In our family we have been drinking raw mile for decades, since our now grown children were toddlers. I don't know about the symbol bit. It is part of a way of life where we prefer to know where our food comes from, and growing as much as we can ourselves (fruits, vegetables, chickens, ducks, pigs, and every couple years beef). In New…
In our family we have been drinking raw mile for decades, since our now grown children were toddlers. I don't know about the symbol bit. It is part of a way of life where we prefer to know where our food comes from, and growing as much as we can ourselves (fruits, vegetables, chickens, ducks, pigs, and every couple years beef). In New Hampshire (former abode) raw milk can be sold retail - as a practical matter, the producing farm was within a couple dozen miles. Here in VT (current abode) we have to go to a nearby farm to get it. Although we sure think it tastes better, I can make no claim that raw milk delivers superior health, however, I know of no time that we have been sickened by it either. If it matters, raw milk to us is not a poke in the eye to the medical establishment, heck I'm part of the medical establishment, I'm a physician and CMO of the local hospital and would know and would care if my family got sick from the milk we drink. The CDC feels that raw milk is risky, of course so are cars, kitchen knives, and swimming pools.
Our preferred relationship to our food is closely related to our approach to our economic life. We prefer to do business as locally as possible, to keep our money in our community - an extension of this idea finds its way to buying American first.
Dairy farming in VT, once an important part of the community, is receding. There are a few reasons, but the low price of milk is first on the list. Mostly diary farmers sell their milk to large companies that process and distribute the milk, and set the price to farmers. If dairy farmers can sell their milk directly to consumers, at consumer prices they make a lot more money, making cheese and yogurt with the raw milk would help a lot too.
So if the raw milk "movement" is now in to the fashionable crowd - great - our farmers and rural communities need all the help they can get.
Go meet and buy something from your local farmer, buy local, buy American, we still make great stuff: my Tesla Y, the Webb telescope, DART, Artemis - our country's best days are behind us only if we let that happen.
OK, I know that's a lot from raw milk - but I think it's all tied together - how we all choose to live our lives actually matters - so be a good neighbor and take care of your community.
"In our family we have been drinking raw milk for decades. . . ."
A testimonial from a survivor tells you nothing about whether something is dangerous.
He's not telling you about the family that drank it and got brucellosis (not in Vermont, but in British Columbia. A totally preventable illness.)
I'm still not following why you have to drink raw milk to support your local dairy industry. Maybe you should go to a supply management system like we do in Canada where dairy farmers are guaranteed a set price in exchange for a quota. The dairy farmer gets his price and no one has to be guilted into drinking raw milk. It must be a good system for Canadian farmers because the U.S. dairy industry got Pres. Trump to try to make us kill it during the re-negotiation of NAFTA. True, milk in grocery stores is much more expensive in Canada than in the U.S., so there is that.
100%, the government is involved. But the commodity price component of the milk pricing calculation comes from the price the large processors are selling for on the open market, in this way the processors have a say in how much milk money goes to farmers. The real point I was trying to make is that, if farmers can get rid of the middleman, they will get paid more, and have more control over their lives. I can promise you, the Mennonite farmer up the hill, where we buy our raw milk, does not want me showing up on his farm because my family got sick from his milk. But he can actually make a living as a farmer because most of his production is sold, direct to consumer at market or near premium prices. So we get great food (his milk and lamb are awesome), his family makes a living farming, we know where our food comes from, and he is accountable to well armed people (this is Vermont after all) for producing healthy food. Everyone wins, gets great wholesome food, but no one gets rich.
meant as a tongue in check nod to a VT paradox: very liberal, very safe, very community oriented, but also well armed (estimated 50% VT households are armed, vs: MA 10%, TX 35%, MT 65%)
I agree! I love raw milk, which I drank throughout my teens when my family owned a small hobby farm. I wish some normal people had been interviewed. All that symbol stuff is just faux-hippy nonsense - milk is just food and it’s certainly true that processing it effects the taste and consistency. That said, I respect the dangers of food born illnesses. I used to say I’d never drink raw milk from any cow I didn’t know personally.
Completely agree with our comment and I also grew up on a small farm.....more subsistence than hobby though. I really preferred Sandy's milk (Brown Swiss) than Josie's (Jersey) but Josie's milk made better butter and cheese.
