Amish Farmer Challenges Raw Milk Laws
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 06.30.06
Recently, state laws that ban the sale of raw milk have come into scrutiny, due to recent challenges by Amish farmers. According the "The Raw Milk Facts" web site, milk from cows fed organic grass carries little risk of infection. Here is the story:
Arlie Stutzman was busted in a rare sting when an undercover agent bought raw milk from the Amish dairy farmer in an unlabeled container. Now, Stutzman is fighting the law that forbids the sale of raw milk, saying he believes it violates his religious beliefs because it prohibits him from sharing the milk he produces with others.
"While I can and I have food, I'll share it," said Stutzman, who is due in Holmes County Common Pleas Court on Friday to tell a judge his views. "Do unto others what you would have others do unto you." Last September, a man came to Stutzman's weathered, two-story farmhouse, located in a pastoral region in northeast Ohio that has the world's largest Amish settlement. The man asked for milk. Stutzman was leery, but agreed to fill up the man's plastic container from a 250-gallon stainless steel tank in the milkhouse. After the creamy white, unpasteurized milk flowed into the container, the man, an undercover agent from the Ohio Department of Agriculture, gave Stutzman two dollars and left. The department revoked Stutzman's license in February. In April, he got a new license, which allows him to sell to cheese houses and dairies, but received a warning not to sell raw milk to consumers again.
:: The Mercury News via Groovy Green
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Notice he's not allowed to give it away. He's only allowed to sell it to companies.
This is like the guys they arrested for selling gas below the prevailing price (in NJ and AR).
I read in some places that raw milk is wonderful for building one's health, and yet it is the hardest thing to obtain, unless you happen to have a dairy cow in your backyard. It sucks.
The uproar over raw milk should be the clue:
...you are on your own, good luck and do your research!
You will be astonished
I know Arlie and when the man came to buy milk he asked for a price and Arlie wouldnt give him one so he just gave a 2 dollar donation.So when they couldnt get him for a sale of raw milk they got him for putting raw milk in a un-marked countainer.(the countainer the agent gave him to put the milk in)
What you need to know is that there are problems with milk such as listeria that causes miscarriages. I have seen Amish put bleach in their milk to reduce the bacteria in order to sell it to cheese factories. Just because a cow is organically fed, it may give milk that is contaminated. This is not an isolated incident so if you want to buy raw milk from the Amish do so at your own risk and the risk to your family.
Although it's true that you have to be careful, a lot of the news concerning adverse affects to raw milk have come from sources that weren't certified or inspected to be clean. And yes milk and resulting products contain listeria, but in all the bad reports I read, the women who experienced miscarriages consumed soft cheeses, a warning that's usually given to expectant mothers for that very reason even if the milk the cheese comes from is pasteurized.
The truth is that there is going to be a bacteria content, white blood cells (pus) and other not-so-desirable-on-paper ingredients in cow's milk as there are for the milk of any other mammal. But now we have means of better sanitation so that milk from clean, organic reliable sources that are constantly inspected shouldn't prevent those who want it from purchasing raw milk.
Pasteurized milk has dangers too, but they're constantly downplayed. Sure it may have less bacteria but it's stripped of most of its enzymes including lactase, the enzyme that breaks lactose down and one of the main reasons pasteurized milk causes lactose intolerance and other allergies and reactions.
Raw milk used to be consumed in this country on the regular basis and the sanitation technology back then wasn't as good as what exists now.