The Raw Milk Debate
People are talking about raw milk everywhere these days. London Farmers’ Markets are actively encouraging more raw milk producers at their markets to answer demand, which is certainly on the up; if you need convincing it has gone mainstream, Nigel Slater even featured the raw dairy products from Hurdlebrook in his book The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen
But the raw-milk debate gets people worked up on both sides because, as with all fresh foods, there is a risk of contamination unless it is so completely heat-treated (ultra-pasteurized) that there is no chance of ANYTHING surviving; and, as anyone who has drunk UHT milk will verify it isn’t just the pathogens that are destroyed but the taste, texture and much of the goodness too. But how real are the risks and how real are the benefits?
Advocates of raw grass-fed milk, and as long as it is from a reputable source I count myself as one of them, rage at the unfair maligning of un-pasteurized dairy as a dangerous disease-carrying substance full of harmful bacteria, pointing instead to the probiotics, healthy bacteria including lactobacillus and acidophilus and living enzymes that help pre-digest the (for some) troublesome lactose. It also contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), the same potentially cancer-fighting substance found in grass-fed meat that recently hit the headlines, and butterfat that allows the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A and D. Being a ‘living’ food, like yoghurt or other fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut, it is said to build immunity and protect against viruses.
For those interested in the science, this article entitled The Truth About Raw Milk from Agriculture Society by Raine Saunders, is an extremely detailed examination of the components of raw milk, the enzymatic make-up and the benefits of drinking it. So if raw milk is so much better than pasteurized why did we ever start to heat-treat it?
Nina Planck, author of Real Food: What to Eat and Why
“It was a response to an acute and growing public health crisis, in which infectious diseases like tuberculosis were spread by poor-quality milk (from unsanitary dairies). Previously milk came to the kitchen in buckets from the family cow or in glass jars from a local dairy, but soon urban dairies sprang up to supply the growing populations in or near cities. Owners put the dairies next to whiskey distilleries to feed the confined cows a cheap diet of spent mash called distillery slop…The quality of ‘slop milk,’ as it was known was so poor it could not even be made into butter or cheese… Conditions were unhygienic too, bovine tuberculosis and bruclellosis were common and cow mortality was high. The people milking the cows were often unsanitary and unhealthy too. Dairy workers could taint milk with tuberculosis and other diseases.”
Today, however, this kind of unsanitary dairy is a thing of the past; sterilised equipment, hygiene checklists for workers to follow and regular inspections make dairies far safer places. That said there are still those that believe there is potential for milk to become contaminated and if even a few cases of illness can be avoided through pasteurization they should be.
Marion Nestle, nutritionist and author of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (California Studies in Food & Culture)
‘I am not opposed to raw milk on principle and I believe that it is quite possible to consume it safely, especially when…you know the animal care standards and sanitary practices of your milk producers”
Animal care and sanitary practice is the key and in fact even all of Nestle’s objections would be defeated under strict enforcement of these principles (though clearly she feels this is easier said than done). It is worth remembering that milk intended for consumption raw is a different thing to raw milk before pasteurization. In this case, milk from many different dairies and herds is combined allowing more chance of cross-contamination.
The sanitary standards and regular government testing of raw milk from individual dairies, intended for human consumption, for potential pathogens is rigorous. When I spoke to the farmers at Hurdlebrook who sell raw Guernsey milk at several farmers’ markets along with their own raw cream and yoghurt, they told of the relentless testing and re-testing of bacteria levels by the authorities despite consistently low results. Hook & Son, who offer national delivery of raw milk tell the same story and their website explains why their milk is safer than raw milk before pasteurization.
Actually I am glad to hear how rigorous the testing is in order to legally sell this milk. It makes me happy to drink it. Ask questions from your milk seller, visit the farm is you can and satisfy yourself the hygiene is up to scratch. As long as you get your milk from a regulated dairy of single-herd, pasture-grazed cows regularly tested for bacteria by the Food Standards Agency and with equipment that is sterilised, it is as safe a food as any other.
As my nutritionist friend put it: ‘On a list of things to worry about in the food we eat I’d rate super-fresh raw milk down at about number 4211 on a scale topped by refined carbohydrates.’
Remember too that the vast majority of cases of food poisoning are found in pre-packaged or restaurant food or from confinement-reared meat. Knowing and trusting the provenance of your food makes it far less likely you are going to have a problem with it.
