THE REAL CAUSES OF THE E. COLI OUTBREAKS: An open letter rebuttal to this CNN editorial: http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/06/10/berezow.e.coli.raw.food/index.html?iref=allsearch
The underlying cause of virulent E. coli outbreaks in Europe and elsewhere is conventional factory farming. The bad bacteria sprung from the guts of confined feedlot operation (CAFO) animals given a regular regimen of antibiotics resulting in super antibiotic resistant strains.
This is a call for education about the difference between grass-fed vs CAFO farming. There are two systems and two raw milks. While no food is 100% safe 100% of the time, raw milk from grass-fed animals is safe, and raw milk from sick, stressed, crowded animals is not. Pasture-raised animals have the right pH in their gut and are given the correct food for their species, giving their milk amazing benefits and imparting health and strong immune systems to those who consume it, fresh and unprocessed as nature intended. Raw milk is nature's original probiotic food. It is not the enemy, it is the cure. And in this article, it is the scapegoat.
This outbreak also highlights the flaws inherent in the industrial model of supply chains with centralized processing plants and long-distance shipping, resulting in vast amounts of all types of foods getting contaminated year after year. This is what needs fixing.
What also doesn't get mentioned is the sorry state of humans' immune systems due to dead, depleted, compromised, sterilized food -- which is the ironic outcome of resulting efforts to make the food supply safer by deadening it.
While it may seem to some that the solution is to sterilize our food, what we need is to address the underlying causes by overhauling our industrial food system, seeking local pasture-based farms as food sources (they’re everywhere – look up eatwild.com), and strengthening our bodies with good, clean food that has healthy beneficial bacteria. Not all bacteria is bad; good bacteria is essential for life.
This article by the Cornucopia Institute explains the reality of the situation very well:
Additional sources:
http://www.realmilk.com/what.html
http://www.farmtoconsumer.org/raw-milk.html
http://www.organicconsumers.org/raw-milk