{Editor’s note: This week for our new Food.Farmer.Earth series, our intended theme was to be butter, but in the process also ended up touching upon raw milk. In the accompanying post below, noted expert David Gumpert, offers a wider perspective on this important, and very polarized food issue.Tomorrow (How to Make Homemade Butter from Farm Fresh Milk), we see one culinary expert demonstrate how to make butter from raw milk (it can also be done using pasteurized milk), and on Wednesday (A Small Scale Integrated Farmer) we visit a diversified local farmer to learn his story; he also sells raw milk from his farm. Thursday on Food Wisdoms: One Farmers Perspective on the Raw Milk Debate, this soft spoken farmer minces no words as he shares his own perspective on the raw milk debate.}
What’s All the Fuss About Raw Milk?
When it comes to food choices, there is no end of subjects to debate. Soft cheeses versus hard cheeses. Cabernet versus Zinfandel. Pasture-fed versus corn-fed beef. Broccoli versus asparagus. Poached versus scrambled eggs.
But one particular food topic is nearly guaranteed to generate more emotion than any of these: raw versus pasteurized milk.
And this debate isn’t just about which tastes better, even though it’s generally conceded that raw milk tastes richer and creamier than pasteurized milk, and makes more sophisticated-tasting cheeses. It’s about which is safer, which is healthier, which is more sustainable to produce.
Maybe it is because milk is the first food most of us are fed, first from our mothers, and then from cows, that there is an important emotional component attached to milk—in the bonding it helps promote between mother and baby and in the nutritional benefits it confers on children. Certainly in the view of public health officials, the fact that milk is heavily consumed by children makes its safety a high priority.
Whatever the reasons, a widening gulf has sprung up between those who advocate and those who oppose raw cow’s milk.
Sally Fallon, the president of the Weston A. Price Foundation, an organization that promotes not only raw milk but diets rich in pasture-fed meats and cod liver oil, feels raw milk is so nutritionally beneficial to children and adults alike that she considers it to be “a magic food.”
On the other side, John Sheehan, head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s dairy division, has declared that drinking raw milk “is like playing Russian roulette with your health.”
The subject might well remain one of those emotional theoretical debates—with individual consumers making their own personal decisions about whether or not to serve it to their families-except for one important reality: the FDA has felt compelled to enforce its view of raw milk as a terribly dangerous food via an aggressive enforcement campaign and via its influence with state departments of agriculture and public health.
As just one example, it conducted an undercover investigation of Maryland food club in 2010 and 2011 that made raw milk available to its 900 members, and eventually via a federal court action put the Pennsylvania farmer supplying the milk out of business. It has also teamed up with state agriculture agencies in Georgia, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California to raid raw milk producers and food clubs, and put farmers on trial for allegedly violating regulatory restrictions on raw milk distribution.
The divergent views on raw milk are reflected in the legalities around raw milk, which vary widely from state to state. Roughly ten states allow retail sales of raw milk, while another twenty allow sales direct from dairy farms. And about twenty prohibit its sale. Yet among these twenty, most allow distribution via cooperative arrangements known as herdshares and cowshares. The FDA’s authority comes into play when raw milk crosses state lines.
What is the truth about raw milk? Here are a few of the questions that most commonly come up, with answers from both sides of the issue.
- How risky is raw milk compared with pasteurized milk? It’s difficult to make an accurate comparison because we don’t have good data either on the number of people drinking raw milk or the amount that is sold. One survey carried out by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in 2007 showed that about three per cent of consumers in each of a dozen states said they were drinking raw milk. Whatever the numbers, the reality is that dairy as a category is considered one of the least dangerous, say, compared to leafy green vegetables, eggs, and tuna, according to the Center for Science and the Public Interest. Its list of most dangerous foods, from 2009, didn’t include milk (though it did include cheese and ice cream).
I have analyzed data from the CDC, going back to 1973, and found that the number of reported illnesses from raw milk generally ranges between 50 and 150 each year, out of a total of about 24,000 reported illnesses from food-borne pathogens. Even at the high end, raw milk would still account for only about one-half of one per cent of all food-related illnesses.
Opponents of raw milk say that the numbers don’t tell the whole story. They argue that a larger proportion of raw milk illnesses hit children than do illnesses from other foods. The illnesses can be more severe as well. An outbreak of illnesses from E.coli O157:H7 in raw milk from a dairy in Oregon sickened 19 people last March and April, including four children who were hospitalized with hemolytic uremic syndrome, a dangerous complication that can damage the kidneys.
- Does raw milk confer certain health benefits that pasteurized milk doesn’t? Advocates of raw milk say the heat of pasteurization destroys certain proteins and beneficial bacteria that help alleviate all sorts of chronic conditions, including Crohn’s disease, autism, asthma, and allergies.
They point to two large-scale studies out of Europe in recent years—one of 8,000 and another of 15,000 children– indicating that raw milk helps reduce the incidence of asthma and allergies.
Raw milk opponents say the European studies weren’t conclusive. Moreover, they say that raw milk has nearly the same nutrient composition as vitamins and minerals.
- Is raw milk more sustainable economically and environmentally?America has lost about 90% of its dairies since 1970, in significant measure because the prices processors pay for milk destined for pasteurization—currently in the range of $1.50 to $2 a gallon- aren’t high enough for small-scale dairy farmers to make a reasonable profit. Because raw-milk dairies sell directly to consumers, avoiding all the middlemen, the dairies can realize much higher profit margins, especially since raw milk sells for more than pasteurized milk at retail—on the order of $6 to as much as $12 or $15 a gallon. And because raw dairies mostly put their cows out to graze on grass, rather than being fed grain, their operations are more environmentally sustainable, it’s said. The financial and ecological benefits of raw milk have attracted dozens of new small raw dairy providers in places like California and Wisconsin.
- What to do? In my experience, the decision to try raw milk is one that is invariably made as part of a larger commitment by individuals to reduce their reliance on processed foods (pasteurized milk can be said to be our first processed food), and broaden their use of foods sometimes referred to as “nutrient dense” foods. I suggest, in making your own decision, doing some reading—there’s a huge amount on the Internet pro and con. There’s my book as well, The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America’s Emerging Battle Over Food Rights.
If you are uncomfortable, put off your decision, or decide against it. If you decide to go ahead, check with friends and neighbors for references to the best local sources. Generally, stick with producers that have been in business more than just a couple or three years, and have a clean record. Also try to go with sources that conduct regular testing of their milk. Ask for a tour of the farm, to gauge the attention given to safety and sanitation. Then, start out slowly, with small amounts of raw milk at a time—just a couple ounces each day for the first week or two, to test your reaction.
The controversy over raw milk doesn’t seem likely to end any time soon. Rather, the market appears to be expanding, and the government’s determination to limit access appears to be increasing.
More butting of heads, and glasses, seems in order.
Additional Sources:
- Real Milk site of the Weston A. Price Foundation
- The Bovine, from Canadian raw dairy farmer and activist Michael Schmidt
- The Complete Patient, a blog from writer David Gumpert
- Real Raw Milk Facts, an anti-raw-milk site from food safety lawyer Bill Marler
David E. Gumpert reports and writes about health and food issues. He is the author of The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America’s Emerging Battle Over Food Rights, which includes a preface by Joel Salatin. His popular blog, The Complete Patient, has over the last five years been instrumental in launching a national discussion about government-imposed restrictions on the availability of nutrient-dense food and in highlighting an emerging debate over food rights.