Health Alert: Cases Of E. Coli In Milk Reported

[951-Riverside]

First it was spinach, now milk has infected people with the E. coli bacteria. So far, there are three reported cases, including one in San Diego County.

The state has ordered all Organic Pastures whole and skim raw milk to be pulled from store shelves. Organic Pastures is a Fresno County dairy. The order

http://www.kfmb.com/features/healthcast/story.php?id=64207

[bluestateguy]

1. This is what happens when regulators don't regulate

Unfortunately, we seem to have an administration that views regulatory agencies as cheerleaders for industry and corporations.

[Parche]

2. Milk

This news is 'udderly' disturbing

[AnneD]

15. They...

butter start mooving those products off the shelf. First the spinich farmers get creamed and now the dairy industry takes a whipping.

[Parche]

16. spinach

On this subject we cant beet around the bush
Lettuce all take the time to look in our refrigerators
and remove any mix that might include spinach, if you
carrot all about your health.
This might sound corny, but if this news leeks out more
then our farming industry in America will suffer, we
must squash this bad publicity now.
I relish the day that this is not news and we are
back to normal.

[AnneD]

19. Really,

must we be so cheesy with our pun. Some were gouda but you cheddar be careful. We have to swiss to new farming methods brie for it is to latte. Mozerella tell you that our farms are in great shape but I know feta. Pass the Limberger please.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

40. ...

:spray:

:thumbsup:

[Gormy Cuss]

3. Only an issue with unpasteurized products?

That seems to be the case. :shrug:

[tridim]

5. I'm shocked that some milk isn't pasteurized

What's the reasoning for that?

[denverbill]

10. There are some people who believe it's bad for you.

If you heat anything to the point where you kill bacteria, the heat alters the composition of the milk.

I know the 'Fit for Life' author recommended only unpasteurized dairy products, if possible.

I personally stick to the pasteurized stuff though. But I avoid overly processed foods, like orange juice from concentrate because the heating changes them to be really acidic.

[LeftyMom]

13. The Weston A Price and Nourishing Traditions people also prefer raw milk

Of course, they also believe that cholesterol is good for you :eyes: but anyhow, they buy raw milk and have workarounds to get it in states where it's not legal to sell.

[Recursion]

33. *shrug*

The Price people do have a few loonies but a lot of their stuff makes a lot of sense. (And actually, from what I remember about their take on cholesterol, it's that it's like a fever; it's the body's attempt to repair damage and as much as possible should be left alone. They are very pro-animal-fat which a lot of people confuse with being pro-cholesterol)

They have a separate website about raw milk. I don't drink it myself, though I grew up on it, but I do really really love raw cheeses, and I get very angry at how state agriculture boards treat people who choose to drink raw milk, and how ready so many inspectors are to simply flat-out lie to shut down cowshares and other raw milk stuff.

[AnneD]

17. It tastes better....

Pasturizing is used only for TB technically. If your cows are TB negative you can sell the raw milk, which not only tastes better but many believe have more nutrition. Raw milk makes better cheese too. I grew up with it, but I knew my source. I am very careful about drinking raw milk now and will still prefer to milk the cow myself. I am picky about the cleanliness of buckets, udders, and my hands. I don't like the milking machines.

[tridim]

22. It's more than just TB.. It's all the bad micro-organisms

I don't doubt it alters the taste but Pasteurization is extremely important. I don't want to play Russian roulette with my food.

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

The HTST pasteurization standard was designed to achieve a 5-log reduction (0.00001 times the original) in the number of viable microorganisms in milk. This is considered adequate for destroying almost all yeasts, mold, and common spoilage bacteria and also to ensure adequate destruction of common pathogenic heat-resistant organisms (including particularly Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis and Coxiella burnetii, which causes Q fever). HTST pasteurization processes must be designed so that the milk is heated evenly, and no part of the milk is subject to a shorter time or a lower temperature.

[AnneD]

24. It was initiated...

to prevent TB. Folks now days forget how prevalent TB was at one time. If you read classic books, it was called consumption. As there was no medicine the only way to improve the quality of you life was to move to warm, dry, climates. It also happened to kill a few other bugs, but our GI system is designed as a 'tube within a tube'. It is filled with acids and enyzmes that take care of most of those 'nasties'. I had raw products for years with no ill effects. I have gotten sicker from fast food places and store bought meats than anything I ever ate on the farm. I also have an immune system to beat the band.

There are some scientists with cutting edge theories out there that say we have become to immunized and protected that our bodies don't know how to handle naturally occuring organisms. Our children have lost the immune history.
As a kid on the farm in the summer, we would set dry cow pies on fire, play the real game of chicken shit, rolled in hay new or used, etc and we never worried about e.coli.

[tridim]

28. That's why I eat tons of yogurt

It has the good bugs in it. :)

I've also read that parents shouldn't discourage their kids from picking their nose because it helps builds immunity.

