Got Milk? — Poll

[Neto]

I grew up on raw milk we got from my grandparents (retired farmers, with a small farm operation, a few cows & a bunch of chickens), Jersey (for quality & more cream) & Holstein (for more volume), except when the cows were all dry. Then Carnation powdered milk - horrible stuff! After our first years in Brazil we started using all powdered milk, because we only went to town every couple of weeks, and when in the village there was no source for liquid milk at all, so it HAD to be powdered. (They also have some in boxes, as liquid, that doesn't have to be refrigerated at all - wonder what they did to achieve that?!) There was a really good brand of powdered milk that came from Sweden, as I recall, but in the later years it was no longer imported. The powdered milk that you can get at some Walmarts is pretty decent, too - Nino.
While we lived in Texas we went to a farm where they would sell raw milk "out the back door". There is a farm here (near Charm) where they sell pasteurized but not homogenized milk, but one of our sons cannot tolerate it (causes diarrhea).

Our babies had the real stuff (momma's milk) - no formula at all, that I can recall. Up to a year or more.

[Joy]

In my state, dairy farmers who want to sell raw milk have to have it tested by the government every month, as I recall. If the milk fails the test, they can't sell any of it. We got some gallons that way, and my dog loved it; she drank it on the way home.

I grew up milking cows and goats, so was used to raw milk. But now goat milk tastes, um, different to me. We have a home movie of me at four, holding out the feed basin to a cow, crying as I backed up (she was enormous to me!), and she patiently followed the basin. And yes, they did actually have cameras back then.

[Szdfan]

I still can’t believe I’m going to say this, but we have our own goats and drink their milk.

[ohio jones]

Since we have no mice in our pocketses, we are unable to participate in the poll.

"We" do not breastfeed. I cannot imagine a successful outcome for either party if we were to attempt it.

"We" buy milk at the store. The white stuff that says 2% on the label, unless they are out of the half gallons, which happens way too often recently. Maybe I go shopping just before they restock, or something. Let's see what else it says on the label:
INGREDIENTS: GRADE A REDUCED FAT MILK, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, VITAMIN D3. CONTAINS MILK.
PASTEURIZED - HOMOGENIZED - KEEP REFRIGERATED
THIS MILK IS FROM COWS NOT SUPPLEMENTED WITH ARTIFICIAL GROWTH HORMONES.

[DrWojo]

The pasteurization process was initially discovered by French scientist Louis Pasteur in the mid 1850s. However it was first applied to the wine industry. Milk was not pasteurized until around the early 1900’s.

Somewhere between the mid 1830’s to 1850, in New York City in Manhattan and Brooklyn, also in Toronto, Canada there was a growing trend for alcoholic beverage distilleries to enter the dairy industry and feed the by-product brewer’s grains to cows and also profit from the sale of milk. This became known as the infamous Distillery Dairies and the milk they sold was called Swill Milk. The trend apparently spread, for in the October 12, 1886 edition of The Chicago Tribune, there was an article titled Swill Milk and Distillery Stables, and I also came across information about the same practice happening during the late 1800’s in Cow Hollow, outside San Francisco.

The major problem with this plan was the cows were very sick from the lack of nutrition in their diets. As a result the milk they produced was unhealthy, for it contained the Tuberculosis and Salmonella germs the cattle were infected with and in turn made the babies that were fed with it sick. By the 1840’s the death rate of children five and under had rose to just over 50%.

Please excuse my cold cynicism, but if these unscrupulous entrepreneurs were killing babies, why weren’t they brought up on charges of murder, and their Distillery Dairies shut down? Instead, history reads there was another wealthy entrepreneur named Nathan Straus who started pasteurizing milk and marketing it in a chain of stores he called ‘Infant Milk Depots.’ He goes down in history as saving the lives of many infants. Then in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt who was a crony of Mr. Straus, ordered a study. Instead of studying Russian collusion, this time our ever vigilant, protector of public interest Federal government was studying milk pasteurization and the Surgeon General declared, “Pasteurization prevents much sickness and saves many lives.” By 1917 pasteurization of milk became mandatory under law in 46 out of the 52 largest cities in America.

[Sudsy]

Yes, I drink milk and eat cheese and know Genesis 9:3 says - 'Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.'

However, when the animal world is 'manipulated' in ways that are unnatural and often quite cruel to produce food we want and don't need, I sometimes question our ethics. Personally, I'm glad to see some changes in attitudes amongst both Christians and others regarding the abuses involved in obtaining milk and meats and the current option in many fast food burger places to offer plant based burgers. Some Christians have switched to 'free range' animal products feeling uneasy in their conscience of some of the treatments used to mass produce animal products.

In my background it wasn't until I was much older to find out how some animals are treated and I think it is an area where some just don't want to know.

[ken_sylvania]

In my background it wasn't until I was much older to find out how some animals are treated and I think it is an area where some just don't want to know.

If you actually believe sources like the link you posted earlier in this thread, I fear you might be no better informed now (about how animals are treated) than you were when you were younger.
I hope you are getting your information by visiting actual farms and talking to actual farmers face-to-face.

[DrWojo]

I have to agree with Ken’s sentiments. It was not my intention to emphasize the mistreatment of the animals themselves; the fact that although they produced an unhealthy product the for-profit powers-that-be would rather stand by each other instead of deal with the problem. My post was actually part of an article I wrote three years ago. This morning I ran short on time so I left off the last paragraph: “The short summarized, Politically Correct version is pasteurized milk is free of harmful germs but in no way can be called as ‘healthy’ as carefully-produced raw milk that is teeming with beneficial live cultures. Furthermore, to determine if a food or food processing practice is ‘healthy’ for you, follow the money-for-profit trail. If it is making some corporation obscenely wealthy, accompanied with a ‘favorable Surgeon General’s report,’ there is probably a healthier alternative out there somewhere.

[Sudsy]

In my background it wasn't until I was much older to find out how some animals are treated and I think it is an area where some just don't want to know.

If you actually believe sources like the link you posted earlier in this thread, I fear you might be no better informed now (about how animals are treated) than you were when you were younger.
I hope you are getting your information by visiting actual farms and talking to actual farmers face-to-face.

I agree that there are sources that have their own bias and ways of suggesting that all farms treat animals unethically. That is why I added the little wink smilie following that link. But I also believe there is considerable evidence found where animals are being abused in a way of 'making a living'. Imo, some who are very pro-life regarding the birth of humans, don't respect the lives of animals that God also gives life to by their actions. And I believe there are farmers that are much more sensitive and respectful in this area than others.

I have yet to read of a reason I can accept for forcing cows to be pregnant and taking away calves very quickly after birth to justify mass production of milk. But that is me and I don't push it on others. I look forward to a day when things get back to a state of original creation on this earth.

Sorry, DrWojo for the bunny trail. This subject just pushed one of my buttons about some milk farming.

[Mayberry]

How about the unthinkable option? “I never drink milk, and I dislike cheese.” I know that kind of attitude doesn’t win many friends in the rural Mennonite world, but truth is truth. Sorry about that folks.

I know my dairymen friends really want to believe that milk is essential for all of us, but there are way too many well researched studies that challenge such thoughts. A simple Internet search for something like, “Is cow milk really good for you?” brings up a large number of pro and con articles. It’s certainly not a cut and dried argument. A 20-year-old read, “Milk for Your Bones?” might be an interesting starting point for some. https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/feat ... ur-bones#1

The articles questioning the actual benefit of cow milk for humans, especially adults, help me a little to justify my lack of appreciation for milk.

Again—sorry folks, but milk products are simply not on my list grocery list of wants or needs. (smile)

I retreat into silence.