After illegal drugs, raw milk -- milk that’s unpasteurized and unhomogenized, just as it comes out of the cow -- may be the most briskly traded underground commodity in America.
By Ann Monroe
It's early Saturday morning, and the Brooklyn street is almost empty. Except at one half-open store, where about 30 people are lined up in the narrow aisle clutching empty backpacks, shopping bags and suitcases. At the door, a man checks each entrant, asking "Are you here for the...pickup?"
Someone shouts "The van's coming!" and the place burst into action. People run into the street and come back hauling heavy cartons and cooler chests. Then the store empties as quickly as it filled, as everyone lugs their contraband purchase home.
And "lug" is the word. What's being distributed at this store -- and in countless offices, backyards, homes, churches and parking lots across the country -- is milk.
Raw milk.
Apart from illegal drugs, raw milk -- milk that's unpasteurized and unhomogenized, just as it comes out of the cow -- may be the most briskly traded underground commodity in the United States. By a conservative estimate, some 500,000 people in the U.S. drink the stuff, says Sally Fallon, president of the Weston Price Foundation, which is dedicated to spreading the word about raw milk -- and making it legal. Her guess is that the true total is closer to a million. Even the Food and Drug Administration, which is doing its best to keep raw milk out of the mouths of citizens, has acknowledged that about 3 percent of U.S. milk drinkers drink it raw.
It's not that those Brooklyn milk-buyers were doing anything illegal -- drinking raw milk is legal in every state. So is buying it. What's not legal, except in eight states (Arizona, California, Connecticut, Maine, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, New Mexico and Washington), is selling it to the general public. The other 42 states have a variety of bans. In some, it can be sold only on the farm. In others, it can be sold only as pet food. Some outlaw its sale altogether. Federal law prohibits transporting it for sale -- even from a state where it's legally sold -- across state lines.
Skirting the law
That hasn't stopped ingenious raw milk drinkers from finding ways around the rules. Some buy the milk in states where it is legal and carry it across state lines themselves. (Milky Way Farm, in Starr, S.C., does a brisk business selling raw milk in parking lots right on the state line to buyers from neighboring states where it's illegal). Others form milk-buying clubs, which purchase the milk from a farm that's allowed to sell it and bring it back to a central distribution point. In states where selling raw milk isn't allowed at all, clever lawyers have taken advantage of old-time laws that let a farmer board and feed a neighbor's cow to set up cow-share programs. Members legally own the cattle the dairy farmer is raising and milking, and -- as owners -- get the milk.
These arrangements may fall within the letter of the law, but they clearly skirt its intent, so raw milk drinkers keep very, very quiet about their sources. A raw milk club in New York demands a reference from a current member before it will let you join. Joining one New Jersey club takes weeks because the club checks out each potential member (to make sure they're not a government agent in disguise) before letting them in.
The complicated legal arrangements make buying raw milk something of an ordeal. No running down to the corner for a quick quart: in most cases, buyers must order their raw milk online, usually by the gallon, several days before the pickup. (If you miss the deadline, you have to wait for the next one.) Deliveries are rarely made more than once a week and many are two or more weeks apart. Some buyers have to drive several hours to get to the pickup site, which is often in a hard-to find spot. "I've gotten lost so many times," says Valerie Scott Massimo, a New Jersey raw milk drinker. "The house is un-findable, and they have a wooden fence six feet tall."
There's good reason for these clubs to be cautious. While state authorities rarely go after raw milk buyers, distributors have gotten in trouble -- late last year an Ohio raw milk co-op was raided at gunpoint by sheriffs' deputies. And state officials regularly try to shut down dairies that sell raw milk. The Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, which defends farmers' right to sell raw milk, has a dozen cases on its docket right now. "People have the legal right to drink it," says Pete Kennedy, interim president. "The problem is finding ways to enable them to exercise their right."
If many state officials get their way, exercising that right will get harder, not easier. State officials try continually to tighten the laws governing the sale of raw milk. About a year and a half ago, agriculture authorities in Georgia, where it can only be sold as pet food, proposed requiring all raw milk to be dyed charcoal gray, to make it less attractive to drinkers. (Activists beat that one back). In California, state authorities have tightened the requirements for raw milk testing, says Mark McAfee, owner of Organic Pastures, the state's biggest raw milk producer, demanding that the milk be free not just of harmful bacteria, but of almost any bacteria at all.
A government conspiracy?
Many raw milk enthusiasts see a deep Conspiracy behind governmental attempts to prevent the sale of raw milk. McAfee, who's managed to get into trouble with the law even in a state where raw milk is legal (by insisting on shipping it across state lines), blames it on the drug companies. They don't want people discovering that food can cure what they're selling pills for, he says. "They don't want any encroachment."
