Wei-Huan Chen

wchen@jconline.com

I guess I could have gotten salmonella, E. Coli and listeria. Did I mentioned tuberculosis and diphtheria? At least that's what the FDA tells me about what I did last week: drink a cold glass of raw milk.

The faint smell of dairy, a refreshing mouthfeel and a creamy aftertaste in my throat — personally speaking, the taste of raw milk wasn't too different from commercial whole milk, as I found out during a blind taste test. More on that later. And the milk proved harmless, at least in my case.

Yet there's no denying the appeal of an all-natural beverage straight from the cow, who gets more care and better food (grass rather than grain) than those on big dairy farms. State legislators have been debating whether or not to make the sale of raw milk legal as more and more supporters argue that consumers have the right to make a choice to go raw.

Pasteurization — Louis Pasteur's process that involves heating milk to kill off bacteria — has been the status quo for the better part of a century, and it's the reason why millions around the world don't have tuberculosis and brucellosis, says the FDA. But the past few years have seen a resurgence in interest in raw milk. Supporters say it retains key enzymes and good bacteria that are otherwise killed off during pasteurization.

Retail sale of unpasteurized milk is outlawed in most states, as it is in Indiana. One way you can buy raw milk here is if it's for non-human consumption — as in for your pet. The more practical way, however, is to own a part of the cow whose milk you're drinking, also known as a herdshare. That's what Pasture's Delights, a 30-cow dairy farm in Decatur, Indiana, offers.

Decide if you want a quart, half gallon or a gallon a week, purchase the herdshare for $25, $50 or $100, respectively, and pay the weekly boarding fee of $2.75, $4.50 or $8.

Since they've been delivering weekly shipments to CityFoods, more customers have become interested in opting in the herdshare.

Mark Grieshop, founder of Pasture's Delights, said he knows many people whose lactose intolerance was essentially treated by drinking raw milk. He said deli meats are, statistically, 10 times more likely to get someone sick than raw milk. And Pasture's Delights regularly tests its milk for pathogenic bacteria. Since the farm began its raw milk operation in 2009, none of the milk has tested positive.

"Since I began consuming our raw milk, I feel better and my immune system is stronger," Grieshop said.

I stopped milker and deliverer Heath Terhune one Thursday afternoon as he was carting in half-gallons of raw milk to CityFoods, challenging him to a taste test. I brought in Kroger-brand Grade A pasteurized, homogenized whole milk and asked if he thought I'd be able to tell the difference.

"I've found that raw milk is definitely creamier, thicker and has 10 times the taste of pasteurized milk," he told me.

So we sought to prove that theory. Staff at CityFoods helped us set up a blind-folded taste test comparing commercial versus raw milk. As I listened to Terhune pouring the two glasses, I wondered how much conditioning — the fact that I'm not used to raw milk — would hurt my impression of raw milk. Turns out, a lot. The first cup had a thick, sweet taste to it, in my opinion, while the second was thinner. You should see Terhune's face when he broke the news: the second was the raw milk. That makes me a minority opinion among raw milk supporters.

So the jury's still out on taste, at least for me. It's hard to find much agreement on health and safety. Grieshop says the raw milk he produces is never exposed to the air, and can keep for two to three weeks. He believes the FDA exaggerates the safety risks for raw milk, especially for well-managed dairy farms like his.

The best case for raw milk, then, may be rooted in the idea of consumer choice. Shouldn't we have the right to buy the products we want from farmers we know and trust?

Purdue Extension Dairy Specialist Mike Schutz co-wrote a great report on raw milk, which was later used by the Indiana legislature to decide whether to allow direct farmer-to-buyer raw milk sales for small farms (less than 20 cows). But the bill was ultimately withdrawn, and proponents say the new legislation that replaced it would actually hamstring raw milk production with so many regulations that it essentially outlaws it.

Schutz concluded that raw milk has proven risks, while studies that showed its nutritional benefits didn't control for some essential elements. In Europe, where raw milk is more widely accepted, children of raw milk farms had fewer cases of asthma and hay fever than children on farms drinking boiled milk. But Schutz said that the study did not control for factors that contributed to the development of allergies, which may be caused by more or less cattle exposure.

Both personal liberty and public safety "are important, and both must be considered during any discussion about measures to protect public safety. Ultimately, it will be left to the state legislature to decide whether permitted sales of unpasteurized milk will be made available to consumers in Indiana," he wrote.

For now, though, herdshares represent the best way to support raw milk farmers in Indiana. Pasture's Delights has developed a good following at CityFoods, and they only aim to grow. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a raw milk renaissance in the near future.