Mmmmmm, fresh milk straight from the farm. Creamy, yellow milk, inspected and certified as sanitary, from happy, organic, grass-fed Jersey cows. No heat to kill the healthy bacteria and enzymes. No homogenization to break up and redistribute the fat molecules. Just pure, whole milk, from the hand of a farmer I know. (Don't even try this with milk from industrial dairies!)
If I lived in 28 states, that would be the end of the story. I'd have what more and more people are considering an elixir of health, brimming with lactase-producing enzymes to break down milk's sugar, lactose, plus omega-3s, healthy bacteria whose benefits are still being discovered, and the fat-soluble vitamins A and D.
Five more states, however, including Georgia, do not allow the sale of unpasteurized milk for human consumption. And so I end up on the wink, wink road to what is legal--the sale of raw milk labeled as Pet Milk, for which people are lining up at farms and farmers markets all over the state.
As for the rest of the states, some of them allow what is called "cow shares," where people pay for part of a cow because they are allowed to consume the milk from cows they own. The remaining states don't allow the sale of raw milk at all. Click here to find out the legal status of raw milk in your state, as well as where you can find it.
This is a very fascinating issue to me. A year ago, I didn't even know this issue existed. Now, as I research raw milk more and more, and find increasing references to it in books and articles (most notably, in Nina Planck's quite shockingly interesting book Real Food, although there is also a great Washington Post article that you might find illuminating). Turns out that good ole' Louis Pasteur and his life-saving pasteurization process did certainly do a great service back in the 1930s when inner-city children were dying from diseases gotten from milk from filthy inner-city distillery dairies. But pasteurization was never intended for farm-fresh milk outside the city. It wasn't until the 1940s that pasteurization was required for all milk. Hmm, let me see. 1940s. That was about the time of the repurposed WWII nerve agents being used as pesticides, wasn't it? Again, my generation may not realize that the food processes with which we grew up, and which we somehow think of as normal, are only 50 or 60 years old.
Anyway, I'm not so sure how I feel about the raw milk yet. I don't love the "not for human consumption" label staring me in the face when I open my refrigerator (it is legal to use it for human consumption, by the way, so you won't get in any trouble if you choose not to limit its use for your cat, although, gosh, your cat would be happy if you did!). I don't like that if I were one state over, in South Carolina, this exact same milk would be legal on the farm and in some retail locations.
I think this issue is going to get more press and notoriety in the upcoming years. If you don't know about raw milk yet, do some research on it. It is truly food for thought. If you do know about it, weigh in (or "whey" in!) with some comments! Tell us what you know and let's put the winks aside and get real eye-opening conversation going!
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5 comments:
I read this aloud to Husband. These are the thoughts we ALL ought to be having, daily, about our food and our food supply system. Who? What? When? Where? Why? ... and then all those, ending again with "not." The need for major change is enormous.
Amazing we can ride motorcycles, smoke cigarettes, eat sushi, and skydive (even without warning labels!), but we can't drink milk (or even apple juice!) that hasn't been superheated ...
Good for you! Raw Milk need's more drinkers, wink, wink. The more people who drink it, the more people who don't get sick and die of all the diseases they want you to believe it contains, and the more people who begin to stand up to the polluted, industrial food complex the better off we'll all be.
And when someone says you couldn't have a raw milk dairy with even 50 cows. . . it's unsustainable. . .you can shoot back--how about 50 one-cow dairies?
Here's some more thoughts on the subject. . . .http://gastrocasttv.com/blog/?s=raw+milk
I love fresh cold cow's milk. I have always drank raw milk, and could hardly stand to drink the store bought variety.
A few years ago, my family and I lived on a small farm, and we had one milk cow that I milked morning and evening every day for over a year. One of the most wonderful feelings in the world (kinda like eating the vegetables from your garden), and we always had fresh cream, butter, buttermilk, and regular milk. I averaged 5 gallons of milk per day, and would come in from the barn with my warm milk, strain it twice, and put it in gallon jars that I had saved for this purpose. By the next day, I would have 1/3 of the jar filled with the cream that had risen to the top. Everyone had as much milk as they wanted, when they wanted it. We had butter on our biscuits, (with a little home made cane syrup from our neighbor) and cow's cream in our coffee. Man oh Man, it can't get any better than that. People do not know what they are missing. We also had a huge garden and I canned over 500 jars of vegetables that year, not counting the corn on the cob, squash and okra that went into the freezer.
I really miss it. My kids are grown, and my husband and I are disabled, and could no longer be self sufficient with our food supply. Buying raw milk in my state is totally illegal. I do manage to get some given to me once in a while. Just last week, a friend brought me a gallon, and I put it in the milk jug from the store when it was emptied. My 7 year old grandson (who claimed loudly that he did not like raw milk, even tho he had never had any) asked me if he could have some milk. I told him yes, but did not tell him it was the fresh milk. After he drank his milk, he said to me: "Grandma, that was some good milk." I laughed and told him I was glad, that now he could not say that he did not like fresh milk. His eyes got so big, and he asked: "You played a trick on me"? I told him no I did not. He never asked me if it was fresh or store bought. He was so very surprised that he actually liked it.
I am hoping that these type experiences will teach my grandchildren about the need for raising, growing and eating your own food. From eggs to milk, to broccoli and meats.
jokenmar: What an extradordinary gift it is to me and many others that you shared those memories with us! Thank you so much for taking the time and including so much wonderful, vivid detail. I could taste that milk as I read your comment.
With the raw milk I just picked up at the farmers market today, my daughter and I made mint chocolate chip ice cream. We put a handful of fresh mint in the milk and eggs while they were cooking and "brewed" it. It has a freshness, subtlety and authenticity like no mint ice cream I've ever tasted. I hope one day my daughter tells her grandchild about it as you have shared your memories with your grandkids (and us!)
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