Raw Milk Gets a Raw Deal
April 30, 2010The 15 Things that Milk Pasteurization Kills
August 3, 2010May 10, 2010
Testimony of Cyndy Gray to the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources
My name is Cyndy Gray. I:
- Have raised two sons with my husband.
- Held a Top Secret Security Clearance from the National Security Agency for twenty years.
- Am a Vietnam Era veteran at the Federal level, but not in Massachusetts.
- Was awarded a commendation for my involvement in a 1990 history-making drug bust off the New England Coast.
- Served as the Veterans’ Agent for the Town of Manchester.
- Am a retired U.S. Coast Guard Radioman Chief with thirteen years active duty and seven years reserve—thirteen active due to a poorly run medical lab issuing false positive HIV testing to seven total Coast Guardsmen in Boston of which I was one.
- Was the first female in Boston to be initiated as a Coast Guard Chief.
- And . . . I was raised on raw milk.
I nearly lost a son due to failed surgeries for his chest wall deformity.
In 2002, I attended a conference and was reminded of the importance of whole, unprocessed foods and healing. Fifty people signed up to start a raw milk dairy on ten acres. Not being enough land, the NOFA-Mass Raw Milk Campaign invited me to join in their effort to help small dairies survive. Our goal was to match citizens to the growing numbers of state-permitted raw milk dairies.
There were two state-permitted raw milk dairies at the time. Our private club took turns driving to one that was certified organic. Our club has been working with MDAR since 2003. Our club has been on the New England Chronicle TV show and in three Boston Globe articles. In 2009 NOFA/Mass gave me an award for asserting the rights of farmers to raise, and individuals to consume, health-giving natural foods.
People who were blind, wheelchair bound, developmentally disabled, cancer victims—those suffering from disease known to man only within the last seventy years—and others with no cars, began to contact me to help them access raw milk. Private club members were all proponents of raw milk—an intensive screening process is used to determine this. A quote from MDAR: “The Department allows the current sale of raw milk due to individuals who believe raw milk is not a health threat and that it, indeed, is beneficial.” Who were some of the members?
- At least four medical doctors.
- Others in the medical field and nutrition field.
- Those with doctorate degrees, MBAs, PhDs.
- At least four attorneys.
- Those affiliated with MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Boston University, Boston College, University of Massachusetts Medical School.
- Astrophysicists, engineers, successful inventors, educators, published authors, filmmakers.
- College students and others from raw-milk-drinking countries around the world.
- Christian ministers, a Catholic Monastery.
- The family of a recent Nobel Prize winner.
- Professional athletes and referees.
- Computer programmers, financial advisors, and web developers.
- The Ipswich House of Peace, a non-profit organization.
- Disabled and chronically ill people.
- Firemen, state police troopers.
Those are just some examples of the people who care about the survival of our family farms in Massachusetts, and who exercise their free will by choosing to direct their hard earned money to these farms. Thank you, Commissioner for this opportunity. Thank you all for your show of support. My son was nursed back to health by drinking whole, raw milk and is thriving.
8 Comments
Great information, I never knew there was so much health benefits in consuming milk from grass fed cows. Thanks for all your hard work in bringing this to limelight . I used to believe that milk causes cancer in the body.
The junk on the store shelves probably does cause cancer. I doubt pus from infected udders has any health benefits…
Hi my name is Shonita Badillo. I am interested in a healthier lifestyle.. I need to know how to order raw milk or. where to find the resourced. Do i need to become a member. I currently reside in Houston Texas.
Hi Shonita, you’re on the right track, however you found this article…it’s on a website all about finding raw milk. If you are in Houston, try the Texas page of listings and scroll down to Houston: https://www.realmilk.com/real-milk-finder/texas/#tx . In some cases you can buy direct from farmers on an as-needed basis. In others, you purchase a share in a farm, which gives you access to a portion of the milk, usually on a weekly basis.
It often works to just go to local health food stores and ask employees and customers. That’s how I found mine.
I have nothing to offer except advice. If you care about yourself and your family, and the world around you, do not produce or consume the abomination, which is pork.
If you eat it, you endanger your health. If you produce it, you endanger mine. This is true, regardless of religious issues.
The foods God gave to be received with thanksgiving are clearly listed, twice. Pork is not among them.None of the excuses given by churches for eating pork is valid.
One is utterly deceptive. At the end of a chapter dealing with people more concerned with appearing holy than actually being holy, there are parentheses.
It is set off parenthetically, because it is an insertion, not part of the original text. And it states that “and so saying, he declared all foods clean.”
Preachers and laymen frequently refer to this in justification, when all it really does is prove the whole thing to be the lie that it is. I am sorry I cannot offer the scripture number, but it is in the Gospels. My health problems include memory deficit.
If I have not turned you off with religion, I urge you to put the sort of effort into researching it, that I imagine led you here.
G-d created the pig to be a roving garbage can, and though they don’t rove, they still are garbage cans, and the major repository of the killer Swine Flu, which is why it is called that.
From a science standpoint, to a layman, I would recommend Dr. Axe online, he is clear and easy to understand.
I am not familiar with PA land prices, and if your husband needs to keep his present employment, I guess you’ll have to pay them. But if there is any flexibility, the weather here in Michigan is not a lot different, and it is very verdant with a wide variety of crops produced, including fruit and wines.
And for all that, especially further north, the land prices after the decades of Detroit going down the tubes can be amazingly low for a given property.
But you and your family should do this thing if you can, interest rates will be going up, and you are already a little behind the curve. If you can squeak a little on other things to get some land of your own, you will not only be happier, you and your family will be much safer, apart from health..
If you have had medical health conditions improve by drinking raw milk, please send the facts to the Canadian Minister of Health, The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, email: ginette.petitpastaylor@parl.gc.ca and c.c. the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Foods, The Honourable Lawrence MacAulay, email: lawrence.macaulay@parl.gc.ca . We are requesting the Canadian government to Amend the Food and Drug Act to allow farms that are Certified by the Raw Milk Institute to legally supply raw milk to whom ever desires it. Raw Milk is totally illegal in Canada. We need everyone that was seeing a doctor and because of raw milk, does not now. Our government says raw milk does not have health benefits above pasteurized milk. Please share!
January 1, 2019 update, It is not the Food and Drug Act ( takes a vote of all the Federal Parliament) that needs to be amended, but the Food and Drug Regulations ( takes only the signature of the Federal Health Minister). Here is how it should be amended- (c) should be added to Division 8 – Dairy Products B.08.002.2 (2) Subsection (1) does not apply to
“(c) any raw milk from a farm that is Certified by the Raw Milk Institute and (the farm) is allowed to supply milk to consumers by this exemption, in an unprocessed state; furthermore, the consumer must waive the protection of this regulation in writing,”
Instead of the Agriculture Minister, please c.c. email to the Food Directorate’s Bureau of Microbial Hazards at: bmh_bdm@hc-sc.gc.ca
Please keep sending in your medical health benefits to prove them wrong. The more people that send in the recent research titled: Recent Trends in Unpasteurized Fluid Milk Outbreaks, Legalization, and Consumption in the United States by Joanne Whitehead and Bryony Lake , better it will be.