Residents of Cayuga County and surrounding counties are being warned not to drink or use unpasteurized raw milk sold from a Genoa farm because of possible bacteria contamination, according the state Department of Agriculture and Markets.

Raw milk sold by the Phil Stauderman Farm, 3128 Blakely Road, Genoa, may be contaminated with Campylobacter, a bacteria

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle posted a recent article about the risks of drinking raw milk. Those risks include contracting campylobacteriosis, the illness caused by ingestion of Campylobacter bacteria. According to the article:

“There are no significant nutritional differences between raw milk and pasteurized milk. Drinking raw milk or eating raw milk products is ‘like

Washington Post reporter Thomas Bartlett wrote about raw milk and the group of people who "swear by the virtues" of unpasteurized milk in an October 1st article.

In Maryland, where I live, as in most other states, you can’t walk into a store and buy raw milk. That’s because, while possession of raw milk is legal, selling it is a crime. It’s also a violation of federal law to transport raw milk across state lines with the intent to sell it for human consumption. The Tennessee dairy that sold it to me offers raw milk as pet food. The dairy’s Web site warns that "due to significant legal and liability issues, we cannot and will not answer questions regarding human consumption of these or any other raw milk products — please don’t ask."

Barrett mentions that in a conversation with a Maryland health official raw milk was compared to heroin or marijuana.Continue Reading Why does an avid band of devotees swear by the virtues of unpasteurized milk?

Raw milk has been the source of numerous outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, Campylobacter, and other outbreaks in recent years. Although advocates of drinking raw milk believe there are health benefits, the risks certainly outweigh them.
An article from the Baxter Bulletin today highlights the debate over the purported benefits of raw milk versus the safety of our food supply and the duties of public health officials who must work to prevent outbreaks of Campylobacter and other foodborne illnesses:
Advocates of raw milk are behind legislative efforts in Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky and Nebraska to legalize selling raw milk. Moves to introduce legislation have begun in North Carolina and Maryland.Continue Reading Raw milk: Fit for human consumption?

Updated 8/6/2006
By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
John Langlois feels so strongly about the benefits of unpasteurized goat milk that he pays $19 a gallon to have it shipped from a South Carolina dairy to his home in Estillfork, Ala. He credits it with giving him more energy, curing his grandson’s chronic diarrhea when he was an infant and keeping the boy “steady” rather than “bouncing off the walls” now that he’s 5.
Elizabeth Benner of Rochester, N.Y., drives 45 minutes each way to a dairy to get a week’s worth of raw cow’s milk for nine families in the milk club she organized. She says she was “really struggling” on a low-fat, vegan diet but regained her strength when she added whole raw milk and cream to her diet.
Christina Trecaso of Copley, Ohio, is in a herd share program. She and 150 other families pay boarding costs for “their” cows and take their profits in milk, butter and cream. For her, it’s about “buying food that is minimally processed, food that is procured in a 100-mile radius. … It’s about relationships and shaking the hand that feeds you.”Continue Reading Raw milk: Fit for human consumption?

June 28, 2006
Associated Press
Joe Milicia
MOUNT HOPE, Ohio — Arlie Stutzman was busted in a rare sting when an undercover agent bought raw milk from the Amish dairy farmer in an unlabeled container.
Now, Stutsman is fighting the law that forbids the sale of raw milk, saying he believes it violates his religious beliefs because it prohibits him from sharing the milk he produces with others.
“While I can and I have food, I’ll share it,” said Stutzman, who is due in Holmes County Common Pleas Court on Friday to tell a judge his views. “Do unto others what you would have others do unto you.”
Last September, a man came to Stutzman’s weathered, two-story farmhouse, located in a pastoral region in northeast Ohio that has the world’s largest Amish settlement. The man asked for milk.
Stutzman was leery, but agreed to fill up the man’s plastic container from a 250-gallon stainless steel tank in the milkhouse.Continue Reading Amish-Raw milk

May 11, 2006
Dayton Daily News (Ohio)
Laura A. Bischoff
COLUMBUS — The debate about milk unpasteurized, straight from the cow reached state lawmakers Wednesday.
A bill pending in the House Agriculture Committee would allow licensed farmers to sell raw milk directly to consumers.
Bill advocates packed a Statehouse hearing room and sang the praises of raw milk.Continue Reading Panel hears pro, cons of raw milk

April 6, 2006
Scripps Howard News Service
Lance Gay
America’s disease detectives credit pasteurization of milk as one of the great health advances of the 20th century. But drinkers of raw milk argue the heating process that destroys dangerous pathogens also kills beneficial nutrients and vitamins.
Advocates are accelerating their lobbying in some of the 23 states that ban sales of un-pasteurized milk, arguing that it’s no more dangerous than raw meat or un-pasteurized fruit juice. Encouraging dairy farmers to sell un-pasteurized milk at the farm gate will save small farms that are losing their milk markets, they say.
“Technology is destroying nature’s perfect food,” said Sally Fallon, head of the Weston A. Price Foundation in Washington, who argues Americans would be healthier returning to drinking raw milk. The foundation is spearheading a drive to make raw milk more available.Continue Reading Battle brewing over raw milk