The last objection made against the consumption of milk, raw or pasteurized, is that we are the only mammals to consume milk past childhood, and the only mammals to consume the milk of another mammal. Aren’t we the clever ones, say the fans; as we started herding animals we discovered this highly nutritious food, available without even slaughtering our precious herd; genetic evolution then allowed northern Europeans, the first and most prolific consumers of animal milk to retain the production of the enzyme lactase into adulthood. This is why you are less likely to suffer from lactose-intolerance if you are of northern European descent than if you are Asian for example. Many who are lactose-intolerant find themselves able to drink raw milk as it still has the enzyme lactase present, effectively pre-digesting the troublesome sugar just in yoghurt and cheese.
Die-hard fans see raw milk as the panacea of all ills and testimonials of its curative properties are rife: the second part to the raw milk piece by Raine Saunders, for example gives a testimonial of how she and her family vastly improved both their overall health and their allergies through the regular consumption of raw milk. It has certainly had a history as a cure since Roman times and raw-milk cures were popular in Swiss sanitoriums at the beginning of the last century.
An often forgotten reason for drinking raw milk (and one that swings the argument for me) is that the taste is so superior to that of pasteurized milk and common sense tells us that anything with all its vitamins, minerals and enzymes intact is surely bound to be healthier. It is also fresher, I know its provenance – always from a single herd of pasture-reared cows – it is by default a seasonal product (and with raw milk you can taste the difference between the seasons) and mostly a local one too and it is not processed. Lastly, the farms that produce and sell raw milk raise animals in a sustainable way so are better for the environment. In this it meets all the criteria I consider important when it comes to buying food.
Raw Milk suppliers in the UK:
Grove Farm, Hurdlebrook, Hook & Son, Alham Wood Organics (cow and buffalo milk)
Other raw dairy suppliers can be found in my Where to Buy Good Food page.
Photos: Milk Sculptures by Tambako
July 25th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Brilliant article! Even though I am in the US…where it is always illegal to purchase raw milk, I think readers based anywhere will relate to what you’ve laid out. The benefits will always massively outweight the downfalls…as long as we take care in choosing our food source! So many people turn their heads and play ignorant to where their food is coming from…you mean the milk doesn’t come from the carton!? This is why it is so important to keep “putting it out there” and reinforcing the benefits of smaller, local farms…knowign your farmers, knowing your food. So, until it legal to buy this ultimate health food outright in the US, I will keep on fighting the good fight and encouraging others to do the same!! (We owned a share in a local, organic, grass-fed dairy herd, and had fabulous raw milk for a while…but could no longer “afford” to be healthy since I had to drive a distance in order to milk our girls and gas went sky-high, so we had to sell our share…boo). Thanks for getting me riled up this morning =)
July 25th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Thanks, it makes me realise how lucky we are in many ways in the UK to be able to buy food of this sort so freely. But cost is still an issue, of course, farmers’ market milk is probably on average double the price per litre as standard supermarket milk but it is all about choosing what to spend your money on. That and the fact that dairies supplying supermarkets who want to keep costs artificially low are paid LESS than the cost of production, or just 1p per litre for milk destined for supermarket shelves. So by buying direct from the farm you are getting better milk for you and a fairer deal for the farmer!
July 27th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Hooray! Another positive article for RAW milk!
FYI this website lists the suppliers of raw dairy products and also includes articles and videos: http://www.naturalfoodfinder.co.uk/unpasteurised-raw-milk-uk
July 27th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Thank you for this article. Small thing though, “allowed northern Europeans, the first and most prolific consumers of animal milk “… couldn’t we guess that the Maasai were drinking milk long before the northern Europeans? Perhaps before there *were* Europeans?
The pasteurizing of dairy in todays market seems foolish. I don’t see everyone pasteurizing spinach… which has had umpteen ecoli contaminations in the last few years. They pasteurize because they have done for many years, not because there is evidence based reasoning.
July 27th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Thanks for a fascinating post. The raw milk debate is a really interesting example of how food isn’t just about the product, but it’s embedded in a whole web of social and economic relationships. Raw milk might be risky (and so might pasteurised milk, or other foods) but choosing whether to take that risk is so much more about trusting the producer than it is about science. I wouldn’t buy raw milk from a supermarket, for example, because I would have no idea where it came from and what conditions it was produced under, but I might buy it from a producer I knew and trusted, if I could go and see the farm etc.
July 27th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
ps…thanks for sharing it with Two for Tuesdays this week
July 27th, 2010 at 3:35 pm
You’re absolutely right, the Masai probably were drinking milk before the Europeans as they herded animals so early on, and still do. Their diet of blood, milk and meat one of the few remaining truly traditional diets. But it’s interesting that most people who are fine with lactose seem to be northern Europeans, and I know that many Africans (or at least African-Americans) are said to have problems with lactose. A mystery!
