Passions run high in raw-milk debate

By Amy Worden
Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau

Suzanne Mossetto adds yogurt culture to heated raw milk in the process of making yogurt. Mossetto, who lives in Cherry Hill, purchases the raw milk from a group of farms in Pa.
BONNIE WELLER / Inquirer Staff Photographer
Suzanne Mossetto adds yogurt culture to heated raw milk in the process of making yogurt. Mossetto, who lives in Cherry Hill, purchases the raw milk from a group of farms in Pa.
HARRISBURG - The forces of consumer choice and health safety collided in a Senate hearing on raw milk yesterday.

More than a hundred people, including a cluster of Amish farmers, packed a Senate hearing room to support the production and retail selling of raw milk in Pennsylvania.

Equally passionate are health officials and food-safety researchers who say they firmly believe that unpasteurized milk, with its high levels of food-borne pathogens, is unsafe.

Senate Agricultural Committee Chairman Michael Brubaker (R., Lancaster) said he convened the hearing to consider both sides of the highly charged issue before deciding whether to seek legislation to either expand the range of raw-milk products allowed in the state or to toughen existing regulations.

The hearing comes at a time when, with the growing popularity of raw milk, increased attention has been brought on what is still considered a niche sector of state agriculture. "Life is full of risks," testified Peggy Wolf of Carlisle, a confirmed raw-milk drinker who credits it with maintaining her children's good health. "People are killed every day in cars, but we don't pass laws to eliminate them."

Raw-milk devotees say they are part of a growing trend of Americans turning toward local farm products out of concern for the safety of food shipped long distances.

"People are clamoring for these products," said Brian Snyder, executive director of Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, drawing several rounds of applause during his testimony. "This is about access to healthy food and consumer choice."

But Michael Huff, a deputy secretary for the Department of Health, while not calling for its ban, testified that raw milk is an "inherently unsafe product," linked to outbreaks of salmonella, listeria and E. coli. Health officials estimate that between 30 and 35 people in Pennsylvania have been sickened this year.

Still, in the Philadelphia area, raw-milk consumers have emerged as true believers in the cause. They bypass the supermarkets and travel long distances to farms in south-central Pennsylvania.

Many consumers appear to delight in being part of what they regard as a quasi-underground movement that exists largely on word of mouth; sales are legal here but not in 25 other states, including Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. In a reverse of the liquor sales phenomenon, many raw-milk imbibers cross state lines into Pennsylvania to buy their products.

"My personal belief is that there is no interest in making legal milk illegal," said Brubaker. "But I do think that the question of whether regulations are adequate or whether they need modification is worthy of debate."

There are currently 75 raw-milk permit holders, which is almost double the number that were issued in 2005. Permits require periodic inspection of the dairy herd and milking equipment and testing against disease. Some at the hearing said they wanted to expand the sale of raw-milk products, which now include only aged cheese, to allow the production of yogurt and ice cream. Other are asking the state to eliminate the permitting process altogether.

But Huff said there was a greater likelihood for an increase in human illnesses as the number of permits issued by the Department of Agriculture grew. "We are not contesting the sale of raw milk, but we are contesting the expansion of the sale of products from raw milk," Huff said.

Others say, at a time of increasing government restrictions, it boils down to a basic fight over the right to choose what one wants to eat and drink.

"We're grown-ups. We want the ability to make our own decisions," said William Stawitz, who lives near Harrisburg and travels 30 miles to a farm to buy his raw milk and eggs from free-range chickens. "Like everything else, it should be 'buyer beware.' "