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Written by DCist Contributor Stephanie Taylor
Douglas Powell, a food scientist at Kansas State University, told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that consumers who seek raw milk are just part of a trend embraced by an affluent, food-obsessed culture. Whether you think affluence is part of the question or not, there are a growing number of Washingtonians who are doing just that, and they have organized themselves to bring un-pasteurized milk to the District, despite having to skirt various laws in order to do so.
This lactic contraband is milk that has not been pasteurized (to kill bacteria) or homogenized (to prevent the separation of butterfat in the milk). The kind purveyed in underground markets generally come from hormone and antibiotic-free cows that have been fed green grass in the summer, spring and fall and other natural products in the winter. Raw milk is currently the subject of controversy around America, with heated advocates on both sides of the debate.
Here in the District, raw milk proponents have gotten organized.
Photo by christaki.
Underground networks have coordinated themselves to bring raw milk (and raw milk derivatives such as cheese, yogurt, and sour cream) to the greater D.C. area. One of D.C.'s major networks, which asked us to remain unidentified due to its illegality, receives its wares from a farmer who raises Jersey milking cows: those reputed to produce the creamiest milk. Customers usually order their food a week in advance and pick-up their orders at various locations throughout the metro area. It's all organic, meaning the farm has been free from chemicals for seven years (the U.S. government only requires a farm to be pesticide-free for five years before it can be labeled "organic"), although this farmer did not bother with official certification.
One network in the city started with a mere 20 people two years ago, and now has more than 850 members. One of the group's founders estimates that there are more than 5,000 people in the D.C. area alone who receive products through their extended groups.
"All we have had to do was put our foot forward, and it took off," the group founder says. "So many people are looking for this type of food and it's impossible to find."
More specific information about this group, and those of like-minded beliefs and palates, spreads only via word-of-mouth (meaning we can't tell you how to reach them). This is out of necessity, since raw milk is currently illegal in 22 states, including Virginia and Maryland, as well as the District, according to a Weston A. Price Foundation-sponsored website, which tracks legislation. Five states permit the sale of raw milk for animal consumption but not human, but that doesn't stop some individuals from sharing the "pet food" with the rest of the family. In other states, laws allow for people to drink raw milk from their own cow, so cow-sharing programs have been established. Virginia is one of them, and cow-shares are available through the Herndon Chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Activists for raw milk say pasteurization destroys enzymes, diminishes vitamin content, kills beneficial bacteria and promotes pathogens. Drinking pasteurized milk can aggravate allergies and lead to increased tooth decay, colic in infants, growth problems in children, osteoporosis, arthritis, heart disease and cancer, raw milk proponents say.
But the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration aren't sold. Government officials claim there is no added health benefit from drinking raw milk, and it could contain deadly bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, campylobacter and brucella. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says between 1998 and 2005 there were 45 outbreaks of food-borne diseases tied to non-pasteurized milk and cheese. Because of these outbreaks, more than 1,000 people got sick and two died.
There's currently a heated debate in the Pennsylvania state legislature whether to loosen or tighten current laws governing sale and distribution of raw milk in the state. Proponents of the sale of raw milk will acknowledge there is a health risk, but they believe it's small—especially compared to what they see as the potential benefits. They do, however, stress the importance of knowing your supplier and how she treats her animals.
As the battle rages on in health journals, legislatures and living rooms, the faithful will stick to their diets. Those looking to join them can do so by looking around in online communities. You'll have to find them for yourself, though. After all, anything tastes better the harder you've worked for it.
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Yes, they have gotten organized, and good for them. Though really, there have been ways to get raw milk in DC for years now -- it's just that there's been something of a tipping point about it in the last couple.
There are also organic beef and chicken producers, and a whole host of farm shares in our midst. And those are all legal, which raw milk is not. Whether the laws surrounding milk production are valid or not, if people are interested in locally produced food, they have a lot of options here in DC and the metro area.
That "milk" looks a little smokey if you know what I mean....
Anything that gives yuppies e coli and violent explosive diarrhea is okay in my book.
To me, the pic looks less bong-ey and more juggsey, which I suppose is apropos.
I'm 100% sure that the stuff would give me explosive diarrhea, so I'll stick with pasteurized for now, thanks.
-Mr T in DC
Wouldn't raw milk also be like incredibly fattening? Wouldn't that (in combination with the russian roulet that is the bacteria issue) off-set any of the supposed claims? Whenever I drink whole milk, I feel like I'm drinking a melted milk-shake.
You can talk about organic this-and-that all day long, but a diet high in fat is bad for you, any way you cut it.
I doubt it tastes all that different. It's more of a political statement.
I prefer human milk from the source anyway.
Reid: Since it isn't homogenized, you could let it settle and skim the cream off the top.
