One Farmers Perspective on the Raw Milk

[catjac1975]

My husband's cousin is a dairy farmer. His family grew up drinking their milk straight from the cow. So did humans for a thousand years. I would think cleanliness practices are what determines whether the milk is safe to drink or not. Still, I would not drink it. More in fear than belief that it is not safe to drink.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I grew up drinking raw milk. Once I hit a certain age I was the one milking the cow. As long as I milk the cow or someone I trust milks the cow I don't have a problem with raw milk. If someone I don't know or someone I don't trust milks the cow I have a problem.

Here are some quotes from the CDC.

How many outbreaks are related to raw milk?
CDC collects data on foodborne disease outbreaks voluntarily reported by the state, local, territorial, or tribal health departments. The health departments conduct most outbreak investigations reported to CDC. The data reported may change frequently as reporting agencies enter new records and modify or delete old ones.

Among dairy product-associated outbreaks reported to CDC between 1998 and 2011 in which the investigators reported whether the product was pasteurized or raw, 79% were due to raw milk or cheese. From 1998 through 2011, 148 outbreaks due to consumption of raw milk or raw milk products were reported to CDC. These resulted in 2,384 illnesses, 284 hospitalizations, and 2 deaths. Most of these illnesses were caused by Escherichia coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella, or Listeria. It is important to note that a substantial proportion of the raw milk-associated disease burden falls on children; among the 104 outbreaks from 1998-2011 with information on the patients’ ages available, 82% involved at least one person younger than 20 years old.

Reported outbreaks represent the tip of the iceberg. For every outbreak and every illness reported, many others occur, and most illnesses are not part of recognized outbreaks.

Are there more outbreaks related to raw milk in states where it is legal to sell?
Yes. States that allow the legal sale of raw milk for human consumption have more raw milk-related outbreaks of illness than states that do not allow raw milk to be sold legally.

What is the history of the recommendation for pasteurization in the United States?
Routine pasteurization of milk began in the United States in the 1920s and became widespread by 1950 as a means to reduce contamination and reduce human illnesses. It led to dramatic reductions in the number of people getting sick from diseases that had previously been transmitted commonly by milk. Most public health professionals and health care providers consider pasteurization to be one of public health’s most effective food safety interventions ever!

Many medical and scientific organizations recommend pasteurization for all milk consumed by humans; these include CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians, and others.

and the link

http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/rawmilk/raw-milk-questions-and-answers.html#outbreaks-legal

Then just for fun another quote with the link below. As an engineer that worked with numbers all my working life I'm not a great believer in statistics. I know that numbers can be manipulated to say about what you want just by the way you present them and the assumptions you make. I know that this is not an apples to apples comparison, but the drop from raw milk causing 25% of all food and waterborne outbreaks before pasteurization to only 1% of foodborne outbreak, not including waterborne, is pretty dramatic. I know that there have been great improvements in how we handle milk and eliminating diseases in milk cows, but can you honestly say there have not been pretty big improvements in how we handle meats and other foods?


Is raw milk safer today than it was in the 1930s when milk pasteurization became common?
The risks from raw milk in the United States are different today than they were before the 1930s when raw milk caused 25% of all food and waterborne outbreaks, resulting in many infant deaths. Two important diseases people contracted from raw milk during that time period were bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis.

Today, cattle in the United States are virtually free of bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis because of programs to vaccinate and eliminate sick animals. We also have better refrigeration and sanitation for storing and transporting milk. Raw milk and raw milk cheeses illegally imported from developing countries like Mexico, where bovine tuberculosis and brucellosis (pdf) are commonly found in cattle, are a health risk to consumers.

In the 21st century, dairy products now cause approximately 1% of reported foodborne outbreaks, but about 70% of reported dairy outbreaks are from raw milk or raw milk cheeses. Because of the way statistics are collected, we do not know how many people get sick from raw milk (or other foods) if they are not part of an outbreak. Despite improvements over the last 100 years, raw milk still presents health risks because the dairy environment is inherently dirty. Large animals produce large amounts of fecal material. Even with careful sanitation, it is nearly impossible to keep all dirt and fecal matter from getting into the raw milk. In addition, some cows might have udder infections that aren’t obvious to the dairy operator, but still can result in bacteria getting into the milk. The only scientifically proven way to ensure that disease-causing germs are eliminated from the milk that is sold to consumers is to pasteurize the milk.

http://www.realrawmilkfacts.com/raw-milk-hot-topics

 

[Beekissed]

I never, ever trust CDC reports on outbreaks of this or that...it's pretty common knowledge that all these government offices are liberally sprinkled with representatives with a thumb in the pie of big agribiz and big pharm(as in used to work for them or still do work for them...those aren't positions one really leave when they hold stock in the company), so it's in their best interest to report this or that scare to sway public opinion and, consequently, sway how much they trust anyone but the wonderful, favorable reports from these agencies about food, vaccines, etc. produced by the large companies where they own stock.

