Untreated milk public hazard, trial told

February 4, 2009

The trial of Schmidt, the head of a contentious cow-share program and the face of a movement to legalize raw milk, came to a tentative close today following the Southern Ontario dairy farmer's cross-examination into the necessity of regulating raw milk, deemed a health hazard by the province of Ontario.

Mr. Schmidt's more than week-long trial was the latest step in a multi-year battle to see raw, unpasteurized milk available to everyone.

While Mr. Schmidt and his supporters, many of whom packed into an overcrowded Newmarket, Ont., courtroom yesterday, say milk is healthier before it is pasteurized, Canadian health officials deem it unsafe for public consumption.

Dr. Boyd , an associate professor at Guelph University's veterinary college and president of a consulting firm that provides data on human and animal health to government and private industry, testified in court today that untreated milk presents a public hazard because unhealthy pathogens have not been reduced to safe levels.

He said extensive literature showed that those pathogens can spread salmonella, E. coli and listeria, which can cause severe diarrhea, kidney failure and stillbirths or early infant death.

"I don't consider unpasteurized milk to be a safe food," Dr. said.

Mr. Schmidt argued that, if cattle are treated properly and come from a hygienic farm, raw milk can be as clean as food you are able to purchase in a grocery store.

He asked Dr. if experts could guarantee there were no harmful bacteria in treated milk or raw meat sold at a grocery store, and then wondered aloud if there were regulations on whether customers had a choice to "cook it or savour the meat raw."

Dr. said that research suggested on-farm practices such as feeding cattle roughage and limiting their stress could make raw milk cleaner, but "not to a level that would achieve the same level of safety as pasteurization."

Ontario's Health Protection and Promotion Act makes it illegal to "sell, offer for sale, deliver or distribute milk or cream that has not been pasteurized or sterilized." Consumption is legal, however.

Justice Kowarsky gave both sides in the case four weeks to review the trial before submitting written closing statements.

Conservative MPP Randy Hillier, a long-time supporter, said outside the court today that the regulations passed in the 1930s should be reviewed.

"The Legislative Assembly is not doing what it is supposed to do. It has an obligation to listen to people, to listen to their concerns," he said. "If they don't have the knowledge they should go out and find it."

National Post

Coutts, National Post Published: Wednesday, February 04, 2009

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Untreated milk public hazard, trial told

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