The Conservative Cave
Interests => All Things Edible (and how to prepare them) => Topic started by: franksolich on June 15, 2008, 04:33:03 PM
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I've been reading a great deal in the newspapers around here, about raw milk, and mystified as to why it's a controversy.
Apparently "natural food" junkies think raw milk is the best thing since sliced bread, but one is confused.
I was always under the impression that milk was pasteurized for a reason, and a very good reason at that.
Up until sometime the earlier half of the last century, tuberculosis ranked as the leading cause of death. Probably no one around here is old enough, including myself, to have even seen a case of tuberculosis, but there was a time when it was ubiquitous, all over the place, and damaged and killed millions.
"Natural food" junkies insist that pasteurization ruins some of the natural ingredients in milk, but it appears this has not been proven.
"Natural food" junkies insist that pasteurization adds alien substances to the milk, but on the other hand many "natural food" junkies have no aversion to adding alien substances to their bodies, given their consumption of chemicals, licit and illicit; everything from marijuana to mood-altering pharmaceuticals; from alcohol to birth-control pills--alien substances which interfere with the natural workings of the body.
As milk, and milk products, are a major component of this diet, one is intrigued.
Of course, when I was wandering around the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants, I had raw milk much of the time, usually goat's milk, but that was within minutes of its coming from the source, and being sorted out.
And people who have milk cows generally use raw milk in their own homes.
The difference being, the source of the milk is close at hand, and if there's a problem, one can immediately detect whence it came. Such cannot be said for raw milk sold in "natural food" stores, which could come from anywhere.
After all, even some primitives have admitted on Skins's island that much of the inventory sold at "farmers' markets" up in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, comes from.....Florida.
I think this is a non-issue; I think that the sale of raw milk should be banned, much in the same way other things with the smallpox virus are banned.
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TB May be rare but it is still out there. Couplemonths ago I had a TB test administered as part of a routine Dr's. Visit. Test showed positive to exposure of TB. Doesn't mean I have it but To be e on the safe side the doc gave me a couple prescriptions to take daily for 6 months.
Whats messed up about the ordeal is the one med is just a B6 supplement but the other one has a possible side effect of a "Rare" occurrence of Hepatitis. So I was faced with not taking the drugs and risk contracting TB or take the drug & risk Hepatitis.
I grew up drinking 100% unadulterated Moo Juice. Good stuff.
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I have never drank a glass of milk in my life, so I don't offer an opinion on taste or quality. I do know my rural relatives use to use milk warm from the cow. It was nasty looking with all kinds of weird stuff floating around in it. :shiver:
This "all-natural" fixation some people have gleamed onto is silly and not well thought out. TB is natural too.
Like that great modern philosopher Grace Slick once said: "I don't care what's in it as long as my lettuce is crisp! Have you ever considered maybe those preservatives are preserving you?"
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I don't know if milk cows are still tested for TB, but I know they used to be...and were slaughtered if positive. I seriously doubt there is much danger today, especially for "homegrown" milk. I grew up on a dairy farm, we always drank raw milk...as did nearly every kid I knew. I've also owned and milked goats for my kids, who never had any problems from raw milk. That said, I wouldn't buy it in a store, I'd only buy it from someone I knew. I wouldn't worry about it being raw, but I'd want to make sure the animals are healthy and are cleaned up before milking and, the milk chilled quickly.
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from the CDC
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5711a2.htm
and an article
http://www.thehealingjournal.com/prev_issues/2007_apr_may_raw.htm
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had a schoolhood chum who contracted TB, still, pretty rare.
they used to milk cows and serve it hot out the bovines at the State Fair here years ago but un-pastuerized milk went illegal and that was that.
as you say, if its your critter you have a better idea of whether or not to roll the dice. beyond that you can't trust anyone farther than you can throw them.
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I don't know if milk cows are still tested for TB, but I know they used to be...and were slaughtered if positive. I seriously doubt there is much danger today, especially for "homegrown" milk. I grew up on a dairy farm, we always drank raw milk...as did nearly every kid I knew. I've also owned and milked goats for my kids, who never had any problems from raw milk. That said, I wouldn't buy it in a store, I'd only buy it from someone I knew. I wouldn't worry about it being raw, but I'd want to make sure the animals are healthy and are cleaned up before milking and, the milk chilled quickly.
As Jim, below, said, if you're intimately acquainted with the source, it's probably okay.
But if one's a Democrat, liberal, primitive, or "natural foods" junkie living in Boston or San Francisco or some other blue city, buying this stuff whose origins are unknown, it could be disastrous, and we need laws to protect the stupid.
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DUmmies drink it right from the cow......no need to dirty a glass or cup....it's udderly good!