My personal experience leads me to believe this movement will be self correcting. If you’re entirely unexposed to raw milk and have some, there’s a very good chance your digestive system will have a rather extreme reaction.
Tablespoon of raw milk in a cup of hot tea, when in SAmerica, I was violently ill. My body could not expel it fast enough. I was weak for two days afterward.
I like to think most people whatever their agenda, or how committed they are to it, would be able to read and interpret those subtle clues correctly.
I suspect, given what some foodie friends of mine tell me about their experiences with raw milk (and more commonly, raw cheeses) is that to do raw milk safely you have to be even MORE careful with your cows, and your sanitation at every single step of the process.
If you’re into it for the “all natural curative” powers (traditionally leftist woo) or “to build up a strong, manly immune system and rugged power” (traditionally righty snake oil) you’re probably going for something that claims how minimally processed, wholesome, or “traditional” it is - which very quickly contradicts the whole MORE careful thing.
With the expected results.
Aside - I took potshots and made unfair generalizations at the reasoning and political leanings of different philosophies, yes. Thankfully, not a breaking news thread, but seriously, I did want to explain why it was likely for different groups to neglect safety for for different reasons, arriving at the same point.
While a PA judge has refused to order Miller not to sell raw milk products out of state, there’s a federal ban on doing so. Given his history and the backing he’s gotten from Republicans, it’s no sure bet Miller will obey federal law even with added risk from H5N1.
*does it take a brave man to milk a water buffalo?
If I remember correctly, someone reposted or linked to that article here on the Dope, back in 2016. That was 8 years ago; did nobody learn from that?!?!
When I was a kid I had several relatives with dairy farms.
When visiting them I would regularly drink raw milk. Sometimes straight from the milking barn and not yet cold. (Ugh.)
The last two family dairy farmers had to give up the business since the dairy started to require that the farmer test his tank before pickup. (Cans were long gone.) This was too much for small farms.
Historically, one of the big concerns is that cows can transmit TB in their milk. (I had a relative long ago that died from TB that might have come from milk from one of their cows.)
A dairy farmer that’s willing to evade rules to sell raw milk is one I would not trust to test properly.
I found this comment on that article illuminating:
My dad (I’m 73) grew up in a rural area and often described how as children they would get a squirt of milk into a cup from people milking cows (which was still done by hand then) as a treat. He also described periodic bouts of undulant fever (Brucellosis) during which, as he put in, “I was so damn sick I was delirious. My fingers felt as if they were the size of cucumbers!”