The Complete Patient

There’s a powerful need by those opposed to consumers having free access to raw milk to say, “I told you so.” Each time there is a report of illness potentially associated with raw milk, these people go ballistic. It’s the old “gotcha” routine.

The latest example comes from a situation in Connecticut in which four children who consumed raw milk from the state’s only organic dairy became ill over the last week. (A few comments following my previous post refer to it.) “I have been blogging about raw milk for awhile – I am busier than ever,” chortles germ lawyer Bill Marler on his blog, reporting on the Connecticut situation.

Because these cases often are pretty well divorced from reality by the time people like Marler get hold of them, I called the farm, Simsbury Town Farm Dairy. It turns out it’s not a conventional farm, but is instead owned by the small town of Simsbury and operated by a nonprofit organization known as The Friends of Town Farm Dairy.

Bill Dryden, president of the organization, told me that the town has owned the farm since 1883, when it was “deeded to the town for the benefit of the poor.” People who couldn’t make ends meet could come to the farm and earn their food and shelter at the farm by working there.

That approach ended in the late 1940s as the move to cities and the demise of farming gained speed. Too bad—it might help a lot of people being put out into the streets by the subprime mortgage mess. Since then, the farms been leased by various farmers.

As far as raw milk is concerned, the dairy was formed 22 years ago, according to Dryden, and consumers would come to the farm with containers and make purchases. But a year ago, The Friends decided to begin bottling milk—both pasteurized and unpasteurized—for sale via retail outlets, since retailing of raw milk is legal in Connecticut.

I should note at this point that Dryden didn’t know anything about the controversies swirling around raw milk in California, Pennsylvania, New York, and other states. His day job is that he’s a management consultant, and he sees his involvement with The Friends as part of an effort to help the farm serve as a local resource for education and conservation. 

Dryden confirmed that the dairy has, at the state’s request, discontinued sales of raw milk. But he said this isn’t an open-and-shut case. Since the state notified The Friends of the illnesses a week ago, no E.coli 0157:H7 has been found in the milk or on the farm. “The initial test (of milk) came back negative. There’s no link except the circumstance” of the children becoming ill.

He says the dairy has received a few calls in the past when children have become ill, and the illnesses turned out to be from other causes. “One turned out to be the day care center…The knee-jerk reaction is that this must be raw milk.”

Now, on the other side, today’s Hartford Courant has what seems a reasonably reported article in which it says the farmers who had been running the dairy departed as of July 1, and that since then, the dairy has been run by volunteers. An official of the dairy is quoted as saying there might have been some let-down in procedures that could have led to contamination of milk.

If that turns out to be the case, then it seems The Friends have a challenge to fix the problem and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Beyond that, it seems clear is that this particular milk production model isn’t your typical model, and that there is a desire by those involved to make sure any problems are resolved.

There’s still a good ways to go before the Simsbury Town Farm Dairy is convicted, though.

In the meantime, I’m still not sure where this need to demonize raw milk continues to come from. Perhaps from the fragility of the opponennts’ case? From their need for control? From their desire to profit? From their ideology that factory farming is inherently cleaner farming? Ego?

As someone who favors consumers having the freedom to access raw milk, I want the product to be as safe as possible. I don’t suggest that people don’t get sick from raw milk on occasion, any more than I suggest they don’t get sick from ribs and sushi and jalapeno peppers and hamburger and salami. The Hartford Courant article reports that in Connecticut between 2001 and 2007, there were 282 E.coli cases reported in the state, of which three possibly involved raw milk, since “three of those people reported consuming raw milk before they got sick…” That means that at least 279 E.coli cases came from other foods. 

I don't oppose methodologies that will improve safety, a la SB 201 in California, and many other raw milk advocates feel the same way. There's just something terribly misguided about the knee-jerk reaction to any report of possible illness from raw milk that it is a significant public health hazard.