This is the big news this week. Years of intense investigation followed by an early morning raid finally led to the feds getting their man. You know, the religious zealot with the long beard and the strange head gear. This guy…
Yes. The feds conducted a yearlong investigation including the use of sting tactics to get their man, an Amish Dairy farmer from Pennsylvania for the heinous crime of selling milk to out of state people who want it.
An Amish farm in Pennsylvania has been stopped from selling contraband milk after a year-long federal government sting operation.
The Rainbow Acres Farm was found to have been smuggling banned unpasteurised milk to customers in Maryland.
Crack down: An Amish farm in Pennsylvania has been stopped from selling contraband milk after a year-long federal government sting operation
Raw milk drinkers claim that pasteurisation eliminates good bacteria and changes the taste.
You know why the Feds did this? Because they can. There is no limit to the crazy ways our federal government will spend our tax dollars to steal our freedom as long as we let them. Their hubris knows no bounds.
Honestly, if people in Maryland want to buy unpasteurized mild from an Amish dude in Pennsylvania, who gives a crap?!?! The Feds, that’s who. Because you will do what they say. You got that?
May 4, 2011 at 4:30 am
Government has to dip its beak. Crying shame what can happen to a nice store that doesn't give up it's share, real shame.
May 4, 2011 at 1:25 pm
GASP!!! Oh the horrors!!
On a side note, a few years ago I strangely developed an intolerance to milk. It would be interesting to try raw milk and see if my body reacts the same. Do you think they could sell it if I drove there to pick it up?
May 4, 2011 at 3:24 pm
This is stupid. Honestly, couldn't law enforcement officers be better used getting gangs and drugs off our streets?
On the milk side of things, when I was in England last summer, I ordered a skim latte at a cafe. I thought the coffee person got my order wrong because it was so creamy and it tasted really good. It's because in England, they pasteurize using a different method that the FDA deems "less safe" than what is required by our laws. I don't know from food safety, but the UK doesn't seem to have people keeling over left and right from milk poisoning. And the milk tastes better over there.
May 4, 2011 at 3:37 pm
What happened to Keep your laws off my body? I thought the federal government couldn't tell you what you cannot do with it, in this case ingest fresh milk. Here in Brazil, especially in rural areas, it is quite common. Friends, NOTHING beats fresh butter.
May 4, 2011 at 4:34 pm
As much as I hate the raw-milk craze for the danger it involves, I rather like the idea of making the gov't a sign-off instead of a requirement for many private options.
Want to open a restaurant without following the gov't guidelines? Have a big sign out front that says "We do not comply with gov't regulations on food preparation facilities." Or "we comply with gov't food handling regulations and food inspection, but not food preparation areas."
Want to sell raw milk? Have a label that points out it can cause death in those with bad immune systems, such as children or the elderly, and let folks buy it.
Want to sell home-made children's stuff? Have a sign that says "We do not comply with lead content inspection law of 2010, and our products have not been federally tested to see if they have lead in them." (or whatever the law was called)
May 4, 2011 at 10:07 pm
Wait a minute, what is this about causing death?
Back when bovine TB was an issue, sure, but herds are required to be vaccinated against this.
My family, including toddlers, drank raw milk from the dairy farm up the road from 1985-1993. It was delicious, and we didn't get sick. And of course, all the farm families drink it still. I know a family with five children which is getting raw milk from a farm and am trying to get them to get us some…but of course the farmers are nervous and want to know you first. But they have small kids, who aren't getting sick either.
So, what are you talking about?
Susan Peterson
May 4, 2011 at 11:26 pm
Listeria, e. coli and salmonella are the primary worries with raw milk– not any illness the cow has or had.
(more here)
If the dairy was just down the road from you, presumably you were drinking fairly fresh milk. (sort of like the folks who actually have dairy stock at their home; even then, it's not 100%, especially if you're not use to raw milk. There's also the health difference between a few cows and a few dozen cows.)
There is a world of difference between that and, say, buying raw milk at the store; it helps if you remember that pasteurization doesn't kill all the bugs, just a lot of them.
May 5, 2011 at 1:24 am
Pasteurized milk? Kind of like drinking bug corpses. After trying raw milk five years ago from a very trustworthy farm, I will never go back.
As far as pasteurized milk goes, it spoils after a while and can kill you from the illness. Raw milk never spoils, it only sours. It is actually better for you when soured. (sour cream, yogurt, cheese)
May 5, 2011 at 1:26 am
Oh, and there is actually a legal limit for the amount of puss allowed in pasteurized milk. Eewww. There is no puss excreted from my friend's happy cows.
May 5, 2011 at 1:35 am
It's somatic cells, not (sic) "puss."
If you wish to consider the presence of somatic cells to be pus in the milk, you'd have get your friend's milk tested– it's not visually apparent.
May 5, 2011 at 3:57 am
Nuking a gnat.
May 5, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Well, I've seen dairy cows in the mass production facilities. It is a terribly abnormal amount of milk that they are forced to produce everyday, several times per day. Their udders in fact do excrete pus(s) – I don't know how to spell it. You can call it whatever you want and since we live in a free country you can drink as much as you like. Their udders are forced to work so much that, yes, like a new mom breastfeeding, there is pus(s)from the overworked udders. If a new mom were given 10 babies to feed instead of just one, imagine how much blood and puss would be excreted. This is what mass produced dairy does. I've also watched my friend milk his cows. Its a very different scene. The udders are in good shape and not overworked. There are no open sores and if the milk doesn't let down, they are not given drugs, they are given their calf to nurture and that does it just fine.
I'm a conservative and I don't feel bad about the poor old cows so much. But I do care about what my family ingests. This is how its been done throughout all of history, except the last 100 years or so.
I wasn't trying to start an argument. I've never posted on these things until now. For those that are interested, there is plenty of information about raw milk out there. Do your homework and make the decision that is right for you and your family.
May 5, 2011 at 2:56 pm
I wasn't trying to start an argument
No, you're just making a bunch of false claims and expecting people to take you seriously. That is very different from wanting to start an argument– for starters, it's generally called slander or false witness.
May 5, 2011 at 3:39 pm
Well unless it's my own cow I'm not interested in going back to the good ole days of unpastuerized milk. But if silly hipsters want to buy it raw, let them. If anythihng happens their insurance companies should refuse to pay for treatment and the dairy should be closed. Problem solved.
May 5, 2011 at 7:40 pm
"You VILL do as ve tell you, comrades."
May 6, 2011 at 7:40 pm
Foxfier: How many outbreaks of salmonella or e. coli from responsibly produced, clean raw milk have there been in its history? For 40 years millions of people drank raw milk from Alta Dena Dairy in California and there was not one proven case of foodborne illness caused by the milk. Compare that to the many documented outbreaks caused by pasteurized milk. In 1994 alone there were 105 cases of E. Coli & Listeria infection in California from pasteurized milk. The dangers of raw milk have been highly exaggerated because the production of clean raw milk is too time consuming for today's conventional dairies.
May 6, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Not playing that game; it's like playing the "confirmed attacks by healthy wolves in North America" game with the wolf defenders– AKA, jumping in to play "no true scotsman."