Silly government required warnings

[herbgeek]

On a bottle of raw milk:

This milk is not pasteurized.

Ya think? Because if it was pasteurized, it would say on the label it was pasteurized. I guess this is to protect people who think that raw means cooked? :laff:

[peggy]

Oh I don't know if it's so silly. I think the government just wants you to know what it is your drinking/getting into. Too many people just look at the words raw/healthy/natural/organic and automatically think, better. And it could be. But it could not be.
The thing with raw milk is, you really need to know your farmer and his farm/barn/process. Some farmers can be very clean with exceptional practices, while another could be a little sloppy in their process. If you have ever been in a barn, or milked a cow, you can see how it isn't hard to contaminate the milk during almost any step in the process.
Again, I'm not saying raw milk is bad, certainly I've drunk my share of it and survived,:) but people do need to be doubly aware of where it came from.
I think most farmers who offer raw milk would be more than happy to have someone take a tour of their operation.

[Perplexa]

Given that (to the best of my knowledge) you can't sell raw milk in stores in the US (or Canada), this does seem a little silly. Presumably, if you go to the trouble to find and vet a source of raw milk, you will know that you bought raw milk. That said, if it ever does appear in stores, I'd agree with peggy that this isn't a stupid thing at all. I personally would love to get raw milk (though I don't have a source right now), I wouldn't buy it in a store without knowing the farmer.

[herbgeek]

Here in MA, you can only buy direct from the farmer at the farm. You can't get it at farmers markets and the like. Hence, why I thought the mandated warning was silly.

But really, wouldn't you think something labeled raw was actually raw or would you think raw meant it was heated?