As far as I know, it's legal to sell raw milk in stores in Pennsylvania, you can get it in organic/health food stores. I load up any time I go up there, I bring a cooler and ice it for the drive home. In other states, you can get raw milk by buying shares of a cow, and then the collective shareholders pay the farmer to take care of the cow. I've done that in two states. The Colorado milk was especially fantastic. I got to say hi to my (shared) cow Rosie once a week when I picked it up. I saw how they did things.

I have become a convert on the benefits of raw milk, which is how milk came when it got its reputation, and anyway, we ought to be able to trade as we so choose if this is a free country! I *really* hate government interference with commerce. Big companies love it. Pasteurization covers up all sorts of unhygienic practices. Know your food sources. Fine, pasteurize for the masses so some superstore that doesn't really care where the milk comes from, or what the conditions are at the dairy, doesn't get sued. But why shut down a whole history of knowing how to do it the right way, why hound those who are offering options and keeping the knowledge alive? Did someone actually get sick from this Amish farmer's milk? Or was he just an easy target and fodder for some bureaucrat's personnel review?

This is an issue of personal liberty, IMO. People have to be allowed to use their brains and not look to the nanny state. The nanny corporate government (aka shades of fascism) state is what's giving us Monsanto food. There's lots of lobbyists in the milk industry. The raw milk people, thanks to the internet, police themselves very effectively. They communicate. Reputation matters. But people also look for testing and good cooling practices, etc. Without the FDA. They just do it, and the information is easy to find as soon as you start looking into it.

Also, I sure don't trust the FDA ever since - among other experiences and observations - my Achilles tendons were damaged because of a "modern" antibiotic (see "fluoroquinolones") that I didn't even need, it was "just in case," and I got educated on how much gets swept under the rug when they review the pharmaceuticals' "safety and effectiveness studies," and how much the doctors and hospitals don't bother thinking about side effects of "wonder drugs." We have lost so much wisdom and good because of handing our consciousness over to the government and big lobbying-intensive industries.

We have so many ways of watching out for ourselves, of informing ourselves via the internet. It is a new age. Snake oil is easily revealed. Why do we need to be paying government tons of money to be aware on our behalf, especially when we can't even trust them?

And, like, how does the government know that breast milk is safe for babies, ya know? I'm surprised they don't swoop in with pasteurization requirements on moms who pump and store their milk. Oh, wait, that's right, there were those two generations where the formula manufacturers, AMA, and whoever else colluded to convince mothers that breastfeeding was unhygienic and primitive and unscientific. Until La Leche League, just a bunch of simple moms, pushed back, one by one. This time, the Amish guy pushed back. Someone's got to.

Anyway, on the raw *cow's* milk, see http://www.westonaprice.org/

While travelling around Europe and the British Isles in the 70's I drank raw milk daily....mostly because it was offered to a poor wandering minstral for FREE! I remember it being sweet, rich and usually warm. Sometimes farmers would make me get my milk for myself.....the old fashioned way

I think the Amish don't believe in government intervention. If I'm wrong someone will correct me I know. I think they like to stay within themselves to themselves if ya know what I mean...

Ok food issuse are an interest of mine, Organic,fair trade, Freerange, local and independent traders produce issuse get my interest easily.

Realy don't know the inns and outs, but I am awear that our organic milk regulations are differant from yours. I feel very lucky that I can go to any of our big 4 supermarkets and buy local ,and or organic milk at a good price. There is also a good farm shop near me and a few good farmers markets where I can most of my food and house hold items without compramising my ethics.

'Real food' and 'non factory farming' methods are, not so much the way forward, as they always have been and must return as the mainstay method for modern production.

But can I ask what do you all mean by " Raw Milk"? this isn't a term used over the pond?

Raw milk refers to milk directly from the cow...it is NOT pasteurized and it is NOT illegal, at least not in Mass...I drink it all the time and have been for the last few years!

I believe raw milk is legal in around 20 states. The FDA gets involved with shipments across state lines.

For those who still believe in our government, here is a link about raw milk's dangers (disclaimer - skip this if you are into conspiracy theories about big government):

http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou ... 079516.htm


mikey (sticking to the pasteurized stuff, even though I live on a horse farm)

like mikey, i tend to want to go for the pasteurized in markets (go ahead, call me a wuss!!!) although i have to admit the talk of raw milk sounds very delicious served very cold! anyway, as i understand, there are two kinds of pasteurization..1) high temp short term, and... 2) ultra high temp
(i don't like antibiotics and hormones in it either!) ....anyway, with the first kind the milk doesn't seem to taste half bad! :) (when i was a kid the corner store milk was the best tasting around at the time!) ...not sure what their secret was (being as how it was a neighborhood straight out of an r crumb comic it is difficult to say!...(just a bit of humour there!) )

I see what you mean now. The Milk I buy is pasturised, as that lasts a little longer on the supermarket shelf, I do only buy organic. This garentees the husbandry and drug use in the milking heard. If I came buy it I would buy non pasturised or Raw milk. I do eat and have done for years cheese made from raw milk and never had any ill effects.

I think it would go, that if you can garentee the husbandry for your heard then the milk should be fine. Same goes for Raw egg.

We do have Stiralized milk and UHT milk over here, but don't touch it, it's been blasted into the next millenium to kill everything off including anything good. It also tend to be from heards that are milked all year round, so the cows suffer horrificly from, bone problems, mastites and deprestion as their calf are taken from them at birth, the milk also tends to be tanted as the cows are give massive amounts of hormones so they produce 3-4 times more milk then they would naturaly.

thanks for your post bev!