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Raw milk debate remains contentious

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February 22, 2012|By Ike DeLorenzo

Buttons supporting raw milk were handed out at the debate at Harvard Law… (Evan McGlinn for The Boston…)

CAMBRIDGE - Milk is our first and most basic food. For years, there’s been a contentious and emotional debate over how we are allowed to consume it. Raw milk, unpasteurized and whole with its purported health and taste benefits, is on one side of the argument. On the other is pasteurized milk, the modern heavyweight champion of food safety.

Raw milk proponents have been portrayed as oblivious hippies who are tempting bacterial fate. Defenders of pasteurization, in turn, are cast as nanny-state corporatists with unsophisticated taste. Each side charges the other with misunderstanding health, freedom, parenting, and - among other issues - what it means to be American. Last Thursday night, Harvard Law School hosted a debate between leading thinkers on each side of the issue. It was not disappointing.

Outside the 160-seat Harvard auditorium the scene was chaotic. Ron Paul supporters passed out buttons, while Concord film director Kristin Canty promoted her documentary film, “Farmageddon,’’ an unflattering portrait of what she calls “milk enforcement’’ activities by the USDA. By the time host Jonathan Abrams of the Harvard Food Law Society called the evening to order, the hall - now equal parts law schoolers, raw milk ideologues, and foodie spectators - was standing room only. The debate was streamed live on the Internet to 2,400 viewers, who posted commentary on Facebook and Twitter.

Raw nutrition advocate Sally Fallon Morell and author David Gumpert (“The Raw Milk Revolution’’) squared off against food-safety attorney Fred Pritzker and Minnesota dairy inspection director Dr. Heidi Kassenborg. Each took to the podium to state their positions, followed by a debate driven by questions from the moderator and audience.

Fallon Morell, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Weston A. Price Foundation, presented a frightening series of photos of malnourished mice that had been fed only pasteurized milk contrasted by photos of healthy mice that had been sipping raw milk. A litany of scientific papers followed. Fallon Morell said they supported the common pro-raw claims that raw milk strengthens the immune system, and that pasteurized milk is linked to increases in allergies, asthma, and lactose intolerance. And don’t get her started on ultra-pasteurized milk. Her claims drew eye rolls from Pritzker but rapt interest from the crowd.