Re: Raw Milk
Any product that we eat/drink and take from animals i.e. milk, eggs, meat, offal, has got to come from a healthy animal in the first place.
People keep hens in tiny grubby little coops and their eggs are laid in dirty nest boxes then they happily eat the produce from that bird, and wonder why they get sick.
Duck eggs are the worst offenders for carrying disease as their egg shells are more porous and you are carrying a real risk eating those if they are dropped in or near dirty ponds or bedding.
Same goes for milk. If an animal is on medication, like antibiotics or some wormers etc, the milk has a withdrawal period, but not every owner observes this because they won't throw the milk away for a few days and lose money. The animal's milk will also taste different according to what it has been eating. Not many dairy herds are out on grass now, most are commercially used and 'barn fed' with bought in food stuffs, some of which has been contaminated in the past.
Also, it is vital that hygiene regs are applied at milking time, with clean udders and clean equipment, then afterwards with the storage facilities for the milk. There are so many ways these products can become contaminated en route to the consumer, and lastly, how the consumer themself stores it hygienically and at the right temperature. Same with eggs or raw meat. It is perfectly possible that what started out as a good product is unsafe by the time it gets in your morning cup of tea.
I know they say elderly people and pregnant women should not drink raw milk, but I milked 11 goats for many years before it was made illegal to sell raw, and drank nothing else. I had samples laboratory tested and my milk was 'cleaner' and with less bacteria than most cows milk in shops.
I don't know why we drink milk in the first place, it is a pre-weaning food source and certainly not needed once we are on solid food - and cows milk was intended for their own species anyway. I am sure that nature would let women carry on producing milk forever if it was still necessaryat 50 years old.
The fact that humans stop producing milk once a child is weaned shows it has done it's job and no longer needed.
So what do we do? We rob animal mothers of their milk instead, then have to feed the young calves powdered stuff out of a bag to keep them going.