to you in the hopes that you can help make some changes to the 7th Edition of The Dietary Guidelines for Americans released by the USDA in 2010. The guidelines state that low-fat milk and dairy products are a healthy food source. In their press release, the FDA says that this document is an evidence-based guideline. In my Vet Tech program we discussed The China Study, a New York Times best-selling book by Colin T. Campbell. In his research, performed various times in various labs throughout the world, Campbell’s research showed that consumption of dairy protein and dairy products has caused cancer in laboratory animals at a rate of 100%. 100% results do not often occur in scientific experiments. That is the reason why the study was replicated in many different labs in many different countries. However, the results were the same. Why has the American public not been made aware of these findings? Why has our governments continued to issue guidelines that encourage the use of milk and other dairy products? Could it be the pressure from the National Dairy Council?

I am writing to you in the hopes that your department can start a nation-wide marketing campaign to advise the American public about the dangers of dairy consumption. We need to change people’s perception and emotional connection to milk. Most of the “benefits” from drinking milk can be better obtained from different sources such as leafy green vegetable and actual sunlight. As a child I remember hearing over and over again, “you need to drink milk so that you can grow up to be big and strong” and “drinking milk makes your bones stronger”. Calcium is what your bones need. There are a variety of other source of calcium such as leafy green vegetable, beans and figs. How many times has a mother prepared a soothing hot glass at milk to help a child fall asleep? Is there anything better than an ice cold glass of milk to share with a plate of cookies or wash down a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Americans have been marketed into believing they need milk. We need to change this perception. How about a marketing campaign slogan such as “Does Milk Really do the Body Good?. The USDA does not have to look any further than nature itself. No other species drinks the milk for another species. Why should humans be any different? Another marketing strategy could be to show a baby goat drinking the milk from a mother gorilla. Seems absurd, no? Then show a human drinking cow’s milk. Milk is nature’s way of helping newborns flourish after birth and pass antibodies from the mother to the newborn. As I studied in my Vet Tech classes, all animals are weaned off of their mother’s milk. As we all know, so are humans. So why is it that adult humans still continue to drink milk – MILK from a COW? I’m sure Charles Darwin would be turning over in his grave.

Research in The China Study has shown that people from counties with the highest dairy consumption have the highest rate of osteoporosis, a disease in which the density and quality of bone is reduced. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has sued the USDA to change their food pyramid. They contend that the USDA is trying to protect the meat and dairy interests. Nowhere in the USDA Guidelines does it say eat less are eat no dairy. What is more important, our health or the agriculture industry’s profits? Milk has been cited as liquid food with the same health risks as red meat. How is it that the American public is unaware of this? There is a great movement of American physicians to get the word out, such as Dr. Kradjian‘s The Milk Letter: An Message to My Patients. In this letter he states that most of the WORLD lives healthy lives without drinking milk. Why should Americans be any different? Mr. Clayton, I urge you, as the Associate Administrator of Agriculutre Markeing Services at the United States Department of Agriculture, please start a marketing campaign to educate the American Public that milks is not “the perfect food”, milk does not “do the body good” and nobody should “get milk”.

Sincerely,
Kathleen F. Shannon