A brief history of the raw milk debate

Raw milk is a highly contested issue in modern history. Is it a healthy nutrient-dense “cure-all” for nourishing your body, or is it a dangerous vector for spreading life-threatening disease? The two camps are split. It is a complicated issue with mixed battles of bad science vs. personal testimony, morals vs. politics, education vs. advertising, and big agri-business vs. small farms.

For thousands of years, nutrient-dense fresh raw milk has been a staple food for many cultures worldwide. This has never been a problem until recent history. During the Industrial Revolution in the early 1800s, whisky and milk were the two most popular beverages. A cutthroat entrepreneur came up with the unbelievable and revolutionary idea to confine cows in a factory-like setting and force feed them the hot swill byproduct from making whiskey. Produced in these unclean and unnatural conditions, this blue-tinted “swill milk” made many people sick and led to many deaths. This was a true public health issue, resulting in many infant deaths and a rise in life threatening illness. This historical pinpoint is the origin of raw milk getting its bad reputation.

Policy makers and businesses had two options: (1) Higher quality farming practices in city dairies; or (2) Pushing infected product from unhealthy animals.

Can you guess which choice big business made? The swill milk industry chose to mask the symptoms of swill milk by using additives like plaster, chalk, sugar, eggs, starch, flour, and pigments. These “bad” distillery dairies gave “good” small clean dairies a bad name. Eventually this truly horrid milk was busted for harboring deadly diseases. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) was a scientist who promoted pasteurization as a way to make milk safe for consumption. Philanthropist Nathan Strauss (1848-1931), co-owner of Macy’s, jumped on the pasteurization bandwagon and created milk factories that sterilized diseased milk. He, along with other big dairy owners, used his wealth to influence government agencies and advertise pasteurized milk to the public, including scary fake news articles in popular magazines.

Of course, there’s always the flip side. The Certified Milk Movement was led by Dr. Henry Coit (1854-1917). Dr. Coit, who believed in milk as a necessary healthy food, influenced the created the Medical Milk Commission and its standards to ensure production of clean, healthy milk from small farms. However, this milk cost 4x more than the unclean kind. Given the advertising efforts of the pasteurized milk businesses, can you guess which milk the public latched onto? Yup, pasteurized milk.

And the story goes on in a similar manner throughout the 1900s, with the two sides being divided and working against each other. Big agri-business advertises and lobbies for pasteurized milk (Got Milk?), which can be produced more cheaply. Small farms and families fight for their right to choose what foods are healthy to consume. The real kicker happened in 1987, when Ronald Reagan promoted the FDA ban interstate commerce of raw milk. This devastated (and continues to devastate) small farmers and the families that choose to consume raw milk.

Dairy farms, whether conventional or organic, are struggling in the US. Milk consumption has dropped over 30% since 1970. However, while the pasteurized milk industry is still on the decline, the raw milk industry is on the rise. It makes sense that big business would want to glean some of this business and lobby for government agencies to help. As it's said, history repeats itself.

Yes, the two camps are split. But, perhaps both are in the right, depending on the situation. It is undoubtedly true that unpasteurized milk produced in unclean conditions can be very dangerous. However, it is also true that clean raw milk can be a completely safe and nutritious food choice, especially with modern refrigeration, transportation, and testing technology. I would hope there is a way for both points of view to co-exist, to agree to disagree, and create policies that allow for basic human choice to consume what they view as healthy.

Thanks for bearing with me on this somewhat crude overview of the history of raw milk. If you are interested in learning more, I recommend the very informative videos created by Nourishing Liberty or perusing the realmilk.com website.