The cleanest lakes in any state have such. THINK! Use Common Sense. Of course there is. Oh do you swim in the ocean? Ships dump everything into it. Now here's one for you. The U.S. Navy has a long standing tradition of swim call. This takes place out in the ocean as a morale booster. Kinda breaks the stress. Coming out of the discharge ports is raw sewage. Nobody got sick out of at least several hundred swimming in the water.
You believe what you want to believe but that just isn't true. Unless you check every batch of raw milk for pathogens it isn't as safe as pasteurized milk.
I believe I'd want to know the source before I bought it whjich is more than my local grocer could or would give me. If the farmer takes reasonable precautions? Yes a operson should be reasonably safe. Remember there are still many family farms and many do in fact drink their own cows milk. You'd stand a bigger chance getting food poisoning either eating in a restaurant of food you buy at the store.
And many of them come from inside the cow that you have little control over.
LOL I can tell you the farm animal with likely the most dangerous indwelling parasites living in it. It's a goat. Milk is as safe as you'd want. You can literally stop anywhere a farmer raises them and buy one legally. Now how about that. Why? No commercial competitors perhaps?
Even so, people still get sick from raw milk and raw milk products. You cannot fully sterilize the udders. Taking proper precautions has significantly reduced the number of illnesses due to raw milk consumption. Still, why would anyone take the risk when the pasteurized product is just as nutritious without the risk?
You can't sterilize the entire world or your environment. It's like the persons who insist on using all products labeled antibacterial they do themselves and others far more harm as the bacteria and germs become more resistant to it much the same way there is now medication resistant Staph and TB due to improper use of antibiotics and cleaners.
Ever actually been inside a commercial meat processing plant and seen what goes on there? I have several times. I worked temp at one once. Another I helped install walk in coolers, another one I picked up a load I was to haul. Go in one once and you'll loose your appetite. Ever gone into kitchens of Fine Restaurants? LOL you'd really get a shock. Onions especially green ones are dangerous also. Should we pasteurize them as well? More people will get sick from food they buy in a store and anyone drinking raw milk or buying farm products straight from the farmer unless the farmer is reckless.
One other thing independent operator Farmer Jones is less likely to feed his livestock growth hormones then big corp farms. I can remember when neighbors used to sell eggs, milk, you name it. There is a lot of monetary influence in both the diary and poultry industries. Many companies don't really care how nasty they are but do not want any and I mean any competition.
I'm in my early 50's but I can remember as a kid even raw meat was reasonably safe. The butchers in the store would taste it. Fruit and produce actually tasted good and didn't rot while it was still green. I've drank raw milk and yes it did taste better. I spent time with cousins on a farm and they had two dairy cows. I can remember when bologna and hot dogs tasted good and no one usually got sick. I eat either today and I'm bent over double in about 15 minutes in pain. No it's not raw meat it's processed meat with special chemicals added. Who informed me this was what was causing it? My doctor.
I used to take bologna sandwiches to school in a lunch box unrefrigerated. It never made me sick nor the other kids doing the same. In short the genetic altering, the added chemicals, the usage of animal parts of which about four decades ago went to dog food companies has made store bought food taste like excuse my wording Crap.
It's everything from bread which taste like week old from day one-day 14 to about any food I can name. Fruits altered for shipping purposes that lack any hint of flavor they were picked so green. Meat that taste so rancid you're nearly afraid to eat it. Corn and grain fed of course. Milk sure doesn't have the taste it did 35 years ago. Neither does ice cream. Man's tinkering with the food chain goes unquestioned and seen as being good yet some country bumpkin sells a gallon of farm milk or a dozen eggs to a neighbor word gets out to some local commercial milk producer and calls in and all hell brakes loose from the feds on down?
I do, that's why I don't swim in water I know contains dead animals or has raw sewage flowing into it.
Oh do you swim in the ocean?
Sure. But we don't swim in it after we get a hard rain during the dry season. Too much animal feces get carried into the gulf from the runoff and bacteria counts soar. The county will even close the beaches from time to time for that reason. When they do, I don't go bashing the government for denying me my right to swim. Maybe I have too much common sense.
Nobody got sick out of at least several hundred swimming in the water.
Sure. As any one with any background in science will tell you, it's the dosage that makes the poison. Sickness from raw milk is rare but when it happens it has devastating consequences. I suppose the same could be said for anyone choosing to swim in raw sewage. The chances are you won't get sick but you'll wish you hadn't if you do. E. coli, hepatitis, cholera, gastroenteritis and Weil's disease have a unique way of making you regret those decisions. Just as I'm sure any parent would feel after their kid survives a bout with salmonella, E. coli or brucellosis from drinking raw milk.
If the farmer takes reasonable precautions? Yes a operson should be reasonably safe
Do you think raw milk farmers are testing every batch of milk they market? If so, you're not being reasonable.
Remember there are still many family farms and many do in fact drink their own cows milk.
Yup, as is their right. But, then again, some of them still get sick from it. Again, it's their choice. I'll bet they wish they had made better choices when they watch their child fight off a bout with salmonella. Maybe not. Some people look at those kinds of events as character building experiences that help develop the immune system. These people are also known as morons.
You can't sterilize the entire world or your environment.
No, but you can make good choices, especially when it comes to children. Making good choices is key to leading a happy and successful life. When you have two products that are the same nutritionally, and kids will gladly drink either one, why would you choose the one where there's a chance it could make you child very sick, leave them with damaged organs for the remainder of their life or kill them? Doesn't seem responsible to me, but that's just me. It's that commons sense again.
You can wax nostalgic about how good things were back in the day but the amount of foodborne illness has dropped dramatically since you believe you could eat raw meat with little risk. You might also note that the number of listeria poisonings from meat have dropped considerable since then.
It's interesting to note that those with a background in science are all saying the same thing on the thread. Raw milk contains dangerous pathogens and pasteurized milk does not. There are no important nutritional difference between raw milk and pasteurized milk. So why would you drink raw milk? Maybe we're being too rational. Maybe we understand that there is more risk from a glass of raw milk then there is from going for a swim in the creek or in the ocean. There are all sorts of risks in life and it's a waste of time to worry about all of them. However, people with common sense will not take unnecessary risks with their health and, especially, with the health of their children.