Convenient reports of "outbreaks" always have the public running scared...never could understand why anyone still trusts government agencies. All you have to do is sit and ponder on who will benefit from this or that report and follow the money trail, because it sure ain't the general public that is the beneficiary...these are not kindly public service announcements to keep people out of danger, but always, always to sway the public's opinion and then their dollars.

Never in my whole life have I seen the CDC, USDA, EPA, FDA champion home grown foods, small and independent farmers, natural medicine, etc.

Earlier this week, the Washington Post featured a story on the rise in online protests over the appointment of former Monsanto executive Michael Taylor as President Obama’s senior adviser to the FDA.

The article points out that Michael Taylor currently holds the position of deputy commissioner for foods at the FDA. This position is responsible for overseeing food labels and ensuring they contain clear and accurate information, as well as the development of strategies for food safety and planning new food safety legislation. This is the first time anyone has held this position at the FDA.

And today, Obama’s Big Ag side got the best of him again. He tapped Roger Beachy, long-time president of the Danforth Plant Science Center, as chief of the USDA’s newly created National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).........

A creation of the 2008 Farm Bill, the NIFA “replaces the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, which distributes $200 million in competitive grants and about $280 million in ‘formula funding’ to land-grant universities,” Science blog reports.

Science continues:

The Farm Bill adds another $106 million annually of competitive funding for research into organic farming, biomass, and fruits and vegetables. It also calls for a “distinguished scientist” to be appointed for a 6-year term as director.

So this is a critical post. If the sustainable farming movement is going to scale up and really start providing a large portion of the nation’s calories–and deliver on its potentially huge environmental promises–than we’re going to need a significant commitment of federal research dollars.

Roger BeachyPhoto: Courtesy of the Danforth CenterAnd what are we getting with the appointment of Beachy? The Danforth Plant Science Center, nestled in Monsanto’s St. Louis home town, is essentially that company’s NGO research and PR arm. According to its website, the center “was founded in 1998 through gifts from the St. Louis-based Danforth Foundation, the Monsanto Fund (a philanthropic foundation), and a tax credit from the State of Missouri.”

Monsanto CEO Hugh Grant sits on the center’s board of trustees, along with execs from defense giant McDonnell Douglas and pharma titan Merck. Another notable board member is Alfonso Romo, a Mexican magnate who cashed in big during his country’s notoriously corrupt privatization /liberalization bonanza in the early ’90s.

Romo used his connections to build a company called Seminis into the globe’s biggest vegetable-seed concern, with dreams (as yet unrealized) of loads of new GMO veggie varieties. Monsanto bought Seminis in 2005. Here’s a revealing Wall Street Journal profile of Romo from 1999; and here’s what I wrote about him and the Monsanto/Seminis tie up back in 2005. (Interesting tidbit: Romo claims credit for innovating those insipid and ubiquitous “baby carrots”; and for reducing the spiciness of jalepeno peppers.)

On its short list of “partners” we find several research-oriented universities and one corporation: Monsanto. In the Danforth Center’s 2007 annual report (PDF), Monsanto is mentioned no fewer than ten times funding this or that project.

So essentially, the public face of Monsanto’s research efforts now has his fingers on the USDA’s research purse strings. Score a big one for agribusiness!

Welcome To The Revolving Door

The "revolving door" - the interplay of personnel that assists the industrial alignment of public service and regulatory authorities - has led to key figures at both the US's FDA and EPA having held important positions at Monsanto, or else doing so shortly after their biotech related regulatory work for the government agency.
s an instance, Ferrara noted the FDA's approval of Monsanto's genetically engineered cattle drug rBGH which failed to gain approval in either Europe or Canada despite intense lobbying and accusations of malpractice:

"Michael R. Taylor, the FDA's deputy commissioner for policy, wrote the FDA's rBGH labelling guidelines. The guidelines, announced in February 1994, virtually prohibited dairy corporations from making any real distinction between products produced with and without rBGH. To keep rBGH-milk from being "stigmatized" in the marketplace, the FDA announced that labels on non-rBGH products must state that there is no difference between rBGH and the naturally occurring hormone.

In March 1994, Taylor was publicly exposed as a former lawyer for the Monsanto corporation for seven years. While working for Monsanto, Taylor had prepared a memo for the company as to whether or not it would be constitutional for states to erect labelling laws concerning rBGH dairy products. In other words Taylor helped Monsanto figure out whether or not the corporation could sue states or companies that wanted to tell the public that their products were free of Monsanto's drug.

I won't go on and on, though I could, but you get the gist....nearly every government agency dealing with regulations, reporting, etc. that deal with food and drugs are loaded up with former big pharm and agribiz execs....like having the foxes in the hen house.

I stopped believing in these fairy tale reports long, long ago...probably as far back as the first supposed "avian flu" epidemic that wasn't an epidemic at all, but just another plug for how small poultry owners are introducing pathogens into commercial poultry houses and causing a danger to the food supply. Every other year or so they bring out that old hat trick again for a new generation of voters...it gets old.

