|
|
Post by Donlin Stud on Dec 11, 2014 3:46:37 GMT
|
|
|
|
Post by genebo on Dec 11, 2014 21:03:42 GMT
In most parts of the USA, the sale of raw milk is tightly regulated, and in some cases, suppressed. That has created a black market in raw milk that is similar to the one in the articles you linked.
Several farmers have been prosecuted for selling raw milk products, and a few have been persecuted for doing it.
In the state where I live, you cannot sell or give away raw milk. Not even to family members who don't live with you. Some raw milk is bootlegged as "pet food", not intended for human consumption, Wink! Wink!
The only way you are allowed to drink raw milk in Virginia is to own the cow that produced it. This has led to the sale of "cow shares". A farmer buys a cow and milks her. He then sells shares in the ownership of the cow (cow shares). Anyone who owns a share of the cow can take their share of the milk, to use as they see fit.
For the most part, the owners of the milk shares have to come to the farm to pick up their milk. You can't deliver it.
In this state, commercial dairy cattle MUST be inspected for certain diseases that are communicable to humans. They must be vaccinated for these diseases. The milk they produce MUST be pasteurized. Certain tests must be performed on the milk to insure that it does not contain any harmful disease organisms.
The private farmer, source of raw milk, is not required to test his cattle, nor vaccinate against diseases, nor test the milk.
In Virginia, there have been no reported cases of the milk-born diseases that can affect humans in years, so there is a feeling of safety about raw milk. The biggest factor in someone getting sick from drinking raw milk is in contamination of the milk. Less than sanitary conditions. It behooves the potential buyer of raw milk, via cow shares, to carefully inspect the farmer and his methods. You need to have full confidence in him producing a sanitary product.
So why buy and drink raw milk? Some of the reasons are that the cow has not been vaccinated, the farmer assures you that the cow does not take anibiotics and no hormones are used to boost the cow's production. There will not be any residual quantities of those left in the milk. Raw milk comes complete with the ingredients that help you digest it. The live microbes and the enzymes that are destroyed by pasteurization are what enable some to drink milk without causing gastric distress.
Pasteurized milk is dead, while raw milk is alive. Raw milk that is allowed to sit goes through stages, leading to the formation of products like yogurt, sour cream and cheeses. Pasteurized milk that is allowed to sit will spoil. In order to make milk products out of it, you have to add back the microorganisms and enzymes that were killed in pasteurization.
There is a risk to drinking raw milk, even that which has had the best care taken in its production. That risk has always been there and has resulted in a measurable death rate. The proponents of raw milk proclaim that the risk of drinking raw milk is no greater than the risk of harm from drinking pasteurized milk. Lactose intolerance in some people is due to the fact that their bodies do not produce the enzymes necessary to digest milk. The enzymes are present in raw milk, so they can drink it. Every year, some die from reactions to commercial milk or the chemicals contained within it.
So there in a nutshell is the raw milk picture as I see it. I occasionally drink raw milk from a friend's farm. I also drink commercial skim milk, per my doctor's orders now, and as an energy drink when I was bike racing. I'm old enough that whatever either form is going to do to me, it has already done. I'm concerned about my grandchildren, though. I have the means to buy a cow share for them, but haven't because my mind isn't clear about whether I should. What would you do?
|
|
|
|
Post by jamshundred on Dec 13, 2014 14:30:19 GMT
I do not know how generations have survived the ages and daily doses of raw milk. My Dad hand milked as many as a dozen cows. . . . morning and evening.
With milk bucket in hand he trudged from the backdoor of the house, across the back yard, across the barn yard, around the barn and through the door into a dirt floored milking area where the cows were brought in and hooked in stanchions. I was never in that barn watching my Dad milk that I didn't hear him curse beneath his breath, grab the milk bucket, run for the manure shovel, hold it beneath the cow's tail with manure splashing everywhere. . .. then return to get the bucket and finish the milking. Other than regular child hood diseases, like chicken pox, mumps and measles, we were always healthy and energetic farm kids with a glass of milk on the table at every meal.
The problem is with the IMMUNE system of today. We grow healthy not by being pumped full of chemicals for every sniffle or fever but having contact with germs and bacteria which builds strong immune systems which protect us from disease. My grandfather was a country Doctor. He gave me a tetanus shot once when I had an injury. . . . but never any medication during my childhood years before his death. People were never medicated for feeling "under the weather".
Judy
|
|