Yeah, Reid, it's easy to make it skim milk. And there's really a low likelihood of getting e-Coli because generally speaking, raw milk is coming from much, much smaller dairy farms, maybe fewer than 20 cows. Part of why we need to pasteurize milk these days is because it's coming from overseas, from factory farms, so in one gallon of milk you could be drinking from the cumulation of 500 cows. I bet that gets Monkey's thoughts going! The bacteria issue is on the whole, overblown, and when you look at the history of laws around the processing of milk, it's more about the US Government trying to keep things like chalk dust out of it, since a couple of centuries ago, things like that were used as filler. It was pretty gross stuff.
Um, people have been drinking milk straight from cows for hundreds of years. If it was poison, we would have moved on to Goats a long time ago.
Pasteurization only came into fashion in the 1800s when US dairies began to produce low quality raw milk for inner cities like Boston and New York. They were feeding their cows crap, not providing them with open pasture, they didn't have or use refrigeration, didn't sanitize their equipment. People got sick, millions of 'em. But at the same time milk from healthy cows from the countryside was treated as the best medicine. The Mayo Clinic even used raw milk as a disease-curing medicine.
If your cows are healthy, have access to pasture and are milked in sanitary conditions, you shouldn't have a problem. It's common sense.
Gross. Why do "affluent" people like the worst stuff about food? Duck insides? Pig toes?
Gross. Why do "affluent" people like the worst parts of food? Duck insides? Pig toes?
Oh, ok. But are people really skimming the milk, or are they mostly drinking it straight? It seems from some of the stuff I've read that they see a benefit to the fat as well.
As someone who drinks whole milk voluntarily (and likes it!) I think there's something to be said for having some fat in your diet.
I have super low cholesterol and perfect blood pressure and if anything am underweight. I'm not going to pass up some nice fatty food if I want to eat/drink it on occasion.
They might be doing both. When buying whole beets, you get both the beet and the greens. When you buy raw milk, you get the milk and the cream. The cream can be mixed in or skimmed off and used for whatever. Or, you can use it all and make your own butter.
While I personally wouldn't drink unpasteurized milk, I don't see why people shouldn't be allowed to drink unpasteurized milk from a farm that has
Raw milk can be found at the Mt. Pleasant Local Food Market at 3200 Mount Pleasant St. NW, a subsidiary of Real Foods Markets. The organization pays a sizeable philosophic debt to the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Weston Price was a quack dentist in the 1930s who passed himself off as a nutritional expert promoting an animal based diet as the key to good health. He and his namesake foundation are on par with Dr. Atkins as qualified health experts. Nina Palanck, a food writer and Price adherent, stirred controversy with her factually challenged op-ed in NYT on the dangers of raising vegan children. Ms. Planck grossly misstated the facts about an Atlanta child abuse case involving malnutrition by non-interventionist vegan parents who did not seek emergency care for their undernourished child (ie starved -- not misnourished. The NYT Public Editor published a highly critical response to Ms. Planck's piece that correctly cited a 2003 ADA study about the safety of a "well-planned vegan diet" for all "phases of the life cycle."
Ms. Planck was also featured in an NYT article on the growing market for raw milk. I personally do not care what personal preferences anyone makes, and raw milk supporters are perfectly within their rights to assume the risk for themselves and their families. It just bugs me to hear people talk about a fundamental need for humans to consume cow milk (raw or otherwise) -- just as human babies rely on mothers' milk, cow milk is only essential to baby cows.
When I buy non-homogenized milk I do indeed skim the cream off the top. You can use that for your coffee, or has already been suggested, whip it up for butter. I love my Kitchen Aid mixer.
Now beet greens, on the other hand, I'm not such a fan of those. And had I known that so many of my zucchini blossoms were not planning on turning into zucchinis, I would have fried them up and eaten them that way instead. Live and learn.
Adults shouldn't be drinking milk anyway-- the high rate of lactose intolerance in humans is proof of this.
Well, for the record, I love milk. I could drink it all day. Mmm, mmm, mmm. It must be what makes me such a bleeding heart liberal.
Milk made me gay!!!!! ZOMG!
Thanks for your info on the Price Foundation, DC1. But as far as vegans, this seems to fit. I'm paraphrasing here:
By the way, I just want to officially coin the phrase "liberty milk" for raw milk from here on out. please credit me if you use it.
"Adults shouldn't be drinking milk anyway-- the high rate of lactose intolerance in humans is proof of this."
Yep, we shouldn't go outside either, as the high rate of skin cancer proves...
Raw milk can't be more dangerous than cigarettes ... if the government feels that strongly about it let it be sold with a warning label. Give people the right to choose!
23: That makes too much sense.. plus the organic lobby is minuscule compared to the traditional milk/ag lobby.
