Got Raw Milk? That’s the slogan adorning Californian and raw milk farmer Mark McAfee’s t-shirt at the recent international raw milk symposium held in the O.I.S.E. auditorium. The symposium, titled “From Production to Consumption,” occurred in honour of Michael Schmidt, an Ontario farmer who has been convicted of selling raw, unpasteurized milk, a practice that is illegal in Canada.
According to Schmidt, he operates a “cow-share” program in which people buy a share of his cows, not the milk itself. But his battle isn’t based on milk—it simply began a campaign toward individual liberty.
Featured speakers at the symposium included Australian microbiologist, university professor, and food consultant Dr. Ron Hull, University of Michigan Medical School faculty alumnus and pathologist Dr. Ted Beals, Quebec medical physiologist Dr. Carol Vachon, and acclaimed chef and natural food advocate Jamie Kennedy. Experts in their fields, they provided the public with up-to-date research into the health and safety of raw milk.
In Canada and parts of the United States, public health officials state that drinking unpasteurized milk is a major health risk. Toronto Public Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) maintain that drinking raw milk is dangerous due to the array of bacteria it contains. Potentially deadly bacteria like Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, Listeria, Campylobacter, and Brucella can be found in raw milk. Public health officials take the position that pasteurization—the process of heating milk in order to reduce the number of viable pathogens present—protects consumers from the bacteria present in raw milk. Raw milk advocates claimed that targeting the “pathogens in milk” is poor use of terminology. They argued that there are bacteria everywhere, and virulent and non-virulent bacteria need to be distinguished from each other. For example, many strains of E. coli bacteria are harmless, but there are also types of E. Coli that can cause serious illness.
Unpasteurized dairy farms produce milk that is intended for immediate customer availability after production. In contrast, pre-pasteurized dairy farms send their raw milk to be pasteurized before it is obtainable by the public. Supporters present at the symposium said that milk quality is poor in pre-pastuerized dairy farms, and that cows on these farms live in large herds, are fed the cheapest grains, live very short lives, and have their milk pooled. In comparison, unpasteurized or fresh dairy farms have cows that live in small herds and graze in natural pastures as frequently as possible. Raw milk dairy farmers say they are not as concerned with getting the largest volumes of milk as mass milk industries. Fresh dairy farmers like Schmidt and McAfee refuse to pasteurize, put any chemicals in their milk, or administer it to UV treatment, saying it would eliminate the probiotic value. “We are all about quality,” says advocate Tim Wightman.
Many consumers today have a strong desire to return to natural foods. They have turned to raw milk, as it contains healthy bacteria such as Lactobacillus acidophilus, phosphates, and vitamins that are reduced in number or eradicated by pasteurization. Supporters of raw milk claim that drinking it provides greater biological competitive advantage by providing more resistance to infectious diseases. However, the CDC and FDA have stated officially that there is no evidence to support these claims.
