Good morning,
Today’s Whitewater forecast calls for dense fog, with a high of forty-six degrees.
The City of Whitewater’s Planning Commission will meet at 6 p.m., and our Library Board will meet at 6:30 p.m.
Our public school district’s administrator will hold a two monthly listening sessions today. The English language session will run from 5 to 5:45 p.m., and the Spanish language session from 5:45 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The sessions will take place at the district’s central office.
Over at the Gazette, there’s a story on a bill that would make legal the selling of raw (unpasteurized) milk. Even in America’s Dairyland, it’s presently illegal to sell raw milk (with minor exceptions that do not cover ordinary consumers).
At Reason, there’s an recent article about raw milk demand, entitled, “A Raw Deal.” The article offers a concise description of the raw milk debate:
Raw milk is simply ordinary milk that hasn’t been pasteurized. Pasteurization—the quick heating and cooling of fresh milk — kills bacteria that can cause food-borne illnesses. When Americans first began pasteurizing milk at the turn of the last century, testing was rudimentary and farms were far less hygienic. Milk quality varied tremendously, transit was slow and the milk that made it into cities often veered into unsafe territory. Pasteurization—which eradicated Salmonella, E. coli and Listeria—saved lives.
Today, the situation is different. Testing for the presence of such pathogens is much more precise, and farms are far cleaner. While processing milk remains a good choice for milk shipped to the population as a whole, there are a group of food rebels who would rather drink their milk straight from the cow. Some say they prefer the taste, calling it richer and more robust. Others say that pasteurization kills beneficial enzymes and helpful bacteria along with the baddies. Whatever their reasons for drinking the raw stuff, the proliferation of raw milk devotees willing to take a small risk for better dairy makes regulators unhappy, and they are looking for ways to crack down on milk speakeasies.
If adults can smoke — and however foolish, it should be legal to do so — then they should be able to drink unpasteurized milk. The truly foolish act, though, is banning a kind of milk in a dairy state.