Debate over raw milk heating up

Cynthia Miller | The New Mexican

10/7/2008 - 10/8/08

Santa Fe nutritionist Lisa Giannini says her clients are sometimes stunned when she recommends they begin drinking unpasteurized milk. But soon after they begin drinking it, she says, most of her clients experience relief from their ailments.

Doug Wyatt of Sedona, Ariz., executive director of the Center for Nutritional Research, says for centuries, a cow was a "living pharmacy." Farmers used to deliver milk straight from a cow to a customer's doorstep; the cream rose to the top. "That was living milk."

Giannini and Wyatt are among a growing group of advocates on one side of the raw-milk debate. On the other side, the federal government is determined to convince consumers unpasteurized milk products are often swimming with disease.

"Raw milk is inherently dangerous, and it should not be consumed by anyone at any time for any purpose," U.S. Food and Drug Administration spokesman Michael Herndon says in an e-mail.

Giannini disagrees. Milk is "really a perfect food when it's raw," she says. She's seen it aid people suffering from asthma, allergies, pneumonia, constipation and stomach pains. "It heals the gut," she says, adding that it also boosts the immune system. "It has the right ratio of protein, fats and carbs. It's good for hair, skin and nails."

Wyatt's organization sponsors research on colostrum, the lactose-free substance also known as "immune milk" produced just after a mammal gives birth. He cites studies showing colostrum boosts athletic performance, gastrointestinal health and immunity. It is an effective antiviral treatment, he says, and shows promise fighting AIDS.

Raw milk, he says, provides the same health benefits. "Everything that is in colostrum is in raw milk."

The FDA Web site is unwavering in its warning that raw milk and raw-milk products — such as cream, cheese and yogurt — are not safe to consume, and it aims to debunk claims that pasteurization destroys milk's beneficial components. Pasteurization — a heating process that destroys microorganisms — was developed in the 1880s and was widely used for milk products by the 1930s amid a growing incidence of dairy industry-related illnesses.

The FDA lists a host of pathogens that could be found in milk that isn't pasteurized. Among them are Enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus, Campylobacter jejuni, salmonella, E. coli, listeria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Brucella.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also warns consumers of raw milk's risks. It reports 45 outbreaks linked to raw milk and raw-milk products nationwide between 1998 and 2005. The illnesses, more than 800, included 104 hospitalizations and two deaths. In the early 1980s, the agency reports on its Web site, dozens of schoolchildren were sickened in two separate outbreaks after drinking raw milk during field trips to dairy farms.

The cases involving children helped bolster the FDA's case against raw milk. The agency had proposed a rule restricting interstate sales of unpasteurized milk in 1973, but the regulation met resistance. During the following decade, the agency pressed forward with its case and adopted a ban in 1987. States may allow raw-milk sales within their boundaries — New Mexico is one of 28 states that do — but sales are prohibited across state lines.

Some state and federal agencies are cracking down on farmers who flout the laws: Mark McAfee was at the center of an FDA probe in California, accused of cross-border sales; Mark Nolt, a Mennonite in Pennsylvania who refused to renew a permit for raw-milk sales within that state's borders, has been jailed and fined. His products were confiscated twice. Farmers in New York have reported state officials pressuring them to stop selling raw milk or seizing their inventory.

Kaayla Daniel, an Albuquerque-based nutritionist, says "there's a huge grass-roots movement" to change laws restricting raw-milk sales. "People have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it."

Daniel is a member of the Weston A. Price Foundation and the Farm to Consumer organization, two groups that aim to connect raw-milk producers with people seeking their products. She says the groups offer assistance to farmers facing legal trouble and are keeping advocates informed about progress in the raw-milk movement.

It's not just a health issue, Daniel says. "People believe it's their constitutional right to buy raw milk."

The New Mexico Department of Agriculture's Dairy Division director, Alfred Reeb, stands somewhere in the middle of the raw-milk debate.

"We're proud we can offer it to the people," he says of raw milk. The state requires a permit, but the rules are "very simple, all in all."

A dairy must have inspectable milking facilities — a building with washable floors and a roof, a separate room to cool and bottle the milk, and potable water.

Raw milk used to be readily available in Santa Fe stores, supplied by about 50 cows at Rancho Las Lagunas in Nambé, Reeb says, but that dairy closed down about eight years ago or so.

Since then, no one has shown interest in operating a large raw-milk dairy. Most of Reeb's calls are from people who have one or two cows or goats, and they find the cost of setting up milking facilities is too high to make a profit from milk sales, even at $10 or $12 a gallon.

Unlike the federal government, Reeb isn't adamant about steering consumers away from unpasteurized milk, but he defends the FDA's position.

"The American population does not ingest a high level of bacteria, and other cultures do," he says, so Americans aren't as fit to fight off bacteria when they're exposed. "We just don't want people getting sick."




* Find out more about the risks of drinking raw milk at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Web site:
www.cfsan.fda.gov/~ear/milksafe.html
www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/rawmilk.html
www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/rawm-toc.html

* To read about outbreaks of illnesses associated with raw-milk farms, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site at www.cdc.gov/.

* Read about the New Mexico Department of Agriculture's retail raw-milk rule at www.nmcpr.state.nm.us/nmac/parts/title21/21.034.0002.htm.

* To learn more about the health benefits of raw milk and colostrum, visit:
www.realmilk.com/
www.icnr.org/

* Raw-milk dairy farmers who need legal assistance can find help at the Weston A. Price Foundation, www.westonaprice.org/, and the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, www.farmtoconsumerfoundation.org/.



* Sweetwoods Dairy, Peña Blanca; sells raw goat milk and cheeses at the Santa Fe Farmers Market; 505-465-2608.

* Sunshine Farms, Bosque Farms; sells raw goat and cow milk at the farm south of Albuquerque from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday;
505-869-3701.