raw milk debate: should the government decide what we consume?

Here is a clip from The Colbert Report, where Colbert satirically reports on how local, state and national governments are banning raw milk. What led him to cover this was an incident in Venice, CA where a privately owned co-op was raided by armed governmental officials. All of the raw milk was confiscated.

Representatives of the FDA claim that milk if consumed will cause e. coli, salmonella and a number of other diseases, which can be prevented if the government would just not allow raw milk to be sold. On the other hand, raw milk advocates claim that people should be allowed to consume whatever they choose, which Colbert says "puts the 'dumb' in freedom". Raw milk advocates, like politician Ron Paul, claim that unpasteurized milk has a number of benefits because it is a live, whole food containing probiotics, live cultures, vitamins and other minerals. Probiotics and live cultures are now heavily advertised in yogurts. This leads many to believe that the FDA has struck a deal with the dairy industry which only manufactures pasteurized milk. They also claim that only organic milk from grass fed cows is the kind people should drink. In the film "No Impact Man", one dairy farmer did not agree with giving antibiotics to cows, because he wanted to able to take care of his cows if they are sick.

I am not a microbiologist and have no expertise in dairy, but I do not understand why governments are banning raw milk and not banning foods which have chemical flame retardants, the cancer causing sodium nitrate (commonly found in packaged meats) and the potent nerve toxin aspartame (found in diet sodas).