Healthy Milk: What Is It?

healthy milkAnd what’s standing in the way of your getting it?

A report from Harvard suggests that milk from factory farms may be associated with hormone-related cancers because of the industrial agricultural practice of milking a cow throughout her pregnancy. The later in pregnancy a cow is, the more hormones appear in her milk. Milk from a cow in the late stage of pregnancy contains up to 33 times as much of a signature estrogen compound (estrone sulfate) as milk from a cow following pregnancy, as well as much higher levels of other hormones.
The very healthiest milk would therefore be raw, grass-fed, organic, and from a cow that is only milked for the first six months after giving birth (which would include the first four months of a new pregnancy).
Why can’t we get milk that even remotely resembles this ideal?
It’s because federal regulatory policy, controlled by special interests like the dairy industry, is making our milk even more unhealthy—and shackling consumer choice.
Congress is set to introduce the 2012 Farm Bill, which will set the course of federal agriculture and food assistance programs for the next five years. It will have a major impact on farmers, consumers, rural communities, and global agribusiness—a primary beneficiary of US federal agriculture programs.
Current federal regulations are designed to encourage farmers to take dairy cows off pasture and put them into CAFOs (see our article on factory farms in this issue). The regulations, called the Pasteurized Milk Ordinance, are written for stationary systems to increase milk production per cow; this is known as the Total Confinement Dairy Model—that is, the huge dairy factory farms. This practice, however, cuts the productive life expectancy of the cow in half or even more, creates unmanageable disease (not to mention an environmental disaster), and hurts smaller organic dairy farmers. The real solution is to find the most cost-effective models specific to a region’s particular environment, and balance that with the health of the cow and the best possible milk product. For example, what works in the arid climates of the western US (evaporative systems to keep cows comfortable) will not work in the more humid climate of the southeast.
The federal government seems to feel that “all milk is the same,” whereas the nutrient content (such as butterfat and protein) varies greatly between different breeds of cows. According to our sources, the 2012 Farm Bill may contain provisions to outlaw “component pricing” of milk, in which a producer is paid more for higher protein, or higher butterfat milk. Component pricing tends to incentivize higher quality milk and better agricultural practices, because healthy cows put to pasture will produce more valuable milk than sick cows in stalls. Some states have tried to create better policies for milk. California, for example, has higher standards for components of 1% and 2% milk than the government requires—higher protein content, more calcium, and so forth. Yet the government is trying to stop shut down California’s standards.
The federal government is also fighting local, organic, and small dairy producers, mainly because of its cozy relationships with Big Dairy (the USDA’s Dairy Industry Advisory Committee). And then there’s the pseudo-independent Dairy Management, Inc. (DMI), which owns the trade names American Dairy Association, National Dairy Council, and US Dairy Export Council. DMI claims to have been “created by farmers, for farmers, and is funded by America’s dairy farm families—and only by dairy farmers. It does not use any government or taxpayer dollars to promote dairy products in the United States.” What DMI doesn’t reveal, but the New York Times does, is that DMI is not a private business consultant. It is a marketing creation of the USDA—the same agency at the center of a federal anti-obesity drive that discourages over-consumption of some of the very foods Dairy Management is vigorously promoting, as we discussed last year. Conflict of interest, anyone?
You may recall that there is a new proposal afoot to merge USDA’s food safety wing with FDA’s food safety unit. As we noted last month, the real issue is that USDA is in the pocket of the agricultural industry (“Big Farma”)—the administration instead wants to shift food safety over to the FDA, where both Big Farma and Big Pharma rule the roost.
As you know, the FDA has a vendetta against raw milk. Raw milk (which is far more healthful than pasteurized milk) is allowed in some states, though the FDA is shutting down raw milk production whenever it can. Just this month, the FDA shut down an Amish farmer who was selling fresh raw milk to eager consumers in the Washington, DC, region. A judge banned Daniel Allgyer from selling his milk across state lines, which resulted in the closing of his dairy operation—a decision that enraged Allgyer’s customers, some of whom have been buying from him for six years and say the government is interfering with their parental rights to feed their children. These customers owned “cowshares” and therefore were part- owners of the cow, but the judge ruled that this was a subterfuge.
As Dr. Joseph Mercola reminds us, there have been no deaths in 38 years from consuming raw milk—ever since the data started being collected. There have been over 80 deaths from pasteurized milk during that same time period, including 50 people who were killed in 1985 alone by cheese from pasteurized milk.
If you have not done so already, please contact your representative and ask him or her to support HR 1830, the Unpasteurized Milk Bill. This bill would allow the shipment and distribution of unpasteurized milk and milk products for human consumption across state lines. This legislation removes an unconstitutional restraint on farmers who wish to sell or otherwise distribute—and people who wish to consume—raw milk and milk products.  Also ask your senators to introduce and support similar legislation in the Senate. Take action now!

