No Use Crying Over Raw Milk

This is a story I've been following off and on. It's not a particularly important story but I thought I'd comment on it. A great deal of people have been questioning the food supply recently.

The story is of an Ontario farmer who wants to sell raw milk. Raw milk comes right from the cow and is untreated. It is illegal to sell raw milk in Ontario. This farmer thinks that law is unfair because people should be able to eat what they wish. Unfortunately things are not this easy.

It's been illegal to sell raw milk for some 70 years. The reason dates back to the turn of the 20th century. Infant mortality rates in Toronto's poor districts were at an all time high. Causes of death were bacterial and viral infections. These infections were traced to raw milk. At the time, only the wealthy could afford the pasteurized product. The boards of health at the time decided to act. Areas were setup where low income families could obtain clean, pasteurized milk for free. Infant mortality rates dropped dramatically after this. Not long after, the sale of raw milk was banned.

The organic food trend has boosted demand for the product. There is a difference between organic milk and raw milk though. Organic milk is still pasteurized but comes from grain fed cows who haven't been given antibiotics. Pasteurization is a process of heating a liquid above a temperature in which harmful microbes cannot survive. There are no chemicals involved in the process, despite what proponents of raw milk claim. Raw milk is dangerous because it contains living diseases that can cause food poisoning. Humans are not really meant to drink cow's milk, which is what separates it from human milk. Human milk contains special antibodies that protects us from these illnesses, cow's milk does not.

I rarely agree with the Liberals but in this case I do. It's insane to put a potentially harmful food product on the market. You wouldn't sell, say carrot juice that's potentially contaminated. Why would milk be any different. Sometimes "rights" cannot trump public safety. If raw milk was legalized, I'd be willing to bet a few years down the road, someone would get sick from it and the government would get sued for allowing its sale.

There is no difference between raw milk and pasteurized milk, except for the latter being safe to drink. I don't see what the problem is here. I guess somebody will always be there to complain about something, no matter how trivial. Unfortunately, I doubt we'll be hearing the last from this.