[paganel]

> The first thing my mom (and everyone else) did is to boil the milk to pasteurize it.

Same here, in rural Romania (at least that's what my grandma was doing when me and my brother were kids). To be honest though, we (meaning me and my brother) did use to eat the foam-y thing that was present on top of the milk immediately after our grandma or grandpa had finished milking the cows. It was still worm, as it had just came out of the cows, so to speak. We never had any health-related issue about it.

[verve_rat]

Which seems logical on the face of it. Calves drink fresh milk all the time, and they are mostly fine.

[dzhiurgis]

Calves inherit some antibodies by birth (which I also wonder what sort of antibodies one gets from raw animal milk)

[dmurray]

Dogs drink from dirty puddles all the time, and they are mostly fine.

[verve_rat]

I think we are agreeing here. I was pointing out that baby cows don't immediately die after drinking from their mothers teat, so the same would probably hold for humans.

[blagie]

There's a difference between:

1) Drinking raw milk from the same cow every day

2) Drinking raw milk from a different cow every day (e.g. from a small market)

3) Drinking raw milk from hundreds of random farms mixed together (e.g. as might be processed)

If a cow has a 1% chance of carrying a disease, #1 means you have a 1% chance of getting sick. #3 means you have approximately a 100% chance of getting sick. #2 means you have an estimated time of 3-6 months to get sick, depending on the size of the pool of cows.

Personally, I believe these are the sorts of risks people ought to be able to accept, but only with full knowledge and transparency both about where the milk came from, and of associated risks.

[John23832]

I don't think you are. The point being made is that just because some other animal can do some action, does not mean that the same action is ok for humans.

There are animals in the Amazon that can eat poison dart frogs... I doubt you want to try that.

[cassianoleal]

It does hold for humans. I believe something close to 100% of baby humans drink from their mothers's teats.

That doesn't necessarily mean drinking from another species is safe.

[thematrixturtle]

Yes, but that's udder to mouth. When humans milk cows, they use at the very least possibly dirty hands & pails, and if it's a modern dairy there's much more equipment along the way.

[verve_rat]

I'm aware. I have milked cows before. I would imagine no one is milking by hand in western countries. It, quite literally, gets sucked out of the cows and into a vat. Farmers generally take good care of the milk and clean all the equipment, it is their income after all.

Not that I'm suggesting that raw milk is a good idea. I've drunk milk from the vat, and it is the cream content that gives it the different taste. But we invented civilisation for a reason.

And if someone is milking into a bucket, stay the fuck away from that stone age shit.

[cute_boi]

Farmers generally take good care of the milk and clean all the equipment, it is their income after all.

This is a big assumption w/o any sort of evidence. However, this only applies if farmer are drinking milk themselves. Kinda reminds me of agricultural practice where farmer don't put pesticides on the food they eat, but they add a lot of pesticides that goes into sales for high income.

[verve_rat]

I can only speak to the NZ dairy industry but, milk is tested... a lot. If if doesn't meet standards set by the dairy company then the farmer doesn't get paid. Even worse, if bad milk causes milk from other farms to get dumped (milk from many farms in one milk tanker) then the dairy company can fine them for that too.

Farms are businesses and the dairy industry is an industry. Food safety is taken seriously, at least where I live.