61 comments

  1. Feeding GMO food to the animals, giving them growth hormones, and anti biotics is criminal.
    We must all demand only grass fed cows without growth hormones and antibiotics for milk production
    Take our farms back from factory farms.

    1. One day last October I suddenly came down with chronic diarrhea. The doctors did every test known to medical science; tested my blood, feces and even collected partially digested stomach contents. The could find NOTHING wrong. Finally, one day while shopping I decided to try organic rice milk for a week. It didn’t completely cure the diarrhea but it made a significant difference. It seems highly unlikely that I would suddenly become lactose intolerant at age 53. But . . since then I’ve eliminated 95% of dairy products from my diet. I use organic rice milk or organic almond milk (I never trust soy) in my daily morning fresh fruit smoothies or organic cereal. I do sometimes add a small amount (1/2 cup) of organic plain non-fat yogurt for the acidophilus and eat a pint of ice cream once or twice a month. I just don’t trust dairy milk, even if it’s labeled as “organic”. There’s no way to know where it comes from.

      1. “There’s no way to know where it comes from.”
        If you take a gallon of unpasteurized milk from a large commercial dairy and compare it to gallon of unpasteurized milk from a good small unpasteurized dairy operation you will find the commercial milk has about 130 times the pus, fecal matter and other contaminates.
        Pasteurization is required to clean up, somewhat, dirty milk.

      2. Pasteurization kills off the enzyme lactase, which is required to digest lactose. Raw milk (and anything raw dairy) from happy, grass-fed, pasture-raised cows contains this enzyme, plus every other nutrient the human body needs to survive. One could live on this food alone, and there are people who do! Good choice on not consuming soy, as over 95% is genetically modified.

  2. Latest research supports evidence that homogenization of milk could very possibly cause clogged arteries and related health problems. The homogenization process whips milk at very high speads, breaking down the fat into tiny particles that can easily stick and collect in arteries and heart. Whereas natural non-homogenzed milk fat has larger non-sticky particles that don’t clog the arteries. Why is non-homogenized milk so hard to find?

  3. There should be an immediate pass in legislation to ensure the milk consumers are drinking is not obtained from pregnant cows that can endanger peoples lives and citizen’s of our country. Consequently, I recommend that all my patients avoid drinking milk until guidelines are implemented by the Department of Agriculture and the FDA. Where is our country headed?

  4. Get rid of the lair of thieves which constiute Congress. The no longer, if at any time they did, look after the interest and welfare of the American people, as the US Constitution dictates, because thet are too beholden to Big Pharama, and Agri-Business interests

  5. I want the right to put into my body what I feel is best for it. The government does NOT have the right to tell what I can or cannot consume. I am not asking, but am demanding that the gov’t open up the shipment of products (in this case, RAW MILK) to whomever wants to purchase that product.

  6. I grew up in the Midwest. My great uncle raised cows, chickens, etc. The cows produced meat & milk and from the milk we had fresh fresh churned butter everyday. We also had cheese. At some point cows would be taken to market to ne butchered. Chickens produced meat and good ‘ole fresh eggs every day. I guess I can’t leave out the pigs….Every fall a huge pig would be butchered…..it was always a big event. The meat from the pig would be hung in the smoke house to cured for the winter. For those of you who eat pork, it is some of the best bacon in this whole world. I’ve said all all of this thinking that people will start thinking about what is happening to us as a human race, very soon we will not even have natural foods to eat. We are being turned into monsters from the food that we eat….all for a Dollar.

  7. It would be be nice if the addresses of my Senator were easily available based on my zipcode.
    Love, Billy

  8. If you think greed is good and should be the priority over public health, think again. If you go on ahead and poison the public just because it makes money for you, there is this thing called karma, and yes, it applies to YOU! Karma does not care how much money you have. If you act selfishly, the bitch callled karma knows where you live, and will more than bite you in the butt, she will KILL!

