SLOW Food has been fighting for the rights of consumers to buy raw milk and the rights of cheesemakers to make cheese from raw milk for almost two decades, and its biennial event, Cheese, has long been a forum for publicising the issue. A new Slow Food campaign site for raw milk, www.slowfood.com/rawmilk, was launched at Cheese 2011 in Bra, Italy, at the weekend, and yesterday an international panel of speakers talked about raw milk in their home countries.
Michèle Mesmain of Slow Food International presented the website, which will be available in five languages and includes sections on health risks and benefits, local campaigns, ‘Raw Milk Heroes’, legislation, education and animal welfare. Italian researcher Roberto Rubino talked about the importance of maintaining the biodiversity of milk, which naturally contains many dozens of strains of positive bacteria.
One of the countries with the strictest legislation against raw milk is Australia, which produces 12 percent of the world’s cheese. Exporting, producing and selling raw-milk cheeses, with a very few exceptions, is illegal. ‘We’ve been fighting for change since 1996 and the government hasn’t really listened at all,’ said Australian cheesemonger Will Studd. ‘It just announced last week that they’re recommending no major change to the current situation.’ He said the sale of raw milk would become a criminal offense. ‘Our example might be followed in the USA, perhaps in Europe. It is worth
fighting for the right to a choice.’
The situation for raw-milk cheesemakers in the United States is indeed precarious, as cheesemaker Mateo Kehler explained. ‘The Food and Drug Administration is proposing doing a risk assessment which will lead to changes in the next 12 to 18 months.’ Currently cheeses can be made from raw milk if they are aged for at least 60 days, but that could change. However,he was generally optimistic. ‘There¹s a revolution happening outside the control of the government. People are voting with their forks and making choices about how they want to feed themselves and their families.’ He
concluded: ‘If it’s possible to sell sushi and oysters, it should be possible to sell safe raw milk.’
Elisabeth Ryan coordinates a campaign in Ireland against proposed changes to the law that would make it illegal to sell liquid raw milk. She said the Irish authorities wanted an international image of Ireland as a safe food country. ‘This ‘sterilisation’ of food trumps quality,’ she said. ‘We need to find a way to convince the government that we can minimise the risks relating to raw milk. It’s estimated that 100,000 people in Ireland consume raw milk and we’ve only had two cases of illness from raw milk in the last 10 years.’
Ryan works for Ireland’s Sheridans Cheesemongers, and one of its founders, Seamus Sheridan, also gave his perspective. ‘Here in the Langhe you produce beautiful wine. I don’t think it should be pasteurised. In Ireland we
produce the most beautiful milk in the world and I believe that farmers should have the right to sell it safely however they want,’ he said. ‘We must fight for the biodiversity of our farmers, foods and agriculture and for pleasure and taste.’
The Netherlands’ aged artisanal gouda presidium coordinator Marjolein Kooistra described a different set of concerns. The sale of raw milk was not a big issue in her country, she said, but the main problem raw-milk cheesemakers faced was cheeses being made with heat-treated milk and being falsely sold as raw milk.
Piero Sardo, president of the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, brought the discussion to a close with some final words. He blamed industrial dairy producers for imposing pasteurisation and lobbying against raw milk. ‘We had 10,000 years of raw-milk cheese before Pasteur, and we’re still here,’ he said. ‘Europe hasn’t been stricken by epidemics. We’re the only ones who can stand up against this. They can’t force us to eat sterile food, but nobody is going to defend us. We have to do it ourselves, by choosing, protesting, organising events, campaigning and refusing to eat plastic cheese.’
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I grew up on a farm near Griffith NSW and we had 2 milking cows (8 in the family). The thick, yelllow cream from this milk was superb. I remember tasting pasteurised milk when I was 7 years old. I spat it out, thinking that it had been separated and I was drinking the skim! All the families around us also drank raw milk and there was never any sickness or disease.
These days I search out French cheese made from raw milk as I much prefer it. Even Coles at Balgowlah sells these cheeses! Why is it OK to import such cheese and ban the making of it in Australia?
I agree that the raw milk cheeses eaten in France are quite different to any cheeses in Australia. I assume that this is related to the better pasture especially of mountain grasses, the earlt processing and absence of pasteurisation.
I have not been able to find any unpasteurised French cheese in Australia except fot the hard old cheeses and an occasional very expensive Roquefort.
If anyone knows of unpasteurised soft cheeses could you please tell me.
I have been importing French wine for over 15 years and would like to know of any way one could bring in some decent cheeses.
It is important to understand that most pasteurised cheeses from France are of the ‘ industrielle” quality; ie Kraft cheese. I could not believe how bland a pasteurised Roblechon was recently.
regards,
Alan
Hi Alan,
At this time there is only one cheese maker in Australia licensed to make unpasturised cheese. Try the C2 cheese made by Nick Haddow and team at Bruny Island Cheese Co, french style table cheese. Great flavours. Bruny Island Cheese mails product Australia wide. Seasonal flavour can only be achieved using unpasturised milk, most large cheese manufacturers standardise their milk to create consistant flavoured cheese year round, to satisfy mostly uneducated Australian cheese consumers.
Cheers, Col
Did you know that in the United States no one has died from drinking raw milk in the past twelve years. Last year, over 70 people died from eating cantaloupe alone.
Does anyone know any statistics like this for Australia or where they can be found?
We drink milk from our own cow and all of us are in vibrant good health (including the cat!). Why should the government decide for us what we are going to eat? Why is it any of their business? I think we should have the choice and not be treated like uneducated children who need protecting from some imagined pathogenic boogyman.