Dairy farm with pastured cows
By Cat, originally on my old blog, September 25, 2007 (original source of photo, right, has been lost; this is a copy from my old blog)
Back in the 1950s when I was a kid, a refrigerator without milk, butter, and cream was an empty refrigerator. Everyone drank milk. Every town had a local dairy that delivered bottles of fresh milk to the doorstep each morning.
Today, most local dairies are gone, replaced by large, national, dairies that ship milk cross-country. Yet people are not buying milk like they used to; America’s dairies are struggling. Why? Is it a matter of marketing?
See also: 1. Foods (About) Menu; 2. Diet & Health Menu; 3. Why Pasteurize Milk? 4. The Problems with Commercial & Ultra-Pasteurized Milk
Or is it because people are getting sick from milk? They suffer from lactose intolerance and other milk allergies; asthma; skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis; headache; constipation and diarrhea; hay fever and other environmental allergies; osteoporosis.
But is all milk to blame? Prior to the 1930s, before pasteurization of milk became the norm, milk did not make people sick. In fact, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota used milk to heal people from conditions such as diabetes!
Could it be that pasteurization is behind all the trouble with milk? Now families are turning to organic milk to avoid the genetically engineered hormones present in commercial milk. But commercial organic milk is still pasteurized, and thus can still make you sick.
Raw milk consumption is on the rise in America, as people rediscover its wonderful taste and wholesome, health-giving goodness. That’s a good thing, as long as it comes from a clean, certified dairy or farm. Even better if it comes from a certified organic or biodynamic dairy!
But, in Montana you have to have your own cow or goat, because the sale of raw milk is illegal. May 2021 update: Montana ‘s 2021 legislature passed a new law making it legal to purchase raw milk from local farmers, and our governor signed the bill into law. Hooray!
Visit realmilk.com for more information about states that have/have-not legalized raw milk.
[This article was originally part 3 of a series on my old iWeb blog: What’s Wrong with the Modern American Diet. See Part 1: What’s Wrong with Modern Medicine and The American Diet; and Part 2: Do Bad Carbs Have to be Bad? on that old blog. However, those links may no longer work… eventually I will get them moved to Cat’s Kitchen.]
