Raw Milk

Birchwood Farms, 428 Brownsburg Road, Newtown, 215-598-8633, birchwoodfarmdairy.com. Styles: Organic grass-fed cow milk, including cheddar, baby Swiss. Birchrun Hills Farm, 2573 Horseshoe Trail, Chester Springs. 610-827-1603, www.birchrunhillsfarm.com . Styles: Cave-aged Birchrun Blue, Highland. Ely Pork Products, 401 Woodhill Road, Newtown, 215-860-0669, elyporkproducts.com. Styles: Aldan's Blessing Trappist-style; Makefield French Abondance-style. Greystone Nubians, 764 Hillview Road, Malvern, 610-296-0463.

Pennsylvania is lapping up raw milk - the unpasteurized, yellowish, straight-from-the-cow variety - at a booming rate, but the boutique beverage just became harder to find in the suburbs. The state Department of Agriculture suspended the license of the only state-certified seller of raw milk in Montgomery County, Hendricks Farms & Dairy in Telford, on Friday after customers in seven unrelated households came down with gastrointestinal infections tied to the campylobacter bacteria.

WASHINGTON - An outbreak of bacterial infections on the East Coast illustrates the popularity of raw, unpasteurized milk despite strong warnings from public health officials about the potential danger. Even presidential candidate Ron Paul has joined the cause of consumers looking to buy unprocessed "real foods" straight from the farm, saying government shouldn't deny them that choice. An outbreak of campylobacter illness is a reminder of the potential hazards, however. Raw milk from a dairy in Chambersburg, Pa., is now linked to 38 cases in four states, and the farm has temporarily suspended sales.

In the predawn fog of an April morning last year, armed federal agents fanned out across darkened Lancaster County pastures in search of contraband. Months of investigation had led to this point. Strong evidence suggested that Rainbow Acres - a small Amish farm just outside Kinzers - served as the hub of a large-scale smuggling operation responsible for shipping hundreds of gallons of illicit product across state lines. After sweeping past dozing cattle and roosters waiting to crow, the agents finally found what they had come for: dozens of coolers filled with unpasteurized milk.

The forces of consumer choice and health safety collided in a Senate hearing on raw milk yesterday. More than a hundred people, including a cluster of Amish farmers, packed a Senate hearing room to support the production and retail selling of raw milk in Pennsylvania. Equally passionate are health officials and food-safety researchers who say they firmly believe that unpasteurized milk, with its high levels of food-borne pathogens, is unsafe. Senate Agricultural Committee Chairman Michael Brubaker (R., Lancaster)

Thousands of people drink certified raw milk thinking that it is healthful, but a federal judge has ordered a ban on interstate sale of the product, calling it unsafe. U.S. District Judge Norma Johnson, granting a request filed by two public health advocacy groups and a California man, wrote that evidence accumulated over 13 years has shown that "certified raw milk is unsafe. " If the interstate ban fails, she said, the Department of Health and Human Services has the authority to halt sales within states.

Convenience is the key to where most Americans shop for food, especially for something as basic as milk. But that's not the case for Cherry Hill resident Suzanne Musetto, who makes regular trips to Pennsylvania for something she can't buy in New Jersey: raw milk. Musetto swears by the health benefits she perceives in milk that has not been pasteurized, or heat-treated, to kill bacteria: a stronger immune system and better digestion. "Milk that's pasteurized is really a dead product," Musetto said, referring to the destruction of enzymes and beneficial bacteria.

A 3-year-old boy and a 27-year-old man from South Jersey became ill recently from drinking raw milk from a Pennsylvania farm. New Jersey health officials are warning residents about the risks of drinking unpasteurized milk in wake of the illnesses. The state Department of Health and Senior Services says the two became sick after consuming the milk from Family Cow Dairy in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. The department does not specify when the two became sick. Currently 78 people from several states have fallen ill with Campylobacteriosis, a gastrointestinal illness, from the consumption of raw milk contaminated with bacteria traced to the farm.

The Department of Agriculture threw its weight at dairy farmer Mark Nolt. They seized his inventory. Twice. They dispatched undercover investigators - including a microbiologist - to a farmers' market on multiple occasions. They assigned their chief counsel to prosecute him. Nolt's crime? Selling raw milk without a permit. Yesterday the defendant, a Mennonite farmer from Newville, north of Harrisburg, was found guilty by a district judge in a tiny courtroom and ordered to pay a fine.

