Is raw milk healthier or unsafe?
What on happened on Tuesday’s Smart Talk:
Raw milk, that is unpasteurized, unprocessed whole milk, is available from licensed retailers in Pennsylvania. The FDA and CDC have repeatedly warned about the health hazards of consuming raw milk, including the transmission of bacteria such as Listeria, E. Coli and Salmonella.
Dale Stoltzfus is the general manager of Oasis at Bird-in-Hand, an organic food retailer who sources food locally, including raw milk. He feels the concern is overstated.
“People do get ill from foods that are supposed to be safe, too. And I think there’s people . . . drinking pasteurized milk do have illnesses, sometimes too.” Stoltzfus told SmartTalks’s Scott LaMar. “The raw milk is more complete and more healthy.”
There are still twenty states where sales of raw milk are prohibited for human consumption. But in Pennsylvania, “you can sell fluid raw milk and sixty-day or longer aged raw milked cheese.” That’s according to Dr. Lydia Johnson, Director of the Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services, a division of the Pennsylvania department of Agriculture. “You have to have a permit, however.”
The state requires veterinary exams of all cows and goats before any raw milk can be collected for distribution. “We’re going to ask them to test the milk every couple of months. We’re going to ask them to get a bacteria count, a coliform count . . .”
Dr. Johnson is aware of the risks, but concedes her department is tasked to honor the word of law: “CDC and FDA have done a lot of different studies, however raw milk has been legal in Pennsylvania for a long time . . . we are trying to control the risk, and it’s a consumer choice.”
That risk came to a head when the death of a Florida woman was attributed to a listeria outbreak traced to raw milk from the Miller Organic Farm, also in Bird-In-Hand. The Millers are not permitted to produce or distribute raw milk. Officials linked listeria in the Miller’s milk to the listeria in the dead woman’s body. A federal judge has ordered USDA inspectors to investigate the farm after the owner resisted previous inspections.
Colin Deppen has covered the Miller Farm for PennLive.
“He has resisted, and he has become a cause celebre in certain circles, food choice circles in particular, who feel he is wrongly targeted, who criticize authorities for being overzealous, for being heavy-handed.”
Deppen is referring to the manner in which some government officials have approached raw milk enforcement. Raids by armed police and federal agents do occur, and this helps propel raw milk advocates into something of an outlaw caste. While some embrace this, others are more interested in finding legal pathways to raw milk distribution. In the case of Pennsylvania, that means careful inspections of raw milk facilities, but Dr. Johnson also concedes some of the onus is on the purchasers:
” . . . it is a situation where a consumer has to make a decision and therefor you have to weigh the risks that you’re willing to take.”
Also, on Tuesday’s Smart Talk Franklin and Marshall College political analyst and pollsetr Dr. G. Terry Madonna summarized Monday night’s presidential debate and concluded that in his opinion, it would help or hurt either candidate.
Finally, renowned golf writer Marino Parascenzo said the late Arnold Palmer, who died Sunday at age 87 was not only a great golfer but had personal magnetism.
