Deborah Jantzi of Treasured Sunrise Acres with raw cow milk
Listen Now to the NPR Version of This Story:
Or Download this Episode to Your Computer, iPhone, etc.
[HOST INTRO] Raw milk is a controversial food. Proponents say it is healthier and more flavorful than processed, pasteurized milk. Yet many states outlaw its sale, saying raw milk is unsafe.Idaho, however, recently changed it’s laws to allow the selling of raw milk. In this installment of the Market & Garden Report, correspondent Guy Hand goes to the farmers’ market to talk to Idaho’s first licensed raw milk dairywoman
(Woman at Market) So can you tell me about this? (Jantzi) It’s raw milk. I have raw cow and goat milk.
(Hand) You know we’ve been living in a processed, pasteurized world a long time when people ask “what’s raw milk.” In the few weeks that Deborah Jantzi has been selling raw goat and cows milk at the Capital City Public Market, she’s been asked that question many times.
(Jantzi) Raw milk comes straight from the cow or the goat. We don’t do anything to it except filter it and flash cool it and bottle it. We don’t do anything else, no processing to it.
(Hand) We humans drank raw milk for millenia. Only after Louis Pasteur discovered that pasteurization killed pathogens, did raw milk fall out of favor. But Jantzi says there’s a downside to pasteurization.
(Jantzi) When you pasteurize something you heat it up and it kills all the bacteria in it, good and bad, there’s bacteria on everything and if the milk comes from a healthy animal and handled clean you have no bad bacteria in it. So you’re killing all the good bacteria that’s beneficial to your gut to help digest your food. It also has a lot of enzymes in it and when you pasteurize it you kill them.
(Hand) Not everyone in the raw milk debate would agree with Jantzi, but the State of Idaho says raw milk is safe if it’s produced in impeccably clean conditions.
Raw goat milk
(Jantzi) To be licensed to sell raw milk, I had to have a grade A dairy to start with. But then I have to go beyond that. I have to test every batch of my milk before I can bottle it. The dairy inspector comes to my farm on average of once a month, takes that milk back to the state lab and they run all kinds of tests to make sure that it is healthy and that there is nothing in there that’s going to cause any problems for any body.
Cooler full of raw milk
(Hand) Jantzi sells her raw milk at her own dairy, at several farmers’ markets and the Boise Coop. She’s got other plans as well.
(Jantzi) I am working on a licensed kitchen in my dairy. I will then be able to do like chocolate milk, raw milk ice cream, we’re working on putting a cheese plant in and then we’ll be doing soft and possibly hard cheeses. We will also be doing yogurt.
(Hand) But does raw milk taste different?
(Jantzi) Yeah, there’s a difference in taste. It tastes a lot fuller, a lot creamier, I think a lot better (laughing).
(Hand) If you’re interested in raw milk, Deborah Jantzi will be at the Capital City Public Market every Saturday. For the Market & Garden Report and Boise State Public Radio, I’m Guy Hand.
Here are several articles on the raw milk issue:
Some Like It Raw
The Truth About Raw Milk Part 1
The Truth About Raw Milk Part 2
Want raw milk? Lease a farm—and hire a lawyer
Is raw milk becoming too popular for its own good?
|
Guy Hand is a writer, public radio producer and photographer specializing in food and agriculture. |
I am a local writer in Boise, Idaho, and I manage my web site, Agriculture Society, dedicated to all things sustainable and focusing on whole foods and nutrition through traditional foods like raw milk. In my two posts, The Truth About Raw Milk, Parts I and II, there is a link to Mark McAfee’s farm, Organic Pastures in Fresno, CA, and also a very interesting interview he did where he talks about how pasteurized milk never goes through any testing at all, it is simply pasteurized. And harmful bacteria, which are always found in commercial milk from factory farms are sometimes not killed by the heating process. The only temperatures that can kill some bacteria are the UHT (ultra high temperature pasteurization), and then all you have when you are finished pasteurizing is dead bacteria. On the other end of the spectrum you have clean, whole, raw milk from a healthy source. This milk must be tested, every time it is produced and sold, in order to be able to be sold. Why is it that pasteurized milk gets a pass while many people are skeptical of clean, wholesome raw milk? It’s because powerful lobbyists working for the dairy industry and big corporations have a lot of power and money to continue what they do. So, supporting smaller, sustainable family farms is the way to ensure you get good quality food and allow the farmers to continue bringing that food to you. The choice is yours.
Sometimes I think people are so out of touch with anything that is not commercially produced, that the images of cows in feedlots, knee-high, so to speak, in their manure, creates a fear about raw milk, because it would be untenable to get it from such a producer. Yet, if anyone visited a farm that produces it in an organic and sustainable way, they would have to wonder why they would buy it any other way. Shiny coated, relaxed animals feeding on lush pastures. Such a farm is St John’s Organic Farm in Emmett, also certified for raw milk sales; with the added benefit of raising and feeding them organically. As a dietitian, the biological/nutrient profile of raw milk is drastically different and very beneficial compared to commercially raised, grain fed milk. Many with lactose intolerance can digest raw milk products due to the innate digestive components in raw milk. It has the good bacteria that actually protect and heal the gut. The omega 3:6 ratio is what nature intended when cows/steers eat what their bodies were made to, pasture, not grains. I’m so thankful Boise has such a resource so close to home and that it is not outlawed in our state. I’d be afraid to consume milk that was not both organic and raw.
I am very glad to see a local dietitian in support of the raw milk movement here in Idaho. Ask most dietitians about what’s healthy to consume and you’ll receive the following answer: low-fat diets replete with a lot of grains and vegetables and fruits, many processed foods and unhealthy polyunsaturated fats like vegetable oils. Most of them definitely don’t agree that whole, raw milk from cows on pasture carries health benefits. In fact, the standard recommendation is to avoid saturated fats because they cause heart disease – which couldn’t be further from the truth. If it were true, why is that recommendation so widespread and our health epidemics in obesity, heart disease, stroke, cancer, auto-immune disorders and other problems such a scourge in modern life?
Our family has been drinking milk from Saint John’s Organic Farm for over a year, and eating their meat. The farm owners are good friends of ours, and I will continue to support their efforts as long as they sell wholesome milk and meat. TM is absolutely right, the nutritional profile of organically-produced whole, raw milk from cows on pasture is completely different than that of milk from cattle on feedlots on dirt in crowded, filthy conditions who are given toxic chemicals and the wrong kinds of feed. I’m also very grateful to have this amazing resource so close to home (in Boise) and available legally through the state certification process.
I live in Kuna, Idaho and wonder if you sell your raw goats milk close to me and the price and where/how do I purchase
[...] led me to try Treasured Sunrise Acres Raw Cow Milk - and wholly real cow’s milk Batman! The milk had a sweet and substantial viscosity that was [...]