As I wrote this (now some days ago) I was listening to an NPR news story about the Raw Milk Revolution, and government suppression of it by force of arms – it seems that armed federal officers destroyed inventories of raw milk, like revenuers destroying barrels of moonshine – and the surrounding controversy. A tempest in a teapot? Perhaps.
When I buy milk at the local Winco, I am glad that is pasteurized and inspected and that the Department of Agriculture supervises the dairy industry. You don’t have to read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle to know why, although that sure is a good reminder.
My mother began her teaching career at a one-room country school in north-central Nebraska in the 1920’s. Much of the school year, she was able to commute between the family home in town and her school, by horse and by a much-used Model T, bought for $25.00. But in deepest winter, this was impractical, and she boarded with a farm family near the school. Evidently, their cow was infected, and she contracted undulant fever (brucellosis). I remember that as late as the 1950’s, she was still suffering recurring attacks and that our family physician seemed to be single-handedly supporting the pharmaceutical industry, trying every new antibiotic that came down the pike. Either something eventually worked, or else she simply wore out the disease.
Nevertheless, during the years I taught in Payette, Idaho, we bought raw milk from a local dairy. At first, I had misgivings, but the farmer was also the local veterinarian, so my wife reasoned that his cows were healthy if any were. I have never drunk better milk. It was Jersey milk, un-homogenized and very rich in cream. We would skim off most of the cream. We could brew our coffee strong and tame it with a goodly glug of thick cream. The cream accumulated and found other uses. It whipped beautifully. We pressed an antique hand-crank churn into service and began to make much of our own butter. Eventually, we moved away, and I suspect that this milk is no longer available, but I still miss it.
I realize that the hand of “Big Gummint” can be heavy. I suspect that many of the Raw Milk Revolutionaries are mere food faddists for whom raw milk is just the next big thing. A tempest in a teapot? Perhaps. But here, as in Education Reform, a little common sense would go a long way.