Consider this:

Victoria is the state with the most draconian anti-raw milk regulation.
It is also the state crying out the most for access to raw cow's milk for human consumption.
It is the state where dairy farmers are most in debt and despair due to the Milk Crisis.
Australian children now have the highest rate of food allergy in the world.
Research shows that kids have reduced risk of asthma, eczema, allergies, ear infections and colds when they drink raw milk.
Melbourne is now called the thunderstorm asthma capital of the world.

Victorian authorities have taken an active approach in the last year and seven months to stamp out all possible sources of unpasteurised milk, with licensed Jannei raw goat milk being the latest. This is really an embarrassment and a shame! What is wrong with Australia, our government and its people in positions of leadership? Why serve only industry and ignore the needs of people?

This year the International Congress of Immunology (ICI) was held from the 21st to 26th of August 2016 in South Melbourne. A The Age article about the event titled: "Why Melbourne is the food allergy capital of the world" says that the world's most liveable city has the highest reported rate of food allergies. Australian researchers are leading a worldwide push to shift the advice to new parents on how to best protect high-risk babies from developing food allergies. Professor Katie Allen from Murdoch Childrens Research Institute say that there are a handful of theories about what has caused the dramatic rise in food allergy in developed countries over the past 20 years. Another article suggests that Melbourne has become food allergies capital of the world due to germophobia.

Professor Hamida Hammad, from VIB life sciences institute in Belgium, have been studying how children exposed to dust on dairy farms are protected against asthma and allergies in order to create a vaccine for it. What is most important is this interview that Professor Hammad did with Rafael Epstein on 774 ABC Melbourne.

In the interview Rafael say that food allergies have increased by 50% between 1997 and 2011

among children. He recons we are at the centre of the food allergy problem, but farmers and their children are protected from allergies and asthma because of their exposure to cow manure. Cow manure? From the beginning this interview is a little bit awkward. It is as if Professor Hammad is skirting around a certain topic. That is until Rafael asks the question: "would it be something like drinking raw milk?"

Professor Hammad say there are three factors that are protective on the dairy farm:

- exposure to hay,

- exposure to living cows

- and the third is drinking raw milk.

She also says that this benefits young children and adults, but not babies, as they don't drink raw milk. But research beg to differ: the Pasture study shows that children whose mothers drank raw milk during pregnancy have fewer allergies. And if the mother drinks raw milk while breastfeeding, that benefit passes to her baby. Also, isn't human breast milk raw milk? Researchers are afraid of talking about the benefits of raw milk, because they fear that funding for their research may be withdrawn.

Audio: Drive with Rafael Epstein 22 Aug

Censorship and Ignorance of Certified Raw Milk

On ARMM's Facebook page we recently referred to raw milk as the elephant the room that no one in Australia wants to talk about. Viable solutions can be right under people's nose but they refuse to talk about it. It is just ignored.

Wikipedia: "Elephant in the room" or ''Elephant in the living room" is an English metaphorical idiom for an obvious truth that is going unaddressed. The idiomatic expression also applies to an obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss.

This is an important issue but why is it such an inconvenient truth that only a few will address it? Since ARMM started to advocate for raw milk legislation, the Australian media have mentioned the Australian Raw Milk Movement only a few times. They mostly continue to ignore us. Four Corners did not even reply when we recently put under their attention how frequently raw milk

sales save dairy farmers in other parts of the world, or to the question why Australia just ignores it. This response in the midst of dairy farmers in despair over rising debt, with recent articles like Inside Australia's 'horrendous' dairy crisis and the Four Corners: Milked Dry story. It is outrageous!

The Milk Cure

It turns out there are already sufficient research that shows that raw milk from grass-fed animals dramatically reduces asthma and allergies and have healing properties. In the early 1900's the Mayo Clinic did a 16-year Milk Cure study. Patients were administered raw dairy — referred to as "white blood" — to treat cancer and maladies like chronic fatigue.

The milk used was, in all cases, certified raw milk from pasture-fed cows, rich in butterfat. The treatment is a combination of detoxifying fast and nutrient-dense feeding. This protocol was an orthodox, accepted therapy in the early 1900s. Raw milk was at one time considered medicine.

Video: The Healing Power of RAW MILK for Immune and Digestive Issues

Photo: from the LA Rawesome Raw Milk rally — ***Photo:*** from the LA Rawesome Raw Milk rally

Consumer Preference for Raw Milk

In the audio interview, there is mention of a researcher who believes we live too clean in Melbourne. What may not be commonly known, is that consumers here are desperate and begging for access to raw milk. They have done the research and the lobbying. Consumers frequently ask ARMM for sources of raw milk and we can only say that raw milk from cows are illegal, unless you own the animal. Just yesterday we had such an enquiry from a Seaford resident. Victorians want the health benefits, natural enzymes and beneficial bacteria (probiotics) found in raw milk.

