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DEL.ICIO.USRaw milk’s growing appeal worries health workers
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I wrote an article in late July about a small outbreak of food-borne illness in northwest Georgia tied to raw milk, and got several emails from people who drank unpasteurized milk, looking for more information.
One implied I had made up the outbreak to further a government propaganda campaign against raw milk (I don’t make up stories, just in case anyone subscribes to this view). Another wanted to know if the farm that supplied her milk was the one tied to the outbreak. Within a couple of weeks, The New York Times and the Washington Post had published articles on raw milk, and why it inspires such passion, whether from public health officials who are trying to block its availability, or consumers who seek it out as they search for foods straight from the farm. Clearly, it’s a subject that attracts controversy.
Raw, or unpasteurized milk, has been sold quietly in Georgia for years under the guise of pet milk. It’s sold openly in some metro Atlanta neighborhoods, where groups of buyers meet a delivery truck, and at at least one farmers’ market and a small grocery store. It can’t be sold legally for human consumption. But as long as the milk is labeled for pet consumption only, that seems to satisfy state regulatory authorities.
In other states, raw milk has become a battleground between medical authorities and those who believe unpasteurized milk has health benefits that are wiped out by the heat treatment of pasteurization. At the Georgia Organics convention in March, members asked state Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin about legalizing the sale again for human consumption. He deflected the question, saying he’d OK it if, and when, health officials approved.
That’s not likely to happen, given a high-profile campaign warning of the dangers of drinking raw milk, led by the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC. Medical experts describe pasteurization as one of the great public health achievements of the 20th century, greatly reducing the number of food borne illnesses and deaths. The CDC lists 1,007 confirmed illnesses and 2 deaths linked to raw milk since 1998. Scientists say they’re concerned especially about raw milk being given to children, who are more susceptible to food-borne illnesses because their immune systems aren’t as developed as that of adults. In the Murray County outbreak, some of those sickened with campylobacter were children, including one was who hospitalized briefly.
Raw milk proponents contend that milk from grass-fed cows on clean farms is safer than large-scale, commercial pasteurized milk, and can reduce asthma in children as well as provide other health benefits, such as additional nutrients and probiotics, gut-friendly bacteria that promote digestion. Buyers rave about the creamy taste, and like buying from a farmer they know.
Do you drink raw milk? If not, would you consider it? Is it OK for parents to feed it to young children?
Permalink | Comments (5) | Post your comment | Categories: Food safety
Comments
By dave
August 22, 2007 10:48 AM | Link to this
You shouldn’t drink milk at all. Cow’s milk is meant for one thing…. A BABY COW! We are the only species that drinks the milk from another animals breasts. If you really want to have raw milk…why don’t you go to a dairy farm and bet under a cow and suck away?! Baby’s should drink mother’s breast milk until they are weaned…then you don’t need dairy in your life…EVER!
By ATL008
August 22, 2007 12:01 PM | Link to this
Dave, let me guess, you are one of those FREAK VEGANS!!!!
By Gary
August 24, 2007 9:50 AM | Link to this
Cool!, can you post more information on how to find this? I would love to be able to drink natural milk. Its been good for humans for thousands of years just as it is, still not sure why the government decided to ruin it.
By Pego
August 24, 2007 6:30 PM | Link to this
As always seems true with dairy issues, this article lacks the contrasting information of how many people have become ill from pasturized dairy products. This is just another “Govenment Sources Say” type article without ballance. Your article even notes the bias that your source has, but has failed to give us what we need to know to gain perspective.
A simple check into the dairy “current enforcement actions” this year shows hundreds of regular dairies being cited, over and over, for sick cows, over-medicated cows and filth. No matter which sort of dairy you have, that’s a problem, and almost all of these actions involved conventional dairies. Allowing for certification of raw dairies simply brings these dairies into an enforcable state that we, the public, can check.
By Aaron
August 28, 2007 2:23 PM | Link to this
We are also the only species on Earth that cooks, purifies, sanitizes, grows, stockpiles, preserves, medicates, sells, and buys our food.
So until the day comes that the food production industry (i.e. agriculture) shuts down, this argument of “we’re the only species on Earth that…” is pointless.
Also the hysteria over food is ridiculous. Raw eggs will not kill you. Hell, I remember 20+ years ago when my grandmother used to store her eggs in a basket on the counter. She and I are both still alive. I guess we’re just freaks of nature…then again when was the last time you saw a chicken put a freshly laid egg into the ice box.
Raw milk tastes better and makes much better cheese. Plain and simple.