What We Saw at the Lemonade & Raw Milk Freedom Day

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What We Saw at the Lemonade & Raw Milk Freedom Day

As government crackdowns on raw milk-selling co-ops and children's lemonade stands keep making headlines, political and health food activists are raising awareness through Lemonade Freedom Day.

On August 18, Reason TV went to the National Mall to check out the unlicensed celebration and the trade of illicit raw milk. Some of those in attendance included CopBlock.org's Pete Eyre and Meg McLain, who was arrested at last year's Lemonade Freedom Day.

About 3.49 minutes

Produced by Joshua Swain, interviews by Lucy Steigerwald

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Comments

[Gladstone]

I want a Charlie Sheen-Bill Maher Reason video.

[cmace]

I like your hat.

I don't like milk but I've never drank raw milk.

[Mr Whipple]

Humans are the only species that consumes milk in adulthood.

Someone said that to me, once, and I had to think.

Aren't humans the only species that cooks their food, as well?

[Lucy Steigerwald]

Also, we're the only species that invented French fries. We're pretty awesome.

[Rhywun]

Yeah, we rock. I like being a human, for the above reasons and a few others.

[Hyperion]

We're the only species to invent beer also, but plenty of other species will drink the shit out of it given the opportunity. Also, adult cats and dogs will drink milk given the opportunity, so that's a moot point also.

[Mr Whipple]

Well, dogs will eat just about anything you put in front of them. And cats generally won't drink milk as they get older unless they are very hungry. But neither seeks it out. When was the last time you saw a dog sucking on a sheep's titty?

[Xenocles]

One of my cats would drink milk and then puke it up shortly after. It unfortunately took us a few cycles before we stopped.

[Hyperion]

True about dogs. I had an Aussie that loved brocoli and brussel sprouts. He would actually choose them over just about anything you could put in front of him.

[johnl]

Because they taste like cat shit. He would have preferred the real thing.

[Generic Stranger]

There's a species of either monkey or lemur (can't recall which) that lives almost entirely off of fermented fruit. Humans have an unusually high tolerance of alcohol for most animals, but these guys make us look like light weights.

[Franklin Harris]

I'm in favor of cooking milk. But to each his own.

[Episiarch]

Warty's not human but he cooks his food. Alive.

[Xenocles]

I prefer to rape my food to death and then cook it alive.

[Hugh Akston]

If it's very, very lucky, in that order.

[Lucy Steigerwald]

I forget, is that "Firefly" reference why I keep you guys around, or was my urge to make a Reavers joke why you guys keep me around?

[Episiarch]

I'm gonna assume it's both.

[joshua corning]

"You know what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning?

[Hugh Akston]

You know, Epi, just because every judge he's ever appeared before has described Warty as an inhuman monster, it doesn't necessarily mean he isn't biologically human.

[Episiarch]

I took a sample of...uh...one of his bodily fluids one time and had it checked. He has no X chromosome and about 10 Y chromosomes. You call that human? It's also why, thankfully, he can't reproduce (not for lack of trying).

The sterility makes him angry. Just like everything else. He's always wanted a little Warty that he could raise and then consume.

[Warty]

You guys exaggerate so much. God.

[Episiarch]

Only a little.

[JW]

What?! What am I supposed to do with this root cellar full of street orphans?

I acquired them based on your previous orders. I expect the normal payment, Warty.

[joshua corning]

Aren't humans the only species that cooks their food, as well?

Ants and bees do some crazy shit with their food. May not be technically cooked but it is definitely aggressively prepared.

[Generic Stranger]

Certain species of ants also "milk" aphids for their honeydew.

[C. S. P. Schofield]

Ah, but do they pasteurize it?

[Mensan]

Some species of ants also practice agriculture. They use leaf clippings to grow fungus which they then harvest for food.

[PS]

The lactase persistence mutation is pretty interesting. The fact that it spread so widely and rapidly in Northern Europe shows how much of an advantage it gave in that climate. It also arose independently in West Africa and perhaps other places.

Fermenting dairy, cheese, yoghurt, etc, is a way break down to lactose to make it more tolerable. Also one can extract the fat such as with ghee.

[A Serious Man]

I see no reason why stores shouldn't be allowed to drink raw milk, it'll be clearly labeled with a picture of Louis Pasteur and a big no sign.

