Today we went to a seminar on raw milk entitled “If raw milk is so bad, why are not all our friends in neighbors sick?” The retired pathologist who gave the talk had looked for data on raw milk intended for consumption (and not pre-pasteurized milk that was intended for pasteurization but was consumed) from 1/1/1999 to present and found that there were about 35 cases per year of someone getting ill by raw milk. However in a recent survey there were 3.07% of the population that drinks raw milk. In short, if these numbers held, and if everyone in the United States drank raw milk, 1050 people every year would get ill from it. However when you look at the data further and see how many of those 35 people actually have confirmed case of illness from the raw milk (and not people that are just assumed to have had it) it is 1.7 people per year or if everyone in the country were drinking raw milk it would be under 180 people per year.
This was the data that Tony was looking for when I told him that I wanted to switch to raw milk. Finally he got it.