The Question on Raw Milk

One of the great questions of our society today appears to be whether or not raw milk should be sold to the public. Just to set the record straight, Milk byproducts found inside Stone Age pottery from Turkey indicate processed milk was consumed in 6500 BC, some thousands of years before it is thought that adult humans had evolved the ability to digest raw milk. So although this question seems to be of paramount importance today, drinking milk has been around for a while.

It is pointed out by scientist’s, that raw milk can contain all sorts of harmful bacteria. On the other side of the argument is that pasteurization of milk destroys all the health benefits of milk. I am not going to get into either side of that argument. What I am going to get into is the taste of milk.

Quite frankly, as far as I am concerned store bought milk tastes like plastic, and the longer it sits after opening the container the worse it tastes and the more it smells. In other words it stinks.  I grew up on a farm, and we got our milk on tap, on daily basis. Now right up front, I am going to tell you that good old Mom, promptly put the milk in a separator, then filtered it and then heated it on the stove to 165 degrees. She placed it in a good old fashioned glass container and cooled it, good and cold. When you came in the house from the summer heat, we had no air conditioning; you went for the milk, not the water.

Now I suppose those who want real true raw milk will say Mom was cheating and pasteurized our milk. Well, maybe she did, but she certainly didn’t bottle it in plastic, heat it and cool in 2-3 seconds, add coloring, calcium, vitamin d and it didn’t contain antibiotics, or anything else that didn’t come right from the tap. The one thing that it was, that is much different from store bought milk is, it tasted good and didn’t stink.

So how does that answer question as to whether or not raw milk should be sold to the public. Well if we can sell raw beef, chicken, turkey, fish, carrots, lettuce, and on and on, which can all contain the same pathogens as raw milk, and trust the consumer to cook it or handle it properly, I see no reason to single out raw milk.

Quite frankly, if I want to buy some raw milk from a farmer and make some good tasting, old fashioned home brewed cold milk like my mother, I see no reason why some politician who has never had a good drink of milk in his life, telling me I can’t have one.