Life is dangerous. Get over it.
August 8th, 2009
I wanted to start a new blog. I was all hyped up to write and share and do the things I did when I had Lonely Lesbian, but here I am, 10 days later and no update. WTF.
In my defense (though it isn’t much of one) I’ve been sick this past week with a much loathed summer cold. I believe it to be on the verge of finishing its savage ravaging of my immune system, but I’m not 100% certain. I’m interested in seeing how this new raw milk intake will help or hinder my immune system in the coming months. It’s week 2 for me. Many say it helps, due to the levels of good bacteria present, since it hasn’t gone through the pasteurization process.
I can see the eyes rolling, bugging out and narrowing. “WHY THE HELL ARE YOU DRINKING RAW MILK!? DON’T YOU KNOW DRINKING UNPASTEURIZED MILK IS DANGEROUS!?”
Did you know having sex with multiple partners is dangerous? Driving a car? Eating raw cookie dough with eggs in it? Smoking? Drinking alcohol? Knowing where my milk comes from means more to me now than pasteurized milk that comes from cows hopped up on hormones, antibiotics and eating waste dubbed as feed. I’ll take my chances.
Don’t feel sorry for me: you gamble with what you eat everyday as well. Look at all the processed, pre-packaged junk we have available to us in grocery stores, not to mention all the things that are genetically modified to stand up better to harsher pesticides. You may have even eaten Salmonella-tainted peanut butter. E-coli riddled spinach. You’re more apt to get sick from produce, poultry and processed beef than dairy, whether it be pasteurized or raw.
We’re not safe from illness, even though many of us think we are. As years pass by we find ourselves pushed deeper and deeper into a society obsessed with sterilizing. Everything we eat and touch has to be free of bacteria. I’m not sure people know what good bacteria even is anymore. I have the feeling that some people would flip out if they knew the “culture” in their yogurt and buttermilk was actually little squirmy bacteria. OH NOES THEY AREZ GONNA GET U!
So yes. No problems yet with the raw milk. And if for some reason I do get sick (which I think to be highly unlikely), well, I made my bed, now didn’t I? Only at that point can you tell me, “I told you so.”
To end on an entirely different note, I will work to write more often, even if it’s just a line or two.
Between tweeting about raw milk and blogging about home birth, I’ve gotten my fair share of dangerous comments this week. To be honest, I think raw milk from a clean farm is just as safe–if not safer–than pasteurized. From what I’ve read, it seems the movement against raw milk was largely political/commercial and had very little to do with health concerns. Interestingly, I was raised on raw! My mom used to take us to the neighbor’s farm where she’d ladle it straight from the vat into a jug. She was thrilled when we found this new place.
Pasteurization is Big Business that generates a ton of money. And though I may get flack for saying this, I hope it never goes away. I doubt it will though. I only say that because sick cows in dirty conditions NEED to have their milk pasteurized. It would be not fit at all to drink raw. Commercial farming is a very gross business (in more ways than one), because the bottom line is making money. I would never drink a conventional commercial farmer’s raw milk, especially if I had never gone to that farm myself and saw first hand what the conditions were like.
Then again, I wish everyone had access to small, local farms for food, so we could avoid Big Business altogether. Doubtful though.
On a side note, do you know of any local farms that sell free range meats? The closest I can find is up in Michigan, about an hour and a half away.
This is closer than Michigan.
Nature’s Choice Farm, Eric and Samantha Sexton, 9445 E 5000 N, Grant Park IL 60940. (815) 472-2934.
E-mail: natureschoicefarm@yahoo.com.
Here is a site that might be of interest to you.
http://www.eatwild.com
Oh, I definitely would not purchase raw milk from a corporate farm. We don’t even buy pasteurized milk from commercial producers.
I don’t know of any farms that sell free range meats unless you literally buy a whole cow or pig, but I will start asking around for you!
@ Mom – Thanks for the website! I will have to check out that farm one day soon. Maybe we can go together if you are interested. :D
@Erin – Thank you! Odds are the little farms aren’t even on the internet, and I have no other way to randomly hunt them down.
I have always wanted to try raw milk. I haven’t actually had milk as a beverage in years, so I’m not sure that I’d be wise to purchase any sort of larger quantity. In fact, I’ve gotten to where I buy soy milk just for the fact that it won’t go bad with as infrequently as I eat cereal and such.
Maybe sometime I’ll be in close enough proximity to sample it. :P
But I agree in that lots of things in your life and diet can be dangerous, but as long as you use a little common sense these things aren’t likely. Although, given what I know about people and their use of common sense, maybe pasteurizing is a good thing for some of the population…
I asked some local people, and they all purchase from here: https://www.thejuicegarden.com/delivery/
I’m not sure where the meat comes from, but you could probably contact them and ask.
@ Shara – You should try it if you can! It’s legal to purchase in Texas, so it may be more readily and available since people can advertise it for sale on the farm.
@ Erin – I actually looked at that site before. Maybe I’ll try them out. I actually saw a sign for meats on a farm north of Route 6. I want to check them out, though I think they only have pork and maybe chicken.
Hi Nicole, saw your blog on The Bovine site. I blog about raw milk, real food and natural remedies. I would like to have you be a guest blogger sometime. This month I am doing Michael Schmidt month–he is a brave raw dairy farmer who is challenging the Milk monopoly in Canada. He may go to jail for his cowshare program.
I am looking for bloggers like you to comment about his case.
Hi Nicole–yes, would love for you to do a guest blog article in the next two weeks. Please come to my blog and look at my news clips about Michael Schmidt and then pen a response to the case, from your perspective as a new raw milk drinker.
That would be awesome! You can send it to me by email, and include a photo as an attachment, if you have one.