Ran across a story on NPR that talks about a food coop being raided and the raw milk (goat, sheep, cow) that they had, about $10,000 worth of it, was confiscated.
What caught my eye is that a local attorney who specialized in suing companies for food related stuff suggests that if you are going to buy raw milk you should go to the farm and look the farmer in the eye and look at the facilities, and further that they should be regulated by the state and federal authorities.
I don't have a feel for dairy issues; i don't have any animals that I milk.
you can see the text of the story here.
Mixed feelings on this one. We milk our goats - but just for family consumption. Don't want the gov't to come near my little operation. But if I plan to sell any to the general public, I can see an argument for it. I think they should be able to sell raw milk. I think the benefits out weigh the concerns. Regulating could get tricky though.
ReplyDeleteThen there are those that work around this by selling 'shares' of the animal (I think that is what it is called). Since you can drink your own animals raw milk, but can't sell it for human consuption, you buy a share of the goat or cow and the farmer supplies you with some of your own animals milk...
Or, you simply sell milk that is not advertised for human consumption... "raw goat milk, not legal to be sold for human consumption, wink wink, but fine to be sold for your dogs, bottle baby goat, etc".
Hmmm, did the article say what there were going to do with all that milk??
-Chad
I was listening when the article aired on NPR, and as I have goats, milk them and drink raw milk, quickly turned up the volume. I'm glad that raw milk is getting more attention in the news these days. I felt that the specialist that they interviewed about the health benefits of raw milk seemed either biased or just wasn't looking at the whole picture. They failed to mention the benefits of the live bacteria and enzymes and how much more we get from raw milk when we can digest it easier. Yeah ultra pasteurized homogenized milk should have all of those nutrients in it, but can our bodies digest and absorb them? I'm doubtful.
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