Consumers want to exit the industrial, sterile food system and access the high quality, nutrient-dense, bio-diverse food produced by local farmers.

There is a blanket ban on raw cow's milk sales in only 3 countries: Australia, Scotland and Canada. ARMM's website, Facebook and Twitter pages are packed with stories about how raw milk sales continue to save family farms overseas. Raw milk is a profitable niche market for small scale dairy farmers, and yet Australians are denied that market.

Why leave Australia with this disadvantage?

Why leave our children exposed to asthma and allergies when there is credible evidence as to the protective qualities of raw milk? There is also much evidence of how well regulated raw milk systems work can work overseas when it is regulated fairly.

Image: Why raw milk is good for your kids via Living Traditionally. — ***Image:*** Why raw milk is good for your kids via Living Traditionally.

Australian Data

A June 2016 study by the CSIRO shows that 1 in 6 Australians are leaving (processed) dairy behind. Three-quarters of that study were eschewing dairy in an attempt to find relief from stomach cramps, wind and bloating. Minister Nick Xenophon is now leading a school milk program.

It will be very interesting to get numbers on how many children cannot drink processed milk. It is likely to be more that the numbers from the CSIRO study. Children need the milk in its whole, natural form to be able to digest it properly.

According to this article, about 60 - 90% of Australians cannot easily digest lactose. It is called lactose intolerance and is not the same as a food allergy. This is partly because pasteurisation destroys the enzyme lactase needed to digest the lactose. Australian children now have the highest rate of food allergy in the world according to this article. "Up to one in ten infants and two in ten school-aged children have a proven food allergy. In the 14 years to 2012, there was a 50% increase in hospital visits for anaphylaxis, the most severe allergic reaction. Infants and toddlers accounted for much of this increase."

Image: a snapshot from the article — ***Image:*** a snapshot from the article

Anaphylaxis: the most severe form of allergic reaction

In this video from time marker 54:00 Mark McAfee from the Raw Milk Institute talks about how seven kids have died from anaphylactic shock from the presence of dead bacteria in pasteurised milk. Australian ex-microbiologist Dr. Kristian Ronacher also talks about it in this video.

Some people have a life threatening allergic response to pasteurised milk. They risk an anaphylactic shock or death if they consume it. When bacteria are killed during pasteurisation, the resulting pieces of dead bacteria are foreign proteins that our bodies react against. MAST cells release their histamines; asthma bronchial spasm occurs; mucus is released that creates the

bed for ear infections, and allergies rage. In the USA doctors are telling patients not to drink pasteurised milk. Raw milk has an immune building response. It stabilises MAST cells and treats and prevents allergies and asthma (Parsifal study). The MAST cell stabilisation effect of raw milk is lost when heated. The effects of raw whey protein have been shown to heal asthma (Gabriela study).

A 2014 Catalyst episode also discuss asthma as an inflammatory immune response here.

Melbourne is now also called the thunderstorm asthma capital of the world, which is considered by doctors to resemble an anaphylactic shock. Ten people died last year; read about it here.

Article: Anaphylaxis cases at Canberra emergency rooms highest in four years

Article: School bullies who use FOOD as a weapon: Children with allergies are left with facial swelling after being forced to eat peanuts and having milk rubbed on their skin

Article: Allergic child rushed to hospital in Melbourne (with anaphylaxis due to dairy allergy)

Asthma in Australia statistics according to AIHW and Asthma Australia:

1 in 10 Australians have asthma based on self-reported data. That's over 2.3 million people.
$655 million was spent on asthma in 2008 - 09.
37,700 hospitalisations in 2013 - 14 where asthma was the main diagnosis.
Children under 15 are more likely to be hospitalised with asthma than those aged 15 and over.
394 deaths due to asthma in 2012.
389 deaths due to asthma in 2013.
Asthma mortality rates are higher for people living in remote or lower socioeconomic areas.
In January 2018 health minister Greg Hunt announced that one million dollars will be diverted into educational projects etc. despite some saying that not all medication works for everyone. More here.

Elsewhere...

According to this article the World Allergy Organisation estimates that eczema affect 20 per cent of school children and 5 per cent of adults worldwide.

Canada

According to this article by Canadian lawyer Karen Selick, the past decade have produced three major studies involving approximately 24,000 children showing that drinking raw milk in childhood results in a 41% lower risk of asthma, a 49% lower risk of hay fever and a 30% lower risk of respiratory infections and fever.

Karen says that Canadian authorities allege that drinking raw milk can be dangerous, even fatal, but so can asthma and respiratory infections. In her article she notes that The Asthma Society of Canada estimates that 20 children and 500 adults die from asthma attacks every year. She says in 25 years none of the raw milk consumers drinking raw milk produced by Glencolton Farm have died or gotten sick (more).