In our family we have been drinking raw mile for decades, since our now grown children were toddlers. I don't know about the symbol bit. It is part of a way of life where we prefer to know where our food comes from, and growing as much as we can ourselves (fruits, vegetables, chickens, ducks, pigs, and every couple years beef). In New Hampshire (former abode) raw milk can be sold retail - as a practical matter, the producing farm was within a couple dozen miles. Here in VT (current abode) we have to go to a nearby farm to get it. Although we sure think it tastes better, I can make no claim that raw milk delivers superior health, however, I know of no time that we have been sickened by it either. If it matters, raw milk to us is not a poke in the eye to the medical establishment, heck I'm part of the medical establishment, I'm a physician and CMO of the local hospital and would know and would care if my family got sick from the milk we drink. The CDC feels that raw milk is risky, of course so are cars, kitchen knives, and swimming pools.
Our preferred relationship to our food is closely related to our approach to our economic life. We prefer to do business as locally as possible, to keep our money in our community - an extension of this idea finds its way to buying American first.
Dairy farming in VT, once an important part of the community, is receding. There are a few reasons, but the low price of milk is first on the list. Mostly diary farmers sell their milk to large companies that process and distribute the milk, and set the price to farmers. If dairy farmers can sell their milk directly to consumers, at consumer prices they make a lot more money, making cheese and yogurt with the raw milk would help a lot too.
So if the raw milk "movement" is now in to the fashionable crowd - great - our farmers and rural communities need all the help they can get.
Go meet and buy something from your local farmer, buy local, buy American, we still make great stuff: my Tesla Y, the Webb telescope, DART, Artemis - our country's best days are behind us only if we let that happen.
OK, I know that's a lot from raw milk - but I think it's all tied together - how we all choose to live our lives actually matters - so be a good neighbor and take care of your community.
"In our family we have been drinking raw milk for decades. . . ."
A testimonial from a survivor tells you nothing about whether something is dangerous.
He's not telling you about the family that drank it and got brucellosis (not in Vermont, but in British Columbia. A totally preventable illness.)
I'm still not following why you have to drink raw milk to support your local dairy industry. Maybe you should go to a supply management system like we do in Canada where dairy farmers are guaranteed a set price in exchange for a quota. The dairy farmer gets his price and no one has to be guilted into drinking raw milk. It must be a good system for Canadian farmers because the U.S. dairy industry got Pres. Trump to try to make us kill it during the re-negotiation of NAFTA. True, milk in grocery stores is much more expensive in Canada than in the U.S., so there is that.
Yes incumbents always like rules that hamper competition and increase price
Smart! And from a fellow Northern New Englander too!
Milk prices aren't set by milk processors.
The government is involved. See the federal order system
100%, the government is involved. But the commodity price component of the milk pricing calculation comes from the price the large processors are selling for on the open market, in this way the processors have a say in how much milk money goes to farmers. The real point I was trying to make is that, if farmers can get rid of the middleman, they will get paid more, and have more control over their lives. I can promise you, the Mennonite farmer up the hill, where we buy our raw milk, does not want me showing up on his farm because my family got sick from his milk. But he can actually make a living as a farmer because most of his production is sold, direct to consumer at market or near premium prices. So we get great food (his milk and lamb are awesome), his family makes a living farming, we know where our food comes from, and he is accountable to well armed people (this is Vermont after all) for producing healthy food. Everyone wins, gets great wholesome food, but no one gets rich.
Why do you need to be armed how about reasonable neighbors. Raw milk take the risk cb
meant as a tongue in check nod to a VT paradox: very liberal, very safe, very community oriented, but also well armed (estimated 50% VT households are armed, vs: MA 10%, TX 35%, MT 65%)
Hi Donald! Thanks for your thoughtful comment. Really good points here.
This right here. I wish the author had interviewed a few more people with this perspective instead of focusing on online reactionaries.
I agree! I love raw milk, which I drank throughout my teens when my family owned a small hobby farm. I wish some normal people had been interviewed. All that symbol stuff is just faux-hippy nonsense - milk is just food and it’s certainly true that processing it effects the taste and consistency. That said, I respect the dangers of food born illnesses. I used to say I’d never drink raw milk from any cow I didn’t know personally.
Completely agree with our comment and I also grew up on a small farm.....more subsistence than hobby though. I really preferred Sandy's milk (Brown Swiss) than Josie's (Jersey) but Josie's milk made better butter and cheese.
Our gal, Lila, was a Guernsey-Jersey mix. Such good milk and butter - making cheese was one thing we never tried.