But a quick look at the past makes it clear why so many governmental officials hold to the need for pasteurization. B.P. (before pasteurization), many dairies, especially in cities, fed their cattle on -- to put it bluntly -- garbage, and their milk was rife with dangerous bacteria. Pasteurizing it was the only way to make it safely drinkable. After many years of pasteurization, just about everyone simply assumes that raw milk is dangerous stuff. Amy Osborne, a dancer, got a panicked letter from a relative -- a dietician -- when she heard Osborne was feeding her baby raw milk. "It made my husband really nervous," she says. Another mother, reluctant even to have her name used, though raw milk is legal in her state, worries about whether to let her children's friends drink it. "God forbid they get sick and blame it on raw milk, "she says.
When a raw milk drinker gets sick, that's generally what happens -- whatever the evidence. Years ago, Massimo got sick a few months after starting to drink raw milk from a nearby dairy. Her doctor immediately blamed the milk -- even though tests showed no harmful bacteria and nobody else who had drunk the milk had gotten sick. "He was totally convinced," she says, "and he was a doctor and I wasn't." So she stopped drinking it.
She started again 20 years later when -- after moving to New Jersey -- she developed diverticulitis and became very weak on the liquid diet that was all she could digest. Her chiropractor, Steven Lavitan, put her on raw milk, and she says she immediately began to feel better. Lavitan, who recommends raw dairy products to many of his clients, says he has even seen cataracts improved by drinking raw milk. He and others claim that raw milk can cure a host of ailments, including asthma, allergies, lactose intolerance and other digestive problems, many of which, they argue, are caused in the first place by drinking pasteurized milk. "Anything that regular milk can cause, raw milk can cure," Lavitan says.
It does a body good
Raw milk lovers advance two basic health arguments. The first (flatly denied by regulators and most nutritional scientists) is that pasteurization destroys or damages many of milk's most valuable nutrients. The second is that while it may kill dangerous bacteria, pasteurization also kills off all the good bacteria in raw milk -- some of the same ones that big dairy companies are now selling as "probiotics" in pricey new yogurt and drink concoctions.
In fact, supporters argue, raw milk is just as safe as the dairy it comes from. If the cows are healthy and the dairy is spotless, they say, raw milk is safer by far than pasteurized milk, because the beneficial bacteria naturally found in raw milk make it harder for harmful bacteria to grow.
It's not just health claims that make raw milk drinkers willing to go to so much trouble to get it. Milk in its natural state simply tastes better, they say -- sweeter, richer and more wholesome. Ellen Whalen, a freelance writer and home-schooling mother on Cape Cod, says raw milk even goes sour more pleasantly than pasteurized milk. "Pasteurized milk rots," she says. "Raw milk doesn't go bad, it just changes."
Help on the way
Some help for raw milk drinkers may be at hand. In late January, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, who ran for president in 2008, introduced a bill that would legalize the shipment and distribution of raw milk and milk products for human consumption across state lines. It's an issue of constitutional rights, Paul said in a statement introducing the bill. "Americans have the right to consume these products without having the federal government second-guess their judgment about what products best promote health. "
One raw milk defender goes even further. Max Kane, the owner of a Chicago raw milk co-op who recently finished a cross-country bicycle trip, during which he ate and drank only raw dairy products to publicize the case for raw milk, would like to see massive civil disobedience. "As long as people keep trying these little ways to circumvent the law, this bull---- is going to continue," he says. "I think everyone should come forward and say we're proud to drink raw milk. Otherwise it's always going to be us running, and them chasing us."
If you want to try raw milk...
Raw milk's hard to find, Kane found out on his trip, even when, as he did, you've got a crew of about a dozen friends e-mailing and cold-calling farmers to hunt the stuff down. The difficulty of getting supplies extended the trip by over a week and forced Kane to cross Mississippi and Louisiana by bus, since the few dairies he could find were too far apart to sustain him. He made it across Texas thanks to a farmer who met him regularly on the road with fresh supplies.
To find a source near you, start by asking around, especially at health-food stores and farmers' markets. Unless you're in one of the eight states where selling it in stores is legal, you won't be able to buy it at either place. But you may get some leads from other shoppers.
Keep your eyes out for fundraisers for the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, or programs sponsored by the Weston Price Foundation. While neither organization actually distributes raw milk, both fight for it, and their supporters are likely to drink it.
Another way to contact raw milk drinkers is to do a Web search for "raw milk" and your state; there may well be a local organization that fights for it. Start with a search on LocalHarvest.org. Or you can do what Kane did: hunt for local farmers. Check out the Campaign for Real Milk, which lists producers of raw milk and cheese around the country and also provides a useful summary of raw milk's legal status in each state. (Warning: if you're not in a state that allows farmers to sell raw milk to the public, the list will be skimpy. Advertising on a raw milk site is "one of easier ways to get in hot water," notes Kennedy, who says they're regularly monitored by federal and local officials.)
