Raw Milk in Michigan

"Tiny sliver"........according to the CDC's own survey, 3% of the US population drink raw milk.

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"When you are having dinner with someone and they are nice to you, but rude to the waiter, then this is not a nice person.".....Dave Barry

Only 3% drink raw milk.....small percentage.......but apply that number to the population.....

Here in Ohio......10-11 million people, 3% means over 300,000 people are drinking raw milk.

I slogged my way through 11 years of data on the CDC web site that reported every "outbreak" in Ohio. There was one suspected incident with raw milk, but it was not confirmed that raw milk was the culprit.

Let me think ......300,000 people drinking raw milk over 11 years!!!!! and not a single person got sick from it!!!!! Just how dangerous is this?!?!

If one assumes that each consumer drank just one glass/day.....multiplied by 365 days/year......multiplied by 11 years......it comes to a number that is OVER 1 billion!!!!. And raw milk is supposedly too dangerous to be available to the general public......!!!!????

BTW, I was surprised by the number of incidents that were traced back to......hold on to your seats.....ICE CREAM!!!!!!

If one were actually concerned about their safety.....or the safety of others.....then they should be working to get ice cream banned!!!!!

I believe that 3% of the US population means that about 9 million people in the US are drinking raw milk. If raw milk is so dangerous......where are all the dead bodies????

Is it possible that raw milk is nowhere as dangerous as some people have been led to believe?????

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"When you are having dinner with someone and they are nice to you, but rude to the waiter, then this is not a nice person.".....Dave Barry

2 or 3 years ago I read about a case in California where a judge asked for samples of milk obtained .......if I remember correctly......pipeline, individual bucket milker, and hand-milking. He sent those samples to a lab for bacteria counts.

In that case, the sample with the lowest count was the hand-milked sample.

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"When you are having dinner with someone and they are nice to you, but rude to the waiter, then this is not a nice person.".....Dave Barry

If you're hand-milking, it's pretty easy to dump the bucket and start over if the cow sticks a foot in it, or a fly drowns in it, or whatever. When that milk is going into a bulk tank, comingled with another 10,000+ pounds, the decision to dump isn't quite so likely!

I wonder how many producers would find it feasible to hand-milk, though?

Today's Holsteins are bred to produce 10 or more gallons of milk per day. That's a lot of milk to wring out by hand!

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

When I was buying raw milk from my neighbor (organic, sells "organic" to a commercial dairy) I didn't get my guaranteed two gallons because they didn't like the look of some test they run daily. They sent a sample to a lab just to be sure. Turned out everything was okay. I don't know if they dumped the milk or not, because it would be pastuerized at the dairy. Pasteurization only kills some things.

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Nothing is as strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength - St. Francis de Sales

I milk into a bucket and filter milk in the house. I've had a small herdshare group for four years. I would be happy to show my daily filters. Most of the time there's nothing on it. Sometimes a speck or two. I could count on one hand the times the filters been too dirty to offer the milk to members.

I'm very pleased that Michigan has made this decision. It speaks well of the mentality of the freedom loving people here. Yay for Michigan!

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~Carla~

And your point is........what?????......

I was not advocating anything........simply
concurring with your observation.

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"When you are having dinner with someone and they are nice to you, but rude to the waiter, then this is not a nice person.".....Dave Barry

My point was that hand-milking may be the cleanest method, but I doubt many commercial dairies are milking that way.

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"I love all of this mud," said no one, ever.

Well, I wouldn't buy milk from any farm that I could not visit. Those big CAFOs are horrible. Our local farms, even the big ones, are clean and the animals are healthy. They have nothing to hide.

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Nothing is as strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength - St. Francis de Sales

If an adult is confident in the farm and quality of the milk, then there is a way to resolve the whole issue. If you wish to purchase raw milk, you sign a waiver at the farm that you assume the liability of consuming raw milk and releasing the farmer from all liability on his part.

There doesn't have to be laws in place for an adult to make a choice for his family. It would be no different than a person choosing to can their own food in manners not necessarily approved for, what is considered, safe canning; or using herbal/holistic remedies instead of traditional medical intervention. You simply assume the liability if you choose to march to a different tune.

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"Challenges are what make life interesting -- overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

I am so happy for our Michigan members. Congratulations on having the right to choose. I can only hope that your neighbor to the south might have lawmakers with the common sense and the sense of liberty to follow suit.

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The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. -Thomas Jefferson

Thank you for the clarification..

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"When you are having dinner with someone and they are nice to you, but rude to the waiter, then this is not a nice person.".....Dave Barry

I have been generally ill for the last few weeks and the only thing different in my diet is raw milk consumption so this argument intrigues me.I have had flu type or salmonella type symptoms off and on since I consumed it,I have a doctors appt tomorrow so I hope to know soon.
whats interesting is the point of immunity that Haypoint talked about,my wife has consumed the same milk and says it's fine,but she grew up on a dairy farm drinking raw milk as well as her friends and the supplier but I didn't,perhaps there is something to it but right now it's all speculation until the doctors visit and if it is related I'll be sure to pass it along.
here is a little info I came across by the CDC,I know,I am not a big fan of govt agencys either but take a read.

http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/rawmil...d-answers.html

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Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

Sounds like the usual "propaganda"........I call it "JUNK SCIENCE!!!!!".....and they try to write that dribble as if they had a
superior level of knowledge or wisdom.

What organism is causing your illness????

As far as I know, uncontaminated raw milk from a healthy animal has never hurt anyone.....

First you need to determine what is causing your illness......and then look to see if the raw milk is the source......

What do you think a doctor can tell you without having actual facts to deal with?!?!.........if he/she thinks she can tell you without the facts..........around here, we call them QUACKS!!!!

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"When you are having dinner with someone and they are nice to you, but rude to the waiter, then this is not a nice person.".....Dave Barry

Any time you add a new food source, raw or not, it should be done slowly. I've consumed raw milk, raw cheese, kefir, yogurt, etc. on and off most of my life. If anyone in your household is consuming the same milk and having no ill effects, most likely it is not a contaminant in the milk. If you visit the doctor, do not lead them. Let them discover what it is that ails you first. While not all doctors will jump on the bandwagon against raw foods consumption, some may simply use it as a scapegoat.

Some people also have far stronger immune systems than others.

Whatever the cause, I wish a speedy recovery for you. If you are prescribed antibiotics, please consider restoring the gut flora with some active culture yogurt post-treatment to keep the microbes happy

~ST

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"Don’t let anyone put you in a little box – that is what coffins are for."
IW @ idiotwriting.wordpress.com
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That's what I'd be concerned with. The doctor might make the assumption it was the milk and the real culprit behind the illness might be overlooked if the milk turns out not to be the problem.

I agree that it's probably not the milk if others in your family have been drinking it without any symptoms.

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~Carla~

When we first started drinking raw milk, we all were sick for about a week with loose stool. Didn't really feel bad, but our digestive systems were upset.

Then it went away and we started feeling a lot healthier than before. Our immune systems perked up and everyone just seemed to bloom from having healthy gut bacteria. Everything health-related was just better.

When we lost our raw milk source, we went right back to being sick for another week and then the health deteriorated again.

Our digestive systems were designed to have a healthy level of critters in them helping us to create enzymes and break down our food. All of the sterilization and pasteurization has destroyed that and so now we all walk around with a gut full of bad bacteria.

Raw milk and fermented foods (real fermented pickles and yogurt) really seem to perk up your health a lot.

been there. done that. not fun

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well,,I went to the doctor today and they took a bunch of blood and checked the rest of my vitals and I was ok,well at least til the blood results are back but my doc eased my mind with the milk concern ,he said if my wife ain't sick from it then I won't be either,,anyway just wanted to share that and won't bore you with the rest of the medical problems going on,looking like food poisoning from something I ate that wifey didn't

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Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

test results back and I am A ok,,not a thing wrong with me,even my cholesterol was pretty good,,:P,,,going back to the raw milk as well seeing as it didn't have anything to do with whatever was wrong with me,my milk supplier gave me this link as well.

http://www.raw-milk-facts.com/

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Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau