Raw Milk = Real Food

Clean raw milk from grass-fed cows was actually used as medicine in the early part of the last century. Today, raw milk cannot be bought or sold in twenty-two states, the sale is restricted in every other state, and federal laws prohibit interstate sales. In at least one state, even the drinking of raw milk from your own cow is illegal. How did we come so far away from nature in such a short time?

The term "raw" itself is a misnomer, implying that all milk should be cooked. Actually, all milk in its natural state – unheated and unprocessed – has been a reliable food source for thousands of years.

Early American settlers lived a farm-based life, enjoying fresh unprocessed milk. With the Industrial Revolution, cities swelled as people flocked there for jobs. The demand for whiskey and milk soared around these population centers. Soon, enterprising entrepreneurs hit upon a plan: locate distilleries and dairies adjacent to one another. The cows in the dairy operation could be fed the left over barley and hops swill from the making of spirits.

As you can easily imagine, the milk produced in this manner was less than desirable. Confined to filthy, manure-filled pens and unhealthy due to their unnatural diet, the cows produced pale, bluish milk that could not be used to produce butter or cheese. With the addition of low paid workers with poor sanitation, it was just a matter of time before milk-borne disease began to cause deaths. Rather than solve this problem with a return to cleaner and healthier husbandry practices, the dairymen of the day decided to parboil milk to kill the pathogens introduced by contamination with manure, pus, dirt, or exposure to open cuts, coughs and sneezes of the milkers. To this day, rather than produce clean uncontaminated milk, heating – or pasteurization – of milk has become the norm.

Unprocessed fresh milk from fit grass-fed cows obtained under sanitary conditions, is a beautiful whole food. Sadly, it's easier to cut corners on quality and just boil the hell out of the milk to kill any contaminants that might kill the drinkers. So what if the heating process changes the nature of proteins, destroys valuable enzymes, limits the absorption of calcium, and denatures vitamins? Unprocessed milk has all eight essential amino acids that we need, a plethora of beneficial enzymes, "good" bacteria and an assortment of bio-available vitamins and minerals, not to mention immune-globulins and antibacterial enzymes. See http://www.raw-milk-facts.com

In Oregon, the sale of raw milk is allowed, on the farms where it was produced. Those who offer it for sale may not advertise or in any way "solicit the sale of raw milk." This pretty well ensures that the best quality milk is available only to a very few.
Got milk?

Now that I have found a reliable source, our family is enjoying the fine sweet taste of real milk. Each day, I make sure the Mr. Nicholai has a half cup or so of this fresh food. And yes, I know that wolves in the wild wouldn't drink cow's milk – they don't have access to it if they wanted it. (Can you imagine?) But when I pour that fresh raw milk into Nicholai's dish, you can bet he's all about it.