Mark & Amanda, Urban Farmers on FCN

[Debbie Thompson]

When we lived in Claremore, Oklahoma, it was legal to sell raw milk as long as you went to the dairy to buy it. They could not deliver it or sell it in local stores.  We lived right near Swann's Dairy.  They would milk the cows every afternoon in a milking shed with a glass front. My kids were small and loved to walk down and watch.  They would attach the milking machine to the cow's udders, and you could see the milk flow down the clear pipe directly to the stainless steel drum in the store.  Some was made into cream and butter sold in the store.  At the end of each day, the unsold milk was poured out.When you bought raw milk in sterilized glass jugs at Swann's, you knew the milk was same-day fresh.

Still, I hadn't bought raw milk before, so I called the health department and spoke to a local inspector. He told me he had sampled raw milk from Swann's and found far, far fewer bacteria in it than in the "sell by date" gallons of pasteruized milk that had been sitting on store shelves for a week or more.

That sold me. As long as we lived in Claremore, we drank delicious fresh raw milk from Swann's and bought fresh cream, butter and cottage cheese.

[Garden guy]

Mmmm..raw milk...the thing you can make with it..i've got chicks pipping this morning...looking for a home for a boystrous Serama roo...anyone interested?...this rain makes everything grow so well i'm lovin it...fall garden is in and working...still harvesting loads of summer stuff thought..i gave out 20 lbs of eggplant yesterday"they arent my favorit"...but i love to bloom and lots of people love them...i thinks its funny how some have stated what great soil we have..um...they must be lost or had thier yard brought in from somewhere else...our soil sucks and it need tons and tons of compost...just sandy sandy...but root crops love that sand which mean beautiful carrots and such..i make a mean carrot basil and goat cheese salad,,ymmy.

[avs]

Raw milk is great and has soooo many benefits, including helping get rid of allergies, more vitamins and minerals, more beneficial probiotics for your gut.  There is also evidence of helping with ADD and other illnesses.  The movie at 5 Points Theater this weekend was great, Farmageddon.  It discusses regulations and health benefits too.

In FL raw milk can be sold but it has to be advertised as for pet consumption only.  Pasteurization only became necessary with the industiralization of food.  Milk is mass produced in unsanitary conditions and then has to be transported all over the country.  So pasteuriztion makes the milk last longer.  But if you have your own local source, and you know that source is keeping their animals in a natural way, and you are receiving the milk as fresh as can be, it is more healthy for you to drink raw milk.

The regulations are there to protect corporate dairy farmers (they can be local operations, but they sell to specific corporations), the regulations do not protect the consumer really.  If the regulations were there to protect the consumer, then they would protect our health because raw milk is healthier.  The way the system is set up, the middle man (the corporation) benefits because we are forced to purchase from them (they pruchase from a dairy farmer/industrial milk producer)  instead of having the choice to purchase raw milk directly from a farmer.  Instead of regulating the industrial food suppliers the majority of the regulations hinder small producers and make access to raw milk difficult.  The government is protecting the corporate dairy interests instead of small scale local producers and consumer interests.

Grassroots and Native Sun sell raw milk for those interested, for animal consupmtion only of course

[Jason]

Garden Guy, I would have said yes to a hen but already have a boystrous roo of my own. 

I have three Black Australorps (Orpingtons) and one that is speckeled black and gray.  The black ones have georgous feathers with a teal-ish shine to them.

I'm thinking of letting the hens brood a couple eggs in the spring to see if we can get just a couple more hatchlings.

[urbanlibertarian]

Well, if you can't have chickens in Dinsmore what hope is there for Springfield?

http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2011-10-24/story/chicken-fight-unfolds-jacksonville-courtroom

[thekillingwax]

Well, they also had like 90 chickens, that's not a small family operation.

[north miami]

Backyard "Winter Greens" have morphed through the summer to Jack In The Beanstalk 'tree' with evidence of further vibrant go and grow.

meanwhile it snow falls in Denver.

After all,Florida is 'strategic' conducive to Ag,a point that will even emerge as central State conservation lands protection empowerment theme.
Why not too our own back yards,public spaces where appropriate?