Letters to the Editor
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when the need for delusion is great.....
Drink what you want but for the safety of your children don't let them drink raw milk. Make yourselves aware of consequences of pathogenic organism infections especially in children or immune suppressed adults before you make any decision to do so.
The raw milk advocates in this piece are operating with some of the most interesting misconceptions I'ver ever read. Having spent 27 years in the cheese business in Wisconsin, Idaho and California and now working in food safety I suggest you have been sold a tall tale. No one feds their cows a straight corn diet as raw milk advocates claim. Herd dieticians carefully tailor a very balanced diet of hay, silage and other feed stocks. One of the main concerns of any herd diet is stomach pH. You would kill your cows feeding them only corn.
This article is full of such mis-information. Images of cows idylicly lounging in grassy pastures that are microbe free? You would have suspended your thought process to believe these fairy tales. Cows poop often and everywhere. They lack any sense of hygiene and are often covered in their own excrement and this excrement is loaded with potential problems.
Certainly even treated milk has caused illness but that is the result of post pastuerization contamination. What this points out is what a great media milk is for bacterial growth. That is why heat treatment is so necessary.