Raw Milk: Keeping it safe, healthy and legal!
Raw milk has been creeping into the spot that the once-radical term “organic” held twenty or so years ago. The idea of asking for your milk to come to you untreated and straight from the cow has moved from unheard of and fring-ey, to cutting edge, to “Gee, well that makes sense!” But to keep this wonderful trend moving in a positive direction, with support from government agencies and your neighbors alike, both producers and consumers will need to take extra care in ensuring that the responsibility is held with care.
For producers, that means adhering to best practices where animal husbandry, sanitation and careful testing are put into play. For consumers, it means knowing your farmer, having a working understanding of the possible risks and benefits of raw milk, knowing what questions to ask, and making informed decisions. Not all raw milk is created equal! Careful separation of animal feces from milking areas, clean equipment, healthy animals (proven so with appropriate screening for common diseases) and proper handling of milk is crucial to ensuring that the product customers buy can live up to its name as a superior food.
Historically, raw milk was certified by state agencies that would check out the aforementioned criteria on a working farm, and deem milk safe for consumption. Over the years, standards have shifted, the industry has taken on new breadth and meaning, evolving from a family-farm model to huge agribusiness, with the transportation of milk becoming transcontinental. Regulation has become concerned less with the farming practices, and more with the end result. Keeping animals in abhorrent conditions, as long as the final product undergoes pasteurization and homogenization, and is supplemented with synthetic vitamins, has acted as a pass to slack off on concern for the animal’s well being and nutrition.
People have been waking up to this, feeling disillusioned, and noticing a trend of increased physical intolerance toward the substandard product on the grocery store shelves. This now commonly manifests as dairy allergies, gastric problems, poor response to the synthetic vitamin D2 with which the milk is fortified – a substance linked to heart disease, hyperactivity and food allergies. Recognizing that they would prefer cleanliness at the other end on their dairy farms, and to drink milk from animals fed a diet that makes biophysical sense, consumers have increasingly begun to question what kind of sense this makes. It makes a lot of sense for an industry stretching its production, inching longer shelf-life out of an inherently fragile product, and turning a pretty profit at the expense of common sense.
What does that mean? It means that more and more, in your own neighborhood, there has been a grassroots effort to return to the old paradigm: One in which local people support their local farmer, who in turn cares about the customer/ neighbor, and shows integrity in the way the animals and milk are handled.
It is currently illegal to sell raw milk in the state of Alaska. You can go to the corner store for cigarettes, whiskey, Doritos and M&M’s, but raw milk is out! But don’t despair. Farmers and milk drinkers have found ways around this little problem. By investing in a herd with the purchase of a share, you can be part owner of a cow or goat, pay a small weekly fee for your animal to be fed and boarded and cared for, and in return, pick up your finished product each week. Dancing through this loophole, more and more families are supporting more and more local herds-people, who in turn are getting to know their customers more directly, and all involved are better able to support a local economy.
It is vitally important, if we care about the future accessibility of Nature’s perfect food, that we recognize our responsibility to be good ambassadors. Meaning, whether we are producing raw milk or serving it with dinner, we must all take care to act with integrity and respect the fragile balance of keeping it safe, healthy and legal. The pervasive attitude from government officials around raw milk is that tolerance is walking a tight-rope, and that with a slip, the house could come down on dairy herd share programs state-wide. This translates to all of us needing to make sure we follow strict rules, participate in best practices, and take personal responsibility in ensuring we are comfortable with the quality of the product. If we wish to maintain autonomy in the choice to sell and consume fresh, raw milk, we must govern ourselves.
Here is a list of questions to ask your farmer, when deciding to become a customer:
- Where do you milk your animals? May I see the milking area?
- Do you milk by hand or use a machine?
- How do you clean your equipment? Look at it with your own eyes to judge cleanliness.
- How do you chill your milk? (Just milking and sticking it in a jar in the fridge does not cut it. An ice water bath or cold tank must be used to ensure that unhealthy bacteria doesn’t grow in the milk while cooling.)
- Look at the condition of the animals. Healthy animals are clean, with healthy looking coats, bright eyes and happy.
- Check out the condition of the stables. Look for clean bedding and fresh water.
- May I see the records of tests on your animals that state they have been found to be disease-free?
- What are your animals fed? This is a big one. The Weston Price Foundation (www.westonaprice.org) has a wealth of information available online about the optimal diet of dairy animals. This is information based on traditional food wisdom that makes evolutionary sense. They suggest that when shopping for milk, you look for animals on pasture, eating hay and silage in the off season, and fed organic or sprouted grain - preferably without soy products at milking time. The more the grain is in an unprocessed, whole form, the better.
- If something doesn’t feel right, listen to that instinct. Ask questions until you are satisfied.
*Keep in mind that once you have a working relationship with your farmer, she or he will be open to hearing what you, their customer, wants!
