I read with dismay the Nov. 18 article on raw milk sales in the Daily Mail. My family also runs a commercial dairy in West Virginia, one of only 80 left in the state.

I am completely dumbfounded by dairy farmer Rem Perkins' stance on raw milk sales. He admits his family drinks raw milk, but he doesn’t want it sold to the public.

If he doesn't feel the milk he produces is safe for general consumption, why feed it to his own family? I have been unable to find a single study showing farm kids build immunities to the harmful bacteria that raw milk may contain (his excuse as to why raw milk is ok for his family).

Perkins admits he has "no expertise" in this area and based his opinion on what "neighbors have told me".

My family comes down on the other side of the debate. We have seen first hand the health benefits of raw milk. We have read reputable, scientific studies confirming some of its benefits. We are in complete support of raw milk sales.

We stand behind the quality of the milk we produce and would be delighted to be able to share our milk with some of the many West Virginians who do not own land and therefore cannot just "buy a cow" as Perkins suggests.

The disease outbreaks Perkins is so concerned about? Dig through the CDC data, and you'll find the odds of becoming ill from raw milk are 1 in 94,000. The odds of becoming ill to the point of needing hospitalized? 1 in 6 million. To put that in perspective, the DOT says your odds of dying in a car crash are 1 in 8,000.

Legalizing raw milk would not hurt Perkins' operation. It would not hurt any other commercial dairy in the state.

What it would do is help dairies like us, with the confidence and desire to share raw milk with the public, and it would return to West Virginians a freedom of choice that the majority of Americans in other states enjoy.

Katie Fazenbaker

Independence

Windy Ridge Dairy