Raw milk is getting a dangerous boost&nbsp;in the US, amplified by misinformation and the allure of &ldquo;natural&rdquo; living.&nbsp;And with vaccine-skeptic <a href="https://x.com/RobertKennedyJr/status/1816535637736227252">Robert F. Kennedy Jr </a>tapped to the lead the Department of Health and Human Services under the incoming Trump government, there&rsquo;s a risk that this raw-milk craze could spread globally.
India&nbsp;cannot afford to join this potentially harmful trend.
Here, milk isn&rsquo;t just a drink; it&rsquo;s tradition, it&rsquo;s economy, it&rsquo;s community.
From the steaming chai shared with friends to the universal comfort food of dahi-chawal, dairy has nourished generations.
Back in the 1970s, when milk scarcity plagued India, Dr Verghese Kurien (whose birthday we mark as National Milk Day on November 26 each year) and the White Revolution changed the game. India didn&rsquo;t just become the world&rsquo;s largest milk producer&mdash;it became a model for how science, community, and smart policy could work together. Pasteurization played a starring role, ensuring milk was not only abundantly available but also safe. Diseases like typhoid and tuberculosis, once spread through&nbsp;<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3882853/">contaminated milk</a>, became far less common. &nbsp;
Now imagine undoing all that progress because a few influencers on Instagram are raving about the &ldquo;natural goodness&rdquo;&nbsp;of raw milk. It&rsquo;s like throwing away a safety net we worked so hard to build&mdash;only to find ourselves free-falling back into the dangers of the past.
Here&rsquo;s the thing: the claims about raw milk being more nutritious or packed with &ldquo;gut-friendly probiotics&rdquo; are mostly myths. Science says so. Pasteurization doesn&rsquo;t rob milk of nutrients&mdash;it protects them while eliminating harmful bacteria like E. coli, Salmonella, and Listeria. &nbsp;
What&rsquo;s worse is how risky raw milk could be in India. Our dairy supply chain is diverse and sprawling, from urban cooperatives&mdash;think Amul, Nandini, Aavin, Country Delight and Milma&mdash;to small village set-ups where sanitation can vary wildly. Pasteurized milk goes through rigorous checks, but raw milk? It&rsquo;s a gamble&mdash;one that could cost us dearly in terms of disease outbreaks and public health crises.
Raw milk advocates love to frame it as a way to &ldquo;empower farmers&rdquo;. In India, however, that logic doesn&rsquo;t fly. The dairy cooperatives born from the White Revolution have already done the heavy lifting&mdash;uplifting millions of small-scale farmers, especially women, by giving them stable incomes and access to markets. Brands like Amul are shining examples, not just for their high standards of milk safety but also for building trust (Remember Amul&rsquo;s iconic slogan, &ldquo;Amul doodh peeta hai India?). Encouraging raw milk consumption threatens to unravel this legacy by introducing risks that might drive people away from milk altogether.
We&rsquo;ve seen how fast misinformation spreads. A viral WhatsApp forward or a persuasive Instagram reel can turn even the most rational people into believers of wild ideas. Remember the chaos over turmeric curing COVID-19 or the anti-vaccine messages? It doesn&rsquo;t take much for a wellness trend to spiral out of control in India&rsquo;s digital age, especially when it&rsquo;s framed as &ldquo;traditional&rdquo; or &ldquo;natural&rdquo;. &nbsp;
Raw milk fits neatly into this mold, and influencers pushing it here would have a massive, eager audience. But just because something feels &ldquo;natural&rdquo; doesn&rsquo;t make it better&mdash;or safer.
It&rsquo;s time we recognize this trend for what it is: a threat to both our health and the legacy of the White Revolution. The science is clear. The risks are real. What we need is a proactive effort to counter misinformation before it takes hold. Public health campaigns that speak to our people, in our languages, using familiar and trusted voices, can make all the difference. We&rsquo;ve done it before with vaccination drives and polio eradication. We can do it again. &nbsp;
Undermining all of that for the sake of a trendy wellness movement is not just risky; it&rsquo;s reckless. We&rsquo;ve spent decades building a system that delivers safe, affordable milk to millions. Let&rsquo;s not jeopardize that for the illusion of something &ldquo;better&rdquo;. &nbsp;
As Amul reminds us, &ldquo;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSo7I3wGfh0">piyo glassful doodh</a>&rdquo;&mdash;and let&rsquo;s make sure it&rsquo;s safe, pasteurized milk that nourishes us, not a gamble with raw milk. Our health&mdash;and the health of our nation&mdash;depends on it.&nbsp;

White Revolution gave small-scale farmers, especially women, stable incomes & market access

‘Healthfluencers’ and the US right-wing are pushing raw milk—India must not fall for this trend

This National Milk Day, Let’s Not Milk This Fad

‘Healthfluencers’ and the US right-wing are pushing raw milk—India must not fall for this trend

November 24, 2024 | 15:03 IST