We gotta talk about raw milk…because not talking about it is already killing people.

Some facts

1- raw milk does not cure cancer/IBD/name your disease

2- raw milk can save a dairy farm that is about to go under, it sells for that much more per cwt (that 100 weight in ag speak)

3- raw milk can contain pathogens that kill people

4- raw milk tastes good

5- children cannot give informed consent to drink it

6- consenting adults are allowed to take risks of their choosing

In short…raw milk is complicated.

Here is what is not working.

• Telling people not to drink it and then acting surprised when there is a black market for it.

• Farmers not being straight with their vets and doing adequate drug and vaccine withdrawls. Raw =/= organic folks. And organic =/= unvax'd. Real farmers vaccinate because it is economically devastating to lose an animal to a vaccine preventable disease.

• The price of 100 pounds of commodity milk is not quite $19/cwt; organic milk is about $64/cwt…raw milk is trading likely at over $100/cwt. That price difference is meaningful to farm families. That money buys heat, feed, and trips to the dentist. It puts food on the table.

But let's be straight here. Fire good. Brucellosis bad. Tuberculosis bad. Avian influenza is so bad it will make COVID look like a dress rehersal.

There are good reasons to pasteurize. 99% of the dairy I consume is pasteurized. But every so often I am on a farm and I know the cows and the farmers and dayum…raw heavy cream in your coffee is a thing to behold.

There are ways forward. Maine has a pretty good program. It just takes honest conversations and funding of labs and extension agents. It takes understanding that sterile food is neither necessary nor desirable for public health.