Government vs. Raw Milk

An Associated Press report issued this morning calls attention to an important battle taking place here in the United States between dairy farmers that produce and sell unpasteurized milk, claiming it is safe, and government authorities who maintain pasteurization is the only way to assure destruction of pathogenic microorganisms that might be present. 


According to the report, which bears a Des Moines, Iowa tagline, debate about the health advantages and risks of raw milk is spilling into statehouses and courtrooms countrywide as raw milk advocates push to make unpasteurized dairy products easier for consumers to purchase.

I am glad to see this relatively little-known debate receiving the national attention it

deserves. We can expect that in the hours and days to follow a number of news venues will be picking up the AP report and writing on this matter, which makes this the perfect time for me to share my thoughts on the subject.

Avid raw milk drinkers swear by its taste and health benefits. Some believe consuming it cures asthma, prevents ear infections in children, strengthens bones and the immune system, and improves the functioning of those with autism. Indeed, a study published in the June 2006 Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that 4,767 children in rural England who lived on farms and drank unpasteurized milk had significantly fewer symptoms of asthma, hay fever and eczema than their pasteurized milk drinking peers. A follow-up European study of nearly 15,000 children published in the May 2007 issue of Clinical and Experimental Allergy found children who drank unpasteurized milk were less likely to have asthma and hay fever.

However, the FDA claims health risks associated with drinking raw milk far outweigh any benefits. It strongly advises against consuming it and, under its commerce clause powers, has banned its interstate transport and sale. Laws among states differ greatly. Some have banned its sale, other states allow it but strictly for non-human (animal) consumption, while others allow its sale to the public at large. But even where legal, raw milk dairy farmers are harassed by the FDA and local authorities, who are increasingly committed to overseeing and regulating production. 

I recently attended a lecture and book signing by journalist David Gumpert, who writes on matters of health. His most recent book The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America’s Emerging Battle Over Food Rights provides an engaging and informative account of the ongoing clash between the government and dairy farmers. Blog follower Joseph Heckman, Ph.D., a professor of soil science at Rutgers University, hosted the lecture and alerted me to it. I am glad he did! Mr. Gumpert spoke about many aspects of this debate, including the overall safety of unpasteurized milk, presenting a wealth of statistics to prove his point. He has become an important spokesperson for the raw milk movement, asserting that people be allowed to return to enjoying this natural drink. 

Pasteurization was introduced by French chemist Louis Pasteur in the mid-19th century and thereafter became the norm for milk. Prior to this, drinking milk posed serious health hazards and many became ill. Conditions on dairy farms were often atrocious. Cows were kept under filthy conditions, water was contaminated and there was no refrigeration. It’s no wonder milk-borne illnesses were common. With widespread implementation of pasteurization, milk and its various products were made quite safe. Pasteurization largely, but not always, prevents food-borne sickness, ranging from mild food poisoning to serious illnesses caused by contaminants such as listeria, salmonella and E. coli. 

No one argues the assertion that pasteurization was an enormous advance for public health, or that it remains valuable. However, healthy cows raised in a clean environment don’t produce contaminated milk, and refrigeration keeps it fresh. Today’s dairy farmers who produce unpasteurized milk take pride in their clean facilities and in their first-rate healthy cows, certified free of disease.

Following Mr. Gumpert’s lecture, I had the opportunity to speak from the audience about the similarity between the current situation facing these milk producers and Wilhelm Reich’s ordeal. I spoke about Reich’s fate at the hands of the FDA. Here was a brilliant scientist who died in prison because his natural health products and information were transported across state lines. I also said that what happened to Reich and what these dairy farmers are now up against can be understood in the context of what Reich discovered and termed the “emotional plague,” a force that drives authorities to exert control over the lives of others for their own good.

One might expect that honorable people with good intentions, on both sides of the table, could somehow resolve the raw milk issue without battling in court. After all, people consume raw or undercooked products all the time, as with sushi, clams and oysters on the half shell, beef carpaccio, or simply a rare burger. None of these are banned. But common sense won’t prevail. Nor is it a question of needing more information, more facts pro or con, to settle the matter. 

I contend no matter how much proof of safety is presented or what additional information is provided, the government authorities will never relent in their efforts to end sales of unpasteurized milk. If farmers, brave or foolish enough, elect to violate the inevitable court decisions in favor of the FDA, I fear they will be imprisoned as Reich was. Here’s why. The safety of unpasteurized milk and the best interest of the public are not the sole or even primary reason for the government’s attack. It is its stated reason, and because the safety issue does have validity and is partly right, the more insidious underlying aspect of the emotional plague remains hidden. 

