Raw Milk: Udderly Foolish?

Washington Post ^ | 07 Aug 2007 | Sally Squires

[BGHater]

Don't even try to separate Chris Schlicht from her raw, unpasteurized milk.

"You bet I've got raw milk!" Schlicht wrote in a recent e-mail message. "I can say that raw milk and home-raised meat saved my life."

Before she moved to Gig Harbor, Wash., Schlicht says she was "sick, underweight and having an impossible time trying to get pregnant." Then she began drinking raw milk, planted a garden and started raising her own livestock for meat. "I gained weight and got pregnant in less than six months," she notes. "I've been drinking raw milk ever since." So do her husband and her son, now 22.

Nor are they alone in their passion. Despite evidence that raw or unpasteurized milk carries health risks, growing numbers of consumers are skirting laws prohibiting the sale of unpasteurized milk through creative solutions called "cow sharing." In theory, the practice allows them to buy part of an animal and then, as a co-owner, acquire and drink its raw milk.

But some states are cracking down on these arrangements or tightening laws to prevent them. In Maryland, for example, where it has long been illegal to sell raw milk for public consumption, officials adopted emergency regulations in October to stop farmers from selling shares of livestock to consumers.

"We believe that it is a sham to circumvent the law," says Ted Elkin, deputy director of Maryland's Office of Food Protection and Consumer Health Services. A farmer has since sued to overturn the new regulation. The case remains in litigation.

Raw milk can't be sold in the District, and animal sharing isn't an option, since there aren't any farms.

[Red Badger]

I drank raw milk as a child and I never got pregnant..........

[cripplecreek]

planted a garden and started raising her own livestock for meat. "I gained weight and got pregnant in less than six months,"

I suspect the change in her lifestyle was the real reason for the improvement in her health.

[CholeraJoe]

I used to eat napalm and p*ss concertina wire...No wait, that was Clint Eastwood.

[Jaysun]

Raw milk is just another crackpot cure that’s dangerous. There are hundreds of them on the net - magnets, copper bracelets, ingesting hydrogen peroxide, etc. One of the more bizarre that I’ve seen is the drinking of one’s own urine every morning.

[CDHart]

I could swear I read this exact article a year or two ago.

Carolyn

[LaineyDee]

ROFL!! I would hope not.....otherwise we’d have to open a new category in the Guinness Book of World Records. :)

[CholeraJoe]

You forgot colloidal silver. It cures everything, right?

[dangerdoc]

I have a working knowledge of the productive end of a milk cow. There is no way I would drink raw milk.

[LaineyDee]

Raw milk is just another crackpot cure that’s dangerous.

So....I take it that you're not into "ala naturale"?

[Jaysun]

You forgot colloidal silver. It cures everything, right?

Well, that's one that I subscribe to. I brew it myself at home. It's cured me of lockjaw, projectile flatulence, bipolar disorder, and impotence - just to name a few.

[ArrogantBustard]

If you drink enough colloidal silver, it cures that strange tan skin colour some folks get, and restore them to a more healthy bluish hue ...

;'}

[CholeraJoe]

Oh. You mean Papa Smurf?

[Red Badger]

One of the more bizarre that I’ve seen is the drinking of one’s own urine every morning.

They've done this in India for centuries. A former Prime Minister said he used to do it........

[Jaysun]

So....I take it that you're not into "ala naturale"?

Of course not. I can't look back to the time when everything we ate and used was "all natural" as being one of good health and long life. Those that advocate all organic foods should take a look at places like Africa. Besides, everything on earth is "all natural", we're not importing ingredients from another dimension.

[Lil'freeper]

A Nutrition Ping List For Those Interested in the Research of Dr. Weston A. Price

SSDD

[ArrogantBustard]

That’s the one. Dashing fellow, ain’t he?

[Doe Eyes]

I have a working knowledge of the productive end of a milk cow. There is no way I would drink raw milk.

Therefore it should be illegal.

I'm sure glad I have the government looking after me.

[lakeman]

As a son and grandson of milkhaulers we would pick the cleanest dairy operation to procure our milk. Grade A only and yes having intimate knowledge of dairy farms and what can collect on cows udders I can understand your angst. However, most dairy farmers on our route cleaned and antibacterialized the udders before placing the milker on the teat. I still say the best milk and cookies(placed in the milkhouse by friendly farmers wives for the milkman’s kid on weekends) were the best ever tasted. The milk was cooled to 38degrees and agitated to keep the cream mixed in.
By the way, our butter and ice cream came from pure cream collected from the dairy before we hauled it to the creamery for processing.

[Jaysun]

They've done this in India for centuries. A former Prime Minister said he used to do it........

They have a pleasant scent about them, those Indians.