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Opinion: Unprocessed and Underrated: Committing Heresy Against the Modern World

Opinion Editorial By: Zach Bentley, Journalism Intern | BCS Chronicle

What You Need To Know:

  • This opinion editorial challenges the historical and ongoing demonization of raw milk, arguing that pasteurization was originally a necessary but temporary solution to the unsanitary conditions of the Industrial Revolution.

  • This opinion piece explains that pasteurization addressed symptoms rather than root problems, enabling poor practices in industrial dairy production while sidelining safer, local dairy operations.

  • Today, many small-scale dairies producing raw milk meet high cleanliness standards, and raw milk offers nutritional benefits—such as bioavailable enzymes and reduced allergy risk in children—that are diminished or destroyed through pasteurization.

  • The opinion piece advocates for consumer choice and informed decision-making, asserting that raw milk should be seen not as a dangerous relic but as a legitimate, nutrient-rich option in the modern food landscape.

Since the advent of the industrial revolution, regulators, the educated elite, and the mainstream media have treated raw milk as a threat – an unpasteurized menace lurking and daring to defy modern safety standards. Yet, as we have seen since the COVID-19 pandemic, not all things presented to us are as they seem.

A History of Pasteurization

The story of pasteurization is often told as a triumph of science over sickness, a turning point in public health that rendered milk safer and more modern. What is rarely discussed, however, is how the conditions that gave rise to the need for pasteurization no longer reflect the modern day reality of the dairy industry.

In the 1860s, Louis Pasteur developed the process of pasteurization to prevent the souring of beer and wine. It wouldn’t be until many decades later that this process would begin to be applied to milk to solve the challenges of the day resulting from the horrific and grim conditions of urban dairies during the Industrial Revolution. At the time, cows were often kept in cramped filthy stalls, fed distillery waste, and milked in unsanitary environments. The resulting milk was often contaminated, nutritionally deficient, and deadly – especially for infants. This contaminated milk eventually led to the deaths of thousands of children. In this context, pasteurization was a lifesaving solution. Many of our food safety laws were created during this time of industrialization.

But pasteurization wasn't a cure to the problem; it was a band-aid. Rather than improving the conditions by which milk was produced, it allowed dangerous milk to be made "safe" after the fact. It provided legal cover for poor practices, enabling large dairies to operate without reforming their methods. It also enabled the growth of big dairy and displaced local dairies in favor of mass production and products with longer shelf lives.

Today, many of those dangerous conditions no longer exist – at least not in the licensed small-scale farms that supply raw milk to informed consumers. Many small dairies producing raw milk operate with cleanliness and transparency. Their cows graze on open pastures, their equipment is sterile and state-inspected, and they test regularly for pathogens. These operations are a world apart from the industrial hellscapes that once necessitated pasteurization.

A Case for Raw

With this historical context addressed, the nutritional case for raw milk can now be presented.

Unlike pasteurized milk, raw milk contains many bioactives, bioavailable nutrients, and naturally occurring enzymes such as lactase, the presence of which may help some lactose-intolerant individuals digest it better. Vitamins that are heat sensitive such as B6, B12, and C, can be reduced significantly during pasteurization. Pasteurization also diminishes or destroys antibodies and beneficial probiotics that support immune and gut health. A 2021 Cornell study showcased the important role that milk bioactives play in nutrition and immune function and breaks it down per bioactive.

Perhaps most striking are the health benefits seen in children. Many European studies, including an article from The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, found that children who consumed raw milk from local dairies had significantly lower asthma and hay fever rates. Another study from JACI also demonstrated that the consumption of raw milk in early childhood was associated with reduced respiratory infections.

These nutritional benefits are regularly left out of policy discussions focused solely on microbial or pathogenic risk.

The Raw Milk Institute is the leading advocate for raw milk consumption in the United States. Their website has links to many of the peer-reviewed studies mentioned in this article. 

Another great resource to learn more about raw milk and raw milk research is the British Columbia Hershare Association. They also have a vast resource library for further reading on the topic.

Conclusion

None of this is to deny that consuming raw milk carries risks, but consumers are trusted to navigate the risks of sushi, raw oysters, or rare steak, which carry their own contamination risks. Of note, pasteurized dairy has been recalled many times since the Food and Drug Administration mandated pasteurization for interstate commerce in the 1980s. One notable recent event was the multistate Listeria outbreak with Blue Bell Ice Cream in 2015 which led to the recall of all its products and the temporary shutdown of all production. The outbreak was connected to three deaths and ten reported cases according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The historical context presented in this opinion editorial matters and it helps explain why defenders of raw milk aren't reckless health radicals, but rather thoughtful critics of a one-size-fits-all approach. They aren't asking to abolish pasteurization but to recognize that it was a solution designed for a man-made problem.

If you want to buy pasteurized milk from a grocery store made on an industrial farm, do that. If you want to buy local and support your local dairy, do that. Raw milk isn't a relic of a bygone time; it is an option that we, as consumers, should have a choice to consume for its nutritional benefits and rich tradition.

If you want to support your local dairy, GetRawMilk.com is an online database showing where you can find a local dairy and learn more about the milk products they produce.

Works Cited In This Opinion Editorial

Disclaimer:

This article is an opinion piece and does not reflect the views or editorial stance of the BCS Chronicle.