The Consumer's Right to Choice

"It's my body, I do what I want!" --Cartman

There is an inherent tension between the public’s right to safety and the individual right to choice. The major question, then, is how dangerous is raw milk, relative to everything else we consume?

William Campbell Douglass II, a major advocate of raw milk and author of The Milk Book: The Milk of Human Kindness is not Pasteurized, says not very. Douglass points out that in the past 30 years, outbreaks of disease related to pasteurized milk have led to over 200,000 cases of food poisoning and over 600 deaths. Annually, dairy (raw and pasteurized) accounts for only one percent of food-related illnesses. In 2005, the CDC reported that raw dairy accounted for 30 percent of all dairy related outbreaks. The biggest threat is produce, which accounted for 38 percent of food-borne illness between 1990 and 2004. Poultry was responsible for 20 percent, and beef 16 percent.

Yet our chicken isn’t sold to us cooked in order to protect us from bacteria, and nobody is calling for the pasteurization of spinach before it reaches our salad bowls. Parents who give their children raw milk might be increasing their risk of exposure to dangerous pathogens, causing the skin of experts at the CDC to crawl, but the rising rates of childhood obesity suggest that parents are making other unhealthy, but legal, dietary decisions for their children. So why is raw milk the boogey man?

“I have no idea,” answered Kathryn Russell, who has struggled against state regulators to keep her raw milk operation open in Virginia.

The modern dairy complex as a whole has a vested interest in keeping down small distributors and putting the kibosh on raw milk, because direct from the farmer to the consumer operations interfere with price controls, the profits of milk processing plants, and overall loosen the death grip that a few large companies have over the US milk supply. According to Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit watchdog organization, for every dollar that consumers spent on milk in 2007, only $0.27 went back to dairy farmers. The rest went to dairy processing firms. Dairy Farmers of American (DFA) is a large cooperative that collects and markets a third of the milk produced in the US. In some regions, DFA is the only supplier to Dean Foods, a company that controls 40 percent of the liquid milk supply and 60 percent of the organic milk supply. As a result, farmers are often forced to go through DFA or go out of business. Cutting out all of the middlemen means a loss of profit to DFA and distributors like Dean Foods, making pasteurization seem like a very good idea.

The fight for raw milk is one battle in the larger war against big food industry. In 2005, four companies (Tyson, Cargill, Swift&Co, and National Beef Packing) slaughtered 83.5 percent of cows. Smithfield, Tyson, Swift & Co., and Cargill slaughtered 64 percent of hogs, and just two companies (Tyson and Pilgrim’s Pride) control 47 percent of birds slaughtered. The recent resurgence of farmer’s markets and international movements like Slow Food International are a product of the growing desire to eat healthier, tastier food and lessen the burden on our environment. A quarter of our nation’s dairy is trucked across the country from California, and much of the rest of it comes from other southwestern states where low rainfall makes it easier to accommodate thousands of cattle with little shelter. The ecological stress caused by mega-dairies unnerves many people. Over 2.5 million cows live in Texas, New Mexico, and California, and dairies use up to 150 gallons of water per cow per day to rinse manure off of the concrete floors. The stress on local water reserves is incredible. A dairy with 1,000 cows (a normal size for a California dairy) produces between 50,000 and 75,000 gallons of liquid manure a day.

Advocates of raw dairy are not suggesting that mega dairies ship raw milk thousands of miles across the country and sell it in major grocery stores. Pasteurization would be necessary to assure some degree of safety from milk produced and handled in the standard manner. What advocates do want, however, is to be able to go to a farm and buy milk from the farmer, or to buy locally produced milk from a local grocery store. Farms that produce raw milk often also provide free-range eggs, chicken, pork, and other farm-fresh produce. Rather than rely on the organic label, which is increasingly being controlled by large corporations as well, consumers are looking to local sources.

