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Raw Power
Posted by: erector2 on Aug 08, 2007 - 07:31 PM |
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Raw milk has achieved a cultural milestone: a puff piece in the NY Times featuring pictures of smiling New Yorkers (including babies!) in soft focus pictures admitting to risking "illness or even death to drink their milk the way Americans did for centuries: straight from the cow." Illness or death? That's how I would have described the risk of participating in one of New York's more celebrated events: the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4th. Actually, shouldn't that tag line be applied to the act of eating ANY foods from China at the moment?
Maine is one of the 26 states that allows the regulated sale of raw milk, as is New York. It's great to see people who are interested in learning more about their foods, how they are processed, and making their own choices about what to eat. It's also nice that fluid raw milk is largely a local food because it has a shorter shelf-life than pasteurized (or ultra-pasteurized) milk. But it's unfortunate that we still approach raw milk (and lately any raw food like spinach) as if it's nuclear waste. Pasteurization alone doesn't make food safe -- proper handling at every processing step makes food safe, whether it starts out raw or cooked. But given this constantly reinforced fear of raw products, one publicized incident where a raw food is blamed (justifiably or not) could cause our government regulators to outlaw this and every kind of raw food in the name of food safety. Salad greens from small farms are in danger of disappearing from store shelves because a gigantic greens processor in California had a hiccup in their quality control. Raw apple cider (and other fruit juices) were outlawed a few years ago, which drastically changed the Maine food landscape forever. Despite (or because of) the positive attention it has lately received, could raw milk and raw milk products be next?
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