Stephen Colbert on Really Green Cleaning & Raw Milk

December 23, 2010 | Written By: Healthy Schools Campaign

By Mark Bishop, Deputy Director

Shortly on the heels of taking on farm workers rights, Stephen Colbert takes on an issue close to our hearts — green cleaning. The state of New York announced in September that it is going to begin enforcing a 40-year-old law that would require manufacturers to reveal their products' contents. Transparency is important, and this could be a good move in the continued push for greater adoption of greener cleaning. However, there is one interesting note to the NY law: It requires disclosure of product ingredients greater than 5 percent. When this law was passed in 1971, technology made it difficult to determine ingredient levels below that threshold. Today, we can and need to understand ingredients at levels that are a mere faction of a percentage. The New York law does not address that need.

In the same clip, Stephen takes on raw milk. I’ve never had it, but I’m curious to try it — I've been told it's delicious. I just don’t understand the lionizing and demonizing of raw milk. It seems that in a world where we can have a half billion eggs recalled for salmonella, the relative risks for raw milk shouldn’t take up so much space in the public debate. But if you want raw milk, to reduce your risks, make sure you know your farmer.

In the meantime, enjoy this clip.