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When I was young, my mom went through a raw milk phase. We were living in the Los Angeles area at the time and you could buy raw milk at the local health food store. Her step-father, a cancer researcher and a huge devotee of technology and food science, was appalled when he found out, as truly thought she was putting our health in danger. Eventually she stopped buying it, mostly because of cost and availability, not because of parental pressure or any negative experiences. Because of this, while I grew up drinking conventional milk, I've never had any negative or concerned feelings towards raw milk. However, I realize I'm in the minority, especially these days, as localities crack down on the availability of raw milk. Milk is pasteurized in order to kill potentially harmful bacteria in the milk. However, raw milk advocates say that the pasteurization also kills all the beneficial bacteria, as well as destroying the fresh, creamy taste that you can only get with raw milk.
What do you think about the raw milk debate? Before you answer that question, go check out this story at Reason Magazine, entitled Raw Milk Rebellion, as well as this piece on Culinate. It's a personal account of one woman's experience with drinking raw milk. Now, what do you think?
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5-25-2008 @11:00AM Big John said... If companies didn't charge outrageous boutique prices on a product that has been processed *less* than 'traditional' milk, I'd consider it.
Of course, you can't buy raw milk in MI so that factors in to my buying habits.
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5-25-2008 @3:01PM Beth said... I lived on a dairy farm for a couple of years and I miss raw milk terribly. We always pasteurized the bulk of the milk, but I loved to cut out a glass of in-the-cow-ten-minutes-ago milk to drink. (It's true, the flavor is completely different. Although I think the first refrigeration causes as much of a flavor change as the pasteurization.) And it was nice to have the process under our own control. I also really got into cheesemaking during that time, and cheese made with storebought milk is FAR inferior - not even worth bothering with, really.
Also, wild cultures made the BEST sour cream I have ever tasted - we would separate the cream, leave it unpasteurized in the fridge for three to four days until it clotted up nicely, and only then pasteurize it or use it in cooking or to make cream cheese. Just WOW, oh WOW. Cheesecake with commercial cream cheese is a sad, hollow imitation.
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5-25-2008 @3:32PM marquisem said... Haven't had Beth's experience (although I would LOVE to), but I have had raw milk. Didn't kill me and didn't chenge my life. I'd do it again as I agree that pasteurization and especially ultra-pasteurization kill lots of good things along with the bad.
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5-25-2008 @9:10PM jrsygir1 said... i cant drink it...it tastes like the cow to me.....i was ruined for raw milk after working on dairy farms in college.....id rather eat stinky feet cheese than drink raw milk...all i can taste is urine.
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5-26-2008 @8:53PM verdegrrl said... I grew up on the stuff, drinking as much as a gallon a day myself. It tastes so much better than regular store milk. None of us kids ever developed any weight problems either, despite the large intake. We had a hand crank separator which allowed us to control the cream content. But we usually added the cream back into our diets one way or another.
Never ever got sick. Although we washed everything in bleach water so hot you could hardly stand it, and if the cow was dirty from laying in manure, we washed the udder with a mild antiseptic.
We also sold some milk to neighbours. Just stored in big glass jars in a fridge outside for them to pick up. They left the money in a container on top of the fridge.
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5-26-2008 @4:31AM Kitt said... I just started drinking raw goat's milk, and will eventually get raw cow's milk, mainly because I was curious to see what the fuss was about. Tastes pretty good! I'm looking forward to making my own cheese and cultured butter this summer.
I posted some pictures of my dairy herd here: http://kittbo.blogspot.com/2008/05/dairy-day.html
I can say "my" because that's how it works in Colorado. If you want raw milk, you have to buy a share of the herd to make it legal.
Kitt
http://www.kittalog.com
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5-26-2008 @1:24PM Deborah said... I worked for a major dairy in California, in sales some years back. I first was confused when I started and all the "hate" came out concerning a competitor and their sale of raw milk.
They continued to make it difficult for them to sell it, at that same time someone got ill from an illegal operation of Jalisco cheese made with their raw milk. I heard that was the last straw and they folded.
What I learned from the "Dairy Industry", you don't want to come up against them, unless you can afford it. They have many lobbist...and connections. I had witnessed allot of "dirty " business tactics and practices. Yes, they do price fixing and nothing is ever said.
On the raw milk issue, it's a threat to the industry. It would cost them too much to use the standards that raw dairies use. They wouldn't want to loose their profits paying for the better diet required for the raw milk. I could go on, but I get upset knowing that their bottom line is greed.
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5-26-2008 @9:12PM Adam Fields said... The milk you have pictured there is not raw milk, by the way. Milk Thistle is organic, small farm, and not homogenized, but it is definitely pasteurized.
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