Being involved in an aspect of the dairy industry has made me realized how much aspects of the industry are unsustainable for the future. I have had many years of experience with the changing of laws concerning raw milk, and I have seen first-hand consequences of raw milk. One of those aspects is the consumption of liquid raw milk, and raw milk products in the United States. It has become a more prevalent issue because of the rise of popularity of raw milk and health products over the past few years. Because of this, the amount of people and animals that have and can be affected my consuming these things. My sustainability proposal is to eliminate and ban all raw milk sales throughout the United States, starting with Colorado as it poses too much of a health and economic risk to consumers and the dairy industry. The costs of consuming raw milk will accumulate and become unsustainable in the long term. Consumers and producers need to become more educated about the risks associated with raw milk, and they will begin to see how it is not going to be a sustainable practice.
The difference between raw and pasteurized milk is slight, but it can make the difference between protecting the lives of humans and animals. According to the Federal Drug Administration, “Raw milk is milk from cows, sheep, and goats, or any other animal that has not been pasteurized to kill harmful bacteria.” (Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition). It is basically milking into your cup that you would directly drink right away Then the term pasteurization, “is a process in which certain packaged and non-packaged foods (such as milk and fruit juice) are treated with mild heat, usually less than 100 °C (212 °F), to eliminate pathogens and extend shelf life.” It is important to note that the change is just heating each individual particle of milk to kill bacteria, it is not changing any form or nutritional content of the molecule. There are three other main myths that are associated with how negative pasteurization can be. The biggest one being lactose intolerant people have less severe symptoms with raw milk than pasteurized. The second one being raw milk does not taste the same as pasteurized milk. Then finally pasteurized milk does not have the same nutritional value as raw milk. (Epublication) The media as a big influence in promote information about products whether is true or not. If the public was more educated about food that the consume it would help reduce the amount of raw milk consumption as well.
Drinking raw milk was a common practice many years ago and it died down over time until recently. Historically pasteurization was a huge feat in science and has led to saving society from huge outbreaks. Louis Pasteur is the grandfather of pasteurization hence the name. Chicago was the first city to enforce pasteurization as a municipal law in 1908. Then by 1924 the U.S Public Health Service developed the Standard Milk Ordinance to regulate healthy production of milk products throughout the United States.
Now the Standard Milk Ordinance is called the Grade “A” Pasteurized Milk Ordinance which is still in place to this day (State Milk Laws). This ordinance plays a large role in provide federal regulations and without it, protection of diseases would not be prevalent. With the technology of pasteurization, the milk industry as created a sustainability plan. If there was no regulation of dairy products it would lead to disasters with outbreaks leading to death and a flooding of the market. The flooding of the market would happen because anyone and their brother would be able to sell their milk to any person or store. Pasteurization has stabilized those factors for the future generations.
Although raw milk sales are only 3 percent of liquid milk consumed the amount drank is actually way more than you would think. That tiny percentage is actually amounting to 1.4 billion gallons of milk annually (Solodev). That is over a billion times a year that a huge outbreak can occur, potentially leading to severe illness. This is too many times to take a risk. One outbreak at it will ruin the dairy industry. This is why to sustain the health of the United States, it is not worth risking drinking the milk. Although these are sales in legal states, there is another factor that derails the whole point of having regulations and jeopardizes the industry even more. That is herd shares. Herd shares are when you can “purchase” part of a cow or goat. Then the farm can sell you raw milk because you are technically drinking the milk from your own animal. This creates issues because the owner of the farm does not have to meet any regulations because the owning the animal can allow you to avoid it. There needs to be better regulations on these farms to ensure they are following any protocols their state allows. Raw milk is a niche market and will not be able to sustain itself for years to come.
When you purchase pasteurized milk from the store you are not supporting a corporation, you are supporting the over 40,000 large scale dairy farms in the United States. Over 95 percent of them are family owned (Epublication). The economic side of the commercial dairy industry is a major contributor to the United States economy. Over thirty billion dollars annually is attributed to milk sales. (Progressive Dairyman). There are over 45 billion gallons of pasteurized liquid milk consumed annually in the United States as well. (Solodev) This shows how much Americans rely on pasteurized milk in their daily diets. Raw milk will ruin the popularity and economy of pasteurized milk sales if outbreaks are reported. People will just stop buying milk all together, and thousands upon thousands of farms will be lost. We have to choose the sustainable option, and that is to purchase pasteurized milk.
