People all over the country are scheming for ways to get their hands on the white stuff, from co-owning a cow with neighbors (since the law allows the drinking raw milk from one’s own animal, a share in the cow is all you need), to buying raw milk labeled as ‘pet food,’ to joining ‘speakeasies’ that dole out milk instead of moonshine. 

Why do we struggle so much over control of our milk supply?  Neither sushi nor oysters are regulated, and we know we’re taking (some) risks when we eat them, but the government leaves it up to us.  Why is milk any different?  I’m not sure it is, but according to Ted Elkin, chief of the Division of Milk Control, a part of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, “You’re talking about palates vs. immune systems.  Giving this to children, that is a huge concern of ours.”  Next thing you know, they’ll be pasteurizing breast milk.

No one ever talks, however, about the outbreaks of salmonella or e. coli associated with pasteurized milk.  Sure, pasteurization nukes any bacteria present in the milk while it’s being zapped, but what if a smidgen of dirt gets in before the bottles get capped?  It’s hit upon a blank canvas, where it can literally run free.  Raw milk, on the other hand, potentially has the muscle to fight the criminal.  The article cites a dairy owner who introduced salmonella, e. coli, listeria and tuberculosis into various batches of his own raw milk.  “In every case, the pathogen levels either did not increase, or disappeared entirely,” says Kaleigh McAfee, spokeswoman. 

What we see in cheesemaking is that farmers making milk destined for pasteurization have far less reason to practice hygienically than farmers whose end product is raw milk.  Why should they?  No matter how scrupulous they are, the milk’s going to get zapped anyway—whereas raw-milk farmers have a huge vested interest in keeping their animals, equipment and selves clean.  They’re also scrutinized far more closely than their pasteurized counterparts.  Their milk often comes from a medley of farms practicing in very different ways, whereas all traceability would vanish were a raw-milk farmer to blend milks together—guaranteeing a product that most reflects the specific land and animals from which it originates.  As a comment at the bottom of the article states, “If farmers are selling clean milk, they should not be forced to utilize a technology preferred by the big dairies because it corrects for the carelessness of other farmers.”

I’m not saying that everyone should drink raw milk—that’s a personal choice.  But the choice should be ours, not the government’s, to make. 

Nathalie Jordi's appetites keep her bouncing between between County Cork, New York, London and the French Alps.  When not slinging curd or interviewing farmers, she writes for Travel&Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, Gastronomica, and her blog at www.autobiogeography.com.  Her dreams of a life spent baking, drinking margaritas, and sitting in the sun are gathering steam during her current stint as a waitress in New York City.