The Safety of Raw Milk - A Letter to the Colorado Department of Public Health

[Guest guest]

The Safety of Raw Milk - A Letter to the Colorado Department of Public

Health

by Mark McAfee

 

Dear Sirs,

 

I have been requested to share with you our commercial organic raw milk

production and sales experience. For the last four years Organic Pastures

Dairy www.organicpastures.com has produced a full line of raw organic dairy

products for retail sale (300 stores including Wholefoods) and consumption

here in California. The state of CA ( CDFA ) monitors and tests all of our

raw dairy products multiple times per month. The state has never found one

pathogen (Salmonella, Ecoli 0157 or Listeria) in any of our products. Even

more interesting is the fact that not one human pathogen has ever been found

in the hundreds of environmental swabs that have been taken in our plant

facility.

 

Dr. Caterina Berge DVM and PhD candidate at UC Davis tested our milk cows'

fresh manure and did not find any human pathogens. That's right…no

Salmonella. She was able to show that when antibiotics are not ever used on

the herd (organic standards) that cows that are not stressed (grass fed and

kept healthy) they simply do not slough pathogens in their manure. The data

collected at OPDC was quite different than what was found at other dairies.

The typical conventional milk tank had either Salmonella or Ecoli 0157

detected about 30% of the time. In comparison, OPDC has never had one

pathogen--ever.

 

To study this issue further, OPDC contracted with BSK labs in Fresno to

perform multiple challenge and recovery tests on our raw milk and raw

colostrum. When 7 logs (10 million counts) of pathogens were added to a one

ml samples of organic raw milk they would not grow. In fact they died off.

The salmonella was so badly out competed that it could not be found in less

than 24 hours. The listeria drop was less dramatic and was similar to the

ecoli 0157 samples that were studied, but they also did not grow and

declined substantially over time.

 

The lab concluded:

" …organic raw milk and colostrum do not appear to support the growth of

pathogens.. " .

 

During the period 2000 through 2004 there were several listeria related food

recalls in California associated with pasteurized milk products and

icecream. During this same period more than 12 million servings of OPDC

products were consumed and not one person complained of illness and not one

pathogen was ever found either by the state, FDA or OPDC.

 

This begs the bigger question. What is it that causes raw milk to kill

pathogens? The FDA just in the last 24 months has approved Lactoferrin as an

approved method of treatment for pathogen reduction in beef slaughter

plants. Raw milk naturally has levels of this enzyme based pathogen killer.

Pasteurization actually inactivates this and other enzymes that kill

pathogens. These enzymes include, lactoferrin, xanthine oxidase,

lactoperoxidase, lysozyme, and nisin. There are other interrelated enzymes

and beneficial bacteria that also act on the pathogens to inhibit their

growth. All of these systems are destroyed by pasteurization. It is no

wonder that dairy plants that pasteurize must be kept absolutely spotless.

There are no remaining safety systems in the processed milk.

 

I will be presenting my experiences and the factual references that I have

mentioned here during my verbal address in Colorado on May 19th.

 

Our company ships product all over the world. We have been inspected by the

FDA and the FDA has also never found a pathogen. It may seem strange to say

or claim this, but Mother Nature is right, her blue print is right on point.

It is mankind that has added variables that cause much of the concern for

pathogens in our current market systems. Our consumers are made ill by

pasteurized milk products and the additives and processing methods. Our

consumers share their testimonials with us every day. Asthma, allergies,

arthritis, immune related disorders, autism, ADD, Chrones Disease, rare

enzyme deficiencies…the list goes on and on. In each of these cases raw milk

or raw dairy products makes a dramatic improvement in health. There have

been cases when patients have been written off by modern medicine only to

return to perfect health after drinking raw colostrums and raw dairy

products. Please see www.makersdiet.com for a story of one persons recovery

from near death using raw dairy.

 

It is imperative that the citizens of our nation, not just California have

an informed choice in foods. If raw milk was so horrible then why is it that

raw milk has such an incredibly safe record here in California and in

Colorado. I would argue that since we have been in business there have been

many listeria recalls and food outbreaks with pasteurized milk…but not

organic raw milk. As an American we can buy raw eggs, raw meat, raw fresh

juices, why not raw dairy products. Show us one case of disease related to

natural raw dairy products in Colorado or California. They are very hard to

find. They are nearly all related to pasteurizer failure not raw dairy

products intended for consumption.

 

The dairy industry does not understand what I have explained here in detail.

What the dairy industry believes is that raw milk contaminates pasteurized

milk. This is not the case. Pasteurized milk kills the safety systems that

control pathogens in raw milk and therefore permit unlimited growth of

dangerous bacteria if present.

 

Our products have what Mother Nature intended… a diversity of good bacteria

and a wide range of essential enzymes including lactase for lactose

digestion and phosphatase that is essential for the utilization of calcium.

 

Please call 1-877-Raw Milk and I would be happy to discuss these experiences

and the hard data that backs them up. Feel free to call CDFA and ask for the

lab tests results. You will find zero pathogens detected at any time from

any test.

 

I look forward to your questions. I am dedicated to sharing information,

education and the building of understanding relationships. In fact we place

our most sensitive bacteria data at our website for all the world to see.

www.organicpastures.com. I have medical background having served as a

certified paramedic and medical educator for the Fresno County Health

Department for 16 years, and having run more than 14,000 911 calls.

 

See you on May 19th. I do have a special request, can I please have 10

minutes for presentation of information. I will be traveling especially for

this event and would appreciate the exception to the 5 minute rule. I am the

only creamery operator in North America to produce the products at issue and

believe my experience and tests are absolutely on point.

 

Most kind regards,

 

Mark McAfee

Founder OPDC

 

 

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Dr. Mercola's comments:

 

Mark McAfee is the founder of Organic Pastures Raw Diary Farm. Organic

Pastures invented and built the first and only grade A organic mobile dairy

barn of its kind in North America. None of their individually named cows are

ever given antibiotics, hormones or GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms).

Only pasture, natural grains, and approved organic homeopathic methods are

used to feed and care for the cows. The health of each cow is a high

priority and preventative healthcare keeps the herd healthy all year.

 

If it was just a choice between pasteurized milk or none at all (which up to

now was the case for many) I would advise none at all. But now, after

literarally years of searching, I have found Organic Pastures Dairy Company

-- an exceptionally safe and healthy source of raw pasture-grazed certified

organic milk -- and other raw dairy products like butter, cream and

colostrum -- that can legally ship their products anywhere in the country!

Order these exceptionally nutritious and delicious raw dairy products today.

 

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