In general, I agree with what you’re saying. It should be noted, however, that unpasteurized milk can also be hazardous. Not long ago, a business associate of mine fed raw goat’s milk (obtained at a health food store, which got it from a local farmer) to her very young child. Child came down with a savage case of salmonella which was traced to the goat’s milk.
Unfortunately, I have been well trained by the nursing school, so I haven’t quite gotten past NOT pasteurizing my milk, but it’s still an entirely different animal than what is available in the store. But I have to admit, I do drink raw milk myself, fresh outta the cow and it’s quite a treat. And my family has had it raw too, but almost everything that comes in the house is pasteurized.
My treat will be kept separate
Now, why didn’t the farmer and his kids get a salmonella infection? Possibly they have obtained immunity through exposure. Hard to know. It’s all a delicate balance. I do know they did a study in Germany about E Coli and found that people who were raised on cattle farms there had immunity to it. Childhood exposure to bovine E Coli confers immunity in adulthood, it appears, and is far less serious in its effects. So, of course, I make sure my children and grandchildren play in the cattle pens and corrals as regularly as I can. Probably they can now get a meal at Jack In The Box without undue fear.
My first question is: how did they determine it was the goat milk? Usually they “rule out” other sources and then assume it’s the raw milk. In order to determine it was the goats, they would have had to test the goat’s milk fresh out of the goat. Which hardly ever happens.
I can tell you that a goat with Salmonella mastitis is a very sick goat and is at very high risk for gangrenous mastititis. The same for E.coli. A cow is a lot more better off but it’s a challenge to treat, but a goat can die within 24 hours of getting gangrenous mastitis.
It is more likely that the jars that the people were supposed to present clean to the farmer probably were not so
In a cow or goat share program, one is responsible for bringing a set of CLEAN jars and CLEAN lids. A friend used to come to the house with rinsed out jars and ask me for milk, it used to annoy me to no end because I knew he was putting himself at risk. But I’d stick his jars and lids in my dishwasher and give him my own clean jar and lid.
Though in all fairness, it’s quite possible that the farmer was not “clean” enough and allowed the milk to be contaminated by something in the field on its way from the goat to the table. When it’s your own cow or goat, and it’s going to your own table, you’re clean, believe me
One of the reasons why I bother to pasterize is that I hand milk my cow and goats. And while I do some good scrubbing of her udder and teats, and keep things clean, I"m not quite convinced yet that something from the field couldn’t have landed in the milk. If I were machine milking, I probably most likely wouldn’t bother pasteurizing. My cow and goats are tested for everything and I know they’re healthy.
But that’s how it is when you have your OWN. When you buy off the farm, you have to trust the owner to do this for you.
There are a lot of cattle vector diseases, just as there are a lot of other animal vector diseases, and it’s good to acquire early immunity from them if we can. The more urbanized we become, the less of that immunity we have a chance to develop.
Add that to all the antibacterial everything we use on our hands and body, and together it’s a nice receipe for illness because we can’t fight anything off.
It could simply be that the business associate’s child was particularly sensitive to salmonella. Maybe not. But I think, in going for unprocessed products, one should be very careful about the degree of exposure until one is reasonably sure one has likely acquired immunity to the potential diseases. Otherwise, I think one ought to stay with the pasteurized products.
I’d say not
I’d say it wasn’t the goat either. Unless proven otherwise, I’d be willing to bet it was either contaminated milk or unclean jars. And, like I said, I pasteruize my milk. But when you go to the farm to get milk, you should check out their facilities and ask them about their procedures. And you know, you can pasteurize it yourself. I’m not about to advocate drinking raw milk, because it really is a personal choice. I’ve heard lots of good and I’ve heard some bad, usually not linked to the milk directly
I just have a hard time believing the stuff that has been cooked to death and has traveled across the country is better for you than something fresh off the farm, pasteurized or not
But I’m all about choices. If you think store bought tastes good and you like it, go for it. As long as I can have my cow and drink her too, I don’t care
As someone who was born and raised in a big city until I was in my 30s, I would have laughed you out of your shoes if you would have said something like, “in three years you’ll be milking a cow”. But here I am, and I love her to bits. I would have never thought that