[Lucy Steigerwald]

I am still not dead!

[Franklin Harris]

It takes a good 12 hours to realize you've contracted food poisoning.

[Lucy Steigerwald]

Thanks, buddy.

I have had it before and not been sick. It's not like it happens every time, there's just an obvious risk of contamination.

[Franklin Harris]

Always happy to help!

[Episiarch]

Nah, you start realizing something is wrong in about six hours.

(I've had food poisoning at least 3 times.)

[Lucy Steigerwald]

God, what have you been eating?

Please, don't answer.

[Archduke PantsFan]

he's been eating at Warty's

[Franklin Harris]

I've had food poisoning twice. Once was beer cheese soup at a place where I no longer order the beer cheese soup (and didn't eat at all for 5 years after). The other was at a Chinese buffet that can go to hell.

[Episiarch]

Actually, one of those times was a meatless eggplant dish at a Vietnamese restaurant (how filthy was their kitchen, I wonder) and another at a Mexican restaurant where I had what seemed liked completely, totally cooked food. But that's out of hundreds of dinners out, so I figure my track record is pretty good.

Considering the amount of raw flesh and eggs I eat, I've never gotten sick because of it. I'd totally try raw milk, and have had raw milk cheeses. Didn't notice a lot of difference.

Now I want oysters on the half shell, damn it.

[Franklin Harris]

If a Mexican restaurant is too clean, I assume the food is terrible.

[Xenocles]

Raw milk is delicious but I would only buy it from someone I trusted. The stuff in the grocer's refrigerator absolutely should be pasteurized.

Raw milk cheese is a different game - aged sufficiently it's actually safer than raw milk because the acidity kills the pathogens that would be a problem in milk. Even the FDA recognizes this.

[Mensan]

Often food poisoning isn't caused by undercooked food; it's caused by cross contamination or by toxins. Some bacteria, commonly Staphylococcus aureus, release toxins into your food which are very heat- and cold-stable. At some point prior to cooking the food was contaminated with S. aureus. When the bacteria is destroyed during cooking, the endotoxin is released into the food. The toxin then causes food poisoning symptoms.

[Mr Whipple]

I drink unpasteurized apple cider all the time when it is in season. The worst I ever had was the occasional runny shitz.

[Mr Whipple]

And I get that anyway from cheap beer.

[Hyperion]

Miller highlife, lol. I remember the last time I drank that crap, it was a Sunday and a friend of mine brought a case of it over, in a cooler full of ice. The place that I lived had the blue laws, you couldn't buy beer on Sunday and I was out. I wasn't going to drink any of it, but finally was tempted and we finished the case. It seems like it has low alcohol content because I didn't get buzzed at all compared to drinking that much of the beers I typically drink. But the next day, omg, I couln't go to work and was in the bathroom half the day.

[Xenocles]

Odd that it would hurt you. When I let unpasteurized juice stay out on the counter I get hard cider in a week.

[Mr Whipple]

Ummm, I'm no expert, but I think you have to add yeast to it to get hard cider. And after it properly ferments, you stick it in the freezer. Alcohol has a lower freezing point than water. Remove the ice, and you have applejack.

[Episiarch]

I don't think so. The orchard down the street from where I grew up had the most amazing unpasteurized cider, and we used to let it go hard. It didn't seem very alcoholic and was mostly just fizzy but holy shit was it good.

Never got sick from that either.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

correct. i used to harden unpasteurized cider all the time. no added yeast needed

[Xenocles]

It turns out that yeasts are just about everywhere. Let the juice breathe for a while (cover it with cheesecloth or something to keep the flies out) and you'll get a nice dry and mildly alcoholic beverage. Leave that out longer and you'll get cider vinegar.

[Xenocles]

Addendum: I've never tried jacking a beverage and I'm not sure I want to. I'm a little scared of the prospect of winding up with too much methanol in the end product. Applejack is a great drink, though - makes an excellent Manhattan.

[An0nB0t]

Yeast are everywhere, which is why leaving a flour water slurry on your counter will eventually lead to a sourdough starter.

The folks who're leaving their cider on the counter for a week are making a lambic hard cider. They are indeed brave souls.

[joshua corning]

They are indeed brave souls.

How hard could it be to tell if it is bad by simply smelling it?

Is the fear vinegar? methanol? food poisoning?