  9. Doesn’t it seen that every government regulation that is opposed by the business establishment is designed to protect the public citizen and every bill supported by the business establishment abrogates the rights of the public citizen? Is this a coincidence? Wherein lies the opponent of the public citizen?

  10. I’m almost afraid to say anything because our “representatives” seem to do the opposite of what the people actually want. I will get a generic response to this action that will have nothing to do with the content of the action. FDA and USDA are suppose to protect the quality of our food sources. THEY ARE NOT. They are protecting the people who are killing us and persecuting those who want to provide us with nutritious food. Shame on them.

  11. I grew up on farm fresh whole milk and now am banned from my health food favorite. The government is controlling my life and the life of my offspring. While I try to purchase food from local farmers, I still am banned from purchasing healthy raw milk. I am sick and tired of the over procassed white stuff sold in stores. It is flavorless and vitamins have to be added to make it somewhat what milk should be when it is real. Prople who never even saw a farm are killing us! Making rules that cause sickness in their convoluted mind! (not a brain)

  12. Unlike the equine-specific estriols found in premarin, estrone occurs in adult humans. Exposure from milk is far less than natural production. Possibly children with higher dairy consumption and lower internal production would see some effect.
    Claims regarding estrone in milk are difficult to prove due to wide variation in estrone levels beyond 120 days of pregnancy. http://fsfantelbio.blogspot.com/.
    The source of the “33 times as much of a signature estrogen compound” appears to be Ganmaa at Harvard. http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/12.07/11-dairy.html
    This rat study from 2007 showed milk roughly doubling the rate of cancer occurrence vs. water. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1874511/ The rat study depended on Ganmaa’s previous findings and said nothing about agricultural practices.
    Ganmaa’s statements were originally published in the less well-known journal (Medical Hypotheses. 2005. 65:1028). The very purpose of that journal is to share suppositions for future research.
    Ganmaa understood her native Mongolia but not U.S. practice. “However, the pregnant dairy cow is not milked during the final 2 months of pregnancy when the highest estrogens are present in the blood.” http://blogs.das.psu.edu/baumrucker/
    That same link includes “Report of Milk, Hormones, and Human Health Meeting, Boston, MA” showing that issues raised by this author are being discused but lack sufficient basis to support the author’s conclusions.
    The article uses an unproved hypothesis, linked to an incorrect description of agricultural practice and a conspiratorial view of current research to justify deregulation of raw milk.
    A regularly quoted statement from Mercola claims no deaths in 38 years from raw milk. http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/01/14/mark-mcafee-raw-milk-update.aspx
    The CDC shows that raw dairy causes 150 times more dairy product-related disease outbreaks than pasteurized adding up to 120 dairy product-related outbreaks in 30 states between 1993 and 2006 with 4,400 illnesses, 239 hospitalizations and three deaths.
    http://www.drugs.com/news/raw-milk-causes-most-illness-dairy-products-cdc-36586.html
    The CDC also showed that from 1998 to 2009, there were 1,837 illnesses, 195 hospitalizations and two deaths from consumption of raw dairy products. http://blog.usfoodsafety.com/2012/02/14/new-jersey-should-not-legalize-raw-milk-sales/
    Forgive me for believing the CDC.

    1. The CDC told us for 30 years that the “seasonal flu” caused 36,000 deaths/year. That figure was invariant tor 30 years. In the last few years they dropped that figure to about 23,000/year. Now we find out the actual figure is more like a couple hundred MAX.
      If you trust the CDC you are making a terrible leap of faith. How could the CDC be so far off, by orders of magnitude, such a simple to verify death statistic? Simple the CDC was more interested in SCARING us into a toxic, mercury injection that would have no POSITIVE effect on our lives, than the truth. Why did the CDC lie to us in such an egregious manner? The CDC works for the eugenic Rockefeller clan.
      “The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) figures shows that in 2001, there were only 257 deaths directly attributable to flu, and in only eighteen cases was the flu virus positively identified. Between 1979 and 2002, NCHS data show an average of 1,348 actual flu deaths per year—a mere 5.7% of the “new and improved” estimate. The article, published in the British Medical Journal, concludes that “If flu is in fact not a major cause of death, [the government’s] public relations approach is surely exaggerated. Moreover, by arbitrarily linking flu with pneumonia and other lung diseases, current data are statistically biased. Until corrected and until unbiased statistics are developed, the chances for sound discussion and public health policy are limited.”
      “Over the last four years Canada averaged but a single pediatric flu-associated death per year among its pediatric population of 7.86 million, Importantly, this has taken place with 60% (or more) of their pediatric group remaining unvaccinated.” The Great USA Flu Vaccine Scam Exposed
      http://healthfreedoms.org/2010/06/21/canada-knocks-out-flu-u-s-public-kept-in-the-dark/
      http://healthyprotocols.com/2_flu_shot.htm

