RE: Raw Milk Sales Are Up Despite Fears Over Health Risks
Here's the issue, as I would describe it.
Meet Bessie. A beautiful cow, with delicious hips, and big, jigglin' teats.
If you know and love Bessie the cow, and you caress her teats and milk her directly into your own empty cup, and then drink it, you will get sick once, which is your immune system building a defense against Bessie's bacteria and viruses.
The second time you sup from Bessie, you won't get sick. You'll be immune. This is also how vaccines work.
But when it comes to retail milk, what they do is they get Claire, Bella, Suzanna, and Ivana the cow, milk all of them at the same time, then mix their milk into one big vat, and then they either process it by pasteurizing it, or they sell it raw.
If they sell it raw, then your body needs to deal with the germs of all of those cows, and if you buy from another farm, or even just another cow is added to the line-up, such as Beth the cow, you have to reset the process.
It's not easy to cope with drinking milk from all these cows. You'll end up very sick if you keep drinking milk from multiple cows whom you don't even know.
But if you just stick to ol' Bessie, then you can tug her teats all you want, and drink her milk freely, because raw milk isn't bad.
It's only when it comes from multiple cows who are always being exchanged for other cows, preventing your immune system from ever building a solid defense against all of these pathogens, that it gets dangerous.
Don't blame the cows. Just practice monogamy, or keep your milk drinking to a limited herd of cows that you personally know, so you can drink the milk warm and fresh from the cows you personally know and love.