Food

I’ve been hearing a lot about “raw milk” lately. It’s an idea that I was aware of in the peripherals of the world at large, but not one that I ever bothered to explore. Why? Because I learned about Louis Pasteur when I was in second grade and the idea that “Pasteurization is good, we should keep doing that” quickly found a place in my worldview.

No story I’ve heard since then has changed my mind.

What is “raw milk”?

Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized (heated up to kill germs and bacteria) or homogenized (mixed to break the fat into smaller pieces). A lot of people buy it directly from the farm as it’s illegal to sell in stores in most states.

What? Yeah. I was a bit surprised that raw milk is such a controlled substance. But as a recognized vector of foodborne illness, I suppose that it makes sense. Because seriously, raw milk has quite the dark history as most people don’t bother to self-pasteurize, which results in them ingesting bits of feces and animal hair. One little drip of cow sweat and the batch of milk is infected. And refrigeration does NOT stop the growth of a whole bunch of microscopic organisms. Which is why we cook meat and eggs, and move food into a different container once a can is opened.

Still, some people are willing to risk it all to drink raw milk. They don’t even pasteurize it! I mean, some might, but most of them drink it and grin: “Straight from the cow’s udder. You can’t get much closer to natural than that.”

And due to the spread of false information about raw milk, a lot of people don’t believe how dangerous it can be. They think that a cow’s udder is somehow … hygenic? … as though tuberculosis and E.coli disappear once the milk is squirted out of the teat. They also tend to have a lot more trust in the good practices of their chosen dairy farmers than in the FDA or CDC.

“People have been drinking raw milk for millions of years with absolutely no ill-effects and only good things” – seems to be the party line hardcore raw milk drinkers subscribe to. Never mind that historically, people on average had an incredibly short lifespan and less than half of children lived to see their fifth birthdays. And a big part of that was due to unpasteurized milk.

There’s a very good reason why Louis Pasteur is an important person to the history of the human race.

So why would anyone risk their health to have raw milk?

Raw milk enthusiasts insist that the flavor is richer, fuller, different. It’s a taste they’re willing to risk breaking the law to enjoy. It’s basically one of the definitions for First World problems — risking jail and kidney failure simply to enjoy a pitcher of milk.

I have never had raw milk. I don’t want to have raw milk.

The idea of ingesting anything that comes from an animal’s body without neutralizing dangerous micro-organisms disgusts me. Because there is no food worth death or paralysis.

Still, to each their own. Any adult willing to risk permanent injury for a cereal moistener should be allowed to buy it at the grocery store with the caveat that raw milk be pasteurized before being served to children. Because as I understand it, self-pasteurizing raw milk does not noticeably change the flavor — it remains milk.

When people say they love the taste and the texture and what-have-you, they wouldn’t really mind the raw milk being pasteurized. Because the flavor and texture they enjoy is due to the milk coming from organically raised dairy cows.

And sure, pasteurization may neutralize some of the vitamin C content, but it’s a negligible amount. Drink some pasteurized juice. Eat an orange. Chomp on a Flintstone’s vitamin.

You can enjoy all of the benefits of touring dairy farms and buying quality raw milk at $6+ per half-gallon without risking the health of yourself or your family.

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Links of note:

Food Safety News: “A Mom and a Dairyman Plead: Don’t Feed Children Raw Milk” — a 2014 story about a mom giving her two-year-old raw milk that was contaminated with E.coli. The result: a kidney transplant from mother to daughter, as well as developmental and lifelong delays due to a HUS-assisted stroke.

“Two years ago, when Oregon parents Jill Brown and Jason Young met Brad and Tricia Salyers, the families had no idea that they would eventually be sharing in a tragedy that sickened four of the Salyers’ children and left Brown and Young’s youngest child, Kylee – 23 months old at the time – with such severe medical complications that she would need a kidney transplant from her mother.

“All of that and more happened beginning in April 2012 when the children were among 19 people – 15 of them under the age of 19 — who fell ill with E. coli O157:H7, a potentially fatal foodborne pathogen. Soon after, Oregon health officials determined that the outbreak was caused by raw milk from Foundation Farm near Wilsonville in Western Oregon — the Salyers’ family farm. Four of the sickened children were hospitalized with kidney failure.

“Foundation Farm had been providing 48 families with raw milk. Raw milk is milk that hasn’t been pasteurized to kill harmful and sometimes deadly foodborne pathogens such as E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella and Campylobacter.”

The International Outbreak Museum: “Outbreak: Foundation Farm Raw Milk” — the continuation of the previous story. Epidemiologists went to the Foundation Farm that provided the raw milk Kylee drank and found absolutely DEPLORABLE conditions. Seriously. Look at those pictures. Foundation Farm was as far away from hygenic as possible.

Cracked.com: “6 Shockingly Brutal Realities of an Organic Dairy Farm” — this is a very good personal experience article. It details what life on an organic dairy farm is like, from cows rolling around in pastures to the milk being processed. It talks about antibiotics, feeding, and the general care and upkeep of the dairy cows. Definitely worth the read.

Food Safety News: “Why I’ll Never Give Raw Milk to My Children Again” – her little boy got sick. The comments section is bonkers.

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Bottom line: pasteurize all milk served to children.

You can freely and happily risk your own life and health, but children should be protected.

Just as I would not allow a small child to bungee jump, I would not allow them to eat unsafe food. It’s common sense to follow food safety guidelines. There are some things a child’s developing immune system should not be exposed to.

Which is why raw milk should not be consumed by children, the pregnant, the immuno-comprimised, or the elderly. The supposed benefits of raw milk are not worth the real risks: E.coli, salmonella, listeria, tuberculosis.

Not when it’s so easy to heat a pan on the stove and pasteurize raw milk. A dunking of the pan in an ice bath, and voila. You can pour the milk into a bottle or jar and put it in the refrigerator.

As an added benefit, pasteurized milk takes longer to spoil. Which can save you money.

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Please research pasteurization. You won’t just learn suggested heat times and safe bottling practices. You’ll learn about history, disease culture, what things other than milk and juice are pasteurized, and how lucky we are to live in a modern world.

Plus you can see how easy it is to make your own cheeses, yogurts, and kefir.