A group of local farmers want to sell shares in a cow so the buyer can have all the unpasteurized (raw) milk he wants. It’s all about choice, they say. Well, if that’s all this is about, then go ahead. But is that the whole issue? Doesn’t drinking raw milk also increase your chances of an early death? Not to the raw milk advocates, who also argue that raw milk tastes better and sweeter. Maybe it does, so what? I’m still stuck on the life and death issue. Driving a motorcycle without a helmet feels better but I’ll still put on that helmet. But, they insist, raw milk is healthier – it’s what our grandparents drank. The idea that grandpa drank raw milk is supposed to mean something, I guess. But grandpa also cooked in lead pots.
Let’s view the facts. Pasteurization does not destroy nutrients in the milk but does destroy micro-organisms that can accidentally show up from environmental and human sources. Dr. Ruth Kava, director of Nutrition at the American Council for Health and Science in New York, simplified the issue for us: Without pasteurization, "It’s easy for milk to get contaminated." Three of the most common bacteria found in raw milk are listeria (causes miscarriage), E.coli and yersinia (causes gastro-intestinal infection). In 1975, 57 elementary school children and one adult in Montreal suffered from abdominal pain and diarrhoea after drinking raw milk, containing yersinia. "This is not something you want to fool around with," Dr. Kava said.
Two years ago, six children were hospitalized with E.coli infections in Oregon after drinking raw milk. Wait a second, you’re saying. Farmers Forum is plucking two incidents from across the continent over a 30-year period to make a case. True but there are more cases. The point is that you wash your food to avoid that slim chance of getting sick. What does it cost you to have someone else heat up your milk to kill micro-organisms that might kill you?
In rural eastern United States raw milk apparently is now in vogue. A USA Today article reported last year that "raw milk appeals to consumers who seek natural and unprocessed foods." John Sheehan, the director of the Division of Dairy and Egg Safety of the Food and Drug Administration was also quoted. Put bluntly, drinking raw milk is "like playing Russian roulette with your health," he said.
Romantic ideas of raw milk are widespread but "there’s no debate in scientific circles," Dr. Kava said, meaning scientists agree you shouldn’t drink it. She added that the rejection of pasteurization due to a belief in some power of "natural" products is beyond logic.
Raw milk has been banned in Ontario for decades. Canada banned it in 1991. "Before 1991, we would get hundreds of cases (of illness) per year," said Health Canada spokesperson Paul Duschesne. "After 1991, we get under five cases a year. Symptoms (of illness from drinking raw milk) range from fever, vomiting, diarrhoea to life threatening kidney failure, miscarriage and death."
Should farmers be allowed to drink their own cow’s milk? Why not? It’s their cow, they know the risks and their guts (since they’ve been drinking the stuff since they were tots) are used to it. Perhaps, specific regulations could be developed to get that milk to consumers quickly to avoid a shelf time, where bacteria grows and contamination begins. But as the situation now stands, if the science says raw milk is risky business, then no farmer should want to put virgin drinkers to the test, especially if it could mean inviting a lawsuit.
What is sweeping the continent is an entrepreneurial spirit sensing a new market opportunity. In a few cases in Canada, it’s also a wink and a nudge and an attempt at an end run around the supply management system.