[pitohui]

30. oh my god, i think i'm backing out of this thread right now

I've also read that parents shouldn't discourage their kids from picking their nose because it helps builds immunity.

for the love of pete, parents, please discourage your kids from picking their nose

and jeez louise drink pastuerized milk!

[NashVegas]

37. Some Dairy Products Do Best With Unpasteurized Milk

Clotted cream comes to mind.

Most people who drink raw milk are educated about the product and accept the risks.

[femmedem]

34. According to this study, raw milk helps w/allergies and eczema.

<snip>

Drinking ‘raw’ milk could reduce children’s risk of suffering allergy-related conditions such as eczema and hayfever, new research suggests.

British academics investigating why farmers’ families suffer fewer allergies than others found that even occasional consumption of raw — unpasteurised — milk had a powerful effect.

Just a couple of glasses a week reduced a child’s chances of developing eczema by almost 40 per cent and hayfever by 10 per cent.

<snip>

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=399520&in_page_id=1774

I drink local raw milk. It tastes unbelievably sweet.

[terip64]

35. I drink localraw milk too and I love it.

I make my own cheese and kefir, Good stuff and they can't scare me into not drinking it.

[Recursion]

32. No, state ag boards take any chance they can get...

...to shut down unpasteurized dairies.

The girls probably didn't get sick from milk; they probably got it from spinach like everybody else. But, dairy regulators will full-out lie in court (I've seen this) to shut down organic and unpasteurized dairies. So anytime anyone who drank unpasteurized milk gets sick, the milk gets blamed with 0 evidence.

[FlaGranny]

36. I always wondered about how well

they could clean/sterilize/wash the udders of the cows, because if they aren't spanking clean, any milk that comes from them has bacteria of one sort or another.

[Recursion]

38. Of course it has bacteria

Keep in mind we need bacteria to stay alive. Our phobia towards all germs is part of why are immune systems are so wack right now.

[partylessinOhio]

4. The water supply and irrigation water are contaminated in that area.

We got trouble right here in River City and we need to focus on Amerika and stop acting like * owns the world.

When we took care of Amerika first something like this would only happen in the Third World.

[valerief]

6. I knew there would be more. And I doubt this is the last of it. nt

[Purrfessor]

7. Tainted milk! Tainted spinach! Terrorism: Al Mooda & Al Popeyeada!

So Bush is wrong again when he says we haven't been attacked by terrorists on U.S. soil since 9/11.

Liar!

[daleo]

8. A tainted water scandal did in a provincial government in Canada

This sort of thing can be very bad on a government's credibility.

[AnneD]

18. I thought...

mad cow would get folks up in arms-the small time cattle farmers want to test every cow-agra business didn't. So who won that debate, who did Bush back ? Small farms are going under at a record rate. Hope folks wake up before it is too late.

[daleo]

25. I guess mad cow is like smoking

The lead time is pretty long, so it can fly under the radar for a long time. But E.Coli. does its work quickly, so people see the link. It's a theory, anyway.

[pitohui]

41. mad cow didn't kill anyone in usa who didn't get it in britain

mad cow hysteria is just, dare i say it, red meat to keep people entertained w. nonsense

the mad cows of alberta didn't infect anyone, and the mad cows of britain in the 1980s which were supposed to have led to millions dead by now...ultimately killed less than 200

it's hard to get your emotions all cranked up about a threat proven to be bogus for over 2 decades

[AnneD]

46. Sorry to burst your bubble...

but there HAS been a confirmed case of death from mad cow disease (aka Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease vCJD) in 2003. I think there were more but don't have enough time to find more. The CDC site will have the info.

http://rarediseases.about.com/cs/priondiseases/a/080600.htm

If memory serves, this death was a young man that consumed elk. Now before one gets all self righteous-remember, in many areas cattle and elk co mingle. They are not sure how elk could get it but my guess is that they may have eaten the protein feed pellets that the cows eat. I have tracked the occurrence of mad cow disease in elk (don't ask) and herds have been infected in many western states down to Wyoming. My thought is that if the elk could get it-so can the cows. And it will be because of these damn agribusiness' practices. We already have contamination/infection problems with the lot feeding techniques and butchering/processing.

[LeftyMom]

9. Wow, they managed to get shit germs in the milk?

Good job. :woohoo:

Once again, I'm sure glad I don't drink milk. :puke:

[shanti]

12. well, it's not too far

from the rear to the udder! :wow:

[AnneD]

21. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I can't tell you how much milk I've lost.This is where milkers have the advantage. But as a woman-I have empathy with Bessy. Besides they give them all those nasty hormones and their blood vessels that support the udder get massive.

I am so shocked at how little folks know about how food get's to their plates. I have always contended that if folks had to kill their own meat, they wouldn't eat so much. And they would have more respect for farmers.

