Defiant Milk Man Goes to Trial

Yes, in America, a person can be charged with the illegal distribution of milk.

And people here, known as statists, will defend this action. It's bullshit.

From the article:

Will the jury uphold our right to consume raw milk and other real farm foods?

The milk Gestapo is at it again, this time in Wisconsin. Vernon Hershberger, an Amish farmer, has been providing people in the cheese state with fresh, raw, unadulterated milk. One would think with a nickname like “the Cheese State” raw milk wouldn’t be such a big deal… but it is. You see, if you’re a farmer and choose not to process – by that I mean pasteurize and kill all of the life-giving enzymes and beneficial bacteria – your milk, the chances you’ll get a surprise visit from the food police are high.

And that is exactly what happened to Hershberger. He chose to buck the system that outlaws the sale of raw milk in his state and start a cow-share program. Rather than “sell” his milk to the public, members of his private buying club agreed to purchase part-ownership of a cow, paying Hershberger to board, care for and milk it for them, as there is no law in any state against consuming raw milk from one’s own cow.

It was a mutually beneficial arrangement for the farmer and consumer, not for the state of Wisconsin or the greedy processors, who couldn’t get a cut of Hershberger’s action. So, they raided him, locked up his products and charged him with four crimes.

Here you go. The rest of the story: http://foodriotradio.com/2013/05/def...goes-to-trial/

Children with their chalk.
This guy with his milk.

It's "Anarchy In The USA"

Hey, chalk and milk are both white, am I seeing a trend here.

Children with their chalk.
This guy with his milk.

It's "Anarchy In The USA"

Hey, chalk and milk are both white, am I seeing a trend here. Originally Posted by bojulay

lol ...or perhaps a new conspiracy

The pasteurization process has saved many lives due to milks susceptibility to dangerous bacteria. In a world where many products are mass marketed and stored for who knows how long I actually get this law. I think an exception should be if you bought it fresh from his farm and excepted the risk;but let's face it, farmers transporting fresh milk unknown distances in warm weather and maybe keeping a few bottles of milk for the next trip is what got this all started. Kind of why cheese was invented, to save the milk(One of mans' greatest inventions).

I am a free market, low regulation capitalist, but I know you had to read "The Jungle" in high school.

Wisconsin is a cheezy state ...

Note to self: NEVER eat or drink anything at COG's house.

The "cow-sharing" nonsense is a legal fiction designed to skirt the law by pretending to give ownership to the cow to multiple parties. Naked title may be split among the customers, but all the true property rights stay with the farmer.

You don't have to be a "statist" to support a hygenic food distribution system. Pasteurization may kill good bacteria, but MORE importantly, it kills bad ones that can sicken and even kill people.

The point you willing ignore is that there is NO control over the final destination of that unpasteurized milk. Like someone pointed out above, the customer may not drink it right away and someone else, including a child, may drink it while visiting the customer's house. The milk may not be spoiled and may not even have an odor, but the bacteria therein may be deadly.

COG, what other food and sanitation rules should all of us free people be allowed to ignore?

How about rules about how much you have to cook chicken? How about rules prohibiting you from cutting or processing chicken on a butcher block or other surface that other meats or even veggies might be cut on?

What about rules prohibiting using human waste as a fertilizer? Shouldn't all of us free people be allowed to use our nice, organic poop in our vegetable gardens and not be forced by "Big Agriculture" to buy Miracle Grow from the fertilizer-industrial complex?

They put human waste on golf course greens ...

Uh, it's milk. It has been a beverage for centuries. Gawd, you people love government.

[QUOTE=CuteOldGuy;1052888342]Uh, it's milk. It has been a beverage for centuries. Maybe even millenniums! Gawd, you people love government.[/QUOTE]

Is it possible for you to be any more ignorant or in this case more stupid?

Let's ignore the science of bacteria and other contaminates for now. Let's ignore what can be found in raw milk.

It's against the law, douche-bag,

And in America, there is a method for removing a bad law.

To bad you live in amerika.

One of the ways people overturn a bad law is to inform others how stupid the law is. That is what I am doing here, MunchOnMen. But I am glad you recognize it as a bad law.

Thank you for your support!

Uh, it's milk. It has been a beverage for centuries. Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

And it's been killing and sickening people for centuries. Or it was before we started pasteurizing it.

You know it's one thing to long for 18th century sized government.

It's quite another thing to long for 18th century sanitary conditions.