  13. Oh ! Yeah ! They can torture their cows to make more money and can sell you all kinds of natural hormones and unnatural antibiotics hormons and myriad other chemicals , but don’t dare sell your neighbor any unpasteurized milk or for that matter even drink it youself . The very last thing these big money corporations is our health , especially if it competes in any way with profits

  14. God created cow’s milk for baby calves!! There is no human benefit in drinking milk from another species and putting it in our bodies, In fact it is harmful. Why do you think we have so much diabetes in this country today with our young people? Anyone can research this by going to the internet and putting in “milk and diabetes”. Milk is a foreign protien that is why it cause problems with the pancreas and problems with insulin. ” KNOWLEDGE IS POWER”

    1. Do some real research and you will find the main cause of type-2 diabetes is the highly processed high fructose corn syrup and the tremendous overconsumption of this man-made chemical “sugar”. HFCS is in almost every processed food. Read the labels and choose otherwise.

  15. All FDA members should be replaced with nutritionists… maybe that will help — especially if they are not on the take, as we can see the corruption among the present members.

  16. People, it is still up to you. Locate a small dairy farmer in your area who raises and milks his own cows and sells it. In Spokane you can get Spokane Family Farm Milk. It is pasturized at low heat and it is healthy!! And it tastes wonderful!! If more people would hold out for the good stuff, more farmers would make it.

  17. I live in WA State and I get RAW MILK delivered….right to my front door. Even organic milk has garbage in it, but the factory farm milk is THE WORST. And when I’ve contacted my state representatives and I always get a generic letter that states THEY support whatever….Big Agri, Big Pharma, MONSANTO/GMO’s, and they support the corruption………obviously. We are fast approaching *Totalitarian* times, meaning ALL our rights are being stripped away, and our government controls EVERYONE….and EVERYTHING…from what you eat….to what you wear…to what kind of car you drive….to what appliances you are allowed to have, and it goes on and on. It is UNCONSCIONABLE what is happening to America, which is NOT the land of the free anymore…and never will be again.

  18. If I was not so fearful of the way that a totalitarian state is emerging in the USA, and its possible effects on me (an Englishman), I would laugh at the irony of so many of the people of the USA singing about “the land of the free”. What happened to us all?

  19. Like other posters here, I also grew up on a Midwest farm. All of us drank unpasteurized, unhomogenized milk from our bulk tank, including the 4 youngest kids, who were born after our move to the farm and drank that milk from infancy on. We never had any health problems related to the milk! Statistically speaking, we were FAR more likely to have been killed or maimed by the machinery we operated, but there was no one outlawing THAT in the early 1970s….
    People should have the choice to drink raw milk. Anyone with a brain can do the research and come to a decision for him/herself.

  20. What difference does it make? ALL milk is full of radiation now. Unless you bought powdered milk packaged last year at this time, as I did, but its running out now, fresh milk is not safe in any form.

  21. Sorry folks, Raw milk is not healthier. Many,many bacteria finds its way into raw milk. Before pasturization people got sick over raw milk all the time. It is difficult to store and spoils very easily.
    I am NOT a proponent of Big Ag and regualrly write against the use of confinement pens and overcrowding and the over-use of antibiotics that has led to many antibiotic resistant organisms. I support organic farming and buy only organic milk-but to proclaim we should go back to raw milk is foolish.

    1. REAL food does spoil I hate to tell you. The food that comes from the store with a shelf life of 3 years is the same as eating poison. Over processed so there is no nutritional value left in it. I grew up on a farm and drank raw milk, ate eggs with orange yolks, hamburger that sat and thawed up on the kitchen sink ALL DAY and I am still here working my way to 60 years old.
      I have taken to having my own garden and last year was the first year I can say was all organic, now working on planting heirloom seeds and I by my meat comes from the butcher shop down the road for the last 20+ years.. I will not eat anything that is PROCESSED.
      People have to realize quality of life does not come from the grocery store or the drug store.