A really sad state of affairs. I buy raw milk all the time from the farms here in Jordan. It is freely sold with no restrictions. Usually we have hundreds of goats and lambs in pastures all over as Arabs eat a lot of lamb meat and now is the time for the milk.
Goat milk is the closest to mother's breast milk and cow's milk is for baby cows. I buy goat yogurt myself to use in the budwig preparations. If they do not have yogurt I do buy raw milk and make my own yogurt.
Freedom of raw milk essential and sad that most cannot have this. I find that most run into problems for one simple reason, not understanding how to take care of the milk once you have it in your home. Raw milk must be heated and brought to a boil for one minute. Remove from the stove and keep in your refrigerator for no more than 3 days. Any left freeze in small packages and bring out as needed.
So the ones who became sick are usually the ones who did not know how to prepare it so there is no bacteria.
I have used raw milk for about three years now... and as a kid, till about age 13, milked the "family" cow and sat the milk right on the table, still warm, to use at breakfast on an uncle's dairy farm in the summers... mom grew up on raw milk... never "boiled" it that I can remember.
I have been using raw goat milk for over a year... at first, it came from purebred Nubians. What I am getting now is from a Nubian\Toggenburg cross.
Nubians give richer milk, Toggenburg's give more. If you want butterfat content to make butter and cheese, go with the purebred Nubian.
Before that, I was drinking raw cow from Holsteins. I much prefer the richer raw goat milk hands down for taste and health.
Which brings me to your comment on goat vs. cow milk.
While I agree that goat milk is generally better than cow for most people, different breeds will give a different quality of milk, both in butterfat content and nutrition and thus the ability to assimilate that nutrition.
Like the Toggenburg goat, the Holstein is a producer and butterfat content is MUCH lower than say a Jersey. Jersey's are what the Amish prefer I believe... and for good reason.
As far as cows go, if you want to make butter and cheese, you most likely will want a Jersey cow... Nubian goats are my first choice...
My family have actively been looking and discussing having our own as three of our families are drinking the milk. A Nubian may give a gallon a day or so... which would be plenty. However they are herd animals and you generally want to have more than one... perhaps we will have to sell what we cannot use if this comes to fruition.
The point of this ramble is that in general terms, I agree with your goat over cow choice, however the decision can come down to availability, climate (will affect your breed choice) and production needs for survival.
Note: in a survival situation, I would want the higher butterfat.
Dr Mary Enig and Sally Fallon have written that a unique six-carbon capric acid (a short-chain fatty acid) is primarily found in goat milk butterfat. Enig and Fallon write: "These fatty acids have antimicrobial properties that is, they protect us from viruses, yeasts and pathogenic bacteria in the gut. They do not need to be acted on by the bile salts but are directly absorbed for quick energy."
As you know Grz, goat milk is not available all year long only when they have babies which is generally twice a year. So for a few months goat milk is not available. I prefer the taste of cow's milk but after reading so much against cow milk especially the new that cow's milk causes MS, I changed.
Goat milk is more expensive but health comes at a price. Dr. Lam has been preaching for years against cow's milk and I agree. Cow's milk is for baby cows.
>> "As you know Grz, goat milk is not available all year long only when they have babies which is generally twice a year. So for a few months goat milk is not available." <<
This is learning to eat with natures cycles... a very good thing IMO.
>> "cow's milk causes MS" <<
There may be a connection here with Diabetes type 1 too...
I would like to make one thing clear here... when reading about cow milk being "bad" or "good" for us, please ask these questions...
Was the milk in the studies pasteurized? homogenized? I would be willing to bet yes on both counts.
Was it raw?
I would be willing to bet, no.
These things make a huge difference in the outcome of the study and the subsequent "correlations" or "assumptions" of these studies... whether the scientists and/or doctors, like Dr. Lam, understand it or not.
Additional differences would be were the cows free range?
Or kept in their own filth in commercial feed lots?
Were they organic?
Or were they fed GMO, pesticide, fungicide, herbicide laden grains? Shot full of hormones and antibiotics, etc. etc.
Once again, I will state, my preference is for goat milk period... both for my own health and taste. That said, the Amish seem to do very well with their cows (Jersey's mostly if I understand correctly)... and a much lower incedence of these diseases than in the general population.
What I am in disagreement with, are the blanket statements made by health "science", that focus on the use of commercial, perversely adulterated (pasteurized and homogenized) cow's milk.
One would be hard pressed today to find a "real" Science study that followed free range, organic raw milk consumers from birth to death... and then assess their health and predisposition to certain "diseases".
Perhaps these scientists should study the Massi who eat red meat protein, drink their livestocks blood (they do not kill the cows to do this) and the raw milk from their cows... they seem to fare very well.
