Comment by belorn
5 days ago
A side note, but I had no idea raw milk was a right political signaling in the US. Coming from a Swedish perspective, raw milk is a question about how tight the health control is in the dairy industry. I have always find it an "interesting" approach that in Sweden we have a very much scorched earth approach to dealing with any case where farm animals has any human-transmittable problems. If a test fail you kill all the cows in that farm, possible his neighbors farm stock too if they are too close, and the farmers get "just enough" money to restart the farm. Raw milk does still carry a bit higher risk for young children, women during pregnancy, and the elderly, so there is a recommendation against drinking it for those groups. Sellers also need to register in a special registry if they sell raw milk, and they get extra attention from inspectors.
For those not in the high risk groups, it just an choice based on personal taste. It seems a bit funny that the reason why it is allowed to be sold is directly related to the heavy regulation that enforces such high amount of testing (and strict consequences), so that the product is generally safe regardless of added pasteurization.
> A side note, but I had no idea raw milk was a right political signaling in the US
Remember a lot of people who are “proudly white” always mention lactose tolerance. They also carry tiki torches.
I looked into the studies regarding the health benefits and the consensus I found was a big amount of shrug. It is true that heating the milk do break down nutrients and enzymes, but the significance of it from pasteurization is an decrease in the realm of 7-10%. The kind of feed the cow eats has a much bigger significance, so comparing raw milk with pasteurized milk is comparing a small number that is hidden in a large number of noisy data.
In term of lactose tolerance, the consensus seems to be that raw milk is slight worse for people with that problem, but again only with a very small margin. It is most likely related to that 7-10% number above.
The point I was making was that proudly racist people who thinks caucasians are superior to other ethnic groups drank milk because lactose intolerance is less prevalent in their groups.
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Not so sure about this…raw milk was absolutely a thing in the community I grew up in (ultra conservative, ultra religious, anti-vax, anti-regulation).
I don’t think most people were aware of this until it made the rounds on social media, but even if some people are joking, it’s a real thing.
Like a lot of things, it was a joke until people who were not in on the joke started adopting it seriously, and then it somehow kind of merged under the broad "conservative-adjacent" political umbrella. Just like anti-vaxxers, anti-public schoolers, flat earthers, QAnon, and so on. They start out as tongue in cheek jokes, then a few people start saying "Wait, I believe this!" and inevitably they're welcomed into the funny farm with open arms.
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While I personally think the sale of raw milk is fine as long as adequate monitoring, audits and warning labels are in place, this was very much a serious political phenomenon and I’m not sure how you missed it
> (The Iowa vote broke almost perfectly along party lines with nearly all Republicans in favor and only a handful of Democrats defecting to their side.) And it’s not just in Iowa. Montana, North Dakota, Alaska, Georgia and Wyoming all have passed laws (or changed regulations) since 2020 legalizing the sale of raw milk on farms or in stores.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/03/10/the-alt-ri...