    2. Yes, but raw milk is still drinkable when it is spoiled. Many people over hundreds of years have ingested sour milk on purpose. They had not a lot of choice because you are correct that milk did not keep well pre-refrigeration. Pasteurized milk does not spoil it rots. You should never drink rotten pasteurized milk. I drink raw milk from a reputable farm every day . I drank raw milk growing up because my grandparents had a dairy farm. I have never had any ill effects from raw milk in my 48 years. Of course, as with any farm product, you must take care that the environment is clean (in both the milking parlor and the storage facilities). But most of the bad stories you hear are propaganda designed to scare people off small farms and into factory farmed products. We are killing farming as a way of life and killing our planet and killing ourselves through factory farming.

    3. Have you ever heard of probiotics? Those are the bacteria that are known to be necessary for our digestion to function properly. Have you heard that yogurt is full of probiotics? Guess where those good bacteria originally came from, before you could go to the store to buy yougurt- fresh milk! Fresh milk from healthy grass fed cows is in fact full of bacteria- that is correct. It is good bacteria, and makes us healthier. I have been in a buying club with about 500 other people specially to get fresh milk straight from the farmer. We all love the milk for its health giving properties. Many of us started drinking the milk to deal with a health problem and got better. Of course, if you drink milk from sick cows you might get sick. That is why the factory farms constantly have to give their cows antibiotics, and still they need to pasteurize their milk- because they keep their cows in an unhealthy environment. Because of various government subsidies it works out to be profitable for them to crowd their cows together, let them stand in their own muck, feed them too much grain, give them antibiotics, hormones, and then pasteurize the resulting unhealthy milk. I want fresh milk from healthy grass fed cows. If you prefer the antibiotics, hormones, and diseased milk, I for one will not try to take it away from you. I wish the FDA would not wage war on my farmer to prevent me having my healthier milk.

    4. Raw milk is something everyone should have a “right” to drink if they so choose. My family has drank raw milk for years and would put the health of my family up against those “big Ag” lover’s any day. If raw milk was so harmful how have all the dairy farmers lived? Wouldn’t they all be dropping dead from drinking raw milk? Where are all the dead “raw” milk drinkers?

    5. Sorry Diane, raw milk is healthier, but, you absolutely must know your farmer/source.
      Raw milk from cows raised on pasture, 100% grass fed, is healthy, delicious and safe.
      And, raw milk does not spoil easily. As a matter of fact, my raw milk stays absolutely fresh for 2 full weeks. If I was able to get the grocery store white, toxic swill to last 7 days, that was a lot. Don’t think you’re better with organic milk-if it is not 100% grass fed, you’re not getting a healthy product.The minute you start feeding grain (organic or not) to cows, the pH of their digestive tract changes, setting up conditions for e-coli to thrive, among many other detrimental situations. Feeding cows grain also changes the composition of their meat, eliminating the naturally high Omega 3 content in 100% grass fed beef to an unhealthful high Omega 6 level.
      Raw milk sours, but does not rot. Leave raw milk out at room temperature and the milk will separate into whey and curds. The whey can then be refrigerated and used in many other recipes. The curds are actually cream cheese, and it is delicious.
      The active enzymes in raw milk will kill e-coli and salmonella within hours.
      The vital process though is pasture raised, 100% grass fed.
      The cows also must be raised in clean environments. A cow (or any other animal) raised in filth, forced to stand in one small area, frequently in its own waste, cannot produce anything remotely healthy. THIS is why pasteurization is needed; the conditions factory farm animals are raised in are deplorable, filthy and disease ridden. Do some research that is not funded by the FDA or the CDC. The government is not always your best source of information.
      People have died from contaminated produce, meat and multiple other foods. No one wants to ban them though. Why the fear-filled rant about raw milk? Too much force-fed information, not enough independent research.

    6. In comment to raw milk being unhealthy, nothing could be farther from the truth. Raw milk has natural good bacteria that kills the bad. When it is heated at high heat, that kills all the vitamins, and digestive enzymes, as well as the good bacteria. Then all you have is a dead product where bad bacteria can grow. Sure it will keep longer, but so will all dead foods. That’s why vitamins have to be added back to it, because they have all been killed. I might add that they are synthetic vitamins, not real ones.
      This is why so many people are lactose intolerant these days.
      YOU JUST CAN’T IMPROVE ON GODS CREATION.