What we know from Reich is that the emotional plague has infiltrated society’s institutions. Many who have gotten themselves into positions of authority over others are afflicted with this illness. The emotional plague was so named by Reich to indicate the condition’s psychological roots and contagious nature. The principal element of the plague is a compulsion to control the natural behavior of others. Those suffering with the plague cannot tolerate actions that don’t conform to their rigid ways of thinking. When people choose to live as they see fit, especially when it is in accord with healthy, natural functioning, those afflicted with the plague experience intense anxiety. They cannot tolerate the feelings that rise up in them when people are happy and enjoying life naturally. Their thinking and actions are always extremely well-rationalized as being for the common good. Remarkably, they are entirely unaware that their true motive is not the best interest of others. They do not see their irrationality or their inability to act fairly on matters that effect them emotionally.

Unlike the neurotic who suffers inwardly without troubling others, “plaguey” people deal with their emotional upset by attempting to control its source, the behavior of others, which stirs up in them an intense longing for living the natural life that they themselves cannot live. But they just don’t see it. In their minds they must stop “dangerous” activities and behaviors, never realizing their prohibitive actions are not really for the good of others but rather to make themselves feel better by putting an end to the behavior that makes them intensely anxious. Controlling others makes plague-ridden individuals feel better, at least temporarily.

The emotional plague is often found in individuals who are bright and endowed with a high level of energy. This combination enables them to rise through the ranks into positions of authority. As officials with power, they are now really in a position to exert control over others. It is no mistake they have gotten themselves into these positions. Their livelihoods serve as a defensive mechanism to ward off their intense anxiety. It cannot be over-emphasized that plague-ridden individuals and the institutions they control have no insight into their destructive behavior. They believe, in their heart of hearts, what they are doing is right and necessary. There is always an element of truth that justifies their control over others. It is this truth--the partly right--that creates much confusion and allows others, on the sidelines, to so easily get caught up in the plague’s activity. In the case of unpasteurized milk, the assertion of a health hazard causes many decent and openminded people to side with the FDA. Notwithstanding, there may often be a sense something is not right in what the government is doing, but good people can’t place a finger on it. Try as they might, they won’t find what that “something” is because the driving force behind the FDA’s attack is the unseen hand of the emotional plague. 

Reich wrote in Character Analysis (1933) that the plague “has to give way when confronted, clearly and uncompromisingly, with rational thinking and the natural feeling for life.” Was he naive or did he think this way because he had not yet, himself, experienced its full power? Whatever led him to believe as he did in those early days, I am certain that he did not hold the same opinion in 1957, when confined to his prison cell. Reich was not only imprisoned, but on orders of the FDA, his books were burned. When the “little guy” comes up against “big brother” plague wielding its enormous power, the odds of succeeding in a battle are slim at best. 

Nevertheless the emotional plague can and must be fought. The battle over raw milk is an important one. If it isn’t won, we will all be on the slippery slope, raw milk drinkers or not. Increasing controls on the foods we eat and the health measures we choose are limitless. Next could be mandated irradiation of food, as Mr. Gumpert points out. 

Raw milk advocates have their work cut out for them. I believe they are doing the right thing by organizing demonstrations to gain media attention, especially outside of the courtrooms where dairy farmers are being prosecuted. I also think it important to continue to get the message out to consumers about the relative safety of unpasteurized milk in whatever ways possible. Given the expensive nature of court battles, funding for the legal defense of targeted farmers will have to come from individuals and organizations that support natural health and wellness, free from government control. Finally, I offer that raw milk advocates consider using the adjective “unpasteurized” as opposed to “raw,” which seems to me could conjure up the unpleasant image of bloody meat. Referring to the milk as “organic, unpasteurized, certified safe” or something along these lines may improve its overall image. 

I encourage my readers visit David Gumpert’s blog, The Complete Patient, and to read his book The Raw Milk Revolution. It might appear worlds apart from Wilhelm Reich’s The Sexual Revolution, but the overall conclusion is the same, which is that people should be free to live their own lives, naturally, as they choose. Reich wrote about sexual repression as it existed then in the late 1920s. He was on the side on the unthinkable, defending natural functioning and healthy sexuality. Both Reich and Mr. Gumpert assert people have the right to live as they wish and both, in their own way, support a return to nature, or more natural functioning. For Reich it was the enjoyment and health benefits of sex, free of moralism and societal restraint. For Mr. Gumpert it is for the enjoyment and health benefits of natural foods, free of government control. Both declare it a right and duty to resist the enforcement of unreasonable, unjustifiable laws.

For further exposition of the emotional plague as conceived by Reich, I recommend reading Chapter 12 of Wilhelm Reich’s Character Analysis and Chapter 13 of Elsworth F. Baker’s Man in the Trap.  The Complete Patient is located at www.thecompletepatient.com. Also, The Weston A. Price Foundation at www.westonaprice.org is an excellent source for information on nutrient-dense foods. One of their specific goals is the establishment of universal access to clean, certified and unpasteurized milk.