For such a ubiquitous drink, milk is somewhat controversial. In recent years, the drink—coveted by the FDA as the “milk secretion” of cows—has sparked heated debate about its healthfulness, safety, and, as milk alternatives proliferate, even questions about Its health and safety are hotly debated. yes. An ongoing outbreak of bird flu that has spread to nearly 1,000 U.S. dairy herds and turned up in unpasteurized milk samples is just the latest flashpoint in a drama that has raged on for more than 150 years.

For Americans, milk has always been more than just a drink. It is a symbol of all that is pure and natural - a simple pastoral time. In 1910, in a passionate novel, writer Dallas Lore Shari Atlantic The story follows a scene that greets him at the rural family farm after a day's work in a dirty, lonely city. "Four shining faces gathered on the inverted bucket behind the cow. Lanterns flickered, milk foamed, and stories flowed," he wrote. Milk is a respite from the coldness and isolation of modern society. He admits that new conveniences such as canned condensed milk and milk delivery save time and money, but at an emotional cost.

As milk production revolutionized, there was a nostalgia for the bygone era of family farms and country comforts. In 1859, in one of the earliest references to milk, an unknown writer lamented the erosion of ancient agricultural practices. this Atlantic. He praised a new book that criticizes "the folly of a mistaken economic system that thinks maximizing milk with minimal feed expenditure is good farming". Others are skeptical about bringing technology to the dairy industry. “Every time I see a milk truck go by, I feel the vats, the pipes, the pulleys, the chaos, everything crude, mechanical, completely foreign to the field,” one Atlantic In 1920, one writer complained: "No wonder there's something wrong with their butter."

Despite the resistance, milk production continues to be industrialized. It just has to be done: As America's growing population demands more milk, maintaining a safe supply becomes more difficult. Unprocessed milk (that is, milk that comes directly from the cow) is easily contaminated by potentially deadly pathogens. Hollis Godfrey, former dean of the Drexel College of Arts, Sciences, and Industries, argued in 1907 that strict regulation was a matter of public health. He claims that in some major cities, more than a quarter of the population drinks raw milk. Number of deaths among children under 5 years of age (beverages are a major source of nutrition for young children). Pasteurization, a process of heating milk to kill pathogens, was first introduced to major U.S. dairies in the 1990s with dramatic results. Infant mortality in New York City fell by more than 50 percent between 1907 and 1923, in part because of mandatory pasteurization of milk.

As milk became safer and more readily available, it became a standard part of adult diets. Not everyone thinks this is a good thing. During World War I, soldiers were given canned condensed milk as part of the "barbaric" and "uncivilized" meals they endured, a veteran wrote in "The First World War." Atlantic In 1920, the drink also became popular among women, much to the chagrin of writer Don Cortes, who complained in this magazine in 1957 that "the problem with the American woman is simply that she is the one who drinks it" Raised on milk.” The drink made her energized, energized and so "elongated" in height that she took on interests like activism and lost all femininity - or so his argument went.

There has always been skepticism about industrially produced milk. As I wrote earlier this year, critics of pasteurization in the early 1910s argued that it destroyed the nutrients and beneficial bacteria in milk, a belief that raw milk enthusiasts still hold today An oversimplification. Some of the proposed milk experiments must have shocked the public, such as those described in a 1957 article. Atlantic Report: "Vaccinated" milk, which may contain antibodies produced by injecting vaccines into cows' udders, or milk mixed with juice, which would help children "drink morning milk and juice at the same time." As milk innovations have emerged in recent decades—strawberry flavor, plant-based, shelf-stable, and more—the drink’s natural connotations seem to have been all but lost.

The milk comes all the way from family farms. Now it mainly falls within the realm of science and policy. Much of the resistance to milk innovation today has to do not just with milk itself but with government overreach (in fact, milk drinking is at its lowest point since the 1970s, but raw milk consumption has increased over the past year surge). Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the most famous raw milk enthusiast, has vowed to end the FDA's "aggressive suppression" of products including raw milk if he leads the Department of Health and Human Services. His vision of “making America healthy again” is embraced by some Americans who believe, like pasteurized milk skeptics a century ago, that such a future represents not just better milk but more Good life.