    7. Can you back up your allegations about “people got sick over raw milk”? Also no one is forcing anyone to consume raw milk, but why should it be illegal. Again, I would like to talk to just one of your sickened people.

    8. With all due respect, Diane, you are very misinformed. Raw milk from clean, grass-fed cows is abundant with healthy bacteria that tends to fight off any bad bacteria that may inadvertently come into contact with the milk. When cows producing milk intended for raw consumption are pastured and raised in a clean milking environment, their milk is also clean. When proper sanitary measures are taken, and the milk is regularly tested for malignant coliforms, it is perfectly safe for human consumption.
      You are also wrong when you say that raw milk “spoils easily.” Raw milk does not actually spoil, as it only ends up separating into whey and curds, and turning sour. This resultant buttermilk product is perfectly safe for consumption, if you like that type of thing, and the separated whey can be used to culture vegetables and to make other fermented foods. And in my personal experience, raw milk lasts much longer than pasteurized milk before turning to this sour state, typically lasting two or three weeks in my fridge.
      I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but it is very wrong and highly misleading. I’m getting really tired of the “educated ignorant” coming onto comment boards and bombarding them with pseudo-scientific lies about the dangers of raw milk, none of which are true. Yes, it is possible for raw milk to become contaminated, and obviously raw milk from confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) is riddled with disease and sickness because the animals are diseased and sick. But there is no reason why raw milk, like any other food, cannot be produced in a safe way utilizing modern technology and strict monitoring. Just take a trip to Europe and you will see raw milk vending machines in cities and towns in France, Italy, Poland, Germany, and many other places. Such milk comes from small farms, and the latest technology is used to ensure that it is safe — and virtually nobody gets sick from it!
      Many Americans are foolishly ignorant of the raw milk subject thanks to our corrupt regulatory bodies and a continual stream of misinformation about raw milk, and it appears you have fallen for these lies. Not all milk is the same, and not all raw milk is the same. There is a safe way to produce it, and an unsafe way to produce it. But to declare it inherently unsafe is just utter nonsense.

      1. Even when my raw milk begins to get sour, I clabber it by letting the liquid separate out. I drain off the liquid and eat the remains. It’s tangy and delicious with a little organic fruit butter. You can’t do this with pasteurized milk and who would want to.

    9. Grossly misinformed or a plant on this site–and we do know that the powers-that-be do this. This fear of bacteria is pure propaganda to scare the public. The truth of bacteria in raw milk is true but such a half truth that it is a lie. As others have noted the bacteria in raw milk from healthy animals is necessary bacteria for our health. This culture, controlled by chemical corporations (big pharma included), has created this mythology about bacteria. Without bacteria by the millions living in our guts we would have virtually no immune system for survival. Bacteria are welcome scavengers in our world helping to decay dead waste. The FDA, supporting big pharma and big farma, promote this bogus propaganda. Remember the Nazi comment “tell a lie often enough until people accept it as the truth?’ Remember 1984 with its language concept called Newspeak? Reagan was a master at it. And today $$$$millions are spent on marketing gurus to dumb down the public.
      It always amazes me how people ignore the reality/fact that the human race developed eating raw and organic foods. People lived very long lives unless killed by war, accidents and toxic events. Today all someone has to do is scream ‘germs,’ or ‘bugs,’ or invisible microbes and people go scurrying to their nearest drug pusher.
      And my locally made, raw cheeses will last for over 1 month without decay.

    10. You are so wrong. Using the CDC’s statistics proves that raw milk is more than twice as safe as pasteurized. I will drink raw milk from responsible dairies who milk organic pastured animals safely, over the confinement mass produced over milked antibiotic fed animals who produce lower quality milk loaded with antibiotic resistant bacteria. In fact, I will not drink conventional dairy pasteurized milk at all, because it makes me sick, where the clean, raw milk I get from a local small organic, humane dairy makes me healthy. I’ve been drinking raw milk for over 30 years and recently switched to raw goat milk because I find it even more digestible. The reason older people cannot tolerate pasteurized milk is because it is also homogenized and all the good enzymes that make it digestible are destroyed and the milk is of low quality, loaded with additives and bad bacteria.
      In addition, pasteurization does not kill the most deadly pathogens, primarily because the confinement dairy practices require constant antibiotic therapy to keep the animals minimally “healthy” and result in antibiotic resistance and pasteurization resistant superbugs.