Adam
So what -- am I gay or a tyrannical dictator? You'll need to be more clear
I'll quote myself here since your closed mindedness can't let you get past the word "vegan" (which I happen not to be):
I personally do not care what personal preferences anyone makes, and raw milk supporters are perfectly within their rights to assume the risk for themselves and their families
Such remarkable wit and insight! Why not drag out the tired disproven myth that "Hitler was vegetarian"?
Next time I feed trolls like you it will be soy-based. Choke on that.
I grew up on a dairy farm and until my parents sold our 70-head, I had never had the pleasure of experiencing purchased milk with the exception of that which is provided for you in your elementary/high school lunch.
With such said, the idea of drinking unpasteurized milk living in a city like Washington is quite a turn off. Sure its fine, when you take your own pitcher out to the barn and fill it straight from the bulk tank, but letting it flow down the supply chain whether from a farm just outside the city or from Wisconsin leaves too much to chance. Further, I trust larger family farms ("factory farms") to take much more care in ensuring a lack of contamination in their milk than Farm Joe, who can only afford to stay in business because he is selling his milk for twice the price as "organic" and "raw".
Additionally, most cooperatives or companies that purchase milk from farms test each farm's milk and require that milk from cows on certain mediation be removed from the production system until the medicine is no longer provided. Since I'm already ranting, I will also add that I wouldn't want Oreo or Misty, two of my favorite cows as a child, to not get medical care when they were sick, much like I wouldn't want my parents to have not provided me medicine when I got an infection.
However, this is a capitalist society, so if people want to buy less-safe/less-healthy milk because its not gone through a process that causes minimal changes to the final product, fine, but don't expect to start suing the company that provides you your milk should its health standards not be as high. Its a niche, market and as long as my pasteurized milk is available, I don't care what the guy next door drinks.
No seriously, the digestive systems of humans (as well as other animals) are not designed to digest milk into adulthood...
Meh, I'll stick with good old-fashioned Malk. It helps me keep my skin its yellowest.
I'm not necessarily interested in drinking raw milk, but sour cream, yogurt, and cheeses made from raw milk are amazingly tasty.
Everything I Do is Illegal
A fairly related essay written by a farmer named Joel out in Virginia. I found it phenomenally insightful, and being a boy who spent years in 4H before finding himself in the farmless land of Logan Circle, I think its a must read.
Hope you do, too.
I tried fresh from the cow milk that a friend brought in from her farm - absolutely delicious, creamy, rich! I would drink that every day if I could!!!!!!
They were feeding their cows crap, not providing them with open pasture, they didn't have or use refrigeration, didn't sanitize their equipment. People got sick, millions of 'em
you mean, sort of like our industrialized agriculture industry is now?
I sincerely hope raw milk is legalized and begins being mass-produced so it will kill off half the US population.
26: The idea that small farms are inherently disinterested in safety is quite suspicious.. and no one mentioned lawsuits until your post.
27: The digestive system of humans was not designed. It evolved over millions of years. A few thousand years ago, many european peoples mutated and continued producing lactase throughout adulthood, which enables proper digestion of lactose. Note that lactase is present in raw milk but is destroyed during pasteurization.
30: That is Joel Salatin, who was featured in the Omnivore's Dilemma.
33: Safety and liability relate to any good transacted in an underground economy rather than any inherent safety issues due to scale of operation. The risk may be overstated, but it does exist and any potential consumer should fully understand and accept it.
Omnivore's Dilemna is a good reference for this debate, and recommended reading for anyone interested in better understanding the role of humans in the food chain.
Monkey: I prefer rat's milk myself.
Anyone who thinks pasteurization is only needed for big modern factory farms needs a lesson in history. When Louis Pasteur created the method in the 19th century, the typical dairy farm was exactly like the tiny dairy farms raw milk zealots idealize today, and yet milk transmitted illnesses were a real problem. They aren't today because of widespread pasteurization. As a microbiologist myself, I find it really depressing how some people seem to want to undermine all progress in public health these days for no real benefit. Raw milk enthusiasts. People who refuse to vaccinate their children. What's next -- an anti-indoor plumbing movement?
the nytimes did a big story about this a few months ago. might have been worth linking to that...
Just wanted to make sure you all don't think that all food scientists think like the one quoted in this story. I really can't see this becoming a major public health issue because (a) most milk drinkers are not going to like raw milk (it tastes and feels very different) - thanks to food processing we no longer know what real milk tastes like and (b) those that do are (like has been pointed out here) going to source it from safer farm environments. People should be allowed to make their own choices -- but, then if they do, they also have to be held accountable. If you're interested in taking action on food policy (and you should be) -- check out my blog: www.foodkarmaalert.blogspot.com