Part of the resistance to raw milk must be a knee-jerk reaction from an establishment that saved countless babies with mandated pasteurization and sees little to no consequences for continuing to demand compliance. How many consumers or regulators can we expect to stop and question a process that has been carried out regularly for almost 100 years?

We are familiar and comfortable with pasteurization now, and people who want raw milk can seem, to be honest, a bit loony. Yet many consumers believe that the idea that milk comes from grocery stores and not from cows is the loonier notion. The truth of the matter is that the majority of us have grown up thinking that food comes from supermarkets and not out of dirt or animals. When one of my friends found out I was researching raw milk, he was baffled, asking me “Raw milk, straight from the cow? Is it… warm?” When I assured him that it was, in fact, chilled when it reached consumers, the thought of milk going straight from the cow to the consumer inspired in him only one thought: “Gross.”

Clearly, raw milk is not for everyone. Some people are prone to trusting the government when it says something is categorically dangerous, and are happy to continue drinking the pasteurized milk that has always worked for them. Many people will not be willing to spend $10 a gallon on raw milk. But the people who have become disillusioned with massive supermarkets and the modern milk industry should be allowed a way out. People should be able to know and control where their food comes from, and what has been done to it before it reaches them.

Unfortunately, the government is constantly pressured by large corporations to limit consumer choice by restricting access to information. Large food distributors don’t want to publicize where food comes from, how it was produced, and what it contains. For example, it is illegal to identify food that contains genetically modified ingredients like corn or soybeans. The argument is that there is no nutritional difference between regular corn and corn that contains a pesticide-producing gene, so the label is misleading because it implies there is a difference. Regardless of the many reasons consumers may have to avoid genetically modified produce (what if it were illegal to mark foods “kosher,” on the grounds that it’s nutritionally equivalent?), the government has sided with big businesses in making sure that we can’t.

Even in states where raw milk sales are legal, distributors constantly face the threat of new regulations that will eliminate sales or otherwise drive raw milk dairies out of business. It is always a battle of David versus Goliath. However, raw milk advocates are a tenacious bunch. Kathryn Russell believes that the rising popularity of raw milk is making it harder to knock down, even though agencies opposed to raw milk become more frantic as the popularity increases. “They have to be more careful now,” she said, because more people are going to pay attention when regulators bully raw dairy operations. We can expect to see the raw milk movement and resistance to modern dairy practices, along with resistance to the doctrine that “bigger is better” continue to grow.

The Drop-Off

Before the first drop-off I was a little nervous, not knowing what kind of company to expect. A lot of Birkenstocks? Hemp shirts and handbags? Conspiracy theorists and health nuts, for sure. Anything described as a "drop-off" is going to be a shady operation, and the fact that we were exchanging a substance illegal to consume in many states made me a little giggly. Was I supposed to scuttle in with my face covered and dash away before anyone could recognize me or halt the transaction? The fact that it was happening in the back parking lot of a church added to the weirdness of the operation. Needless to say, I didn't bother to tell many of my friends where I went on Fridays at 3:30.

I was expecting someone to be sitting in a nondescript vehicle, dolling milk out of the trunk. As I drove into the massive parking lot I moved slowly, looking into cars to see if they were occupied. I didn't want to miss my dealer.

It turns out I didn't have to worry about missing the drop-off. There was a large white van with license plates that said "IGOTMLK" and a huge yellow sign on the side that said "RAW MILK DROP-OFF." So much for secrecy. Children cavorted about the parking lot as their mothers dropped off checks and picked up their promised gallon or two. Everyone looked relatively normal, including the farmer family dropping off the milk. If anything, the only unusual quality about everyone present was how happy they were. I avoided the optional taste-test, having already decided to commit myself to raw dairy (go raw or go home!). I picked up the bottle that looked like a bleach container and secured my milk jug with a seat belt, determined not to let it turn itself into butter by the time I got home.

At home I reached the moment of truth. Eventually I had to drink the stuff. I was careful to mix the milk and cream before pouring myself an ever-so-tiny glass.

