To Pasteurize or not to Pasteurize, that is the question.

So, I watched an interesting movie last night...in fact, I was helping host it as part of the Fall Series being put on by the Environmental Film Network. It was the National Film Board's film The Fight for True Farming. What was almost more interesting than the film...and the film was very interesting...was the conversation and discussion afterwards. Fortunately we had a couple of local farmers in the audience who could speak from experience about the situation in Ontario. The film focuses more on the agricultural practices and issues related to Quebec, Europe and a few American states. Apparently there is wide range of diverse practices that may be more or less acceptable to various people and organizations.

It has returned me to the consideration of buying organic food for my family. The largest hurdle in implementing this is of course the added expense. It seems that the cost of organic food products is almost prohibitively expensive. It's already a challenge to eat 'mostly' vegetarian meals at home, never mind trying to make all those meals from only organically grown foods. At the same time I value the principles behind organically grown foods. The testimonies of some farmers reveals that they feel that they are healthier, their soils are healthier and their produce is better after choosing to embrace organic practices. I want to be able to affirm this trend because at so many levels it appears to be a good thing, but I am not sure how to do it?

However, there was one interesting topic of conversation...the Milk Marketing Board. Apparently, there is a board that takes care of all the milk produced in Canada. The milk is collected from farms according to the quota the farmer has purchased. Then it is tested for safety, particularly the presence or absence of bacteria and antibiotics. Interestingly, Canada does not allow for any antibiotics in it's milk and prohibits the use of bovine growth hormone to increase a cow's milk production. But what piqued my interest was the prohibition of farmers selling any of their milk privately. This means that if anyone purchases raw milk, or buys directly from a local farmer they are breaking the law. Even the local cheese factory has to buy back it's milk from the marketing board. In fact in Canada, it is even illegal for a farmer to give away raw milk. This is another example of, what I perceive as, over-regulation by the Canadian government. There is no space to make an informed decision to do otherwise... this is the way it's done, no negotiation.

Now, while we were living on the hillside for a number of years I bought milk from a dhood-walla (milkman). His son would come to the house every evening with milk. I always pasteurized it myself...even though it was fresh and warm... The reason I pasteurized it was that I could not be sure that the milkman did not add a little bit of water to stretch his milk a little farther. Well, if the water was clean, I would have less worries, but the water, as all the water on the hillside, was badly contamination...typhoid, hepatitis, amoeba, giardia are all endemic on the hillside. So in reality we would not be just dealing with whatever would be naturally occurring in the milk, but all the other 'contaminants' in the water system. This was not a risk I was willing to take with our health, as it was in our time there we dealt with two family members contracting typhoid...not fun!

With this in mind, I can honestly say that I understand the purpose for which a standardizing system was set in place ...and why it was important to ensure that farmers could sell the milk they produced at a fair price... However, maybe it is time to open the market up a little. Allow farmers to continue with their quotas being delivered to the market board, whereupon the milk is tested, pasteurized and distributed for a fair market price. But let's not be afraid of diversifying a little, we all know the truth is most people will continue to buy their dairy products as they have always done. Those who are interested in buying local, buying raw, buying organic, constitute just a small portion of the market and their demands could be easily supplied.

I find it interesting that a couple in Southern Ontario have been fighting the issue of selling raw milk and other dairy products outside the control of the Milk Marketing Board. Michael and Dorthea Schmidt have been rebuilding their business since charges from the mid-1990s, revolving around the sale of these unregulated dairy products nearly decimated his livelihood. They had been running a cow leasing scheme to try to circumvent the Marketing Board regulations that you could only drink raw milk produced by your own cow. Currently, they are trying an avenue where there is joint-ownership over cows to allow their clientele to continue enjoying what they believe are the benefits of drinking raw milk from cows that are grass-fed.

What are the real issues according to the Schmidts?
"People are waking up to the fact," says Michael, "that the issue of raw milk has nothing to do with protecting the public and everything to do with protecting those who control the food supply."

This leads me back to my original thoughts...I am not really against pasteurization, but I think that in a society that claims so many freedoms we should have the freedom to buy the milk we want from the farmer we want...

And the truth is those of us who are left behind, are not the resistant or necessarily keepers of the status-quo, but often times the poor, who have no choice but to take what we can get. Maybe the issues reflect as much on the state of market controls, as issues of health and social justice.

Where does our food come from? Are we free to make food choices according to conscience and preference? How far does the influence of those who control our access to food really reach?