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November 12, 2005
In Which I Prove Myself a Libertarian on Dairy Issues
By Ezra
Over at Kevin Drum's place, a bunch of snotty blue-staters are sniffing about the unquestionable superiority of French cuisine. They make me sick. All the more because they're right. To add my pinch of grievance to the broth, as a liberal, even I don't understand why we can't import or use raw milk cheeses aged less than 60 days (a time period that exempts certain hard cheeses, like parmesan, from scrutiny). Not only are these cheeses significantly more delicious than the pasteurized, bastard versions we eat here, but the likelihood that raw milk will hurt you is almost infinitesimally small.
Other countries, like France, where raw milk rules the roost, are not falling to outbreaks of listeria and salmonella, and, in fact, the most serious recent outbreak of the dreaded listeria came from American hot dogs. Meanwhile, in keeping us safe from this threat that doesn't really threaten, we get meek, mild, comparatively tasteless cheeses. It's really a, ahem, raw deal. Mandate that all raw milk cheeses carry a prominent warning about the (basically nonexistent) dangers lurking in their rinds and folks can make their own decisions, the hypochondriacs sticking with Wisconsin cheddars and the cheese lovers finally tasting a good brie.
For more on this, Salon had a great article on the situation, dangers, and laws awhile back. You can find it here.
November 12, 2005 | Permalink
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Comments
The politics of American food is a more interesting subject than most might imagine. I am with you in the "Free Milk" camp, but in this, as in so many other specifics, the government aggressively regulates the food market for no other reason than to force us to consume the basically low-quality goods produced by American agribusiness.
I would also add that I suspect (although I don't know for sure) that if we legalized raw milk, our experience in this country might not be the same as the French experience. Agribusiness cares for agricultural animals only just enough to keep them from dying before the product can be extracted, meaning that American cows, pigs and chickens live in disease and filth. I doubt I would drink raw milk from a factory farm. I doubt they'd sell it, even if it were legal, but that would raise questions about why farmer Jones down the road will sell me raw milk but Borden won't put raw milk in the supermarket. The ancient arts of animal husbandry have all but disappeared from our country.
Posted by: res publica | Nov 12, 2005 1:48:51 PM
There was an excellent article about this in the New Yorker in August 2002, "Raw Faith". One thing they pointed out that got me really riled up is the fact that oysters etc. are easy to obtain, and sure, occasionally they make you ill. Rather few people are killed by either food. I don't know about "infinitesimally small" -- it's the usual thing, that you probably shouldn't give it to the very young, very old, or already very sick.
A line I remember from the New Yorker article: "`Show me the bodies', people always say. The bodies are in France."
What's mysterious is that I do see the Raw Milk!!! warning labels you describe quite often. I figure that somebody is being selectively unprosecuted.
Posted by: Allen K. | Nov 12, 2005 2:40:09 PM
Don't forget cured meats.
But, res publica, it isn't true that (the black art of) animal husbandry has all but disappeared from the U.S. From big agriculture, yes, but boutique farms all over the country make super-high-quality anything
Posted by: TJ | Nov 12, 2005 2:44:26 PM
I would also add that I suspect (although I don't know for sure) that if we legalized raw milk, our experience in this country might not be the same as the French experience. Agribusiness cares for agricultural animals only just enough to keep them from dying before the product can be extracted, meaning that American cows, pigs and chickens live in disease and filth.
I'd say this is probably your answer. Eating factory farmed milk, unpasteurized, is unsafe. The requirement that all milk be pasteurized takes cleanliness and health of the animals out of the consumer picture -- it's not a dimension on which milk producers compete. If they were competing on cleanliness and health, it would get a lot less profitable to use factory farming methods. Therefore, the absolute pasteurization requirement is important to the agricultural lobby and probably exists for that reason.
Posted by: LizardBreath | Nov 12, 2005 2:44:39 PM
Brilliant cheese is no good without brilliant bread to go with it. I will never understand why it's next to impossible to buy a decent bit of bread in the average American supermarket. Harrumph.
Posted by: Shakespeare's Sister | Nov 12, 2005 5:03:15 PM
Cheese is made by bacteria working at predetermined temperature and time until fixed by draining and salting. It contines to change until by 45 days it completely overpowers any possible effect by unwanted contaminants (save for the possibility that antibiotic use gets in the brew - what a mess).I haven't specified temp, time and other factors because they are what make different varieties.
Posted by: opit | Nov 13, 2005 1:01:49 AM
Zingerman's in Ann Arbor. If you've never tried their breads, cheeses or other fare, including their domestic raw milk cheeses, you're missing out.
Posted by: Kathy Cole | Nov 13, 2005 9:52:24 PM
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