There is inherent tension in our society between the role of government, and the rights of the individual citizen. Even in a free country, no freedom can be absolute, even though our government is accountable to the people for its ability to regulate aspects of their lives.
Nowhere is this friction more visible, or more curious, than in the current debate (such as it is) over the desire that a vocal minority of people have to consume raw milk. The federal government has long banned the sale of raw milk in interstate commerce, but in our federalized system of government, that opens the window for some states to allow the sale, or at least the acquisition through cow share programs, of raw milk. And a growing number are doing so.
That they are is thanks largely to a movement that has beatified raw milk into a product with miraculous powers. They’ve elevated it from the realm of the old slogan “nature’s most nearly perfect food” to something even a snake oil salesman would blush when describing.
Proponents claim it will clear up arthritis, heart disease, acne, indigestion, allergies, autism, and other maladies, many of which aren’t linked to what we eat or drink. Yet this lack of a causal effect seems to only more strongly fuel the conviction that raw milk has properties that everyone needs, even while proponents denounce the alleged evils of pasteurized (and/or homogenized) milk, asserting that the magic essence of raw milk goes up in smoke when it’s heated to the point where pathogenic bacteria are killed.
Where the science is absolutely clear is in this area of causation: consuming raw animal products exposes people, sometimes those with vulnerable immune systems, to a host of potentially lethal bacteria. Regrettably, the list is long: salmonella, campylobacter, Listeria, E. Coli 0157, tuberculosis, brucellosis. The presence of these germs has produced a body count: hundreds have been sickened by raw milk in the past decade, and at least seven people have died.
What’s ironic is that pasteurization was instituted as a major public health breakthrough in the early part of the last century, because you could never be certain whether milk was completely safe.
Even though we’ve come so far in improving the hygiene and sanitation on farms, processing plants, distribution trucks, retail stores and in people’s homes, that basic fact remains: we cannot be certain, even 100 years later, that all potentially harmful bacteria have been removed from the product, at any level of the distribution chain. Cows aren’t big on personal hygiene, and milk is a nutrient-rich medium well-suited for growing bacteria. Pasteurization remains our bulwark against the types of food safety scares that routinely shake consumer confidence in other foods and beverages.
Part of the role of government is to protect its citizens from threats that, through reasonable regulation, can be mitigated. I think it’s time to assert that the sale or distribution of raw milk, even in state-level commerce, ought to be prohibited. There is no compelling scientific reason to patronize raw milk; indeed, the science is clear that doing so routinely results in contaminated products being sold to an unsuspecting public. The raw milk boosters will scream that this is an unfair infringement on their right to eat as they choose, but that argument could be applied to almost every other practice that society chooses to regulate.
I also call on the International Dairy Foods Association and other organizations representing the dairy industry to join with us to encourage the Food and Drug Administration to preempt states from allowing the sale of raw milk in intra-state commerce. It’s the right time to do the right thing before this trend continues. FDA preemption was used on nutrition labeling and other product standards that aren’t even major public health concerns. Our passivity in the face of others’ promotion of this sham hurts the image of milk. It’s time the pendulum swung back toward the ability of government regulators to stop people from playing a game of Russian roulette that endangers not just their health, but also their kids’.
