Reply #11: I think it is reckless to buy/sell/consume raw milk

[AngryAmish]

Is it delicious? Yes. However...the way a milking machine works is that a vacuum pulls on the teat, sucks the milk out and sends it into a holding tank (this is grossly simplified but the principle holds). Not every machine stays on all the teats all the time. Sometimes one falls off.

This is a cow

If one looks behind and about the udder one will find the anus. Cows poo all the time, even while being milked. e coli (and others) live in poo.

So if one of these vacuum-based milkers falls off after the cow poo, then some poo gets sucked into the machine and into the holding tank. Milk is opaque and you can't see the poo in there. THen one drinks the poo-milk.

If the milk is pasteurized then a little poo (and e coli) is no big deal. If not, then you are sick. People die from this stuff.

So, no raw milk for me and mine. And I don't think people should be allowed to make their own decisions on this because people are so weird about food they will ignore the evidence.