Earlier in this decade much was made about the new Liberal provincial government’s dedication to reducing regulation. In fact, it promised, and apparently delivered, a reduction by one-third of the regulations on the books at the time. One might reasonably conclude there is more work to be done.

In this month’s issue of the newspaper Country Life in BC (which, happily, features Erickson’s Gary and Susan Snow on the cover) the story is told about a Chilliwack farmer and a group of consumers who thought they had found a way around a prohibition of the sale of raw, unpasteurized milk. About 365 people bought shares in a 27-cow herd and its production, then collected their milk from some distribution points around the Lower Mainland.

Recently, health authorities tested samples of the milk and found elevated coliform counts and traces of feces. They then seized the milk from the distribution points.

“These products are not safe for consumers,” Vancouver Coastal Health Authority medical health officer Dr. John Carsley is quoted in the story. “Even the most hygienic dairy cannot produce raw milk that is as safe as pasteurized milk. No one should consume raw milk or products like milk and fresh cheese made from milk, especially children or people who are immune-compromised.”

What the good doctor doesn’t address is the right of individuals to make choices that affect themselves. There are those who believe that milk loses some of its nutrients in the pasteurization (heating) process. Others might just like the fact that they are getting the entire product from the cow, which includes cream.

Before we came to Creston we were used to enjoying cream from the farms of relatives in Alberta — it wasn’t pasteurized. We found a source to provide us with untreated milk shortly after we moved here. It was all hush-hush, of course. Someone told us about the location and got permission for us to buy the milk. We would drive to a farm and walk into an unlocked room, pick up our bottles of milk, leave money in a tray and drive off, all without ever having seen the producer.

With that milk, we often skimmed off the cream for baking or just to whip. We had a simple old paddle system, the type that was fixed through the lid of a gallon jar, that allowed us to make butter from that cream, too. I would sit and watch TV, turning the hand crank until, eventually, the cream metamorphosed into butter. Whether the milk, cream or butter was better than we could have purchased in the store isn’t important. The fact is, we didn’t get sick or die and we accepted responsibility for consuming the illegal product.

It’s all well and fine to cite higher coliform counts and evidence of feces in the unpasteurized product, but think of it from another angle. If people, for whatever reason, wanted to consume cow manure, the authorities wouldn’t bat an eye. These folks, strange as they might be, would simply drive up to the farm, load up what they wanted and then drive off to enjoy their own peculiar diet. But when a microscopic amount of feces is found in milk, it is deemed a health hazard and the authorities have been given the right to swoop down and confiscate the products.

Food, with its many and varied methods of preparation and consumption, like it or not, is a cultural thing. In parts of the world, blood or raw organs are consumed in rituals often intended to pay tribute to the animal they came from. Want to get cow’s blood to make traditional French dishes in North America, though? Good luck. It’s a rare restaurant menu that even includes steak and kidney pie any more.

Our obsession with health and cleanliness, and the steps that can be taken to reduce chances for something to go wrong, is trampling on the rights of individuals to make choices that affect only them. The folks who want to consume raw milk aren’t advocating that everyone should drink the stuff, or that pasteurization isn’t fine for the general market. They just want the right to decide for themselves what they put into their bodies. That doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.