It’s interesting to see the reopening of the case of selling raw and unpasteurized milk by some dairy farmers of Ontario and their battle with Ontario’s ministry of health in today’s news. This argument has been going on for a couple of years, since 2006 as I can remember and each time the dairy farmers have been pleaded guilty and forbidden to sell raw milk to people. However some dairy farmers insist that raw milk is absolutely a better choice of milk and the whole concept of pasteurization has been politicized and is not necessarily concerned about people’s safety.
Health authorities believe that unpasteurized milk can contain some types of bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria which can cause lethal problems and diseases. Severe diarrhea, vomiting and fever are some of the symptoms caused by these bacteria. In august 2006, Health Canada released a statement which warned people from consuming raw or unpasteurized milk since it can make people severely sick. The law in Canada regarding selling unpasteurized milk is: no one can sell raw milk unless it has been pasteurized and has met the health standards.
However, some particular dairy farmers do not think the same way. Michael Schmid, a dairy farmer who has been fighting against Canada’s law regarding raw milk for years, believes that there is absolutely nothing wrong with raw milk and it is actually more nutritious and has better quality than pasteurized milk. “The only thing that will stop me is if we — through a constructive dialogue — actually find out that milk might be dangerous” Michael Schmid told the reporter on the day when he won the battle and was legally allowed to sell raw or unpasteurized milk to his neighborhood customers as he was selling it before.
What is interesting about this story is, despite the fact that Ontario Ministry of Health strongly believes how dangerous and unsafe unpasteurized milk is, Michael Schmid won the battle, proved his point about the benefits of unpasteurized milk and is allowed to sell his milk to his neighbors and former customers. One may doubt for a moment and thinks if the Health politicians have strong and valid proofs about how dangerous unpasteurized milk can be. How could they let a simple dairy farmer win the case? Shouldn’t we by now, be absolutely certain about the health aspects of foods such as milk, that even raising such statements such as “unpasteurized milk is better than pasteurized milk” be out of the question? And if not, if we are not certain about these facts, why do we insist on these laws? I mean we actually have this law in Canada that selling unpasteurized milk is absolutely illegal and here we have this dairy farmer in Ontario, which is legally selling raw milk to people, even if it’s only to a limited number of customers! To me this does not make any sense at all and it’s making me wonder what is really going on in our health care system.
The concept of trust comes into my mind. We tend to believe that anything the authorities tell us is the truth and behind any law or statement there is a valid proof hidden. If they say something is dangerous and something is safe we listen to them because we are certain that they have done enough experiments in that area and they are letting people know about the results. But when it comes to stories such as “is pasteurized milk really better than unpasteurized milk?” and we actually see despite the law, a simple citizen fights against the authorities, wins the case and they actually let him continue what “they” still believe is wrong makes you wonder if there’s something else beside the safety of citizens that is their concern.
I’m still not convinced that unpasteurized milk is better than pasteurized milk but the reason is not solely because I was told that pasteurized milk is better than raw milk by authorities. As far as I’m concern I personally can not trust their sayings without any investigation anymore and the concept of: the authorities work for people and are only concern about their safety, well let’s just say is losing it’s meaning to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment