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Local Food Journey

Thoughts on raw milk

Posted by Brad Yeckley on 06/24 at 06:59 AM

I grew up drinking raw whole milk from a dairy farm that was literally a stone’s throw away from my childhood home. On occasion I was annoying enough to garner the attention of the farm workers. On these days I was able to help in the entire milking process. At the time, I had no idea what raw meant and even if I did I’m not sure it would have mattered. My habits changed over time and I became a skim only kind of guy. Recently however, I have made the switch back to raw milk as a result of some research that I’ve been doing.

Now I want to preface everything that follows by stating that I am not writing this to convince anybody that they need to immediately change what they are doing, or how they are eating. If you read my previous blog post about awareness you know that I am always trying to open eyes while not forcing hands. Instead I want to disseminate some information that I found useful, and arm you with a few resources that can be utilized in order to help you make a more informed decision regarding your choices. I have no intention on arguing for against the raw milk debate. I drink raw milk, my wife does not. We still get along just fine.

Why raw milk? I prescribe to the doctrine that our food sources should be left in the most natural state possible for consumption. Milk consumption has been traced back as far as 7,500 years, and pasteurization has been prevalent for only about 2 percent of that overall time. I personally feel that raw milk tastes better and is better served for cooking purposes. Additionally, as a primal living advocate, I am able to have a more personal connection with the raw milk that I consume. I know that sounds weird, but humor me for a moment. You can’t just wander into the local Uni-Mart, grab a gallon of raw milk, drink it without ever considering where it came from, or how it was produced. Raw milk being unpasteurized, and not as readily available, forces a consumer to be more aware of how the milk was sourced and how the animals are treated. Large scale dairy farms and other comparable milk producers are forced to use hormones and other un-natural components in order to increase milk production. I am of the opinion that these little “extras” are not so good for me.

As stated earlier, I did not write this with the intention of argument for or against. This is just one man’s point of view with regard to getting our lives back to basics; one glass of milk at a time.

I personally purchase my raw milk from Natures Panty in State College and during the summer months will occasionally purchase from one of the local farmers markets (Home Depot on Saturdays/Downtown on Fridays) but only if I can speak with the farmer about his/her practices and commitment to natural and un-altered milk production.

The first link below is to the Facebook page of the farm that produces a majority of the raw milk that I buy, and the second link is to a resource that I feel takes a very good non-biased look at raw milk and the two sides of the pasteurization debate.

Happy Cow Naturals LLC.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Happy-Cow-Naturals-LLC/233467586701542#!/pages/Happy-Cow-Naturals-LLC/233467586701542

Pasteurization and Raw Milk
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/cellular-microscopic/pasteurization6.htm

Even if you decide not to give raw milk a shot, I hope that I will have at least convinced you to give a little more thought to where your food comes from and how it got to your table or glass.

Move around as much as possible, chew slowly and play in the dirt……….bye.