Raw Milk

LOL (4.00 / 2)

I came here to ask you a question about raw milk :)  My health food co-op, http://www.everman.coop/ ,now sells raw milk and it is labeled not for human consumption - for animal feed only. It's in a plastic jug. Do you know if that is a labeling requirement because the milk is not pasteurized or if it is because of packaging? We had a milk cow when I was growing up, and my grandmother pasteurized the milk on the stove top. I would love to make some cheese from raw milk.  And some butter.  Mmmm.  I noticed your bottle of milk in the glass jar with a nice layer of cream of top the other day.  I would just love to have access to milk like that.

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by: AmyAmy @ Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 05:20:57 AM UTC

Raw mile labeling (4.00 / 2)

is covered by different statutes and administrative rules in different states. The Complete Patient, David Gumpert's blog, focuses primarily on the regulatory and health issues surrounding raw milk. He is the go to guy, as far as I'm concerned, if you wan to hear both sides of the issue. If the milk was transported across state lines it may be required to be labeled for animal use only and not for human consumption.

I see that your co-op is located in Florida. You might ask the people at the co-op why the milk is labled that way, and check your state department of agruculture, there may be state regs requireing that kind of labeling even if the dairy was right next door to the store.

I'm in Oregon, and we're allowed to sell raw milk here under certain conditions. You may have no more than 3 cows milking or 9 goats milking, I forget how many sheep you can milk. You must not advertise, and the milk must be purchased directly from the farm.

Raw milk is one of those foods that has such a twisted regulatory environment that I don't think I'll go there. I'm going to use the milk from my goats to raise veal calves, if I can purchase a couple of calves without registering with the NAIS, I'll use it for my own cooking, and a neighbor may come over occasionally and milk a goat for her family's own personal use. When the calves are ready to go off milk, I'll let the goats dry up.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 11:08:41 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

With the invention of refrigerators (4.00 / 2)

raw milk rules are nuts.

I grew up drinking the stuff. We had 80 to 100 cows milking at any time.

They ate grass in the summer, and combinations of hay, silage, and grain in the winter. (Silage is chopped up, fermented corn; which is actually a member of the grass family, and I think the key here is the word "fermented" to making the complex carb chains digestable.)

The milk tasted different in the summer and winter; and the biggest difference I know is that winter milk is not as high in Omega 3 fatty acids.

We also sold our milk to anyone who stopped buy and wanted to buy some (and had the jars to put it in,) for a 50¢ a gallon. I don't recall ever getting sick from milk, or anyone ever complaining they got sick.

But we were sticklers for sanitation. I used to wash the milking dishes every day, and as a kid, my hands looked like lobsters. Extremely hot water and harsh chemicals used to wash/rinse/sterilize every single piece of equipment. Same with the bulk tank, the giant refrigerator tank that stored our milk until the dairy sent a truck to pick it up. And cleaning the barn, particularly in the winter when the animals stayed inside, was a constant battle

I just don't see a problem with drinking raw milk produced under the right conditions; but it depends on the farmer.

The more interesting debate would be about the cultured milk pruducts, where the milk is left out overnight to clabber. Cream fraiche, for example. And cultured butter/buttermilk, yogurt, fresh cheese. . .

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by: zic @ Tue Mar 31, 2009 at 14:38:58 PM UTC

Thanks (4.00 / 2)

for the responses to my question.  The regular guy in the dairy/frozen section was out and the sub couldn't answer my questions. I'm gonna try my hand at making cheese.

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by: AmyAmy @ Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 01:23:08 AM UTC

I'm so lucky! (4.00 / 1)

I have been able to drink raw milk all my life (except those four years in Chicago). Pasteurization was a response to bovine TB, and a legitimate one. TB has pretty much been eradicated however there outbreaks from time to time. So you do need to know your farmer.

I am confident our milk is safe, if it wasn't I wouldn't sell it. Your comments are spot on, the flavor is better, the cream on top, not to mention all the enzymes that are destroyed by pasteurization.

Would I drink milk form a dairy CAFO? not if I could help it.

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by: jgoodman @ Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 03:31:26 AM UTC