2679 Milk

Monday, November 30, 2009

He who controls the agenda controls the outcome.

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On "The Doctors" this morning they were talking about raw milk (as opposed to pasteurized). Proponents of raw say that pasteurizing milk destroys some of the nutrients, but studies have shown that proper pasteurization has very little effect on nutrients because the heating process is carefully controlled.

The opinion of the panel of doctors is that if you know the source of the milk, your own cow or a neighbor's cow, and you are sure that the udders were properly washed before milking, and are sure the milk is fresh, then drinking the raw milk is ok. But when you buy the raw milk in a supermarket or roadside stand, you really don't know the conditions of production or handling, and then it can be very dangerous. (And pregnant women should never drink raw milk, even from a known cow.)

That reminded me of a story. I don't think I've told it here yet.

When I was in high school, in a very economically depressed and sparsely populated mountainous area of Pennsylvania, the father of one of my best friends was the local bootlegger. That really was how he supported his family. His stills were up the mountain in the woods behind their house. He'd dump the used mash in the creek, which ran down the mountain and across a pasture. In the pasture was a herd of dairy cows. And the cows LOVED the mash.

Every so often the state inspector visited the dairy farm to certify the operation - and the farm usually failed because the cows were drunk. The school bus passed the farm, and we would often see the cows staggering around.

The dairy farmer didn't mind failing inspection, though, because even though he couldn't sell the milk commercially, the milk from his cows was famous and much sought after by mothers from miles around. It tasted good and kept kids quiet. He sold more milk "under the counter" and for higher prices than he would have gotten commercially.

That's milk from really contented cows.

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One year, as a joke, voters wrote in my friend's father's name in the election for county sheriff. He actually won! Which didn't surprise anyone - ya gotta know and love the people up there. Of course he didn't meet the criteria (like, oh, not having been convicted of the federal crime of bootlegging, for example), so he couldn't serve.
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