Here's the full Time Magazine Article on Raw Milk

[Guest guest]

Got Raw?

By Josh Ozersky Monday, Sep. 20, 2010

What could be more innocuous than a glass of milk?

A lot, it turns out. Milk may be a symbol of wholesomeness for most of us, a

childhood staple associated with furtive Oreo feedings or the sweet residue of

disintegrated breakfast cereal. But for some Americans, milk has become a test

of their freedom. And they're not paranoid kooks either; the government really

is out to get them, authorizing seizures of bottles and jugs of unpasteurized

milk and, in one recent case, a full-on, agents-brandishing-guns raid.

Thus rages the raw-milk war. Currently, under federal law, it's illegal to sell

consumers unpasteurized milk that has been transported across state lines. Raw

milk cannot be sold at all in 10 states. In 30 states, it can be sold only by

certain farms under certain conditions. And in the remaining states, retail

sales are allowed but are greatly hindered by technicalities. While no Clockwork

Orange-style milk speakeasies have sprung up yet (that we know of), an

underground railroad has emerged to get milk from cows to consumers without any

high-tech processing in between. Raw milk's admirers claim it contains

beneficial bacteria, enzymes, vitamins and amino acids that get destroyed by the

burst of high heat that is pasteurization. Plus there's the fact that raw milk

tastes fantastic: rich, full-bodied, herbaceous, creamy. All that weighs but

little with the federal government, which is threatening to crack down on

unpasteurized milk in all 50 states. (See the top 10 food trends.)

To the FDA, it's a basic health issue. There are certain pathogens †" including

salmonella, campylobacter, listeria and E. coli †" that pasteurization keeps at

bay. Far from being an elixir, raw milk is a disease waiting to happen,

public-health officials say. According to the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC), from 1998 to 2008, more than 1,600 people got sick from

drinking raw milk; 187 had to be hospitalized, and two died. " Raw milk is an

inherently dangerous product, and it really should not be consumed by anyone at

any time for any reason, " a representative from the FDA tells TIME.

Now comes the proposed Food Safety Modernization Act, federal legislation that

would improve the FDA's ability to trace outbreaks and give the agency †" which

can already fine companies that knowingly sell contaminated foods †" the power

to order recalls. If the bill is passed by Congress, it seems raw milk will be

spilled, and there's nothing for its fans to do but cry over it.

And there are plenty of raw-milk fans. Despite raids like the simultaneous ones

in July on a members-only food club in Venice, Calif., and on one of its

suppliers in nearby Ventura County, an increasing number of Americans have taken

up the cause of raw food. The category is not limited to milk. Similar debates

have arisen regarding almonds, honey and other foods under FDA scrutiny. But

none seem to have stirred the same anger as the one over raw milk. Supporters

say they know the milk may contain pathogens; the most ardent say they welcome

the bugs, many of which have peacefully resided in our guts for thousands of

years. All agree that they should be able to drink raw milk if they want to.

(See more of Josh Ozersky's Taste of America food columns here.)

Raw-milk advocates question why this age-old product is being so closely

regulated while the practices of vast feedlots and food processors are not.

Trautman, a Wisconsin farmer who lost his only corporate customer last

year because he was selling raw milk on the side, believes the crackdown on

raw-milk microdairies is essentially a way for Big Dairy to eliminate the

competition. Megacorporations are " going to pick up these farms for 10 cents on

the dollar, " he says. " That's the endgame in all this. "

Other raw-milk advocates see the government's motives as misguided rather than

sinister. In May, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle vetoed a bill that would have

legalized the sale of raw milk, saying that after hearing from both sides, he

decided the health risks outweighed the benefits to dairy farms. But

Gumpert, author of The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America's Emerging Battle

over Food Rights, points out that according to CDC figures obtained via a

Freedom of Information Act request, from 1973 to 2005 there were, on average,

only 49 cases per year of raw milk making people sick and no fatalities from

what Gumpert calls " legitimate " raw milk †" i.e., milk that was never intended

to be pasteurized. (He notes that a significant number of reported dairy-related

food ailments stem from queso fresco, a soft raw-milk cheese sometimes called

Mexican bathtub cheese.)

The small dairies looking to sell raw milk and cheese out of state claim to be

infinitely cleaner than megadairies. " Pasteurization covers a multitude of

sins, " says MacAlister of Cato Corner Farm in Connecticut, where

retail outlets are allowed to sell raw milk. " It's just traditional for health

departments to be anti †" raw milk. " (See a special report on the science of

appetite.)

What's interesting about the raw-milk war is the way it has jumbled the usual

political lines. Liberals have been almost universally in favor of greater

governmental oversight of the food chain. Schlosser, author of Fast Food

Nation, even wrote an op-ed recently in favor of the Food Safety Modernization

Act. But when it comes to raw milk, lefty, hemp-wearing types have made some

strange bedfellows †" like archconservative Texas Congressman (and former

Libertarian presidential candidate) Ron , who in 2007 introduced a bill to

legalize the sale of raw milk. Meanwhile, some of the decisions made by local

health authorities, like Wyoming's recent scrutiny of public potlucks (which,

after all, entail serving food from unlicensed kitchens), suggest an

encroachment on our civil liberties of the kind that gets black-helicopter

bloggers riled.

There could be some middle ground. Already, there's an alternative

pasteurization technique of heating milk to a lower temperature for a longer

time that satisfies the FDA while maintaining a sky-high level of flavor and

body.

For the most part, though, it's unlikely that any of these work-arounds will

appease raw-milk fans, whose desire is not just for a healthy or tasty beverage

but also for the right to drink unmolested. " People should have the option to

consume milk the way they want, " says Gumpert. Whether it's good for them or

not.

Read more:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2017205,00.html#ixzz10b07NejE