    11. You don’t know much about raw milk. I am 73 years old, I have three brothers, and four sisters
      and we, and all of our famely have been using raw milk all of our lives. No one has ever
      became sick from using this product.

  22. I recently was a guest at a farm in PA where this the wonderful family is selling their precious, grass based raw milk for $3 a gallon so that their friends and neighbors will come to them instead of Walmart! They should be getting 4X that price, but they are dedicated to supporting their community. So their community is also supporting them by buying other farm products like eggs, honey and vegetables. When people stick together things can be right for a few….it is the urbanites who are at the largest disadvantage — and of course this population is growing. It is pathetic that the judge in the story ruled against the urbanites who were part owners in the cow. We no longer have a democracy. We have to get the money out of politics. Check out rootsrikers.org and the book “Republic, lost” by L. Lessig. Also the blog, “Coalesce Left”.

  23. Why are substances like cigarettes still legal when we know how harmful they are to the smoker and everyone around them. They should be considered an environmental hazard! Yet Raw milk producers are being attacked! Why?? Because the government wants us sick! Cancer and all these other illnesses are big business! Its all so evil I can’t even stand it! And they are being so blatant about it too.

    1. “Because the government wants us sick! Cancer and all these other illnesses are big business! Its all so evil I can’t even stand it! And they are being so blatant about it too.”
      It is all so blandly obvious. Why don’t 100s of millions of us KNOW this? More than sick the political leadership at HHS wants us DEAD. Depopulation is HHS’s number one goal.

  24. We use raw milk for our Kaffir. It loves raw milk but hardly grows on the pasteurized, homogenized milk. I love to drink raw milk but limit all milk drinking because I follow a low-fat regime. I have never had bad effects from raw milk. It seems that the FDA & our representatives only listen to the big lobbies. How do we change this?

    1. following a low fat diet is going to kill you early.. you need to look into the facts on that lie….. read the book eat fat lose fat from your local library… start there and then research into the paleolithic diet (cave man diet)

  25. Nothing better in the world that a good cold glass of clean fresh raw milk. I was raised on a farm there we always had our own milk. Now I still have a small farm and have the best milk in the world.. Good Fresh GOATS MILK. So easy to digest because it is predigested by mother nature.
    Can’t dring milk from the store, not even Organic. because it make for a lot of mucus and stomach upsets.
    By the way, raw milk has good bacteria which hinders bad bacteria from growing. Left sitting at room temp. it will only ferment., while pasturized milk will only rot.
    Govt. has allowed so many meds to be made legal for sale that are killing thousands of people every year, but you don’t see them being band, to much money at stake.
    School lunches are packed so full of preservatives, and dyes not to mention all the bad fats, and additives, and sugar. No wonder so many are being treated for ADHD.
    We have taken everything that GOD has created for our good, and poisoned it.
    WAKE UP AMERICA, ALMOST ALL OUR FREEDOMS HAVE BEEN TAKEN AWAY.

  26. Somebody said a phrase that made me nearly vomit…
    It was “…justify deregulation of raw milk”. Listen, nothing is regulated in this country unless it is done so at gun point. Somebody in the supply chain is under threat of a federal gun pointing at them, and that is why you are not buying raw milk on your weekly trip to the grocery store.
    By logical extension this federal gun is pointing at you and your children as you drink up that unhealthy factory milk. Now you tell me what justifies violating my freedom to drink raw milk. Don’t forget, this is America!!!

  27. The man who had been drinking milk for more than 50 years probably did not know that older people sometimes don’t digest lactose as well as they did when they were young.
    Since this seldom happens “suddenly”most of the older people affected do not notice that there is trouble coming until the lactose that is no longer being digested attracts enough single-celled “freeloaders”to cause diarrhea.
    Stopping lactose does help.
    “Don’t feed them-Don’t breed them.”
    The swarming subsides.
    Things do calm down then.

