The government’s war on raw milk is not only a war on freedom, but it is also a jihad against that old-fashioned (and very obsolete) notion that your health is your responsibility. The state does not want its subjects to be self-sufficient, self-educated, and gaining power through knowledge. Because knowledge is power – the power to question conventional wisdom and reject conformity is a blessed thing for individuals and society, but it is a menace to the authoritarians and conformists.
People who buy raw milk products do so for a reason – it’s because they have thought about the topic, understand a bit about pasteurization and the implications of that, and they are willing to make the extra effort to protect and nurture their health and/or the health of their loved ones. Then they have to seek out sellers of raw products and go get the stuff. That’s more time-consuming than slapping a gallon of supermarket milk in your shopping cart, so there must be some convincing reasons why some folks feel so strongly about purchasing only raw milk products.
I am not a milk drinker, but I purchase raw cheese and butter almost exclusively. I occasionally buy aged (clean) cheese, but never do I buy assembly-line, plasticized cheese. It’s my prerogative, and my decisions are based on the knowledge I hold and the value I place on my body and long-term health. In addition, I enjoy engaging in personal marketplace transactions the old-fashioned way.
Last Saturday I was at Detroit Eastern Market, that great place of commerce that I mention often. I have a source – a farmer from rural parts just north of me – for buying raw butter that is made by her Amish neighbors. Last week, I bought quite a few pounds (I was in hoarding mode), and as I was loading the containers in my basket and talking to the farmer about freezing the butter, a rather chunky woman – another market shopper – came up to the table and just sorta butted in. “Oh, you can freeze that,” she chirped in a whiny tone. I said, “Yeah, I know.” She asked why it was in those strange plastic containers, and I noted it was handmade by the Amish. She picked up one container left on the table and, as she was doing that, she said, “What exactly is this?” I told her, “It’s raw butter. The best anywhere.” Immediately, she dropped the butter and let out a lengthy gasp (huuuuuhaaaaaaaaa?), and she zipped around and looked at me with her eyes bugging out so far I thought they would pop. “Raw!” Did you saw RAW? Oh, you can’t sell raw butter in Michigan. That’s illegal.” At that point, the farmer’s daughter, a sweet girl of 13 or so who was tending the table, stepped back and looked like she’d seen a martian.
“No it’s not,” I snapped back. ”Yes it is! It is illegal to sell raw milk products in Michigan,” she zipped back. By now, I was rolling with this for kicks and grins, because she was one easy bugger to get excited. I said, “Oh really? What do I care? That is even more of a reason for me to buy it,” I said, as I playfully slammed my hand down on the table. I told the young girl, “Give me your last, illegal pound of butter.” And she did. The chunky lady looked shocked and went “gaaaaaaasssssppp” again, and by this time we had an audience. Her facial expressions cannot be described in words. We bantered and people were laughing (the farmer and her daughter were dissolving into half laughter, half disbelief), while this very well-trained stooge of the mass media and conventional wisdom club was overdosing on emotion at the thought of someone selling a raw milk – illegal! – product.
My point is that so many people who are constantly besieged by the media, conventional wisdom, political correctness, and other tools of state indoctrination, are not able to put forward a single independent thought that is the product of their own thought process. They can do nothing better than rehash the customary tripe that gets passed around from person to person. That tripe becomes the source of truth, and it must be the truth for a reason. If a government law has made anything illegal, it must therefore be accepted that the banned item or activity is inherently harmful or wicked, and therefore that law protects society. Almost no one steps back to ponder who benefits from the government’s decrees in terms of power and profits at the expense of individuals and truly free markets.
I do not know the specifics of miscellaneous raw products here in Michigan, except I do know that raw milk is illegal unless you are a “cow owner.” Folks have to sidestep the government’s decree by selling cow shares so you can become a cow owner. The fees are essentially boarding fees for the farmer who “manages the herd,” and the offering and purchase of these cow shares involve excess paper work and task management on the part of the farmer, adding to the cost of the product. Also, the farmer essentially gives up ownership of his cows and they become herd managers. All this has to be executed so that you can be approved to peacefully buy and ingest a healthy, natural product that exists outside of the government-corporate food complex.
Yes, they hate us because we are so damn free.