Home canning, raw milk and honey, organic farming, backyard chickens, unvaccinated children...you know, all the likely culprits for big time transmission of disease and certain death to the public? Those big boogeymen of our age? Scary stuff, I know. But, I'll partake every day of my life and twice on Sundays before I ever believe any reports from a government agency.

 

[seedcorn]

Understand not trusting government. Understand not liking some rules. They have done a lot of good.

Because of immunizations, common childhood diseases are now almost unheard of-except from out breaks usually reported among non protected children.

In AG, we now understand soil properties and nutrient management. Algae bloom is now very uncommon-except for run off from cities and burbs where they use nutrients past soils ability to retain them-thus giving run off.

In Indiana, government agencies train people in safely growing their own food, care for animals, and safely preserving it. Again, in Indiana, avian flu is real and causing poultry deaths.

We do agree with follow the $$$ to see someone's motivation most of the time. That goes for organic merchants as well as government.

 

[thistlebloom]

Those common childhood diseases that immunizations have supposedly wiped out
(except for those non protected kids) are nothing more than renaming illnesses and tweaking statistics.

 

[Beekissed]

I agree, Thistlebloom!

Because of immunizations, common childhood diseases are now almost unheard of-except from out breaks usually reported among non protected children.

That so called outbreak at Disney recently? Many of the people who got the measles there were vaccinated already~the one woman that died had definitely been vaccinated previously~ and some were too young to have received that vaccination yet. I don't call that an outbreak at all, considering how many people visit that park daily and only 52 contracted the virus, both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. That's 52 out of approx. 45,000 that visit the park daily.

That was a media scare, pure and simple and who stands to benefit from scaring people? Merck and Pfizer, who are lobbying hard for increased mandatory vaccinations...which they manufacture, of course.

As a career nurse I can tell you to take these reports of outbreaks with a HUGE spoonful of salt. Most people don't read beyond the very slanted initial media buzz and they are counting on just that....the populace has a very short attention span and don't really seek further education on such things.

Again, in Indiana, avian flu is real and causing poultry deaths.

It did, didn't it? And the price of eggs sky rocketed as if all the eggs in the states come from the affected states...but they don't. And that so called epidemic is fizzling out like a dud firecracker...it served its purpose in many ways. It got the public worrying about backyard poultry growers, organic farmers, farmer's markets and the transport of these chickens across state lines, got them shut out of the county fairs, poultry shows, etc.

What's really amusing is that the places most chickens died~commercial poultry houses~didn't get any paint on them at all....folks think they were the victims of careless backyard flock owners. As usual. And people were left feeling like the only safe eggs and meat to eat were from the very places that had the most reported deaths from AF.

It made for a wonderful excuse to jack prices on poultry and eggs and it also coincided with lobbying about increased mandatory vaccinations for children, which somehow seemed connected as all anyone needs is the word "virus" to make them run scared. No one educated themselves on the fact that AF is not zoonotic and the media sure weren't going to make that plain.

Ever see a movie called "Wag the Dog"? Educational, to say the least.

 

[seedcorn]

1). Most of the diagnosed cases were back yard poultry who bought/traded for birds with no health papers. It was discovered when people started getting health papers for fairs. The commercial operations affected were "free range" from birds. It "fizzled" because infected birds were dealt with. Not hard to understand.

2). When I was a kid many diseases were very common. After vaccines, they became almost non-existent. IF everyone stopped, we would go back to health issues of 50 & 60's. Did it work for everyone, NO. A few contacted the disease because they used live vaccines. But the rate of infection was dramatically reduced. IF you study Revolutionary War, we won because of our army getting vaccinated-under G. washing tons orders-death rate went from 17% to less than 1%. Ever hear of Typhoid Mary? some of you are way too young to remember family members infected, sick and the death-or chose to block it out.

 

[Beekissed]

How old are you again?

 

[seedcorn]

Grew up in 50's. I remember the diseases that were common that now makes MAJOR news when someone gets it. Why? Vaccines. Obviously your family has been fortunate to not have those diseases attack your family.

 

[Beekissed]

Yep, we must just be lucky...nor have I ever met anyone, nor heard of anyone getting "these diseases" and I've met quite a few people in my line of work...really old people who actually lived back then. My mother is 80 and she's never heard of anyone who succumbed to measles, mumps, rubella, typhoid, etc. either and she comes from large family, married into large family, etc., who might have been lucky to have been vaccinated "back then"...many were not.

I've only ever met one person who suffered from polio in all my life and my nursing career. Not knocking the whole vaccine thing, they have their place and time, but the fear mongering that is going on about them right now to push these mandatory vaccines through on the public is just that...media hype to push an agenda.

The reason you are seeing less of "these diseases" is due more to teaching of good hygiene practices, and having proper water and waste treatment facilities than anything else...back then folks knew less about keeping drinking water clean, good waste management, etc.