Gawd, you people love government. Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

Gawd you must love diarrhea.

Yeah. That's why they kept drinking it and giving it to their kids. Pasteurization extends the shelf life, making it marketable to more people. This happened around the time of the industrial revolution, and people were moving off the farms to the cities. They wanted their milk.

Growing up where I did, I knew many people who consumed raw milk on a daily basis. I have had raw milk on several occasions when I was young. I don't drink milk now. But I have never known anyone, of all the people I know who have and do drink raw milk, to ever get sick because of the milk.

I call bullshit. Pasteurization was a marketing miracle, not a medical one.

Yeah. That's why they kept drinking it and giving it to their kids. Pasteurization extends the shelf life, making it marketable to more people. This happened around the time of the industrial revolution, and people were moving off the farms to the cities. They wanted their milk.

Growing up where I did, I knew many people who consumed raw milk on a daily basis. I have had raw milk on several occasions when I was young. I don't drink milk now. But I have never known anyone, of all the people I know who have and do drink raw milk, to ever get sick because of the milk.

I call bullshit. Pasteurization was a marketing miracle, not a medical one. Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy

A simple Wiki search proves that wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasteurization

Pasteurization was both a medical advance AND a marketing advance. It isn't an "either . . . or" situation.

Milk contains pathogens. Period. Drinking it soon after milking the cow reduces, but does not eliminate, the risk of illness

From the Wiki article:

"Milk is an excellent medium for microbial growth, and when stored at ambient temperature bacteria and other pathogens soon proliferate."

The Wiki article even addresses your argument:

"A side effect of the heating of pasteurization is that some vitamin and mineral content is lost. Soluble calcium and phosphorus decrease by 5%, thiamin and vitamin B12 by 10%, and vitamin C by 20%. Because losses are small in comparison to the large amount of the two B-vitamins present, milk continues to provide significant amounts of thiamin and vitamin B12. As milk is not an important dietary source of vitamin C, this loss is not nutritionally significant.
Proponents of non-pasteurized raw milk credit it with having more beneficial bacteria and enzymes than its processed counterpart; however, raw milk is far more likely to contain harmful microbial contaminants, and pasteurization is the only effective way of killing most pathogenic bacteria."

Let me ask you this. If people without medical coverage make a habit of drinking raw milk and end up getting sick and going to the hospital, guess who pays for their unnecessary and avoidable medical expenses?

Actually Ex-Nyer, raw milk is nowhere as close to dangerous as many believe. With proper handling and storage, it is safe to drink, and is far healthier than pasteurized milk. The pasteurization process breaks down many of the nutrients in milk, and it also breaks down enzymes that make it easier to digest. Not only that, but raw milk actually acts to strengthen your immune system, as well as reduce allergic reactions and reduce asthma symptoms. Components found in milk, particularly in the fats, which are lost in the pasteurization process act as mast cell stabilizers, which acts to prevent allergic reactions and asthma symptoms.

If it is the microbes contained in milk that concerns you, then you should stop eating salads right away! All raw foods contain microbes, not just milk. Been following the news lately? Should we ban raw spinach because of salmonella outbreaks?

Furthermore, in a free society, we should be able to choose what risks we do or don't assume. Lets put this in a different context. We all partake in a hobby that carries a risk of transferring STD's. I am betting you are a BBBJ kind of guy though. You know that BBBJ is riskier than CBJ, and you choose to accept the potential risk because it is what you prefer. I say, more power to you. I'm a BBBJ provider, even though I am well aware of the risks. Its my preference, so that's what I do. If we applied your logic, then we'd all be all covered, all the time.

Myself I prefer my milk pasteurized, and fat free. But I say more power to those who want to drink raw milk and are aware of the potential risks.

If you want to learn more about the history of how we came to view raw milk as dangerous, and learn more about its health benefits, watch this film.

http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Fa...?trkid=2361637

I can't help but laugh a little over the fight over raw milk though. The idea that we need big government to save us from ourselves is straight out of the liberal playbook. This is a perfect example of how big gov't is just hunky dory, until Big Gov't starts taking your toys away instead of someone else's. Its a perfect example of reaping what we've sown.

With proper handling and storage, it is safe to drink, and is far healthier than pasteurized milk. Originally Posted by SinsOfTheFlesh

Exactly, and pasteurized milk that is IMproperly handled and stored can sicken people just as easily.