Hillary Brenhouse, “Raw Milk Sales Could Reinvigorate U.S. Dairy Farms,” The New York Times, November 17, 2009
This New York Times special report chronicles a growing movement among organic dairy farmers to overturn state bans on the sale of unpasteurized milk. According to the report, 28 states currently allow sales of raw milk “in some form,” but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has deemed the product “inherently dangerous” and banned its interstate sale. Yet one advocacy group has reportedly claimed that farmers could receive $5 to $7 per gallon for raw milk sold directly to consumers. “Now, the weak market for pasteurized milk and its effect on dairy farmers is motivating some states to reconsider their ban,” maintains the article, which cites raw milk proponents who “say that pasteurization kills enzymes and bacteria that are nutritionally beneficial and aid in digestion and diminishes vitamin content.”
FDA officials, however, have apparently refuted these touted health benefits. The Times observes that the agency is currently reviewing its 60-day aging requirement for raw milk cheeses because the technique is “no longer thought to be effective” in destroying pathogens. In addition, the report notes, one farmer who testified earlier this year before New Jersey’s Agriculture and National Resources Committee “was concerned that the slightest case of illness from raw milk could be disastrous for the entire dairy industry.” As the Times reports, a 2008 listeria outbreak in Quebec led the Canadian government to recall 60,000 pounds of unpasteurized cheese and to require rigorous facility inspections, much to the chagrin of the Artisanal Cheese Maker’s Association of Quebec. “Right now the government is killing the raw-milk cheese sector in Quebec,” an association spokesperson was quoted as saying.
“Quebec’s severe rules regarding, in particular, levels of E. coli, make it so that many of our cheeses can’t be commercialized. But according to standards in Europe, they are perfectly fine.”
Meanwhile, the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA) and the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) have asked Congress to include raw milk facilities in food safety regulations when marking up the Food Safety Modernization Act (H.R. 875). “These facilities also remain exempt from existing regulations enforced by all states, which are known as the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (PMO),” stated a November 13, 2009, joint press release. IDFA and NMPF have called on Senators Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) to require “all facilities producing raw or unpasteurized milk products for direct human consumption to register with FDA and adhere to the tried-and-true food safety requirements that are followed by all other facilities producing milk products.”
The industry groups concluded that, “Raw milk products intended for human consumption have been associated with a much higher incidence of food-related illnesses. But these products and facilities producing them are not required to comply with the food safety plans, record keeping and access, and other regulations that are triggered by registration with FDA.” See FoodNavigator-USA.com, November 18, 2009.