Turns out the stuff is pretty good.

The Safety of Raw Milk

“Got Milk? Make Sure It’s Pasteurized” --Title of an article in September-October 2004 FDA Consumer Magazine

John Sheehan, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s division of Dairy and Egg Safety, says drinking raw milk is “like playing Russian roulette with your heath,” and that they see “a number” of illnesses related to the consumption of raw milk. Raw milk can contain bacteria campylobacter, escherichia, listeria, salmonella, yersinia, and brucella. The CDC claims that more than 300 people got sick from drinking raw milk or eating raw milk products in 2001, and nearly 200 in 2002.

The FDA reports that between 1998 and 2005, raw milk or cheese was implicated in 39 outbreaks in 22 states, causing an estimated 831 illnesses, 66 of which resulted in hospitalization and one in death. However, this accounts for only 0.4 percent of all cases of food born illness.

The Weston A. Price Foundation, an organization dedicated to the legalization of raw milk, believes that even 0.4 percent is an exaggeration. In a slide-by-slide rebuttal of the FDA’s PowerPoint presentation attacking raw milk, WAPF identifies multiple potential sources of bias in outbreak investigations. Investigators often ignore other potential sources of illness when they find out that someone consumed raw dairy. For example, infected people can spread disease to previously uncontaminated milk or dairy products. Demonstrating that raw milk cheese is contaminated is not the same as proving that it is the source of contamination.

Federal and state agents can be quick to blame dairy farms for outbreaks of disease, even with little to no evidence. For example, in 1966 the L.A. County Department of Health Services reported seven cases of Q fever (Coxiella burnetti) among people who lived near dairies. Raw milk sales were and are legal in California, and the Department concluded that the best way to control C. burnetti would be to require the pasteurization of all milk, even though the disease is contracted through inhalation and none of the infected individuals had consumed raw milk.

The judgments in favor of pasteurization seem arbitrary, and farmers are suspicious that state governments are simply looking for an excuse to shut down raw dairy operations. Kathryn Russell’s farm was investigated when one of her shareholders became ill. Russell insisted on having her family veterinarian present to take control samples when the state investigators came to test for diseases. Investigators later called her and informed her that they had lost their original samples and needed to return. Once again, Russell insisted upon having her veterinarian present to take control samples. The investigators never returned.

In Ohio, only one dairy provided raw milk in 2002. The dairy had been operating since 1958 and provided milk to 1.35 million customers. Between 2002 and 2003, 62 people were infected with Salmonella, 40 of whom were customers. All 31 stool samples taken from the dairy cows tested negative, and county health authorities concluded after the investigation that pasteurization may not have prevented the outbreak. However, the county health authorities suspended the sale of raw milk “temporarily until further notice” and suggested that the dairy relinquish its license to sell raw milk, which it did. Ohio’s only source of raw milk had been shut down.

The handling of this case contrasts sharply with a case in Pennsylvania where 38 people tested positive for the antibiotic resistant S. typhimurium in 2000. The milk implicated in this case was pasteurized, and investigators concluded that the contamination probably occurred after pasteurization. However, instead of shutting down the dairy, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture integrated employee training with its routine inspections, and the dairy hired a consultant to help it meet FDA standards. The investigators further concluded that the majority of milk contamination occurs after pasteurization, and is not a result of insufficient pasteurization.

Supporters of raw milk say the FDA makes two important mistakes: it addresses the safety of raw milk outside of the context of food safety in general, and it promotes pasteurization as the only way to make milk safe for human consumption. Consuming raw milk is risky, of course, but supporters don’t believe that raw milk is any riskier to consume than hot dogs, store bought spinach, or even pasteurized milk, which has caused massive outbreaks of disease when machinery failed.

