Chapter 1: What is the significance of raw milk in today's society?
Today, explained from Vox, Shawn Ramos from here at the historic Old Town Farmer's Market in Alexandria, Virginia, on a quest to find something that is not totally legal here across these United States, raw milk. Mom, have you ever seen raw milk here at this market?
No.
Have you ever seen it anywhere?
Yes, in California and in Sri Lanka.
You drank raw milk in Sri Lanka?
Yes, from the day I was born till I left Sri Lanka.
So you're not impressed with my search for raw milk?
No. Not a thought.
Okay, mom's not impressed, but I'm still looking for raw milk because more and more people are drinking it, and something like 18 states are currently trying to make it easier to drink right now. Let me see if I can find some. Sir, do you know where I can find raw milk? I do not. I don't. Not here. Nobody's that stupid here. Nobody's that stupid here.
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Chapter 2: Why is raw milk illegal in many states?
Let me kick this off more formally. So we are standing here in a field in Glenarm, Maryland. And your name, sir? My name is Matt Priggle. And we're here with? Bobby Priggle. Are you guys related? Yes, I'm his youngest son. Very nice. Okay. And we are at the Priggle Creamery. Yep, Priggle Creamery, also Priggle Farm. My great-great-grandfather got the property we're on now in 1895. Amazing.
And has it always been dairy? Back then, historically, farms did a little bit of everything. And then over the time and generations, it's consolidated. Now it's a dairy farm. The dairy is our bread and butter. And then we also are registered to sell raw milk in the state of Maryland as a pet food. So we do offer raw milk for cats and dogs. Interesting, but not for humans.
It's illegal to sell milk in Maryland for human consumption.
Okay.
So how big is your raw milk for pet purposes in terms of your business? So the milk for cats and dogs week to week is roughly the same or more in sales at the greenery than the pasteurized milk. Wow. So a lot of people want this milk for their cats and dogs. Sounds like it, yeah. Is there like a bit of a winking situation here?
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Chapter 3: How are lawmakers addressing raw milk accessibility?
Nope. No winking. No nothing. They're not buying it for their cats and dogs. They drink it themselves. They're buying pet food. What they do with it when they leave the store, you know, I can't control that. It's up to them. But it's possible. Yeah, I didn't think it's possible. People were eating Tide Pods not that long ago. Have you seen an uptick in interest in raw milk here at the creamery?
I would say... It's been steady for the past couple years. Oh wow, there's some cows trying to do, oh wow, wow. That wasn't just an attempt at fornication, but also a bowel movement. Did you notice that? They have a couple party tricks. If you stick around long enough, you'll see some stuff. Sorry, I got distracted. We were at, oh, there's been an uptick in interest.
I think the interest has been kind of the same as far as what goes on with our store. But as far as the nation in general, I think there's been a big movement and big change in interest. Our government currently, there's a lot of hype and push about it. Social media, there's a lot of information coming out about it. You don't think we sell a lot more now than we did last year? Not right now.
I think we've grown exponentially.
Whoa! We've got some father-son disagreement here.
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Chapter 4: What historical factors influenced the pasteurization of milk?
Sounds like you're maybe looking at those numbers a little more closely, and what are you seeing? I think people are more interested. They're reading more about it, hearing more about it, and have interest. You mentioned some political trends that have perhaps, you know, facilitated more interest in raw milk. Are you talking about the federal government? Mm-hmm. That Maha business and all that?
Yeah. I mean, people should just get to choose, right? I mean, you go to the grocery store, you get to pick all you want. If you want to have raw milk, you should be able to go get that. Do you drink raw milk? Every day. Really? Wow. And you, sir? Absolutely. Absolutely. If our kids drank raw milk, I wouldn't drink anything else. You wouldn't drink anything else?
I have an option of drinking raw milk or pasteurized milk in the same refrigerator. I pull raw milk every day. Are you guys like glass of milk guys? Are you talking about like with your cereal or what? I had a glass of milk with my steak last night. I had it in my coffee this morning. Oh, like with your dinner? Oh, yeah.
Now, I'm not going to be offended by your answers to this question, but I want you to guess what kind of milk I drink. Oat milk.
Chapter 5: What are the health risks associated with drinking raw milk?
Oat milk.
Which isn't milk, by the way. It's oat oil. Oat oil, oat juice. I'm laughing because you guessed correctly in one guess. Well, there's nothing wrong. I don't care. If you want, by all means, drink as much as you want, but it's not milk because milk, by definition, has to come from a mammal's mammary glands, and it doesn't.
