"mum, did you know we can't drink milk straight from a cow? it's bad for you!"
who sais that?
"it's what we are learning at school. they have to do something to it to make it OK for us to drink."
well, hon. mum and dad don't actually agree with that. we think that raw, natural milk the way God created it is good for you. <sigh> sometimes mum and dad won't agree with what the school teaches .... but that's ok .... it's about you learning and appreciating many different ways to look at things .... and on this one, mum and dad disagree with the government. and rest assured ... if we lived on a farm and had a dairy cow .... we would drink raw milk.
blank look and open mouth from kiddo in question .....
(secretly i am smiling, btw ... had to come to this one day!)
oh my goodness! what has happened to me! i've been reading this book everything i want to do is illegal, by Joel Salatin (book review to come soon .... promise!) and suddenly i find myself free, even LIBERATED to ask ....
why would the government know what is better for me and my family than i do?
woman! what has happened to you!
ok ... first, the argument, then the big picture perspective.
why drink pasturised milk? the government says, that raw milk can harbour dangerous micro-organisms that can pose serious health risks to you and your family (off the US FDA web site). so? that's a pretty weak argument! tell me there aren't a plethora of other risks that you and i take each day just by walking out the door. good grief!
so why does the government pick on these?
it's because the Monsanto's, Nestle's and large multinationals of today have the poli's in their back pockets. doesn't matter if they are labour or liberal, democrat or republic, greenie or whatever ..... the poli's do what the big guys tell them to do .... because they are out for one thing: to line their own corporate pockets.
before you call me a negative nelly .... i dare you to tell me that fracking for natural gas is healthy and ok. that having your drinking water catch on fire because of the gas content is ok .... and the reason it has that gas content is because of the leakage of natural gas from fracking. good for you and me? no. good for the big guys? oh yeah! we need to find sustainable ways of enjoying this amazing world .... not destroying it simple to make the fat cats fatter!
and i won't even consider arguing with you until you have sat and seriously watched three movies. Food, Inc., Fresh and Gasland. you won't like them .... i certainly found them challenging .... but necessary for my families health. don't you want that?
in his book, salatin makes a comment about the inability to enjoy raw milk. he conjures an image of the "olden" days when you could have farm fresh cream butter or ice cream ... and the joy and delight that those products held. they are raw .... natural .... hey .... THE WAY GOD INTENDED IT TO BE!
but that is not what the big corporates would have you believe. they are the gods .... they determine what you and i eat, drink and enjoy .... and have us believing that it is in our best interest ..... all to line their own pockets!
.... my little slice of rebellion for the day.....
It is difficult. If someone comes to our farmstay and want to drink fresh goats milk, I need to pasteurize it whether I want to or not. We drink it raw , but are very vigilant about cleanliness in the process of milking.
ReplyDeleteEven the word 'raw' doesn't sound quite right. I like to call it FRESH , and it it were terrible for you babies wouldn't drink fresh milk.
Still, everyone has a choice , it's just hard when there are rules.
kim .... i stand corrected! Fresh sounds much better than raw ....
ReplyDelete.... like you said .... it's the RULES i struggle with .... when i should have CHOICE. have you watched fresh yet? wow .... what a great movie .... a really good affirmative, positive follow-up to Food, Inc.
Food Inc. changed my life immediately. I shop, live and eat differently now.
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen Fresh or Gasland. I'll track them down- thanks Maggie for the recommendation.
500m2 .... fresh is amazing .... it really puts a very positive spin on all the horrific stuff and shows guys like salatin doing it rural and guys doing it in the city. you will be inspired! gasland .... a bit eerie and scary .... but i think one of those necessary things for us to be mindful of.
ReplyDeleteWe are so very fortunate to have organic raw milk delivered to our house every week by a local farmer. It's awesome! Did you know that the chemicals they use to homogenize milk scar your arteries, causing cholesterol to cling to them.
ReplyDeleteDo they use rgbh hormones in the cows in Australia? Another reason we drink raw milk. That stuff wasn't even in our milk before 1996, so everyone likes to use the argument that they turned out alright, so it must be okay to give it to our kids. But we didn't grow up drinking that crap. They snuck it in later.
Bet you're glad you got that rant out of your system. Do you feel better now? :)
ReplyDeleteI'm with you with the raw milk thing. In theory I agree with you and think that raw milk is better, but in reality I don't care for the taste. Probably had my taste buds ruined by pasteurized milk.
Good on you! It IS scary what they're doing to our food. I look at some things and wonder why on Earth anyone thought it was a good idea in the first place. The less they do with our food and our water, the better. We all need to see films such as these and then do what we can to have things turned around again.
ReplyDelete