Two of the three would be pretty easy to detect by smelling it.

The methanol probably is not a problem so long as you are not consuming gallons of it a month.

[johnl]

You get less off taste if you use a brewing yeast. There is a whole art to that. But you get fermentation with whatever yeast is in the air.

[Mr Whipple]

Just as long as its not yeast from a yeast infection.

Ahhhhhhh, Fifi.

[Franklin Harris]

Why is every movement like this a magnate for kooks who think their prohibited substance not only should be legal (so far so good) but is also a miracle cure for everything? And, more importantly, why do these movements always attract awful, ear-stabbing folk music???

[cmace]

Folk music is spontaneous and traditional.

What you hear is neither.

[Gladstone]

Well simple really. People who use prohibited substances are likely to include people who think the stuff is good for you. Also people who use prohibited substances are likely to include people who think the prohibition is due to the Corporations and/or lizard people who want to keep the people sick and unhealthy.

[califernian]

I know an "occupier" who believes in some cure for cancer that involves a coffee grounds enema. She believes big pharma is supressing this miracle cure somehow.

I asked her "How do you know about it then".

Her head exploded.

[JW]

Her head exploded.

It was full of fecal-stained coffee grounds, right?

[PS]

While it may attract smelly Kumbaya hippies there is a pretty good scientific case to be made for raw milk. Such as this:

Many who have been diagnosed as lactose intolerant are actually allergic to the casein fragment BCM7 in A1 milk and can drink A2 milk, pasteurized or unpasteurized, with no problem, including milk from goats, camels and A2 cows.

Many of those who actually are lactose intolerant have gut dysbiosis, or poor gut flora, and it is found that once the gut dysbiosis is corrected, many, but not all, of "lactose intolerant" individuals can digest lactose.

There are a number of reasons that many "lactose intolerant" people can drink raw milk but not pasteurized milk. One major reason is that raw milk producers favor A2 cows (Jersey and Guernsey) because of the high cream content of the milk, and these cows do not have the problem casein fragment, BCM7. The "channel island " cows originated in France where all cows are A2 cows. Further, raw milk contains lactase that helps digest lactose and many bacteria that aid digestion, and these factors are destroyed by pasteurization.

[Nicholas Card]

I don't know how much I trust this. First, you are citing a comment on a blog post. Second, assuming that all the information in the comment is from the book mentioned book "The Untold Story of Milk", I still wouldn't trust it. "The Untold Story of Milk" is written by crazy nutritionist who believes that food can solve everything. Ohh, and he sells chemical-free shampoo. Which, if you have half a brain, would be a bottled filled with a vacuum.

[Archduke PantsFan]

I once had food poisoning from expired peanut butter.

[Hyperion]

In my opinion, raw milk tastes awful. I like 2% milk, ice cold. But I think I am going to start drinking raw milk anyway if it will piss off some statist assholes.

[Archimedes]

Raw Milk? Yawn.
Wake me when they start cooking with human blood.

[Almanian's Evil Twin]

Whole milk, once in awhile, ice cold. SO good. Raw? I have no reason to want it unpasteurized. But I have no reason to care if others do. Lemonade stands are a childrens right of passage, so any pol or bureautard who fucks with them is UNAmerican and HATEZ teh children.

[A Secret Band of Robbers]

This interview video is of great personal importance to me.

A few months ago, I heard rumors that one of my friends was in a YouTube video for a folk song about raw milk. Thanks to this clip, I was able to track it down. I can't begin to describe the blackmail potential here.

[Dunphy (the real one)]

raw milk good. human breast milk... GOOD.

i've made protein shakes with it too

[joshua corning]

human breast milk... GOOD.

Now if that isn't the creepiest thing ever.

So after you shoot the dog and secure the perimeter you have all the lactating women pull up their shirts?

[Stormy Dragon]

Milk, milk, lemonade...

[JoshSN]

If raw milk is such a cure-all he should do a randomized trial, and be famous the world over for his contribution to the science of healthcare.

Until then, respectable outfits shouldn't print loose talk that might end up looking like a commercial favor.

[Ron]

"VOLUNTARY EXCHANGE" I wonder if she would apply that rule to guns

[Nicholas Card]

....Well, I mean,...uh...only voluntary exchange that those Korporations are stopping, man! We have to free ourselves from the Korporate interests!