What troubles many public health officials is that individuals who believe in the health benefits of raw milk feed it to people who are the most susceptible to illness: children, the elderly, and individuals who are already ill and suffering from weakened immune systems. Many consumers of raw milk believe that the probiotic agents in raw milk provide health benefits that keep children healthy, reducing the prevalence of asthma and allergies as well as many diseases. For the same reason, people who suffer from autoimmune diseases often seek out raw milk in order to bolster their natural defenses. For many state officials, this behavior pushes the issue beyond a matter of consumer choice and justifies bans on raw milk sales and cow share operations.

Doctors are also split on how to view raw milk. Some people have been turned away by doctors who refuse to treat them until they stop drinking raw milk. One woman I interviewed who lives on a farm became extremely ill with a gastro-intestinal problem. When she went to her doctor, however, instead of telling her to quit raw milk, he encouraged her to eat yogurt made with raw milk as the best treatment.

With the FDA and CDC vehemently opposed to raw milk, and supporters attacking the safety of pasteurized milk, it is difficult to make heads or tails out of the situation. While some doctors blame raw milk almost immediately for illness, others prescribe it as a cure and drink it regularly. The same goes for many employees of state agriculture and health departments. Is raw milk worth the risk? Is there really a greater risk in consuming raw milk than there is in consuming anything else?

Raw Milk Underground

After my botched taste-test, I didn't think of raw milk for several months. One night I found myself babysitting and bored, having put the kids to bed. Charlottesville is home to an inordinate number of parents who are fundamentally opposed to cable television, so I scrounged through their reading material and found a magazine devoted to healthy farming practices. One of the articles featured Organic Pastures, a massive raw dairy operation in California, and its recent scuffs with the law. The magazine interviewed the owner, who explained why people love raw milk, even though the government is hell-bent on shutting them down.

The whole issue struck me as bizarre and fascinating, do I decided to learn more. After a few Google searches, I found out that raw milk is illegal to buy or sell in Virginia, and that the only way for me to get raw milk was to buy a cow, or at least part of one. The hunt was on.

I quickly found out that the farm nearest to Charlottesville with a cow share operation was maxed out, or at least I assumed that to be the case based on the non-response to any of my emails inquiring about share availability. (I later found out that the farm could handle many more shareholders, but they opt to milk the cows once a day and let the calves have their mommies for the rest. Talk about cow-share.)

A friend of mine who works at a natural food store told me that a dairy in Amelia, Virginia was thinking of starting up weekly raw milk deliveries to Charlottesville. Suddenly I was the member of a Yahoo! discussion group and found myself fully tapped into the raw milk underground culture.

The cost can be prohibitive: a share cost $100 (one time cost), and monthly boarding fees are around $40. A share only gets you a gallon of milk a week, so many families buy multiple shares. We also have to pay $2.50 for the weekly deliveries and an additional fee for bottles. I opted for the half-share option (half a gallon of milk a week) and split the cost with my sister and a roommate. I crossed my fingers that the milk would be as delicious as they said it was. For $10 a gallon, it better be.

After I sent in my check, all I had to do was wait for enough other people to sign up. Then the drop-offs would start.

Raw What?

Many of the people who seek out raw dairy do so because they grew up on the stuff, either on a farm or in a rural area where people still got milk from their neighbors, or in a foreign country where raw milk is tolerated (the British royal family still drinks raw milk).

I encountered raw milk for the first time when one of my roommates started working for a produce co-op. She got a free gallon of raw milk every week, and the stuff befuddled me. Raw dairy? What? I snuck an experimental glass with one of my friends and was almost knocked flat. Holy heavy whipping cream, Batman! I didn't understand how anyone could drink the stuff. It was so rich I felt as though I might as well have eaten a stick of butter.

When I confessed my misadventure to my roommate, she explained that not only is raw milk not pasteurized, it's unhomogenized, meaning that all of the milk fat sits nicely on top. I didn't know any better, so I hadn't shaken the milk before I poured a glass. What I drank didn't just taste like pure cream, it was pure cream. Whoops. Chastised, I left other people's foodstuffs alone.