NY Ag Officials Cry "Wolf" Over Raw Milk

The Complete Patient ^ | June 9, 2009 | David E. Gumpert

[davidgumpert]

We all know the story of the shepherd boy who found entertainment in telling villagers his flock of sheep was being attacked by a wolf. The first time the boy sought help, the villagers came running, only to find the boy was joking. The same thing happened a second time.

Then, when a wolf finally did attack, the villagers ignored the shepherd, and he lost his entire flock to the wolf.

Is a modern-day version of “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” unfolding in New York? You decide.

[davidgumpert]

In New York, raw dairy farmers are being hit with findings of listeria contamination in their milk, yet no one has gotten sick. The latest involves Chuck Phippen and his Breese Hollow Dairy, shut down over listeria that a private lab says doesn't exist. Adding fuel to the fire. NY regulators come for Phippens' milk while he's attending a meeting on raw milk safety. Are NY ag officials too busy crying wolf?

[xcamel]

The ‘raw milk’ gestapo suffers frm their own special disease..
‘climocleptosemia’
This is where their heads look and work so much like their butts, their bowels can’t figure out which way to move....

[George from New England]

We want raw milk products here in Florida. But the lobbyists for the processing industry hold a lock on Florida.

Floridians are denied the best milk out there for political purposes.

[hoosierham]

The big agribusinesses like ADM and Conagra do not want anyone eating anything on which they don’t make a profit

[Vigilanteman]

Bureaucrats hate farmers in general because they are so hard to control. They particularly hate farmers who don't sell through centralized processing channels which eat up 70% or so of their earnings.

I grew up on raw milk. My Dad had two milk cows, a Jersey, which I milked and a red Holstein, which my brother milked.

We milked in open buckets held between our knees and squirted the cats with milk for amusement.

Yes, we were careful to wash off the cows before we started, but you would still get an occasional piece of straw or hair in the milk. Dad only poured it through a filter before putting it into gallon sized jars and refrigerating it for our customers. We, of course, drank the same milk and the attitude of our customers was "if it is good enough to give to his family, it is good enough to give to ours." Dad was upfront with everyone that we didn't use milking machines where the milk would never touch the air from cow to bottle.

[SLB]

I picked up a gallon of raw grass fed last night. The only drawback, the wild onions are in full swing right now so with a little imagination there is a slight odor, but no taste that I can determine.