The Raw and the Cooked of Milk

I will be honest: I don’t know much about raw milk, but I want to learn more. I’m hoping this can start a discussion about the issue.

Right now, in my fridge, I have a bit of raw milk from a farmer in Waterloo Region. In a cute little glass, it looks like this:

Raw deliciousness.

As for taste, it is rich, creamy, and delicious. As for idealism, it just seems so natural and real and that’s another reason why I love it. As for politics … well, that is mostly the issue that we’re left with.

I trust the person I have who gave me the milk. I’d trust that person with any food issue. And yet, you just can’t get raw milk in Ontario. Michael Schmidt in Durham is witness to that. Schmidt was guilty on 15 of 19 charges related to doling out unpasteurized milk from his Glencolton Farm late last year. The judge, one Justice Peter Tetley of the Ontario Court of Justice, reversed a previous decision that acquitted Schmidt of the same charges. That’s the raw and the cooked of raw milk from that perspective.

The company line–that is the Government of Canada–is pretty clear: Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) say don’t drink raw (unpasteurized) milk “because it could contain bacteria that can make you seriously ill.” It could; but it didn’t when I drank it. I guzzled several glasses of the ambrosia and I’ve lived to tell the tale.

On “the udder” side of the issue, raw milk proponents–one whom is made ill by pasteurized milk–have rallied in support of Schmidt and other cow-sharing programs. They’ve rallied and protested and are insistent they should have the right to the personal decision to consume raw milk.

Where it touches me most is with cheese: I want more and better raw milk cheeses. The scoop with raw milk cheese is thus: it is made from raw milk it is permitted to be sold under certain manufacturing conditions which reduce bad bacteria, but that process also prevents the cheese from attaining “great French cheese status.” More’s the pity.

So let’s open up the dialogue and get some raw milk talk rolling. Let the marketplace of ideas decide.