[Scout1071]

27. I'm with you.

Although I really despise hunting, my Grandparents made me hunt one time for that very reason. I killed a rabbit. I then had to help skin and cook the rabbit. I was about 11 yrs old. You see, in my family, you eat what you kill. And you better not kill for any other reason.

I never went hunting again and I spent years as a vegetarian (but I didn't start until I was about 19). I'm back to meat now, but I think twice. And if I really think about the process, it's easy for me to order veggie.

I fully agree. Everyone should have to participate in the process at some point in their life so they understand how much and what they are consuming.

[shanti]

11. i remember when

altadena farms (dairy) had problems with their raw milk and cottage cheese. this issue pops up every so often.

[xxqqqzme]

14. back in the day, when altadena was not

owned by jimmy dean meats, it was heavily regulated and tested so it could sell raw. But that was many years ago. When wh had our farm, I would buy 2 gallons a week from another local farm. I made butter, cottage cheese and cheese w/ that milk. We drank it, the kids drank it, we put it on cereal, I coooked w/ it. We never suffered any adverse reactions beause the barn was clean & the cows were clean.

[AnneD]

26. Boy....

those were the days weren't they. If you never had it, you don't know what you missed. Sometime I wake up tasting the fresh strawberries and cream Aunt Bernice would prepare. It was enough to get me out the door, gathering the eggs and doing the morning milking. When I finished, she would have the real breakfast out (eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, oatmeal, etc). that was it until about one. Then she had an equally big lunch. The kitchen was closed after lunch-leftovers were for dinner. You really just snacked. We would take a break after lunch to rest (it was the heat of the day) then finish up. They did this 7 days a week all year. You might get to take off a spell if your neighbor would come over and feed the livestock (and they would). You would pitch in and help if someone broke their arm or something. My daughter was lucky to have a brief taste of that life, but it has for most folks disappeared.

[Stardust]

31. Yours is the sweetest post I've read in a long time. Thank you.

[high density]

20. Umm, I guess that's why I don't drink unpasteurized milk? (NM)

...

[stepnw1f]

23. How Does This Effect Pricing and the Market Itself....? (nt)

[catchnrelease]

29. Will be interesting

to see how this pans out. I've been drinking between a half gal to a gallon of OP's milk a week for about 4 years now. Have several friends who also use this product. This is the only milk I can drink anymore, thought I'd become lactose intolerant. But since the raw milk isn't heated I have no problems. (heating destroys the enzyme lactase...which allows the milk sugar lactose to be broken down for absorption)

The owner of OP tests his cows several times a day and supposedly they have never found human pathogens in the milk. One of the things I like about his operation, besides the taste of the milk, is that the cows never leave the grass pasture. This dairy uses a "mobile milking parlor" which drives out to the pasture, the cows walk in, are milked and walk back out into the grass.

Anyway, I'm sure something could have happened to cause a contamination, but I'm waiting to see what they find before I automatically believe the problem came from the milk.


Here's a link to OP's site:

http://www.organicpastures.com/#

[RebelOne]

39. I'm glad I only drink soy milk, so I don't have

to worry about this E.coli scare.

[pitohui]

42. of course widespread use of soy creates far more severe problems

the scientists say the exploding use of soy in the human diet is the probable cause of the exploding growth in serious related allergies such as peanut allergy

we've already established in previous threads that no one who eats soy or advocates its spread cares about the effect on the environment, but if you eat soy, you support monsanto and everyone paying attention knows it

the alternative to e. coli contaminated milk is pasteurized milk, not destruction of the entire earth and transformation of huge swaths of the american southeast and brazil to soy desert

sigh


i have seen many areas where cows have shared landscape with wild birds and animals, every soy growing field i have seen is dead except for the soy -- the difference in the harm done is astonishing

but ignorance is bliss and monsanto can afford better astroturf than the dairy farmers, i suppose

[LeftyMom]

43. Wow, I do love your ignorant and unevidenced assertions

First of all, most of the soy production in this country (about 90%) goes into feeding animals intended for human consumption. The remaining ten percent goes into pet food, processed food intended for people on the SAD, and soyfoods, with the soyfood portion being almost entirely organic and domestic. So the monocropping and GMOs that concern you so are primarily a consequence of industrial-model animal agriculture.

Most of the soy grown in Brazil is used as animal feed, though some is exported to Europe for human consumption, primarily because of the insistence of US farmers on growing GMO varieties informed consumers do not wish to eat.

I've explained this to you before. I know you won't listen, but I'm not going to let you promote ignorance and nonsense unchallenged.

[cyberpj]

44. Ok. Who's playing with our food supply? Who wants to scare us right now?

Ummm.......

Not sayin it's so - just saying with this gang it's certainly possible.

[Nikia]

45. There is always that possibility in unpasteurized milk

Pasteurization kills e coli and most other pathogenic bacteria, probably all that would reasonably be expected to survive in milk.