All About Raw Milk
The legality of raw milk, how you find it, its safety, and it's benefits
There seems to be a general theme in health and wellness and that is: if the government or media tells you that something is good or bad for you, the truth tends to be the exact opposite.
Whether it be the push to take a pill for every ailment or convincing you that certain foods are all of a sudden killing you and the planet, the government simply does not have your best interests at heart (see the story at the end of the newsletter).
Search engines like Google make it more difficult to discern fact from fiction because they tend to favor government narratives. For example, when I was doing research for this article, the first search results were the CDC’s website telling you all the reasons why you should never drink raw milk.
In this article, I want to go over why people associate raw milk with being illegal, whether it’s safe to drink, what exactly is the difference between raw and regular milk, and of course, the benefits of drinking raw (if you can get it).
Is Raw Milk Legal?
The legality of buying raw milk depends on where you live in the United States. In 25 states, the sale of raw milk is outright illegal. In the other 25 states, selling raw milk is legal, but might have some stipulations.
For example, in some states, the sale is only allowed if it takes place on the farm where the milk originated. In others, it might be that it’s just harder to find. Here in Phoenix, you won’t find it at Whole Foods, but if you go to a local health food store (which you should honestly try and do as much as possible), you’ll likely find it.
So, if you are in a state that is highlighted dark blue in this CDC map below (hey look, a rare instance where they’re good for something), you still might need to shop around a bit to find a consistent supplier. A surefire way is probably to just hit up your local farmer’s market!
P.S.: If you are in the Phoenix area or Arizona in general, I recommend Golden Rule Diary.
Is Raw Milk Safe to Drink?
The answer here is, it depends. Like most food products, knowing where it comes from is paramount. You wouldn’t buy veggies from a place that looked and smelled unsanitary, would you? The same is true for milk.
Like any food product, milk can be contaminated in a number of ways such as fecal matter, infections/diseases on the cow, or an unsanitary environment in the milk processing plant.
This is why it’s so important to only buy raw milk from places that you trust. I suppose, if I wanted to give the government some credit here, it’s probably why they make the interstate commerce of raw milk illegal. Meaning, a farm in California can’t sell raw milk to stores in Arizona.
This actually makes sense. For one, you're much more certain to get something fresher if you buy local. Two, you could actually visit the farm the milk comes from and inspect it yourself.
Another reason it may not be safe is that, just like humans, the mother’s milk is only as healthy as the mother it comes from. Here, you need to think about what she eats or even what drugs she’s on.
This means, that if you have a cow that is on an all-grain diet, severely overweight, and pumped full of antibiotics, I can assure you, you don’t want to be drinking that milk raw.
Again, this goes back to knowing who your producer is and what their business practices are. We recommend looking for grass-fed cows with no antibiotics when looking for raw milk.
The Difference Between Raw and Regular Milk
So then, what exactly is the difference between raw and regular milk? Well, if you only look at the nutritional label on the back, absolutely nothing is different. They both have the same amount of carbs, fats, protein, and calories.
The difference is that regular milk is pasteurized while raw milk is not. Pasteurization is the process of heating milk to a high enough temperature for a long enough period of time to kill harmful bacteria.
However, this process of pasteurization also kills the good bacteria in raw milk which is key for building a healthy gut and digestive system.
The history of pasteurization in the United States comes from a time when there were a lot of sick cows producing raw milk, leading to people becoming sick and dying of diseases like tuberculosis, scarlet fever, and typhoid fever. Again, this ties back to the importance of knowing your source, as these were likely sick and diseased cows coming out of feedlots that produced a lot of rotten milk (no pun intended).
This is why Maddie and I only drink either raw or at the very least, milk from grass-fed cows. Because again, it’s not that regular pasteurized milk is bad for you, it’s just not as good for you as raw milk
Take action: Next time you’re at the farmers market, try and ask if anyone sells raw milk there or at their farm, or if they know someone who does.
One place you can start is on Raw Milk Finder to find a farm within driving distance.
You might also go to some local health food stores to find some. And very importantly, try a few different farms to see which one you like best!
One other difference that I’ll end with, is that raw milk has much more of a flavor variance than pasteurized milk. So, buying from two different farms for example might give you milk that tastes slightly different from each other. This is a result of what the cows are eating on either farm.
So, instead of going to the countryside to a wine tasting this summer, hit up some dairy farms and go raw milk tasting!
Happy Easter!
-Sebastian
If you’re interested, I read this story as one of the top comments on this video about the benefits of raw milk and found it interesting.
I have a story that needs to be told. When I was still a teen, I used to work in a little health food store. One of our best sellers was raw milk, produced by Alta Dena Dairy in California, who sold an entire array of raw milk products. They were so successful with their clearly superior products, that the American Dairy Council tried to force them to start pasteurizing their perfectly healthy milk (from perfectly healthy cows), and they refused. So they decided to "arrange" a way to FORCE them to join, destroying their only source of competition at the same time. They simply they had some salmonella bacteria planted in a few quarts of their milk, then have a dairy inspector "coincidentally" test a few bottles of their product, now infected with the germs. When they found salmonella in it, the government removed ALL of the Alta Dena Products from every shelf and every store, just to "teach them a lesson." Then Alta Dena successfully beat them in court, proving that they product was entirely safe, so the ADC just waited a few months, then re-infected a few more bottles of their products, purposely wiping their entire inventory. By then, Alta Dena was too broke to fight back, and they HAD to boil their product, destroying all of its health benefits and bankrupting the entire company. This is how Big Food works to eliminate all competition, leaving only their unhealthy, often toxic products, as with Monsanto's GMO farming practices. It's criminal.
At the end of the day, giant food corporations are out to make money and will find any way to do so, even at the expense of your health.