Perhaps it has something to do with outdoor living and organic free range grazing...
I to doubt the studies included raw milk as the gov't is outlawing it and difficult for most to find. Dr. Mercola is a big advocate of raw milk.
My question to you or any advocating free range cattle being better. As we now know from countless studies that the soil is nutrient deprived as much as 90 percent in some cases. So even if the cattle is free range, exactly how much value could we place on that milk or crops.
So these are the things I trust to be true.
1. Cow's milk is for baby cows
2. Goat milk is closest to mother's breast milk.
3. The two top cause of cancer from food is milk and sugar.
4. Milk is a known cause of many diseases including but not limited to MS, diabetes, heart disease, etc.
There will always be pro and cons to the discussion as is with meat in the diet. I personally cured my MS by eating vegetarian and I am here debating with you today because of my changes including my advocating budwig and black seed so a complete diet not just plants and fruits. So as with milk we will always have room to disagree but we must agree on one point.
>> "My question to you or any advocating free range cattle being better. As we now know from countless studies that the soil is nutrient deprived as much as 90 percent in some cases. So even if the cattle is free range, exactly how much value could we place on that milk or crops" <<
This is true on "abused" land, and to a lessor extent on well cared for or virgin land, subject to influences of chemical pollution.
So the value will vary... now you are thinking. This applies to "goats" too :-)
>> "So these are the things I trust to be true.
1. Cow's milk is for baby cows
2. Goat milk is closest to mother's breast milk.
3. The two top cause of cancer from food is milk and sugar.
4. Milk is a known cause of many diseases including but not limited to MS, diabetes, heart disease, etc." <<
1. goat's milk is for baby goats
2. between the two, in general terms, this is true, however, it also depends greatly upon the way the livestock is raised and "breed"; for instance, raw Jersey being better than raw Holstein for human milk consumption - I was hoping you would pick that up from my previous posts.
3. This could be debated too... because I believe that it depends upon the milk and sugar and would argue that it is the commercial processed varieties of these foods that is the problem AND what you are referring to... for instance if I say "sugar" causes cancer, does that mean that I should not eat a whole "fruit" due to its "high" sugar content?
Of course not... so then, what are you really stating with that statement? We need to be more clear when making statements such as these... and as for the milk, or red meat "debate" for that matter... check out the Massi as I suggested in my previous post... or the Amish.
4. Once again... the correlations are made with commercially available processed milk and a blanket statement like this is a great disservice of misinformation to many who require animal proteins and fats in order to maintain optimal health.
To answer your last question... I am not so sure I would like to have a forum.
There is a campaign of misinformation about cow's milk that should include the factual information that commercial cows milk is saturated with bovine growth hormones and anti biotics and more often the cows themselves terminally ill.
Goats milk from goats raised this way would be just as toxic.
The facts are that organic cows milk that comes from grass fed toxin free cattle raised on land that is nutrient rich is not only safe for human consumption but highly nutritious!
Of course!! DAA. The debate is over raw organic cow or goat which is closer to human mothers milk. Goat wins hands down.
We will always have pros and cons. A given as in the about debate.
My opinion is that cow milk is bad but hey you can drink whatever you want.
Now if you can really find virgin land that is not toxic and has one hundred percent nutrients, forget the cows and sell the land, you would be a millionaire.
I think that debate on the topic is moot as it depends upon too many factors, including one's hereditary adaptations...
Here is what one goat and cow owner wrote in another forum...
>> I've had fresh goat milk from Nubians, Saanans, and Alpines. I've had fresh cow milk from a few different breeds, including some crossbreds. IMHO Nubian milk is by far the best goat milk. Most fresh cow milk is yucky, with one exception - Jersey milk. If you've got a good Jersey (we do) there is no better milk. We finally sold our Nubians recently because we weren't using them. Not trying to start a goat-cow war, just our personal experience." <<
I tend to agree with her. Breed makes a huge difference in taste and digestibility; and that was one of my points... if you ever consider getting your own goats or cows, do your homework.
Most production dairies use "producers" like Holsteins and the milk just does not even come close to comparing to a Jersey.
Once again, in "general", I agree with you that goat is preferred.
If I get goats they will be Nubian (I would want a buck, but that prospect takes some getting used to, and two nannies\does) , if I get a cow or two, they will be Jerseys... unless I change my mind for some very solid reasons.
Hmmm! I never said one was better then the other,only that milk from goats raised in a similar environment as commercial dairy cows would be just as toxic as commercial cows milk!
Not only does the breed of cow or goat make a HUGE difference in the milk and butterfat content... what the animals eat and how they are cared for makes a HUGE difference as well...
Ever have raw goat milk after the goat got into a bunch of raw onions? LOL...
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