A note in defense of all our great farmers out there: I have seen a few comments here and there over the years from people who are angry that raw milk is so expensive. I want to post this because I hope that it will clarify this a little bit. And, since I am not a raw milk producer, it gives me the ability to say things like this without becoming a target. Here goes: Just because raw milk costs more, doesnt mean that our farmers are making a killing on it as some people have accused. If that were the case then instead of trying to use their lobbying power to stop raw milk production, more of our commercial dairies would be jumping into the business and raw dairies would be springing up all over the place. But they dont. Also, because of commercial Ags manipulation of the system, state and federal regulations make raw milk production very expensive (more in some states than others) and it is a difficult and costly business to get into. Raw milk production costs much more than commercial milk production because of government subsidies for commercial producers, and it is risky to get into raw milk production, because of the cost of testing and because of the risk of harassment and undue lawsuits, false accusations, and need I say it again - harassment? The only rational reason that any farmer has to produce raw milk is that they believe in the product for its health value. Because of this, they are all doing the best that they know how and the best that they can to produce the highest quality product that they can. Because of their personal commitment to their product, I believe that all of our raw dairies are producing as high quality raw milk as they know how. Some have better resources than others - like more access to pasture, etc, but they do the best they can with what they have and there is not a single one of them that would knowingly produce a product that would be unsafe or that would make me want to use commercial milk from the store before I would use their products. There are unfortunately sometimes outbreaks or illnesses. These are rare compared to many other food products. Our raw milk farmers do their best to create conditions that prevent illness, and for the most part do an amazing job of it. Sometimes, just like any other food production business, things happen. There is no food that can be guaranteed to be 100% safe from pathogens, but raw milk comes close to that because of the diligence and attention to detail that our farmers put into their work. Thank you to all you raw milk farmers out there and the sacrifice that you make so that we can have wholesome clean raw milk!
Posted on: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 20:47:08 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015