Last weekend's journey to the Northeast Organic Farmers Association of NY Conference in Saratoga Springs was everything a young, suburban farm-enthusiast could ever want...and more! Flabbergasted by my inexperience in consuming raw milk, my wonderfully caring friend insisted that we make a pit stop on our way. We stopped at Hawthorne Valley in Ghent, NY for some raw milk and peace of milk.
I'm a big fan of milk. So big that I refuse to drink skim. I want as much of the creamy, fatty, natural goodness possible, even if that means drinking it warm out of the bucket and increasing my cholesterol and surface area of my rear end three-fold! Unfortunately New York has strict laws regarding the sale of unpasteurized milk. However, don't be discouraged just yet as there are a few resources for those of you on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley area. Check out this great article by Eileen Duffy in Edible East End this summer for some more info on the politics of raw milk sales. It is so much creamier, velvety, and rich than pasteurized milk. I don't quite understand why we ever started killing it with heat! Oh yeah....the FDA. Buzzkill. More info on the NOFA-NY conference to follow. For now, feast your eyes on the biodynamic and organic nectar I submerged my tummy in! MMM mmm mmm!!
Louis Pasteur got the whole pasteurization ball rolling because the raw milk consumed by the masses at the time actually WAS as dangerous as pasteurization-promoters still claim. Imagine today's dairy CAFOs with even less oversight and fewer standards- milk from operations like that was drunk by millions, and caused a lot of illness. It was nothing like raw milk from healthy cows at small farms, sadly, and yet it set the stage for the mass perception that raw milk is dirty and dangerous.
ReplyDeleteSo pasteurization is one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" sort of things where it's hard to fault the inventor, but the FDA absolutely deserves the lashing for continuing to persecute the producers of safe unpasteurized milk.
Totally appreciate the response, Erik. Thanks! The title of this post is a bit dramatic. I agree, if industrial milk farms didn't pasteurize their milk it would definitely be worse. When strictly considering flavor, however, the inventors had it all wrong! Unfortunately quality and flavor are not a priority in our industrial food system. =(
DeleteThat's certainly true, though I don't know just how much better CAFO milk would taste raw. I do know that the pasteurized goat milk I get at the local market is delicious, so the question is how much MORE delicious will it be when I eventually get a raw quart at their own farm? Time will tell, I promise.
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