July 27th, 2010 at 3:40 pm
Thanks for the comment, Hannah. I completely agree that knowing the provenance of your food is essential particularly with a potentially risky food – and by that I mean meat as well as raw milk and the number of cases of listeria in bagged salad and e-coli in pre-packaged or fast-food meals is proportionally surprisingly high. We should be able to decide to drink raw milk should we want to take that ‘risk’ but I would advise anyone to make sure their supplier is adhering to strict milk-testing and sterilising of equipment. Then enjoy with a clear conscience!
July 27th, 2010 at 6:05 pm
It will forever shock me that I can walk into any store and buy cigarettes, but I cannot choose to buy raw milk legally.
July 27th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
@girlichef: there are a few states in the US where you can legally purchase raw milk; Pennsylvania is one of them. There are also some states where you can own a share of a cow and therefore are legally entitled to the milk from the cow you own; you’re not purchasing the milk itself, which is a loophole in states like Virginia. And then there’s Maryland, where raw milk has been declared “unfit for human consumption” – but it can be sold as “pet milk.” (I’m in the mid-Atlantic region so these are the states with which I’m most familiar.)
This past weekend I was finally able to enjoy some raw milk (from a reputable goat farm, but I would have been happy for raw cows’ milk too) for the first time in YEARS and was THRILLED to be able to enjoy milk and ice cream without the intestinal upset. We do make our own yogurt from store-bought (and therefore pasteurized
) cows’ milk which at least partially digests the proteins and sugars so we can have SOME dairy in our diets, but the raw milk was nothing short of WONDERFUL for our whole family.
I don’t know a single raw-milk proponent who thinks that all milk should be raw, that unpasteurized milk should be the only kind available, so I find it sad that the opposite should be true.
July 27th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
It’s not always illegal to purchase raw milk in the U.S. I live near Dallas, Texas, and I buy raw milk from the Lucky Layla Farm Store at Lavon Farms in Plano, Texas. http://www.luckylayla.com/
I don’t know all the legalities, but I do know that they have a permit to sell raw milk. In Texas at this time, raw milk can only be bought directly from the farm (not taken to market).
It was Nina Planck’s “Real Food” that convinced me to try raw milk, and I love it!
July 27th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Karen! As always AWESOME! This is going on my thoughts on friday!
You so rock! Raine also did a great two part article on raw milk just recently, so check out the agriculture society site for those if you want more information.
I purchase raw milk via a milk buying club and the legalities are convoluted but it works. As a lactose intolerant person i will state that I am completely wihtout reaction to raw dairy because it contains the lactase that pasteurized milk does not.
another great read karen! keep it up and thanks for posting on the two for tuesday recipe blog hop!
Alex@amoderatelife
July 28th, 2010 at 2:31 am
I really enjoyed reading your post and learned quite a bit. I’ve just started reading about raw milk in the past few weeks and was happy to read and learn more about it.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
You can buy raw milk LEGALLY in CA in the USA – in a proper store even!
Check at Jimbo’s Markets and Whole Foods.
July 30th, 2010 at 5:16 am
Hi Karen! As I told you, I linked to this article on my Thoughts on Friday link love post here: http://amoderatelife.com/?p=386 Thanks again for the wonderful information! Hugs
alex
July 30th, 2010 at 10:05 am
[...] over at the Cooks Library did an in depth review of the raw milk debate from the UK perspective. She links to some great information, but I find it interesting to [...]
July 31st, 2010 at 11:54 am
As I’ve read through the numerous comments on this very long thread (I hope that is the correct term) I’ve noticed that the ‘people on the other side of the pond’ are not well represented. As I am from Maryland (my wife [one month] works in Washington, D.C.). I so wish that even our nation’s capital could supply a system like London’s Underground. Unlike Baltimore, in Maryland, which is much worse.
Back to my point, though… I drank warm, raw milk from the age of approx. three to five years old; I’d drink the warm, freshest possible from our cow milk, it was the best!!! *Just a side note-I’m the founder of the last of the ‘Animal House’ type Fraternities at my University-if you’ve ever seen the movie…* I’ve just spent a few moments pondering if that punctuation was correct, I’m still not sure… Back to my point, I forgot about the difference between milk and boiled (pasteurized) milk. When I was living in/running/drinking at least six days a week.
I actually drank some raw milk (thanks Mom!) and noticed that it fixed most of my horrible hangover (IV territory). Wouldn’t that be, perhaps, an indication of how good Real Milk is for you?! That was about ten years ago…
I’m a big fan of having a pint or 20 on the weekend… I just wish organic beer wasn’t so not like a [watery] lite American lager! I’m an Organic farmer and like watery beer. Is that bad? I look forward to hearing the comments about me rambling so much!
July 31st, 2010 at 9:44 pm
I am a big Raw Milk lover – thanks for such a great informative post for Two for Tuesdays!