Also this week for Food.Farmer.Earth:

Mike Guebert, a local small scale integrated livestock farmer who sells raw milk from his farm direct to the public, shares his perspective on the safety and benefits of raw unpasteurized milk. According to a recent survey from the Center For Disease Control, there are an estimated 9 million people in the U.S. who consume raw milk. To gain a sense of how polarized an issue raw milk is in this country, the following quotes, and information below paint two very different realities.

—U.S. Centers For Disease Control:

Raw milk can carry harmful bacteria and other germs that can make you very sick or kill you. While it is possible to get foodborne illnesses from many different foods, raw milk is one of the riskiest of all.

Weston A, Price Foundation:

Claims that raw milk is unsafe are based on 40-year-old science and century-old experiences from distillery dairy “factory farms” in rapidly urbanizing nineteenth century America.

Deaths from Food Born Illnesses in the U.S. and Canada since 1999
from the Harvard Food Law Society Debate on Raw Milk video- (an excerpt from a portion of journalist David Gumpert’s Presentation):

Cantaloupe: 32 (2011-2012)
Spinach: 5 (2006)
Luncheon Meat: 14 (Canada,2008; 2011)
Peanut Butter: 9 (2009)
Eggs: 30 per year
Oysters: 15 per year
Pasteurized Milk: 3 (Massachusetts, 2007)
Raw Milk: 0 (over roughly the last 15 years)

Harvard Food Law Society sponsors debate on raw milk: (full length video)