A Thought Regarding Milk
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 1:31PM 
In light of recent crackdowns on people selling raw milk (poor Rawesome!), I thought I'd chime in with my visual support. I'm very inspired by this excellent column by Ari LeVaux of The Atlantic. He's right on point. Meat companies can do as they please, poisoning hundreds and then only voluntarily recalling when too much attention means profits might suffer. And the FDA is hauling in a few terrifying food co-op coordinators... I love the part about the felons in court laughing at the bail, so much higher initially than their own bond for heinous, violent crimes. Who is this really serving?
For more information in the Rawesome vein, see Food Renegade. They are who my old Italian neighbor would call "HHHEE-peeess", hardening that hhh and spitting out the word. She slung this epithet at us because I nursed my child. Nevermind my former Madmen life, the contents of my closet, or our political views...
Huffington Post is also on the case, and their article includes a Colbert Report version of the raid, which, as usual, is more informative than any of the actual news. Much like The Onion.
The New York Times quotes an FDA source stridently claiming, "people wind up as paraplegics". No data point, no footnote, no study quoted. Just a scary claim without any verification but the power of position and those three little letters that are all the proof we should need: F, D, A.
What about that data? Here's some rational analysis. Regarding data and raw milk cheeses, David Gumpert says at Grist, "The FDA crackdown on raw-milk cheese [is] based on flawed data analysis".
Good gracious, I've sourced a lot of Liberal outlets! What can I say? I'm a shameless health foodie, and don't care who moves my health foodie agenda forward.
So, in the interest of being even-handed I'll include the voice of those on the other side of the issue, yes, with data. After all, you have to make your own choices. And there are many areas of gray between the black and white I present for emphasis in my comic.
In my family, we were organic, grass-fed, low-temp pasteurized, unhomogenized milk purchasers for many years. But we still ended up being unable to tolerate milk without health issues. The raw milk we find causes none of these issues (nasal allergies, asthma, digestive distress, moodiness, black circles around eyes, spectrum disorder issues), in my own home nor among community members and clients I interview on the subject. Not science, but to us our own discoveries count the most because it's the difference between medications with spotty efficacy, or good food choices. We prefer to eat our way to health and regard raw milk and raw milk products as one of many whole real foods that are beneficial to us.
I recommend knowing your farmer, keeping raw milk ridiculously and consistently cold, and supporting local and small farmers as much as possible. We also cycle on and off of dairy, as seasons dictate natural cow cycles, including pregnancy. We opt out of the factory farm mess as much as possible. I eat animal products, but I try to make sure they are at least organic, and that means we eat less of them, but it also means we eat with the respect due creatures who serve us, sometimes with their lives. If you're still not sure why we should all bother, check out the Meatrix.
I welcome you to share my comic in its entirety, and with a link back if you'd be kind enough.
Reader Comments (4)
I love your comic! Here are some interesting citations using the CDC's own data.
http://www.realmilk.com/real-milk-pathogens.html#author
Cheers and please pass the raw milk!
Perusing the link now, thanks, Katherine!
Outrageous that raw milk is now the new drug of Prohibition.
Especially outrageous that the FDA said in their brief (in the current litigation to repeal the federal law against transporting raw milk across state lines) that the consumer does NOT have the right to choose what they eat.
Hooray for raw milk. Hooray for Food Freedom.
What if we make raw speakeasy hideouts? Knock the code, go in, drink raw milk. So gangsta. Not like the feds rolling in for our "protection". I love the prohibition parallel, Dee Jay.