A dark shadow is being cast over the food that gives us life. CTV News has uncovered a growing underground of illegal, unpasteurized milk.

"What we're providing is milk at its purest," says one raw milk farmer, who only agreed to be interviewed if his identity is concealed.

According to a government document, a quarter of a million Canadians drink unpasteurized milk. The farmer interviewed by CTV News says the demand is high. Some customers travel more than 200 kilometres to buy his illegal milk.

"I would say [customers] beg for the milk. It's not even asking. They beg for the milk."

The farmer says he sells 95 per cent of his product to people in the city. The other five per cent is made up of those who are ill and chefs, who he says use unpasteurized milk in their dishes to increase taste and quality.

Farmers that sell unpasteurized milk or give it away can face fines up to $250,000, and up to three years in jail. However, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says they'll only investigate if there's a complaint or someone gets sick.

"We would never turn a blind eye to anything that would be against an act or a regulation," says Jim Muir, of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. "Again we act upon if there is going to be an outbreak or sickness we'd take the appropriate action and if there's a complaint."

Pasteurization is a process that sterilizes milk, killing all bacteria. Bacteria in milk has been linked to diseases like tuberculosis, salmonella and E.coli.

Raw milk lovers maintain the laws are outdated. They say farming today is safer and pasteurization kills essential vitamins.

Some studies show vitamins A and D are reduced in pasteurized milk. Those vitamins appear on the ingredients list of most store-bought milk, because dairy producers have to add the vitamins later.

Kathleen Carpentier says she wants all-natural milk products.

"Raw milk is nutrient dense and it's like liquid gold -- it's just precious," says Carpentier. "If people were to know and understand the virtue of raw milk ... it would be an easy choice for them to choose for the nutrition of their family.

"It just seems absurd to me that something as basic as selling raw milk would be thought of as illegal."

Under the law, only the owner of the cow can drink its milk unpasteurized. Carpentier drinks the milk legally. But she also feeds it to her children.

"My children won't drink [store bought] milk any more. It just tastes too weird to them. It doesn't have the same freshness and flavour of raw milk."

Technically, giving away raw milk, even to family members, is illegal.

"In my heart, I know that what I'm providing for my family is nutritious and delicious and it's full of raw enzymes -- which is something we never have in our diets."

Overprocessing, she says, is too common in Canada.

"When it's six or seven days before it gets back to the consumer from the farm and they still give you a two-week shelf life, what does that tell you? There's not much food value in it. It's dead," says one Manitoba milk farmer, who has stopped distributing raw milk.

"I wouldn't want to be persecuted for it. [But] I don't think it's fair."

The situation is much different in America. A certified system for selling raw milk exists in nearly half of the United States. Depending on the state, Americans can purchase and farmers can sell raw milk. It's a system raw milk activists in Canada are fighting for.

James McLaren is set to fight the law in January. He wants Canadians to have the right to choose whether they want raw milk or not and is proposing a certification process that would allow the government to monitor which Canadian farms are producing raw milk safely.

McLaren says, "there are economic interests that are well served by the present system. Dairies have a virtual monopoly.

"The current pasteurized dairies have wiped out the unpasteurized ones. There is a second industry that could be established and there is room in the market place to have suppliers both of pasteurized products for the mass market and the unpasteurized for the specialty markets."

McLaren is also arguing that only allowing the owner of a cow to drink its unpasteurized milk is unconstitutional. McLaren says that's a right all Canadians should be afforded.

"Under Section 7 of the Charter everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person, and if I want to drink a healthier product then I should be able to get that product and not have it effectively eliminated from the store shelves."

Health Canada maintains unpasteurized milk is too risky.