Cheese of the Month The locally minded Fair Food Farmstand in the Reading Terminal Market is one of the best sources of regional cheeses, with up to three dozen - many from small, raw-milk artisans - tucked into its fridge case. My latest find here is Provolone Rustico, a unique provolone-style creation from the relatively new cheesemakers at Cherry Grove Farm in Lawrenceville, N.J. Made from the raw milk of Jersey cows that graze on organic pasture, this firm, waxy yellow cheese gets an olive-oil rub several times a week during its five-month aging.

A New Jersey cheesemaker made its ricotta cheese from tainted milk that was on its way to a landfill, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in Philadelphia. The raw milk from Pennsylvania had been condemned because of high levels of antibiotics, authorities said. No injuries or illnesses were reported. Lebanon Cheese Co. of Lebanon, Hunterdon County, and its president, Joseph G. Lotito, were charged Monday with a misdemeanor interstate shipping charge. The company paid cash for the discounted milk from D.A. Landis Trucking Inc. of Lancaster, in 2008, although dairy farmers had pledged to dispose of it, prosecutors said.

States with raw-milk sales have twice the dairy-disease cases States that allow raw-milk sales have more than twice as many dairy-related disease outbreaks as states with prohibitions on such unpasteurized products, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study showed. The rate of incidents caused by raw milk, cheese, and yogurt was 150 times greater than outbreaks linked to pasteurized milk, according to the Atlanta-based CDC's study, published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

A 3-year-old boy and a 27-year-old man from South Jersey became ill recently from drinking raw milk from a Pennsylvania farm. New Jersey health officials are warning residents about the risks of drinking unpasteurized milk in wake of the illnesses. The state Department of Health and Senior Services says the two became sick after consuming the milk from Family Cow Dairy in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. The department does not specify when the two became sick. Currently 78 people from several states have fallen ill with Campylobacteriosis, a gastrointestinal illness, from the consumption of raw milk contaminated with bacteria traced to the farm.

PENNSYLVANIA Raw-milk toll at 43 Pennsylvania health officials said yesterday that the number of people sickened after consuming raw milk from the Family Cow Farm, in Chambersburg, has risen to 43 in four states. Officials said that confirmed cases of Campylobacter infection include 36 people in Pennsylvania, four in Maryland, two in West Virginia and one in New Jersey. Health officials said last week that consumers should discard raw milk purchased since the start of the year from the Franklin County dairy.

WASHINGTON - An outbreak of bacterial infections on the East Coast illustrates the popularity of raw, unpasteurized milk despite strong warnings from public health officials about the potential danger. Even presidential candidate Ron Paul has joined the cause of consumers looking to buy unprocessed "real foods" straight from the farm, saying government shouldn't deny them that choice. An outbreak of campylobacter illness is a reminder of the potential hazards, however. Raw milk from a dairy in Chambersburg, Pa., is now linked to 38 cases in four states, and the farm has temporarily suspended sales.

About a year ago, after months of investigation complete with undercover purchases, a posse of federal agents made a predawn move on a Pennsylvania farm and discovered a sizable stash of pure, unadulterated . . . milk. The government's pursuit of Daniel Allgyer, an Amish dairy farmer in Lancaster County, continued last month with a federal complaint seeking to stop his hustling of unpasteurized milk, which has long been popular among the crunchy set but illegal to sell across state lines.

In the predawn fog of an April morning last year, armed federal agents fanned out across darkened Lancaster County pastures in search of contraband. Months of investigation had led to this point. Strong evidence suggested that Rainbow Acres - a small Amish farm just outside Kinzers - served as the hub of a large-scale smuggling operation responsible for shipping hundreds of gallons of illicit product across state lines. After sweeping past dozing cattle and roosters waiting to crow, the agents finally found what they had come for: dozens of coolers filled with unpasteurized milk.

TOKYO - Japan's government admitted yesterday that its safeguards were insufficient to protect a nuclear plant against the earthquake and tsunami that crippled the facility and caused it to spew radiation, and it vowed to overhaul safety standards. The struggle to contain radiation at the Fukushima Daiichi complex has unfolded with near-constant missteps - the latest including three workers drenched with radioactive water despite wearing supposedly waterproof suits. The March 11 tsunami that slammed into Japan's northeast, wiping out towns and killing thousands of people, knocked out power and backup systems at the coastal nuclear power plant.

Cold weather and hot cheese go together, so it's no wonder I've been craving fondue, molten-lidded French onion soups, and grilled cheese sandwiches. But what exactly to melt? Mozzarella can be too bland; aged cheddar too sharp. Even a big Gruyere can show too much swagger. That's why Comte, a more understated member of the Gruyere clan, is the perfect choice. Made in the Jura mountains of France, Comte is a firm raw-milk cheese with a mountain tang, but with a softer side, too, and overtones of nuts and a fruity finish.