U.S.A

According to this article asthma kills 10 people in the United States every day. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, 7.6 percent of adults and 8.4 percent of children in the U.S. have asthma. And in 2015, 3,615 people in the country died from it. Another article by the same organisation calls asthma the silent killer. Between 1980 and 2014, 157,066 people in the U.S. died as a result of asthma, according to a report published on September 26, 2017, in the journal JAMA. It also asks if raw milk can protect the next generation from these debilitating conditions with more than 50 million U.S. individuals suffering from allergies and nearly 25 million from asthma. The scientists from the Gabriella study say raw milk cannot be recommended because it may contain pathogens.

Scientists in general seem to often ignore the track record of other foods that commonly contain pathogens and instead target raw milk to have a perfect safety record (more). Double standards? Many also don't seem to be able to understand that there are two kinds of raw milk, each with it's own milk profile.

Researchers have already found clear evidence that childhood exposure to outdoor microbes is linked to a more robust immune system; for example, Bavarian farm children who spent time in family animal stables and drank farm milk had drastically lower rates of asthma and allergies throughout their lives than their neighbors who did not. The rest of us, not raised on farms, may be missing out on that sort of protection (more).

Article: Mom warns about food allergies after 11 year old boy's sudden death

Photo: from the Newmarket Raw Milk rally in Canada (source) — ***Photo:*** from the Newmarket Raw Milk rally in Canada (source)

Eczema in Australia:

According to this article 800,000 Australians have atopic dermatitis (also known as eczema), including 27,000 Australians who have severe conditions. Allergy & Anaphylaxis Australia released a study of 100 Australians suffering from eczema which found it had a devastating impact on sufferers' work and family life. Its chief executive Maria Said hears many stories where sufferers are shunned, isolated and feel hopeless because they are constantly wriggling and scratching. It often starts as a rash including red to brown patches and small raised bumps, which may leak fluid and crust over when scratched, and thickened, dry and scaly skin. It causes pain, discomfort and itches relentlessly, yet it is not contagious. Maria said to the Sydney Morning Herald that:

"there is no cure, and a lot of allergic diseases (such as allergic rhinitis, allergic asthma, food allergy) are the same. There is nobody saying we have hope."

ARMM's website is chock full of articles and links to articles about people whose eczema not only improved but healed completely from raw milk consumption. Use the website search function to find those stories...

there is an elephant in the room...

Some of the Raw Milk studies out of Europe:

PARSIFAL study showing that kids have reduced asthma and allergies when they drink raw milk and only raw milk!

GABRIELA study of more kids in the EU that drink raw milk and have far less asthma and allergies etc.

PASTURE study of children that drink raw milk or mothers that drank raw milk during pregnancy with fewer allergies.

LMU study performed in Germany showed that kids that drink raw milk had dramatically reduced colds and ear infection rate.

Raw Cow’s Milk has asthma protective capacity and heated raw milk did not show and asthma protective effect, which indicates the involvement of heat sensitive components

Maturation of the gut microbiome and risk of asthma in childhood

and

Raw Milk Overpowers Conventional Milk In Reducing Risk Of Numerous Infections

Research Proves Raw Milk Prevents Infections and Boosts Immunity

European study finds raw milk boosts immunity, prevents colds and infections

Why raw milk is good for your kids

New Science Confirms that Drinking Raw Milk is Remarkably Safe

N.Y. Times Admits Raw Milk is Cure For Allergies

Study Concludes That Raw Milk Boosts Immunity and Prevents Colds

Breast milk contains more than 700 species of bacteria, Spanish researchers find

Research: Consumption of unprocessed cow's milk protects infants from common respiratory infections

Research: Breastfeeding provides passive and likely long-lasting active immunity.

Study: Raw milk can reduce asthma and allergies

Shill blogger claims: “Raw milk is bad and will make you literally die”

Milk: a postnatal imprinting system stabilizing FoxP3 expression and regulatory T cell differentiation

The Pasture Study

According to this article, the authors of the Pasture study wrote: “The main finding of this analysis was an inverse association between consumption of unprocessed cow’s milk and rhinitis [cold or a runny nose], RTI [respiratory tract infections], and otitis [ear infection]." It found that raw milk is linked to about 30% drop in respiratory infections and fever, and helps babies and young children to prevent common ailments.

Dr. Ton Baars, a Dutch professor and one of the lead authors stated that: “We are now not talking about asthma and allergies, but fever and infections in young children. It means there is additional new evidence that raw milk is a protective agent in infectious diseases in young children.” Europeans accept raw milk as a safe, beneficial food.

Videos: Mark McAfee (chairman of the Raw Milk Institute) speaks about raw milk for asthma, eczema, allergies, colds and ear infections in particular. From our 'Learn how to Lobby event, 20 October 2015