Letters to the Editor
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yum yum
I am a raw milk drinker. It didn't cure me from anything, just tastes a whole lot better. And I hate the conditions commercial industrial cows are kept in, so I prefer to satiate my milky thirst with the product from cows munching on grass on a small farm. Been doing it for years and never got sick from it! So I say just let me buy my darn milk from wherever I wanna buy it from. If you don't wanna buy it, no one is asking you, there's plenty of pasteurized milk for everyone who wants it. So why does the FDA have to bug me and get in my way of buying my milk? it drives me freaking nuts!
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WAP is a crock
Anyone who follows the Weston Price Foundation and Sally Fallon are idiots. They promote huge amounts of animal protein, believe that cholesterol does NOT cause heart disease, and a bunch of other bs that directly goes against thousands upon thousands of proven scientific medical research. Fallon even states that unless a woman eats a very specific diet that she shouldn't breastfeed, but should rely oh homemade formula. This is all very dangerous advice and is not something that needs to be given any sort of publicity.
Shame on Salon for giving WAP any "ink" whatsoever.
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Scared Americans
As a European who grew up on raw cows and goats' milk, and suffered no horrible diseases from that experience, I baulked at this article. Yes, I've lived on store-bought milk for many a year now and find the taste bland and underwhelming. it's not creamy as milk should be. And as for low-low super vitamin pumped milk? Urgh. Melting vitamin tablets in water and you'll get the same result tastewise. My fathers' generation (he's 62) were all raised on raw milk. No problem! Now whether guzzling milk is actually good for you as a foodstuff is another dietry issue. But what is with the fear of natural food, people? Have some Brie!
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Scaredy Cats
If raw milk were such a dangerous substance, Europe's population would have been decimated a long time ago. In France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, etc..., people prefer to eat cheese made with raw milk rather than with pasteurized milk. (And they eat a lot of cheese.) The reason? The taste and the texture of the cheese is much better. The children prefer raw milk to pasteurized milk (it is a lot creamier).
Try fresh goat cheese made with raw milk, then try fresh goat cheese made with pasteurized milk. One is delicious, the other is bland.
I grew up on raw dairy products. The only time I ever got e-coli was from eating eggs... here in Manhattan.
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Raw milk in Kenya => risk for contracting Rift Valley Fever
There is currently an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever going on in Kenya and Somalia.
As of January 12, there were 220 cases of severe disease and 86 deaths (WHO update #2: http://www.who.int/csr/don/2007_01_15a/en/index.html). The disease is usually contracted by being bitten by a mosquito, but it seems that this time raw milk is playing a role:
From ProMED (ProMED Digest V2007 #8: http://www.promedmail.org)
"...A total of 86 percent of the patients interviewed said that they drank raw milk and 71 percent said that they had drunk milk from a sick animal 2 weeks before onset of symptoms..."
And of course, these cows were grazing in the open on clean grass, receiving no evil hormonal or antimicrobial supplements, just the best of organic farming in the Kenyan wilderness.
I suppose that the surviving shepherds will feel grateful that their eczema has cleared up.
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Interesting and flawed article
Interesting article. At its heart Wallace makes a compelling case that raw milk should be considered more carefully as a safe food source, if produced in safe surroundings. She also makes a good point that raw milk is not judged by the same standards as other products, like Sushi.
Unfortunately she undercuts these arguments with some irritatingly obvious mistakes.
She says, "A compelling new study, published in the June 2006 issue of the Journal of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, seems to lend support to what these three already know to be true."
Actually they don't know. They assume. They may even be right. But they don't know. That's why scientific studies are a good idea.
Another example: She says "In such an Orwellian universe, where raw milk from cows that have two biological parents is considered dangerous, while pasteurized milk from cloned cows is safe -- is it any wonder that a growing band of consumers don't trust FDA decisions?"
This comment makes her sound like a simplistic anti-corporate advocate who's found a new cause. I'm not big on cloning cattle for a variety of reasons, but if her assertions are at all correct then it's the cow's environment that is key, not its lineage.
Allowing raw milk to be sold legally is probably a worthwhile cause, but it deserves more careful support.
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What does cloning have to do with anything?
Meanwhile, the FDA has just announced that it's safe to eat meat and drink milk from cloned animals. In such an Orwellian universe, where raw milk from cows that have two biological parents is considered dangerous, while pasteurized milk from cloned cows is safe -- is it any wonder that a growing band of consumers don't trust FDA decisions?
Look out, your bias is showing!
By definition, a cloned animal is exactly the same as the animal with two biological parents. So why on earth shouldn't we eat them or drink their milk? I really enjoyed this article until you decided to end it on an irrational and paranoid note.
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semantics
fill-in-the-blank really is a wonder tonic, say devotees, who meet secretly to buy it and swear it reverses chronic diseases. But is it safe to use?
I could pick any substance, legal or otherwise, and write this same by-the-numbers article. Ho hum. Tell me something I don't know.
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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.