Reply #88: I didn't say I drink raw milk [View All]

[Recursion]

Though as I'm something of a fromage snob I do prefer cheeses made from raw milks (yoghurts too) -- you can definitely taste the difference. But I also strongly support people's right to eat and drink whatever they want.

I also recognize that the data are very clear: the per-capita incidence of contamination in pasteurized milk is higher than in raw milk. Yes, that's probably because raw milk dairies are smaller and much more careful given the thin legal ice they're treading on. So, if more and more people started drinking raw milk, the per-capita contamination rate would approach that of pasteurized milk. And in any case, as I said above both raw and pasteurized milk are statistically safer than lettuce.

I used to think my raw milk friends were crazy, but they did clue me in to a little experiment that changed my mind somewhat. If you can acquire some raw milk, put it in a bowl and cover it with cheesecloth. Leave the bowl out somewhere at room temperature. Do the same with some pasteurized milk. The pasteurized milk will be rancid in a few days. But in those same few days, the raw milk won't be rancid; it will be clabber, which is actually pretty good stuff (I used to have it as a kid on my grandparents' farm). Unpasteurized milk "keeps" pretty well as clabber; we're just so used to how rancid pasteurized milk gets that we assume all milk is like that.

As far as I know, direct sales of unpasteurized milk are legal in a handful of states, but cow shares are pretty much legal everywhere (that is, I buy a share of a cow, and get a share of that cow's milk, which I can then do whatever I want with). So the ice isn't as thin as it may seem.