Organic Raw Milk - Is it Dangerous?

Back in the early nineteenth century when there was no refrigeration and a lack of public sanitation, bad milk was a common occurrence. In urban areas, cows were fed distillery waste, or swill, which made them undernourished and sick. Their milk was bluish and thin, and offered very little nutrition. Dairies were anything but sanitary and milk containers used for transport and delivery often reused without cleaning. So in 1862, when Louis Pasteur developed a process to extend the shelf life of wine and beer, the process was soon adopted all over the world and applied to milk. Pasteur's process, later dubbed pasteurization, involves heating food to such a degree as to kill any disease-causing bacteria, and has helped reduce the transmission of polio, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, tuberculosis and dysentery.

Today, selling unpasteurized or "raw" milk is illegal in 18 states, and in four others, it can only be sold for pet consumption. Yet the popularity of raw milk seems to be growing exponentially. The buy-local, Slow Food movement that started in Italy and has since grown worldwide has inspired hundreds of thousands of people to eat less processed food. Increasingly, people want foods that aren't treated with growth hormones or pesticides, and they want to buy them from local farmers whom they know and trust. The organic farms that sell unpasteurized milk today are vastly different from the dairies in the 1800s who didn't use or have access to refrigeration, milking machines, rubber hoses, stainless steel, hot water, or chlorine. Raw milk customers trust that their organic farming practices are enough to protect them from any harmful bacteria, and think the health benefits of raw milk outweigh any risk.

Milk is pasteurized by keeping it at a temperature 150°F (66°C) continuously for 30 minutes or 161°F (72°C) for 15 seconds. Raw milk advocates believe that in the process, beneficial bacteria are destroyed along with any pathogens. According to the Weston A. Price Foundation, unpasteurized milk is higher than pasteurized milk in Vitamin C, Calcium, Folic acid, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B6, Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Iron, Iodine and minerals. Many raw milk consumers believe it is responsible for building up their immune systems and relieving their allergies.

The number of outbreaks of food borne illnesses that can be traced back to raw milk are not that high. From 1998 to May 2005, the CDC identified 45 outbreaks of food borne illness that implicated unpasteurized, or cheese made from unpasteurized milk. These outbreaks resulted in approximately 144 illnesses and 15 hospitalizations per year, and a total of two deaths over the seven-year period. Overall, though, 76 million cases of food borne illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths related to food borne diseases occur each year in the United States. The CDC doesn't track the number of outbreaks linked to pasteurized milk, but does admit that outbreaks associated with pasteurized milk continue to occur.

For anyone interested in drinking raw milk, it is imperative to know where your milk is coming from. The safety and health benefits vary greatly based on the cow's diet, how and where it's raised, and how the milk is collected. Ideally, cows should be on an all grass, organic diet.

To find more information about raw milk visit: organic raw milk

Jennifer Read is the owner of http://www.mylifeintheslowlane.com, a social website for people who grow, cook and eat organic food.