Raw milk continues to be a hot topic in the news—especially now that Connecticut is talking about restricting the sale of raw milk to farms and farmers' markets. (Connecticut, like California, has been one of the few states where farmers can sell raw milk in health food stores, as long as it is clearly labeled as such.)
On Friday, the Brian Lehrer show tackled the issue, inviting NYU nutrition professor Marion Nestle to weigh in ("I see no reason why we can't produce safe raw milk") and Connecticut state representative and economist Diana Urban, who sets the record straight re: the E. coli outbreak in CT last fall that was traced to a dairy in Simsbury. (The bottles of milk were not labeled as raw, which is what CT state law requires. "It was to do with poor management," Urban says.)
The whole segment is worth listening to if only to hear listener Rosalind tell how she uprooted her boys from NYC when they were diagnosed with ADD and ADHD and gave them a life of raw milk on a farm in the country (and other real foods, one would assume) instead of pharmaceuticals. Her enthusiasm for the beverage ("it contains more omega 3s than we could get anywhere else!") is contagious.
Urban, who grew up on a Long Island dairy farm drinking unpasteurized milk, explains why the law (should it pass) would be the death of small farmers in her state: they are living on such small margins as it is that they may have to go out of business if they can't sell at Whole Foods and other health food stores.
As one CT dairy farmer in this NYT article says, "If you don't want to drink it, don't drink it."
Hat tip to Rachel Stevens for tipping me off to the WNYC segment.
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