Sally Fallon Morell replies: I couldn’t disagree more. During growth is the time when kids need raw milk the most. Pasteurization (and ultra-pasteurization) ruins all the enzymes that help children assimilate the calcium and other nutrients. I do not know of a single case of a child getting brucellosis from raw milk. The people most likely to contract this are farmers and vets who are around a lot of cows in a confinement situation.

I’m a cattle veterinarian in New Zealand that grew up on an organic farm, drank raw milk throughout my childhood and yes I’m none the worse for it, but I’m fortunate in that I live in a country where many biovars of Brucella are absent.

I hear your argument about vaccination, but consider that if you don’t vaccinate, cows are more likely to acquire Brucella abortus and even if you do vaccinate with RB 51 cows can still acquire Brucella suis – especially in Texas. Either way they transmit brucella in milk and if we consume that milk we can get very sick. Changing vaccination practices does not alter the risk to humans if we drink raw milk – you need to eradicate Brucella from both cattle and the other species on farm so that raw milk drinking is safe. Worse if we don’t eradicate Brucella abortus, mellitensis or suis and we stop vaccinating cows then the risk to the people that care for cattle and humans increases as more unvaccinated animals become infected. The people farming those animals then become at great risk from dealing with cows that abort, cows shedding organisms into the environment and also the milk-borne risk. Stopping vaccination of dairy cows in the absence of eradication actually puts many more human lives at risk.

I like the taste of raw milk, but consuming it does come with some serious risks. I was blissfully unaware of this as a child, but as an adult that deals with caring for animals that make food its something that I think adults can choose to do – same as we make decisions about alcohol or drugs or smoking, but its not something we should carelessly impose on our kids. I think children should have pasteurized milk until they are old enough to decide if the risk is worth it.