  28. Hello everyone,
    Very good and interesting comments you all had made. I agree with almost all of you here. I think and believe that raw,fresh milk would be a whole lot better for you than the pasteurized kind, where enzymes, minerals are cooked right out of it, and then factories have to put back in vitamins and minerals which are not natural. I have not drank the factory made milk for at least 4-5 yrs now. I have a celiac disorder, and I think I may have a lactose intolerance, so, now I drink rice milk, and somtimes when it is not available, I will drink almond milk, but need to be careful here, read your labels, some of it contains carageenan, which can cause stomach discomfort and other health issues. If I have to drink almond milk, I will get the brand that makes the soy milk. Also, as for raw goats milk, there is a company that makes it,(can’t recall the name at present) and they also make a powdered formula which I am going to try sometime, it is usually sold at health food stores.
    As for the govt., they drive me insane sometimes, they don’t really know what they are doing, they are actually nuts and crazy. Why don’t they just leave us well alone and let us live our lives the way we would like to live them. We do not need the govt. to live our lives for us. We are doing just fine the way we are. We need a hands off policy for them. Certainly, we do not need Big Pharma, and the FDA sticking their noses in our food and dairy supplies, that would be just criminal. We should be allowed to drink our milk raw if we so choose, and eat our food in a natural, orgainic and whole food state without them intevening.
    Let’s keep on signing petitions and letting our political leaders know where we stand.
    Take care to all,
    Michelle r.

    1. I would not recommend any powdered milks, they are highly processed and chemically laden.
      Find healthy milk here:
      http://www.realmilk.com
      Buy a copy of the cookbook, Nourishing Traditions
      Read up at
      http://www.westonaprice.org
      To make the wisest nutrition choices.
      Lactose intolerences is a disease resulting from drinking dead pasteurized milk. Many who are lactose intolerant can drink fresh raw milk and especially fresh raw cultured milk, like kefir, yogurt, Creme fresh, sour cream, cottage cheese, etc.

  29. So is is just an article based on a statement. So where is the scientific publication?

  30. I find it so irritating that we live in a nanny state. I’d really like to be able to drink milk the way I like it, not the way I’m told. Ridiculous.

  31. I think it is ridiculous that we need to be ‘protected’ to this degree. I’d really like to drink my milk the way I like it, not the way the government thinks I should like it.

  32. I do not know where to begin on this issue. There is SO MUCH pseudo science and false statements in this article that it is mind boggling. I have no vested interest in Pasteurized v. raw milk or Organic v non-organic. the facts are that there are no studies that confirm or deny that one is “better than the other” and I can theorize and make a case either way but let’s not obfuscate. Milk has no antibiotics. Each load from a farm, any farm, is tested and if found to contain any antibiotics, is rejected.If you think about it, our cheese and yogurt manufacturers would have an awful time making their product if milk had antibiotics. A sick animal that gets antibiotics has her milk withheld from sale-able milk until the milk is negative for antibiotics. Milk does not contain “pus” as some respondents below indicate. It contains Somatic Cells (white blood cells) as does ANY animal product from ANY critter, commercially raised or hunted in the wild. If these somatic cells get high in the milk, the milk is rejected as well (and they cannot be filtered out). There are just do many items written as facts in this article that are either misquoted or just fictitious that I do not know where to begin. I really suggest fact checking from reputable sources (the Farm Bill does not have provisions to outlaw component pricing – that would kill the cheese, yogurt and ice cream industries: exogenous hormones administration for production (growth hormone) is almost 100% gone in the US;crossing state lines with commercial products is regulated by both individual States and the feds; DMI represents all dairy farms – and members are from all sectors; removal; of cows from farms due to death and disease is at a low point – don’t confuse cow removal for genetic improvement vs. disease; There is no information that pasture systems are better agronomic practices than cropping – both can be good or bad depending on the management; ETC.). Do you know that there is no test to determine if an animal ever ate feeds that are GMO – what does that tell you?
    “SCIENCE DOS NOT CARE WHAT YOU BELIEVE”!!! but you are certainly free to believe whatever you want – just don’t impose those beliefs on me.
    Also realize that BIG FARMA is just about out of the picture in animal agriculture. Monsanto has divested and sold off the animal part of the business along with the GMO seeds (ironically Bayer owns them now), ELANCO (Eli Lilly Animal Co.) is spinning off that business. The new veterinary Feed Directives (from FDA, just about prohibit the use of routine antibiotic in feed for growth promotion (thankfully we can still treat sick animals).Pfizer spun off Zoetis adn they are surviving on products other than pharmaceuticals.
    I have visited numerous small and large organic and traditional farms and I have seen the best and worst of both types of operations. Again, whatever your preferences or beliefs are is fine and you are lucky to have the choice and should have the choice.

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