Farmer Sues To Distribute Raw Milk

Last year, an Amish farmer in Ohio appealed a similar case on religious grounds after an undercover agent asked him to fill an unmarked container with raw milk and then had the state revoke his dairy license.

In recent years, the battle between raw milk proponents and regulators has taken on a decidedly cloak-and-dagger feel, with secret raw milk clubs, sting operations and hush-hush Internet sales.

Proponents describe raw milk as an elixir with almost magical properties. With anecdotal testimony, enthusiasts say it has eased arthritis, prevented such ailments as tooth decay and scurvy, and successfully treated a host of diseases.

Health officials, however, have not been moved and still hold to the pasteurization process, a brief treatment with high heat that is designed to kill 99.99 percent of microorganisms. The Food and Drug Administration, which banned interstate sales of raw milk in 1987, has likened drinking unpasteurized milk to "playing Russian roulette with your health."

Pasteurization, federal and state health officials say, kills bacteria that in some cases could cause life-threatening diseases.

But raw milk drinkers say that same pasteurization process kills important enzymes and compounds that contribute to a body's health and also give raw milk a more robust flavor.

"There's a big push for raw milk from parents whose children have health problems like autism, asthma and failure to thrive," said Fallon, founder of Weston A. Price Foundation, a natural-foods advocacy group that has spearheaded much of the raw milk lobbying. The prevailing theory in her camp is that proponents are facing an organized effort against raw milk driven by the country's massive dairy industry.

"The real concern is not health at all, it's economic," Fallon said. "Raw milk has a fantastic way of reviving small farms, sustaining them. They don't want that."

It is a notion that Elkin from the Maryland health department calls ridiculous. "There's a large body of scientific evidence for pasteurizing milk," he said. "There's a reason for it -- to kill pathogens."