Raw milk - when did it become dangerous?

When society enjoys a certain food for thousands of years that today is considered "too dangerous to be available to the public," common sense makes one stop and asks why? Something had to happen between our ancestors and us to make common foods dangerous.

What I am referring to is milk. People have been drinking milk of various sources since the beginning of civilization. Obviously they didn't all die off from disease, and they didn't consider it dangerous enough to even to be unusually careful with it. In fact, it's not just man, all mammals drink milk in the wild. It is still the best, safest food for young mammals.  So something surely seems odd that today our government deemed milk one of the most dangerous foods available in America. So dangerous it is banned in most states and illegal to carry across state lines.

This paranoia about milk is recent, because before the 20th century milk was a common food, available in virtually every home, and consumed daily with little incident. So the question is... is this truly a government "conspiracy"? Is it unfounded paranoia? OR... is it a legitimate concern because... dare I say it.. milk itself has changed?

My research points to the latter as the primary answer. I am not one to personally believe in conspiracy theories. I don't see evil intent behind every government move. It seems much more practical to see the normal evolution of things, although misguided. Milk and milk production is another example of many of the evolutions of wrong thinking. No evil intent is required to arrive at where we are today, just misguided and uninformed thinking.

So here it is.. quite simply. Until the 20th century milk was produced primarily by herbivores living on grass form wide open pastures in the fresh air and sunshine. The milk produced was delivered quickly to those consuming it. Cleanliness and decent sanitary condition were enforced by the customers local to the farm, and the farm people themselves consuming the milk. Free and private enterprise at its best!

Today, things have changed, dramatically. The animals now live in feedlots, where way too many cows are pressed into a tiny place, living in their own manure and mud, with aromas that drive away any intelligent creature. They are fed diets unnatural to them, which encourage the proliferation of disease and weakening of their own immune system. They are fed a steady diet of antibiotics in an attempt to keep down the overwhelming bacteria count that thrives in those conditions. They are bred specifically to produce more milk than ever, regardless of the nutritional quality of that milk. The focus is entirely on cost savings and higher production with as little labor as possible, to make more profit. It is assumed that most people don't really care about quality and those that would don't have any idea what is going on behind the scenes.

Does that paint a different picture from the lazy hardy cow foraging quietly on the hillside of a family farm? It should!  Here is another article explaining hte history of milk pasturization in america.

I propose that if you buy milk produced in today's "normal" condition as described here.. you had better make sure its pasteurized! Milk produced under these conditions is, in fact, hazardous and dangerous to your health. So in that respect the government is doing their job by restricting raw milk sales.

The problem is that this factory produced milk is nothing at all like fresh naturally raised farm produced milk. when milk is produced properly there is little to no danger in consuming it. If it  were dangerous, baby animals would surely be at huge risk, but they aren't.  Therefore I present to you that is is the manner in which milk is produced that makes it necessary to pasteurize, not the milk itself. It is the push to change nature into factory feedlots in the search of higher profits that creates the need for pasteurization. Here again the government has taken regulations necessary for public protection from factory food production and applied it where it isn't needed and doesn't belong. The end result is that the safe alternative (raw farm raised milk) is limited and the sterilized and dead factory produce milk substance is seen as "normal" but can't be sold in truly normal form because it is inherently unsafe.

So I see no conspiracy here, only the quest for profit by a few being necessarily regulated but misguided and uninformed thought taking things way too far. I also see no paranoia, because factory produced milk is in fact a very dangerous substance and should be treated to kill off the bad things inherently within it. What I see is the move to factory farming  which is, in itself, very dangerous to human and animal health, requiring careful regulation and control. The answer though, is to move away from factory food production and return to the farms that have fed people for centuries without risk. Raw milk is safe if it is produced the way nature intended.