Seriously, what’s the deal? Lately, it seems like raw milk has started to pop up more and more frequently in our feeds, with influencers touting the alleged health benefits of raw milk over pasteurized milk. In this and next week’s episode, we explore the raw milk phenomenon as it has grown over the past few decades. We start this two-parter with a look at the dangers of milk in a pre-pasteurization world, how Pasteur developed the life-saving process that bears his name, the subsequent rise of anti-pasteurizers, and how the anti-science sentiment surrounding raw milk today reveals a larger and more troubling agenda.
| History of Raw Milk & Pasteurization |
| Andrews, John, and Arthur Wolfram Fuchs. “Pasteurization and its relation to health.” Journal of the American Medical Association 138.2 (1948): 128-131. |
| Atkins, Peter J. “Sophistication detected: or, the adulteration of the milk supply, 1850–1914.” Social history 16.3 (1991): 317-339. |
| Atkins, Peter. Liquid materialities: A history of milk, science and the law. Routledge, 2016. |
| Boor, Kathryn J., et al. “A 100-year review: microbiology and safety of milk handling.” Journal of dairy science 100.12 (2017): 9933-9951. |
| Currier, Russell. “Pasteurisation: Pasteur’s greatest contribution to health.” The Lancet Microbe 4.3 (2023): e129-e130. |
| Currier, Russell W., and John A. Widness. “A brief history of milk hygiene and its impact on infant mortality from 1875 to 1925 and implications for today: a review.” Journal of food protection 81.10 (2018): 1713-1722. |
| Czaplicki, Alan. ““Pure Milk Is Better Than Purified Milk”: Pasteurization and Milk Purity in Chicago, 1908-1916.” Social Science History 31.3 (2007): 411-433. |
| Erasmus Ellis, L. “A case against the general pasteurization of milk.” South African Medical Journal 21.12 (1947): 432-433. |
| Evershed, Richard P., et al. “Dairying, diseases and the evolution of lactase persistence in Europe.” Nature 608.7922 (2022): 336-345. |
| Hawthorn, J. “A history of milk in the food industry.” Proceedings of the Nutrition Society 37.3 (1978): 211-215. |
| Hawthorne, C. O. “Pasteurization of Milk.” British Medical Journal 1.4033 (1938): 917. |
| Hotchkiss, Joseph H. “Lambasting Louis: lessons from pasteurization.” NABC, 2001. |
| Jenkins, Jane E. “Politics, pasteurization, and the naturalizing myth of pure milk in 1920s Saint John, New Brunswick.” Acadiensis 37.2 (2008): 86-105. |
| Lederle, Ernst J. “Pasteurization of milk.” American journal of public hygiene 17.2 (1907): 164. |
| Picton, Lionel J. “Pasteurization of Milk.” British Medical Journal 1.4031 (1938): 812. |
| Rankin, S. A., et al. “A 100-Year Review: A century of dairy processing advancements—Pasteurization, cleaning and sanitation, and sanitary equipment design.” Journal of dairy science 100.12 (2017): 9903-9915. |
| Rosenau, Milton Joseph. The milk question. Vol. 30061. Houghton Mifflin, 1912. |
| Rotch, Thomas Morgan. “Pasteurization of milk for public sale.” American journal of public hygiene 17.2 (1907): 181. |
| Schwartz, Maxime. “The life and works of Louis Pasteur.” Journal of Applied Microbiology 91.4 (2001): 597-601. |
| Stănescu, Vasile. “White power milk’: milk, dietary racism, and the ‘alt-right.” Animal Studies Journal 7.2 (2018). |
| Steele, James H. “History, trends, and extent of pasteurization.” Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 217.2 (2000): 175-178. |
| Stenn, Frederick. “Nurture turned to poison.” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 24.1 (1980): 69-80. |
| Sutherland, Halliday. “Pasteurization of Milk.” British Medical Journal 1.4031 (1938): 812. |
| Ten Eyck, Toby A., and Melissa Williment. “The more things change…: Milk pasteurization, food irradiation, and biotechnology in the New York Times.” The Social Science Journal 41.1 (2004): 29-41. |
| Treitel, Corinna. “Nature and the Nazi diet.” Food and Foodways 17.3 (2009): 139-158. |
| Wilson, Graham Selby. “The pasteurization of milk.” British medical journal 1.4286 (1943): 261. |
| https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/03/10/the-alt-right-rebrand-of-raw-milk-00145625 |
| https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/the-lingering-heat-over-pasteurized-milk/ |
| https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/raw-milk-explained-tiktok-influencers-health-1235042145/ |
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