CHECK OUT Robert Wright’s article 'The Raw Milk Real Deal'
Thanks to my economically-minded friend Nelson Mead for sending me a link to this article by Robert Wright, Fellow of the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) entitled The Raw Milk Real Deal.
The one point that I disagree with in the whole article is that 'consuming raw milk is indeed more dangerous than consuming pasteurized milk'. Yet the FDA and my former employer FSIS determined in a 2003 QMRA [quantitative microbial risk assessment] that raw milk and pasteurized milk were BOTH high risk foods linked to listeriosis.
Listeriosis deaths were documented in the US and Canada from pasteurized milk and ice cream made from it in recent years. When were the last deaths attributed to consuming raw milk documented in the US and Canada? When were the last deaths attributed to raw milk in an individual without significant co-morbidities? Were any deaths attributed to children since the days of ‘swill milk’? Check out these peer-reviewed papers.
Condran and Crimmins, 1980. Mortality differentials between rural and urban areas of states in the northeastern United States 1890–1900.
Crimmins and Condran, 1983. Mortality variation in US cities in 1900: a two-level explanation by cause of death and underlying factors.
Eagan, 2005. Organizing protest in the changing city: Swill milk and social activism in New York city, 1842–1864.
Obladen, 2014. From swill milk to certified milk: progress in cow's milk quality in the 19th century.
Alsan and Golden, 2019. Watersheds in Child Mortality: The Role of Effective Water and Sewerage Infrastructure, 1880 to 1920.
Feigenbaum et al., 2019. Regional and racial inequality in infectious disease mortality in US cities, 1900–1948.
Robert Wright is right on point with his next observations. 'Like so much government disinformation, that claim [that 'raw milk can contain a wide variety of harmful bacteria'] is only partially correct. Bovine milk can become contaminated with anything after it leaves the cow’s udder due to unclean milking or handling processes but to suggest that milk from healthy cattle naturally teems with such nasties is disingenuous.'
The FDA claim is also NOT supported by a huge and expanding body of evidence characterizing the natural microbiota of milk. Consider these studies.
Breitenwieser et al., 2020. Complementary Use of Cultivation and High-Throughput Amplicon Sequencing Reveals High Biodiversity Within Raw Milk Microbiota.
Oikonomou et al., 2020. Milk microbiota: what are we exactly talking about?
Wu et al., 2019. Rumen fluid, feces, milk, water, feed, airborne dust, and bedding microbiota in dairy farms managed by automatic milking systems.
No food is risk-free, but the FDA certainly does appear to be 'disingenuous' at best in its campaign against raw milk. Robert Wright later states that 'paternalistic governments banned raw milk, as if it was a really dangerous substance, like cigarette tobacco.' The closing paragraph of this article sums it up nicely.
'Americans don’t need government officials telling them what to do and what not to do. They do need clear, honest data and risk assessments unbiased by profit or ideological motives. The government, however, increasingly appears incapable of providing even that, even when it comes to foundational needs like nutrition.'
Is it time to update the QMRAs [quantitative microbial risk assessments] to consider data from the 21st century and objectively assess risk with attendant uncertainties for raw and pasteurized milks for Listeria monocytogenes and all the foodborne pathogens that are feared to be present in raw milk?
Is it time to update the evidence supporting and challenging the need for an interstate ban on raw milk, raw butter, and raw kefir that are NOT causing deaths in the US when modern raw milk producers apply Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) programs or Risk Analysis and Management Plans (RAMPs) to minimize risks, consistent with training for dairy farmers listed with Raw Milk Institute?
What costs and benefits are associated with the 1947 mandate for pasteurization and the 1973 ban on interstate shipment of raw milk? Who benefits? Seems to me, neither family farms nor consumers benefit, and costs to public health include the pandemic of allergies, asthma, and inflammatory diseases associated with pasteurized and perhaps ultra-pasteurized and boiled milks.
I am curious to hear from another economically-minded colleague, former FDA risk analyst Richard Williams, and from my colleague Mark McAfee of the Raw Milk Institute mentioned in the AIER article, about their perspectives on this article by Robert Wright and my commentary.