Holistic Feathers

Raw Milk

There are many supporters in favour of using raw milk as opposed to pasteurised milk; this is an interesting article which gives you a little bit of background …

Raw Milk – the Health Benefits and Safety
www.naturalmatters.net

Natural Matters Comment – we are often contacted by people looking for raw milk suppliers, it is a great shame that more people are not able to enjoy this valuable substance. Linked below are some other news pieces relevant to this issue

On Sunday 2nd December 2007, Countryfile ran a piece on raw milk, the “wise” people at Defra are pushing for more widespread use of UHT milk, a completely unnatural product, a spokesman on the show was aghast that raw milk is available. On the Countryfile website, the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health go even further, believing “it should be banned on the basis of risk – you might die if you drink it, and that is too high a risk”. Thankfully, the other side of the story was shown, and an organic raw milk producer talked of how she cannot meet the demand.

Useful resources for raw milk including some UK suppliers are:

http://www.seedsofhealth.co.uk

Raw milk may help prevent allergies

Untreated milk cuts children’s allergies

Whole milk banned in schools, a nutritional disaster?

The article below is from the Guardian, and they are asking people to join the debate, so if you are a fan of raw milk, then do head over and make your voice heard – www.guardian.co.uk/environment

Health agencies warn that unpasteurised milk can be dangerous to drink, but a growing number of people swear by it. Hugh Wilson reports.

On the edge of the beautiful but fragile Pevensey Levels nature reserve in East Sussex, Longleys Farm is a model of sustainable, small-scale agriculture. The farm is fully organic and teems with wildlife: a recent RSPB survey found 45 species of native birds on the farm, including eight whose numbers have declined nationally by more than 50% in recent years.

But Steve Hook, who runs Longleys with his father, Phil, believes the farm’s environmental credentials go further than that. Longleys is one of around 120 farms across the country that produces “raw”, unpasteurised milk. Long-held safety concerns over pathogens found in unpasteurised milk mean that it is banned in Scotland, and banned from shops and supermarkets in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. But producers such as the Hooks can sell directly to local consumers through farm shops, farmers’ markets and deliveries.

“Eleven months ago, we started out bottling one pint a week,” says Hook. “Now we sell 1,200 pints a week and the figure is growing, with nothing but word of mouth. We deliver to nearly 300 homes in Hailsham. It’s obvious that some people want to drink raw milk.”

Customers fall into two categories, he says. There are older people who remember drinking milk before pasteurisation and are drawn to its full and complex flavour. And then there are increasing numbers of younger people and families who are turning to raw milk as part of a shift towards unprocessed foods.

Holly Paige has been buying raw milk from a local farm in Totnes, Devon, for three years, and feeds it to her two young children. She is aware of the official warnings, but believes raw milk confers health benefits that its pasteurised equivalent can’t match. “First of all, it tastes gorgeous, far better than ‘normal’ milk,” she says. “I also think that pasteurisation turns what is a very healthy, nutritious product into one that the body finds hard to deal with. I’ve been giving raw milk to my kids for three years without any adverse effects. Provided the milk is produced in hygienic circumstances I’m fine with that. And I know the farm that supplies our milk well.”

Raw-milk advocates insist it is more nutritious than its pasteurised counterpart. According to the Campaign for Real Milk, a US group lobbying for the normalisation of raw milk, pasteurisation destroys key vitamins and minerals, and wipes out proteins that help to carry nutrients into the blood stream. Meanwhile, the results of a study by researchers at the University of London published in the Journal of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology last year suggest that children brought up on raw milk are less susceptible to a range of allergy-related conditions. According to these findings, just a couple of glasses a week reduced a child’s chances of developing eczema by almost 40% and hay fever by 10%: the researchers thought that raw milk could expose children to bacteria, vanquished from the pasteurised product, that prime developing immune systems.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) and other official health bodies, however, continue to warn against the consumption of raw milk. It has to carry a cigarette-style health warning, and though most experts agree that it has nutritional benefits, many argue that the risks of drinking unpasteurised milk outweigh them. The official line is that pasteurisation might destroy a few vitamins, but it also destroys harmful – even potentially fatal – bacteria such as listeria, salmonella and E coli.

“Although these products are very popular with some people, they could be harmful,” says an FSA spokeswoman. “Children, people who are unwell, pregnant women and older people are particularly vulnerable to food poisoning and so should not have unpasteurised milk or cream.” Professor Hugh Pennington, a retired microbiologist and expert on food poisoning outbreaks, agrees. He has said that “the risks from drinking unpasteurised milk are just too great”.

Richard Young, an organic farmer and policy adviser for the Soil Association, argues that such fears are outdated. Raw milk producers these days have to adhere to stricter hygiene standards than conventional dairy farmers, he says, and are tested by the Dairy Hygiene Inspectorate more regularly. Unpasteurised milk is a “living substance”, says Young, and contains a range of chemicals that attack invading pathogens. What’s more, he adds, the infections in cattle that can lead to human illness, such as tuberculosis and E coli poisoning, are far more likely to result from the intensive, industrialised farming that produces most of the milk destined for supermarket shelves.

“I am not aware of anyone even becoming unwell as a result of drinking milk from a registered unpasteurised milk producer,” says Young. “People who produce and sell it take the job very seriously. They tend to have closed herds or are very careful about where they get animals. Animal welfare tends to be particularly important to these small farmers. At the Soil Association we think this less intensive model produces herds that are less susceptible to illness, and milk that is healthy and safe.”

Holly Paige agrees that this is one of the key things that draws her to buying raw milk. “Dairy farming has quite a bad reputation, but the animals that provide our milk are treated with respect. Environmentally, the milk is only sold locally – it hasn’t been carted halfway round the county.”

Steve Hook says the food miles clocked up by his raw milk are “minuscule” – and there is a further energy saving achieved by not having to pasteurise it. Like other raw milk producers, he is also keen to forge a real connection between the farm and its customers. Longleys held an “open evening” this summer where customers could meet the cows that supply their milk and see the conditions in which they live. And each Longleys bottle is labelled with the name of the cow that provided its milk. “Our milk isn’t just a commodity,” says Hook. “We want our customers to get to know the herd.”

Safety concerns mean there are currently no plans to make raw milk available in shops in the UK, and Sustain, the “alliance for better food and farming”, thinks the government has got the balance between freedom of choice and public health about right. “I think it’s correct that people who want and value unpasteurised milk can get it, if appropriate measures over hygiene have been taken,” says Kath Dalmeny, Sustain’s policy coordinator. “And clearly there’s some benefit in shorter supply chains, smaller herds where animals may be better looked after, and a direct connection between consumers and farmers. But it’s not a simple issue. Pasteurisation was brought in because of major public health concerns. We certainly couldn’t argue that pasteurisation is not justified”.