It's pressed and secreted oils and water that gets diluted and flavored down so you can actually drink it. I will say, unlike the other soy boys who come to visit you guys, I kind of have some lactose issues. So my drinking of oat milk, it's a nice alternative for those of us who get some stomach issues when we drink milk.
Of course, the reason most of us don't drink raw milk in this country is because many, many decades ago, we discovered that through pasteurization, we could avoid a whole host of diseases that were killing kids, including salmonella, listeria, tuberculosis, it turns out, E. coli. There's a lot of questions now about bird flu in the raw milk. Your thoughts?
So historically, the biggest problem, like you said, many, many decades ago, it was a hundred years ago. And people had this idea that nothing's changed in the past hundred years with the agricultural practices around. So historically, so what happened was Grains and distilling became really big in the 1920s, right?
So all the distilleries were in the city and they were bringing in weed in and barley and oats and everything and doing all the distilling process. And they had all these leftover grains and didn't know what to do with them. And they said, well, let's feed it to cows. All the dairy farms were out in the country. Why are we shipping everything in? Why don't we just bring the dairy in?
into the city next to the distillery and we'll just go from one building to the next and give it to them well the problem was one no nutritional value left in the grains that the cows were eating the cows were kept indoors which is ripe for sanitation issues also in that era there was no closed systems there was poor refrigeration as well and over time now
Our milk, we like to see it around 36 degrees.
Okay.
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Chapter 6: How do consumers perceive raw milk versus pasteurized milk?
Who talk about those anxieties around, you know, listeria, salmonella, anything like that, and then have questions for you guys? So listeria is a groundwater issue. And we get tested very, well, the health department comes out once a year and tests our groundwater. So that gets tested on a periodic basis. And then the biggest concern that people have with raw milk is E. coli.
And the problem with the feline is you have thousands of cows in one spot. It's very easy for it to transmit. So when it goes to slaughter, one bad cow can get everywhere just by hands moving. um we're a single herd these are all of our cows no one touches it but us and it goes from here to the processor and then onto our shelves.
You would tell someone who showed up here with some anxieties over raw milk not to worry about it? I would never tell them that. If I lived in Pennsylvania, I could give you a whole lot of different answers. But if they're worried or concerned, I would tell them not to drink it. There's always a chance.
I wouldn't buy raw milk for me to consume or my family if I wasn't able to visit the farm and see how the practices are. And if you can't visit the farm, I wouldn't drink their milk. Okay. And obviously that's not how most Americans consume their food. Correct. I think if you're buying raw milk, it should come from your state and it should come from your farmer.
I think you should find your farmer. And you should keep it there. Yeah, I don't think milk from California should come in to the East Coast. The amount of time it takes in transportation, there's too many variables where things can go wrong. It needs to be a hyperlocal product. Now, if I were to ask about trying some raw milk, how does that work in the state of Maryland?
I would have to recommend you don't, because it's not pasteurized and maybe contains some harmful bacteria. Now, and I can't buy some to try right now, to say I lived a little bit while I was out here, but I could buy some for my mom's dog. Yeah, milk for catching dogs, yeah.
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Chapter 7: What recent trends are affecting the raw milk market?
So maybe I could buy some of that. Now, if I were to drink some of that, that's my business. I recommend you don't, though. Got it. But you do. I drink raw milk every day. And when was the last time it made you sick? I have never been sick that I'm aware of from consuming it. I rarely ever get sick to begin with. Well, I'm going to buy some. And what I do with it is my business.
And on this Memorial Day, there's something beautiful about that. Yes. Well, thank you and happy Memorial Day to you guys. It looks like you're working through it. Yeah, cows always got to be milked. That's right. Work never ends. That's right. They don't know it's Memorial Day. They don't care. I'm shaking the raw milk and then I'm trying the raw milk. Here we go. Opening the raw milk. Oh, wow.
Yeah. Smelling the raw milk. What does it smell like? It doesn't smell. It doesn't smell like anything.
Chapter 8: How do advocates argue for the benefits of raw milk?
Let me shake it one more time just to be extra sure, you know? Okay. Here we go. Wish me luck. Tastes like milk. How you doing? Do you want to try it?
One sip.
One sip? All right. Mom's trying the raw milk. Here we go. What do you think?
If nobody told you, you wouldn't know.
If nobody told you, you wouldn't know.
Yeah.
I think that's true. Unless I get salmonella later.
You won't.
Mom says I won't. It's two days later now, and I didn't, but my tummy did feel a little funny that Memorial Day night, if I'm being completely honest. But as I said, I got some lactose issues, so it's still oat oil for me. When we're back on Today Explained, we're going to hear about the movement raw milks have in not just in Glen Isle, Maryland, but across the country.
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