Why Are People So Obsessed With Getting Raw Milk?

Raw milk is illegal or highly regulated in most of the country. Are the health benefits worth the risks of the underground raw milk market? So what’s the appeal? Is raw milk really worth breaking the law for? It depends who you ask. The Weston A. Price Foundation, a nonprofit named for the early-20th-century dentist who believed strong teeth could be credited to raw milk, would give a definite “yes.” The WAPF claims that raw milk is an elixir that can not only cure allergies but also provide beneficial bacteria and digest more easily than other milk, because the lack of processing makes the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and fats easier for our bodies to absorb. By the time I get off the phone with Mark McAfee, CEO and founder of Organic Pastures, which distributes its raw dairy products in 650 stores and 25 farmers’ markets in California, I’m considering drinking the raw Kool-Aid.“Raw milk is like breast milk: non-allergenic, full of good bacteria, the ultimate immune-booster,” he says. “This flies in the face of the FDA, but tens of thousands of people have reported to us that, when they drink raw milk, they have no problems digesting it, their children have a decreased risk of asthma, and their eczema is cured in four to six weeks.”But the Centers for Disease Control has a different opinion. It says there’s no scientific evidence to back up the claims, and that unpasteurized milk can carry bacteria, parasites, and viruses. The milk can come out contaminated (say, the cow has bovine tuberculosis or an udder infection), or it can get that way by coming into contact with dirty equipment.What happens if you drink “bad” raw milk? Diarrhea, stomach cramping, or vomiting, and, in rare cases, kidney failure, paralysis, or death. Between 1998 and 2011, there were 148 raw-milk-related outbreaks, 2,384 illnesses, 284 hospitaliztions, and two deaths, according to the CDC.