One of the polls a long time ago asked “You’re at a friend’s house and they offer you a glass of raw milk – what do you do?”
Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized to kill bacteria. Milk is pasteurized by heating it, but not to the boiling point. The newer process is a continuous flow process at a higher temperatture but for only 16 seconds. You may notice some brands of milk will have expiration dates a month or more out.
The Federal government has had a long standing war against people who want to sell milk that isn’t pasteurized. Responsible producers of raw milk give careful attention to the cleanliness of their equipment and look for signs of infection in the cow udders, the main vector for bacteria getting into milk. They culture samples and discard milk that shows contamination
I’ve never had raw milk, but this is one of those religious issues – usually among the far left. As a Libertarian, my attitude is primarily one of disclosure. If a person knows what raw milk is, knows the risks, and chooses to consume it, that’s up to them. If it makes them sick, paying the medical bills should be up to them.
The FDA apparently has made this a priority item, and raided an Amish farm in Pennslyvania that made the mistake of selling its raw milk to customers in Maryland, crossing state boundaries and giving the Feds “Interstate Commerce” jurisdiction
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/28/feds-sting-amish-farmer-selling-raw-milk-locally/
I grew up on a farm and the only thing we ever drank was raw milk. And, being a small family farm in the 60’s and 70’s, sanitation was nothing like today. Getting a good dose of bacteria is the main reason, I believe, that I never get sick. I am in my 40’s and have never had the flu, only a couple of common colds and nothing else. But I digress, as long as there is disclosure, who cares what anyone chooses to drink? Less regulation, not more is the goal…
You make a good point, which you’ll quickly find on the raw milk web sites. Raw Milk does contain bacteria (as does yogurt :))… it’s a weak type but prolific – so it squeezes out and kills off the stronger types of more harmful bacteria if they are present. It’s the same reason that taking antibiotics and using antibacterial soaps just leaves you more vulnerable to the next stronger bacteria that comes along.
To expand on that point, one of my long time topics to think about and discuss – for people who want to legalize or decriminalize illegal drugs because they are only affect the person using them, why not end prescriptions for antibiotics and just let everyone buy and take what they want? [I’m not a pure liberterian]
So the FDA is warning me that if I drink unpastuerized milk that my udders could get inflamed? Thanks FDA!!!