Milk - Clean v. Pasteurized

Everybody's talking about raw milk these days.  There are the foodies on the one hand that claim raw milk is healthy and safe, and the government bureaucrats on the other hand who insist that you will die of salmonella if you drink it. There are laws against raw milk sales in about half the states. Before you know it, feeding raw milk to your child will be considered child endangerment (if it isn't already).

Lest we forget, humans have been drinking raw milk for millenia...and yet here we are, alive and well, "overpopulating" the planet.  So what do you suppose is driving this fanatical belief that raw milk is so dangerous? In my opinion, it's a combination of two things-- (1) government entrenchment, and (2) American's unfounded trust in the government.

So let's put our emotional responses (fear of getting sick) aside for a moment and take a rational look at milk production.

As we should all know, milk production in this country began with our agrarian society on family farms. Farmers milked cows by hand into clean pails (we can assume they were clean because the farmer actually fed his OWN family from this milk) and then bottled it up into containers for family use or to sell (or trade) to their neighbors.  It was the industrial revolution, which sent populations en masse to crowded cities, that sparked the advent of factory dairy production. For a little history, here is a quote from a paper entitled "Manhattanville and New York City's Milk Supply," written by Mary Habstritte (Archive of Industry website)...

"Beginning in the 1820s or 1830s, distillery owners created a market for the grain mash left from the distilling process by selling it as cattle feed.  Farmers could rent stalls at the distillery and feed their cows this slop at minimal cost.  Although cows gave more milk on this high-calorie diet, it was of poor quality because the animals got no exercise and lived in filthy conditions.  The thin blue “swill” milk was often doctored with additives, such as starch, plaster, chalk, eggs or annatto (a dye derived from the seed of a tropical plant), to give it a more attractive color.  Although other cities also had swill dairies, nowhere was the infamous beverage more prevalent than in New York. 

The swill milk soon launched a pure milk movement.  One of the leaders was Robert Milham Hartley, an activist probably more interested in impoverishing the distillers for the temperance cause than in lowering the death rate caused by the unhealthy milk.  He was instrumental, however, in bringing public attention to the problem which was profound.  One of every two children in the city died before the age of five in 1841, many from tuberculosis, typhoid or diarrhea-causing bacteria carried in milk."

Now THAT was a raw milk problem! And, of course, it launched the public outcry for regulating the milk supply. Government (always up to the challenge of coming up with new regulations) set to work to satisfy the angry consumers; and before you knew it, we had "certified milk" and eventually pasteurization.

Just to recap, was it family farms putting out milk that made children get sick and die? No. It was industrial milk production.

Fast forward to 2012. In this week's news here in Minnesota, a farmer who distributes raw milk from local farms to his small private co-op has been "cleared of all charges." What charges, you ask? He was charged by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture for selling raw milk, something you can't do in this state. While that law, on its face, is outrageous, it turns out he wasn't actually "selling" it, he was distributing milk from an Amish farm to his co-op members, using a health food store as a drop site, something that is still legal, although the MDA wishes it wasn't.

The Agriculture Department spokesman had this to say: "This narrow ruling does not wipe away the fact that many children and adults have gotten dangerously sick from consuming raw milk." (For the record, no persons have ever become ill from milk distributed by this farmer.)


Is there a real danger from today's raw milk product that justifies this government intervention? Of course, every thinking adult understands that germs exist and that we are always at risk of getting sick from something. But does illness from raw milk occur on a scale that warrants being outlawed by the government? If so, then they better outlaw pasteurized milk too. It turns out you can actually contract E.coli and other pathogens from pasteurized products, as well-- according to research by RealMilkFacts.com. And fruits and vegetables aren't safe either. Nor meat. If the government outlawed everything we could get sick from, we would die of starvation.

What it comes down to every time is quality. If you value the benefits of raw milk--and there are lots of benefits--and it's legal in your state, find a farmer you trust to keep a clean dairy facility. If his cows are grazing on grass and he follows reasonable hygiene in his (or her) milking practices, the chances of disease will be much reduced. The same goes for your meat and produce.  Choose naturally raised products and take the time to find out how they're grown and harvested.

We know that disease flourishes in monocultures. Factory farming--whether for meat, produce, or dairy--increases your risk of getting sick from some pathogen or another. We also know that cows fed grain will produce pathogens that make them sick and eventually end up in their manure. This is the reason they are dosed with antibiotics.

Pasteurization is the government's answer to bad farming. They can't shut down the factory farms that cause pathogens to enter the food stream, so they say--just kill the pathogens...and if most or all the nutrients in the food die too, well, it can't be helped. Just "fortify" it with synthetic (fake) vitamins! And the government solution is always a one-size-fits-all. There's no reason why regulations can't be adjusted to accommodate small farms and make sure they are operating a clean facility. But don't expect that to happen as long as Big-Ag has control of the FDA (and they do). Small farms are unwanted competition-- particularly in today's growing awareness of the dangers of GMO and chemical contamination of the food supply.

I never have been much of a milk drinker, and Mark is allergic, so this post is more for you than me. Don't let the government scare you into thinking that unless they certify the food, it will probably make you sick. The role of pasteurization is to kill the pathogens that lurk in factory milk. My advice is to stay away from the factory food altogether, and find food sources you can trust.

Mark and I finally found a local farmer where we can get truly pastured chicken eggs-- for less money than we paid at the "health food" store. Now that I know what pastured eggs are supposed to look like, I realized that none of the market's egg providers were giving their hens access to real pasture...with bugs and grass and such. If they were, the egg yolks would be a bright yellow-orange.

Good clean food is out there...it just takes a little effort to find it.


The Shocking Truth About Raw Milk And Pasteurization
Raw Milk Facts