Estrella Family Creamery Seized by the FDA--Why does this matter?

If you live in Oregon or Washington you may have enjoyed Estrella Family Creamery cheeses in a restaurant or purchased them from a high-end supermarket.  These delectable cheeses are shipped all over the country.  I visited the farm, which is efficiently run by the Estrella family.  The cheeses are fantastic in flavor and texture, worthy of the international attention they have garnered.  


Below is a link to the podcast interview with Kelly Estrella, who tells you what happened at her farm:
http://ow.ly/3VfGx


Film footage of similar actions in US farms:

In reading and listening to the reports it was as if the FDA and the Creamery spoke two different languages.  The FDA spoke in the language of its understanding of the microbiology of individual pathogens acting alone in pasteurized milk.  The Creamery spoke the language of hundreds of years of artisan cheese making, from Europe to the United States, using probiotic cultures in raw (unpasteurized) milk.


I understand the FDA's caution about single pathogenic (illness-making) bacteria.  The problem, from my standpoint, is that a culture of a single pathogenic bacteria acting alone behaves very differently from a pathogen that contaminates a mixed culture of probiotic organisms (please see the studies mentioned below).  When a pathogen invades pasteurized, uncultured cheese, it acts alone.  The heat of pasteurization kills probiotics found naturally in fresh (raw) milk.  With no probiotics (human-friendly bacteria) to counter its effects, the pathogen has free reign in the human body, causing serious illness and sometimes death.   Pathogens that encounter active probiotic cultures, on the other hand, are assailed by human-friendly bacteria that produce antibiotics against it.  


While I am not in favor of receiving any pathogens in my food, I'd far rather be exposed to one overwhelmed by probiotics that can suppress its growth and protect me from its effects.  As you can see from the reports of raw cheese studies that follow, probiotic cheese cultures inhibit pathogens.  Raw milk cheeses can even prevent food poisoning.