Raw milk: Both sides of the issue need to be addressed

Editor:

I would like to discuss some of the remarks made by Mr. Scott Shalaway. A while back he wrote in the Farm and Dairy that people should pen their cats up. Well the farmer’s barn cats roam at will and kill birds now and then but it keeps the mice and rats out of the barn. The rats and mice, if not kept under control, can destroy a lot of the farmer’s feed for their livestock.

What really upset me was a remark that Shalaway made on the radio on Feb. 14. He was trashing the dairy farmers who sell raw milk. The dairy farmer was on the radio show before Shalaway and I am sure he knows more about raw milk than Shalaway does. The farmer knows a lot about nutrition, plus the farmer knows how to milk a cow, and I’ll bet Shalaway does not.

Milk has to be kept clean and the milk needs to be cooled as soon as possible after it is taken from the cow. I have drank raw milk all of my l life and I am close to 80 years of age. I can remember when they sold raw milk in Centerville (a town close to where I live) but I never heard of anyone getting sick from the milk.

Milk that is not properly taken care of will make you sick. Two percent milk at our senior center does not even taste near as good as raw milk. I feel everyone has a right to their opinion but if you are going to talk about a subject such as this one, both sides of the subject matter should be addressed.

J. M. Corbett

Belmont, Ohio