The War on Raw Milk

Posted by freedomforall 9 years, 11 months ago to Legislation
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The distribution of raw milk has been banned in the U.S. since inception of the pasteurization laws in the 1920s. The American Medical Association together with the FDA brought about this ban of raw milk because of its susceptibility to being a carrier for certain infectious microbes such as salmonella.

The error here is that it was never “raw milk” that was a problem. It was “warm raw milk” produced in crowded, unsanitary conditions from grain-fed cows instead of grass-fed that was prone to an unhealthy level of microbes. Grass-fed cows produce a milk with natural “inhibins,” anti-microbial agents that keep pathogens low, while grain-fed cows do not produce high “inhibin” levels in their milk.
SOURCE URL: http://afr.org/the-war-on-raw-milk/


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  • Posted by $ Abaco 9 years, 11 months ago
    It's just crapitalism (the large corporate farmers making sure the little guy doesn't cut into their profits). This is another policy that ignores science...
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  • Posted by Zenphamy 9 years, 11 months ago
    My four brothers and I were raised on 'raw' milk, milked every morning and evening by my mother and then me. For several years, we kept it cooled in a local spring. We did just fine.
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    • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 9 years, 11 months ago
      How many cows? As I understand it, the problem with tuberculosis originates in herding. Also, of course, it is known that the germ theory of disease is only a partial explanation. Resistance, resilience, and recovery are not well explained. If you had died from raw milk, you would be another narrative in a moral panic, but you would not be here to tell about it. You and raw milk got along just fine. Different people have different outcomes, again, given that we each do not have just one cow, but depend on mass herding to deliver millions of gallons of milk every day.

      It is sort of like the "organic" claim. My comrades at the food co-op blank out on the fact that their organic local apples are the result of genetic modification. It is difficult to paint this with a broad brush.
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  • Posted by Lucky 9 years, 11 months ago
    A product labelled as 'certified raw milk' was available in California in the early seventies from -
    the Co-op supermarket in Berkeley.
    It cost slightly more than pasteurized.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 9 years, 11 months ago
    This is a huge issue here. I want pasteurized milk, but it should be a free country for people to drink whatever they want. I agree that critics of unpasteurized milk overstate the risks.
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  • Posted by iroseland 9 years, 11 months ago
    First, I spent a lot of growing up time in Northern Wisconsin on my Grandparents Dairy farm... So, I drank a lot of raw milk as a kid. The thing is that raw milk is not in and of itself unsafe milk. The safety of the milk is determined by a few things. Starting with the cow itself.. If the cow is unhealthy the milk will not be as good.. depending on how unhealthy the cow is the milk may also be unhealthy. Next up, cleanliness... Milk is a great environment for bacteria, especially if its sits around at the wrong temperatures. Now, if we look at the raw milk related health events nearly all of them are caused by various fecal bacteria. This was not caused by bad milk but by poor handling or cleaning problems. This means to trust that the raw milk is safe you have to know that the cows are clean the udders are even more clean and that the milking equipment is sterile. If you are getting those right the milk will be fine. Get one of those wrong and you are well on your way to "food born illness" .. Also, on the grass fed thing vs the grain fed thing.. My grandparents grew a lot of alfalfa their reason was to make better milk. Also, people should not fool themselves on the "value" of using post brewing waste as cow food is plain old bad. One of the reasons we pasteurize and homogenize milk is to cover up how horrible it tastes when you feed the cows bad food.. I am currently living on the West Coast, and there is a world of quality difference between the stuff out here vs what is produced in Wisconsin or Vermont.
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    • Posted by $ stargeezer 9 years, 11 months ago
      Growing up in Illinois farm country, I was also raised drinking good, unpasturized milk. The kind that has a thick layer of cream on top when you go to pour it onto your bowl of Wheaties in the morning. And as Dad would fix his coffee he'd fix us big cups of steaming hot, stove top brewed coffee with lots of the cream Mom had pulled off before we got to the kitchen and sweetened with a big spoon of sugar.

      Now, with all that you'd think we grew up to be real porkers, but that just wasn't true. There were chores after school from the time we could carry a bucket or dig with a shovel or scoop with a coal scoop. If we got our chores done, it was play time, not before. We ran and played Army or cowboys and indians, we actually played dodge ball and real sandlot football - without pads - and sometimes we'd go swimming in the river that bordered our property and there was never a lifeguard on that beach. We went home when we were too tired to go on or it was just too dark to see.

      Why are kids fat and subject to allergies we never suffered? Why are they weak and why do they not understand the basics of mechanics or lack the ability to create their own pastimes? It's because they live 24/7 in their bedrooms playing with a computer or Ipod or texting their friends. The only muscles they develope are in their thumbs.

      That's also why they need their milk pasteurized, homogenized, strained of all fat content, wholesome natural cream and any of the good stuff bossy could pass to her baby calf's. Today's kids would curl up and die if they drank what made us strong.

      I just found a farmer who is willing to pass along an occasional gallon of real milk to me. I've got one in our refrigerator right now and I can almost taste the cream in my coffee, just like Dad made.
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      • Posted by Robbie53024 9 years, 11 months ago
        Don't give out his name. The FDA will haul him in to court.

        I too had similar experiences on my grandparent's dairy farm in north central MN. In addition to the chores you mention, there was always spring rock picking, round about this time of year. How many kids nowadays use Absorbine jr on a regular basis? And were happy to do so.
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