There are three major concerns of sustainability that arise even more so with the consumption of raw milk, some of which I have mentioned. They are food safety and contamination, economics, and regulation. There is a fifty times greater risk of causing foodborne illnesses with consuming raw milk. Raw milk and dairy products cause 840 times more illnesses and 45 times more hospitalizations than pasteurized milk and dairy products. (Lucey). Health experts warn that those with compromise immune systems, elderly, pregnant women, and children should not consume raw milk, as the risk of contracting illness is too high. I worked at a farm camp this summer, and they would serve raw milk to the children. I did not even think about the risks serving raw milk to kids until I did research on this project. That is where I feel the education piece has been missing, and consumers are not aware of the risks associated with drinking raw milk. If consumers are not aware of risks, they will continue to consume until there is a huge outbreak that could kill them. It is a very unsustainable practice to not include the education piece into the equation.
The contamination piece of raw milk is key as well. People do not realize that they can drink contaminated raw milk from healthy animals. There are four main ways that raw milk can become contaminated. The first is the direct method so hair, skin etc. of the animal comes in contact with the milk. The second one is mastitis which is the contamination of the udder. The third is fecal contamination so feces of the cow, goat etc. comes in contact with milk. Then finally human contact. (Lucey) It is easy for humans to contaminate raw milk because most raw milk facilities are small and have little to no automation. Since the milk is not heat treated the bacteria will continue to grow and multiply so you will end up drinking a highly infected glass of milk.
As I mentioned before the proper regulation is missing from the consumption of raw milk. Some state it is illegal to sell raw milk, then some states you can sell it. There are really no set-in stone regulation that are uniform across the board. So, if there was an outbreak from a state that it was illegal, it would be much more of a big deal than a legal state. This will create problems in the future because of the inconsistency. Getting permits in states that require them are extremely expensive. They can cost on average $50,000 dollars to just get the proper licensing needed, this is not including the equipment needed etc. The investment will not pay back for a long time. This leads to unsustainable issues because pouring money into a niche market when the trend will most likely fade in a few years.
Raw milk raises concerns for not just humans but animals too. There are many diseases that can be transmitted through milk. Some diseases include in goats Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis and Johnnes disease. For cattle, Mad cow disease or Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. (Lucey)These diseases are deadly and can cost the farmers thousands of dollars if animals contract diseases. If they pasteurize milk before feeding it back to the babies, they will not have to worry about contracting disease.
Choosing pasteurized milk is going to be the only way to sustain the milk industry for the future. It is not economically sustainable because of high costs of the product. It cost about 5 times the amount of pasteurized milk. On average raw milk costs about $14 per gallon for raw milk versus $3 per gallon for pasteurized milk (epublication). We are charging too much for raw milk, so it is encouraging people to illegally sell it, and we probably are not charging enough for pasteurized milk. We need to compromise definitely. In order to keep up with the growing population this milk needs to be pasteurized so people can actually afford it. In the future if we raise prices a lot Pasteurized milk also will prevent disease outbreaks because you know the bacteria has been killed by the heat. It also complies to all regulations, and does not break laws in any state, so everyone has access to it. The raw milk industry is a small scale compared to pasteurized milk, and it carries an extremely high risk. Pasteurized milk has large scale, and no risk. Which one will be more sustainable in the future? Definitely pasteurized milk!
When you are in the store next buying milk think of two things. The first being the health of humans and animals and chose to avoid the risk. The second being you are supporting an industry that will become extinct if we don’t start fully supporting them. The pasteurized milk industry is what is going to be around for many generations. There are many reasons to ban raw milk, or not support the raw milk industry. There are millions of people’s lives at risk when you consume it, and you could be putting thousands of unnecessary bacteria into your body. I asked the question in class if people thought raw milk was worth the risk to them. Most all of the class agreed that it is not worth the risk. Then others said if you want to be dumb and consume raw milk that is up to you. I know this is not going to make everyone change their thoughts on consuming raw milk, but it is important that people know the risks involved, and it is not going to be sustainable in the future. The pasteurized milk dairy industry is a huge part of the United States economy, and it is important that we keep it that way. Money cannot be the only driving factor when millions of lives are at risk from the consumption of raw milk. It has got to stop, or the dairy industry will fade away, and thousands of families will lose their livelihood. So please choose pasteurized milk for your health, animals health, and to support the pasteurized dairy industry forever!