Raw milk woo spreaders won't give up...

[NickB79]

10. I'm positive that is part of it

The lab I work in is part of a large cultured dairy complex which makes yogurts, cheeses, and sour creams. Most of our products are conventionally made, but we have been expanding our organic offerings, and as such receive several tanker trucks of certified organic milk daily. We take multiple steps to ensure that there is no cross-contamination of regular milk into the organic loads, to the point we have a 50-ft tall silo devoted entirely to organic.

The organic milk we receive does come from smaller, more local farms here in the Midwest, and it ALWAYS tests far lower in bacterial count than the regular loads that come from the larger dairy farms. It's still too high to be sold legally without pasteurization, but it's obvious that farming practices have a major effect on bacterial contamination of milk.

Also, I've read that pasture-raising your livestock, which is much more difficult on larger farms, has a major impact on reducing bacterial loads.