I am a strong advocate of raw milk. It galls me to no end that the government tells me I cannot buy fresh milk, but booze and cigarettes are fine. I can buy all the denatured, pre-processed food containing additives that preserve it beyond the life of most humans that I want. I can buy things containing tons of known cancer-causing trans fats.
But I can’t legally buy clean, responsibly-raised, fresh, raw milk.
That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
I want to rant, I want to convert everyone who reads this page into a person with as much anger as I have about this. I want to educate the populace about *why* raw milk was banned, and show the statistics for how much money the dairy lobby spends (hint: in many states, it’s more than the tobacco lobby). I want to show you the studies from California, where raw milk is legal, that prove that a larger percentage of people get sick from commercial milk than raw milk by a pretty large margin. I want to go on and on about the high-heat pasteurization of milk, and the horrible things it does. To show that super-heated cholesterol is dangerous, that it is what clogs your veins.
And I want to be able to make cheese, for heaven’s sake.
But I won’t. This is something people should research on their own, and the information is out there. Raw milk tastes better, and many people who are “lactose intolerant” can drink milk that hasn’t been high-heat pasteurized. In my opinion, it shouldn’t be necessary to prove any raw food is better for you than the processed version, it should only be necessary to prove it’s not harmful to you. Certainly, most of the packaged foods we eat are less nutritious, and many filled with scientifically-proven cancer causing agents. Yet, we can buy those.
Milk raised and handled appropriately shouldn’t need to be high-heat pasteurized. I am tired of the government making the decision that I should pay for sloppy farming and handling practices. How about legislating that commercial farmers do things *right* instead of cheaply, like so many of our local farmers are doing? Yes, we need cheap food, but we also need healthy food. Both can be accomplished.
If you are interested in raw milk and healthy farm practices, please do some research and join us in fighting for real food. You can get started at: www.VICFA.net or www.NICFA.org
Filed under: Food, Food Politics, Personal Chef, Philosophy, Raw, Whole, cheese, chevre, cooking, dairy
I totally agree with you regarding raw milk. It is better for you, and it’s frustrating that it’s so difficult to get.
There was an article in the NY Times recently about it, and one in a Brooklyn paper about an underground milk club in Bay Ridge: http://tinyurl.com/3c2o23
I totally agree with you on the benefits of raw milk. It’s too bad that it’s so difficult to get it. There have been a couple of articles in NYC newspapers recently about underground raw milk collectives in Manhattan and Brooklyn.