Is raw milk safe?

It's probably not surprising that as a holistic nutrition consultant I am very picky about the milk I drink. One would assume that I drink organic milk from a small farm, but many are surprised to hear that I only drink raw milk.  Most people are skeptical about the cleanliness of raw milk and afraid of bacteria and salmonella outbreaks. However, if you do some research you'll find out that pasteurization (heating milk for about 30 minutes to kill all bacteria) is a relatively new practice, and raw milk is almost always cleaner than pasteurized.Why milk is pasteurized today?In many countries (Switzerland, France, Spain) cows are found happily grazing on grass in the sun. This is how they used to live in the United States as well.  But today cows are confined to feed lots, which are filled with manure that you can smell from miles away.  Rather than eating grass, they are fed genetically modified corn and soy, injected with synthetic hormones to increase milk supply, and given routine antibiotics in their water to help them recover from the sickness induced by the immoral farming practices.Of course you would want to pasteurize (heat up to kill all bacteria) the heck out of that milk! It's from sick cows, who's utters are literally bleeding from hormone injections and routine antibiotic use.  Actually, regardless of whether or not that milk was pasteurized, you don't want to drink it, which would be obvious if the milk wasn't bleached.How the fear of raw milk started:Over the years leading up to the milk pasteurization process, cattle farming practices became compromised. Rather than maintaing the traditional practice of cows eating grass and drinking water, cows were now confined and fed a cheap grain byproduct from distilleries. It was significantly cheaper and farmers found that if you starved the cattle they would actually eat it! As you could have guessed, this unhygienic cattle farming practice made cows sick and problems from drinking raw milk began to occur. People became sick from drinking milk from sick cows, and many died. This is not surprising. As I mentioned before, milk from cows living in this type of environment is not fit for human consumption!The History of PasteurizationMilk pasteurization became a practice after bacteria was first discovered in 19th century by Louis Pasteur. At this time, there was no understanding of the difference between good bacteria and bad bacteria, so it was assumed that all bacteria was bad and that it’s in our best interest to get rid of. Naturally, once milk became pasteurized, all of the bacteria (good, natural bacteria as well as bad bacteria from cows being fed an unnatural diet) was killed off and the amount of people getting sick from milk significantly decreased.What most people fail to realize about raw milk consumption.No one is suggesting the legalization of raw milk from cows who are confined to a feed lot, thigh high in manuer, fed GMO grains, and injected with hormones. I would NEVER drink that milk unpasteurized! Of course you would run a high risk of being sick!  The raw milk advocacy movement  is about increasing  a relationship between the farmers of small, organic farms and local consumers. It is about providing CLEAN milk from HEALTHY cows to individuals and over time increasing the standards for all dairy farms.That being said, raw milk is extremely safe for more than 1 reason, granted it comes from a clean source:1. Raw milk is from healthy cows. There are many ethically-run small farms in this country that allow their cows to graze on organic grass under the sun. They also avoid the practice of giving their cows hormones, and recognize that routine antibiotic use is therefore not necessary. There is much regulation with raw milk, so if it is sold in a store you can count on it being grade A from a farm with clean practices.3. Raw milk contains natural antibiotics Milk from healthy cows contains natural antibiotics to protect it from any potential pathogens that may get into the milk. Lactoferrin is protective against e-coli and listeria monocytogenes while lactoperoxidase protects from the contamination of other pathogen contaminants.4. Raw milk doesn't go bad. Unlike pasteurized milk, raw milk naturally sours and preserves itself into sour cream or yogurt.This was how traditional cultures kept milk as they did not have access to a refrigerator. In both cases it remains perfectly safe for human consumption. Pasteurized milk on the other hand, retains no protective bacteria and becomes toxic from bad bacteria growth if left out.5. Sickness from pasteurized milk is much more common than raw milk: The biggest salmonella outbreak was from pasteurized milk in 1984. It accounted for 200,000 illnesses and 18 deaths. There has been misrepresented information circulating about  the safety of raw milk. The CDC previously claimed that between 1998-2008 there were 2 death from raw milk. When confronted by Mark McAffee, the owner of Organic Pastures dairy, about the details, it came out that the two deaths were from a queso fresco product, not raw milk from organic farms.6. Pasteurized milk is unsafe in the long term. In pasteurized/ homogenized milk, the enzymes lactase and phosphotase are destroyed while the casien proteins and fat globules are rearranged.  This makes milk  difficult to digest and can lead to casien allergies down the road.   Pasteurized milk has been proven to cause ear infections as well, especially in children.Of course, everyone should do their own research about raw milk and make decisions for themselves. If you don't want to drink raw milk, I'm not going to say you should. Just make sure you are buying organic (ideally unhomoginized) milk, free from growth hormones and antibiotics!Do you drink raw milk? Have you noticed any different reactions compared to pasteurized milk?