Raw Milk

Ah, the internet.   Before the internet there were not a lot of methods of getting your nutty ideas out there.   Cancer cures, anti-vaccination, pasteurised-free milk and green coconut water.  Word of mouth is gone; too slow.  Just a few keystrokes and one can become an international font of information on any nutty topic.

In Australia, every state outlaws the sale of unpasteurised milk, however it is easily bought for people to bathe in (or drink).   Websites have postings from both sides of the argument with many people saying they drank milk straight from their own cow.  I recall milk deliveries in the 1940s and early 50s being delivered by a man, usually driving a horse and cart, in bulk to households scooping it out of milk churns with a dipper and pouring it into a ‘billy can’ left on the front steps.  All sorts of pathogens had a chance to get into that milk and often sicknesses from them were not reported in  the newspapers.  If the milkman was a bit short of his milk he was able to top up the churn with a bit of tap water.  There were inspectors who supposedly made random checks of the specific gravity of milk in the churn, but I never heard of anyone being charged for a top-up.

Anti-pasteurisationers claim that the shop milk is tasteless and pasteurisation destroys ‘all the goodness’ in raw milk.  I like it.