The simple glass of milk is becoming a hot topic among raw food enthusiasts.
The issue of requiring milk to be pasteurized or allowing raw unpasteurized milk to be sold is a challenge facing the people in the dairy business in the U.S.
as well as the end consumer.
Throughout the world, people die from germs in contaminated milk, but the risk can be decreased by heating the milk, or pasteurization.
Yet people also do thrive on milk that is fresh and untreated.
It seems a simple matter: Each consumer decides which product they feel is better for them.
In the case of milk, it comes down to whether the consumer is more concerned about safety and prefers pasteurized milk, or if they are convinced that raw milk has health benefits and represents a better choice.
Two more aspects complicate this challenge.
One is that while people are not dying from contaminated milk, they are dying more from weak immune systems, and metabolic problems such as diabetes, and sensitivities like asthma and allergies.
The increased incidents of such health problems are alarming some health experts.
Also, the public reasonably wants to be assured that the milk they are drinking is not contaminated with deadly bacteria.
A Confusing Dilemma
Dairy farming has been changed greatly, as has our whole life, by the industrial revolution.
In the 1800s as more people moved into cities, dairies developed in their midst to provide them with milk.
The rural traditions that safeguarded families' health for ages were dropped in this urban environment, and cows were kept in crowded conditions and fed the refuse of the brewing industry, which led to the term "swill barns" and to the poor health of the cows and their milk.
Children died from drinking this weak, dirty milk.
The government stepped in and, backed by their current scientific laboratory findings, decided to require milk to be pasteurized to kill these germs and save children's lives.
The alternative of restoring dairy practices of the rural environment by giving the cows pasture to graze on was no longer feasible.
Since then, dairies have developed further along the lines of what suits the business and less along the lines of what promotes the health of the animals.
In turn, the public rests assured that the milk coming from dairy businesses is safe.
Our Current Health
In the midst of the industrialized society of America and Europe, Dr. Westin A. Price undertook a research venture to study the diets and health of isolated groups of people who were living the traditional way of life of their ancestors.
His findings contradicted the expectation that more industrialized gains brought better health and showed these populations in good health.
Dr. Price became a proponent of nutrition based on a natural diet of unprocessed food.
The question now is whether our modern diet of processed food has brought about some of our current serious health problems.
More recent research has added evidence to Dr. Price's findings.
For instance, it has been shown that there are anti-bacterial agents in milk as it comes from the cow; those agents are destroyed by pasteurization.
So at the same time we kill the germs, we destroy the ability of the milk to fight germs itself.
Success Stories
Added to the scientific research are individual stories of children whose lives were saved by a change to a more natural diet.
Mark McAfee, an organic dairy farmer in Fresno County, California, and an authority on fresh whole milk, gives the example of a mother who came to him at a conference, thanking him for saving her daughter's life.
The child had been diagnosed with an incurable disease and as a last attempt at saving her life the parents followed the advice of a naturopathic doctor to feed the child raw colostrum, a dairy product.
Miraculously the child recovered.
Scores of stories like this moved McAfee deeply when he saw what a difference raw milk had made in people's lives.
Despite some success stories, harmful bacteria have been reported by the federal Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, which tests certified raw milk dairies.
But bacteria have also been found in pasteurized milk, and there have been recalls of contaminated pasteurized milk products.
However, harmful pathogens have not been found at McAfee's dairy, Organic Pastures.
"There have been more than 80 million servings of raw dairy products and more than 8 years of testing," says McAfee.
"Not one pathogen has ever been found by the FDA [the federal Food and Drug Administration], CDFA [California Department of Agriculture], the Fresno County Health Department, private testing labs, or OPDC's (Organic Pastures Dairy Company) own testing in any of the OPDC dairy products or in its creamery facilities."
The dairy follows an organic grass pasture-grazing regime, because McAfee believes that when cows are raised in a way that promotes their health, they produce fewer pathogens.
In fact, McAfee relates that in further testing, since many of the food-borne disease pathogens come from the animal's manure, Dr. C. Berge at UC Davis tested the Organic Pastures herd and found that the manure of the organic cows did not contain the salmonella pathogen.
McAfee says in many dairies that pathogen would be present; 31 percent of conventional milk storage tanks tested had a human pathogen.
According to McAfee, the experts' explanation is that a cow's healthy digestive system is able to inhibit harmful bacteria.
Organic milk advocates point out that there is no reason to pasteurize the milk to kill harmful bacteria if there is none in the milk.
Warnings, Protections, and Profits
Despite some success stories, the CDC warns against drinking raw milk.
In their reports (http:// www.cdc.gov) from the past few years, it has data on people getting sick after drinking non-pasteurized milk.
In some cases it turned out that the person consumed other raw food, and the milk was not contaminated.
In another case of reported illnesses, a dairy in Pennsylvania was tested, and germs that can cause the reported sickness were found.
When facilities are discovered to be unsanitary, the state health department can close the business down.
There are many checkpoints to protect consumers from tainted milk, including government regulations on dairy products covering handling and purity, and an interstate commission on the transportation of milk.
Some states have a certification process for dairies that want to sell non-pasteurized milk for human consumption.
From a market-based standpoint, the corporate business model has generally favored the commercial dairy system and maximizing the return on investment.
It is left up to investors who specifically value these health issues to establish companies as they see the demand.
Health insurance companies have been following the industrialized medical system.
The mainstream grocery stores are focused on their revenue, leaving the natural health food market to smaller, more local stores.
Consumer Choices
Currently, consumers rely on a government agency to inspect the milk they feed to their families, and don't have the ability to test for pathogens themselves.
Raw milk advocates are asking the government to inspect dairy products and test for human pathogens in production facilities, and certify milk if it is found to be clear of harmful germs, allowing it to be sold in retail stores.
So whether it's raw natural milk or pasteurized, consumers want assurances that it is clean.
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