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How raw milk became a Republican

Posted by LuchAAA on Sun Jun 23 01:40:28 2024

One thing Politico forgot is plant-based vs animal-based.

Milk is from an animal, something the young leftists are strongly against. Cows contribute to global warming according to the Left.

The stuff about Whole Foods is funny.

link



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Re: How raw milk became a Republican

Posted by Stephen Bauman on Sun Jun 23 07:47:16 2024, in response to How raw milk became a Republican, posted by LuchAAA on Sun Jun 23 01:40:28 2024.

Dairy cows days may be numbered. They are the source of 14.5% of methane emissions. More recently, they have spread avian flu. Substitutes are on the way.

From MIT Technology Review: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/06/14/1093727/biotech-companies-are-trying-to-make-milk-without-cows/

Biotech companies are trying to make milk without cows
The bird flu crisis on dairy farms could boost interest in milk protein manufactured in microorganisms and plants.

By Antonio Regaladoarchive page
June 14, 2024

The outbreak of avian influenza on US dairy farms has started to make milk seem a lot less wholesome. Milk that’s raw, or unpasteurized, can actually infect mice that drink it, and a few dairy workers have already caught the bug.

The FDA says that commercial milk is safe because it is pasteurized, killing the germs. Even so, it’s enough to make a person ponder a life beyond milk—say, taking your coffee black or maybe drinking oat milk.

But for those of us who can't do without the real thing, it turns out some genetic engineers are working on ways to keep the milk and get rid of the cows instead. They’re doing it by engineering yeasts and plants with bovine genes so they make the key proteins responsible for milk’s color, satisfying taste, and nutritional punch.

The proteins they’re copying are casein, a floppy polymer that’s the most abundant protein in milk and is what makes pizza cheese stretch, and whey, a nutritious combo of essential amino acids that’s often used in energy powders.

It’s part of a larger trend of replacing animals with ingredients grown in labs, steel vessels, or plant crops. Think of the Impossible burger, the veggie patty made mouthwatering with the addition of heme, a component of blood that’s produced in the roots of genetically modified soybeans.

One of the milk innovators is Remilk, an Israeli startup founded in 2019, which has engineered yeast so it will produce beta-lactoglobulin (the main component of whey). Company cofounder Ori Cohavi says a single biotech factory of bubbling yeast vats feeding on sugar could in theory “replace 50,000 to 100,000 cows.”

Remilk has been making trial batches and is testing ways to formulate the protein with plant oils and sugar to make spreadable cheese, ice cream, and milk drinks. So yes, we’re talking “processed” food—one partner is a local Coca-Cola bottler, and advising the company are former executives of Nestlé, Danone, and PepsiCo.

But regular milk isn’t exactly so natural either. At milking time, animals stand inside elaborate robots, and it looks for all the world as if they’re being abducted by aliens. “The notion of a cow standing in some nice green scenery is very far from how we get our milk,” says Cohavi. And there are environmental effects: cattle burp methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and a lactating cow needs to drink around 40 gallons of water a day.

“There are hundreds of millions of dairy cows on the planet producing greenhouse waste, using a lot of water and land,” says Cohavi. “It can’t be the best way to produce food.”

For biotech ventures trying to displace milk, the big challenge will be keeping their own costs of production low enough to compete with cows. Dairies get government protections and subsidies, and they don’t only make milk. Dairy cows are eventually turned into gelatin, McDonald’s burgers, and the leather seats of your Range Rover. Not much goes to waste.

At Alpine Bio, a biotech company in San Francisco (also known as Nobell Foods), researchers have engineered soybeans to produce casein. While not yet cleared for sale, the beans are already being grown on USDA-sanctioned test plots in the Midwest, says Alpine’s CEO, Magi Richani.

Richani chose soybeans because they’re already a major commodity and the cheapest source of protein around. “We are working with farmers who are already growing soybeans for animal feed,” she says. “And we are saying, ‘Hey, you can grow this to feed humans.’ If you want to compete with a commodity system, you have to have a commodity crop.”

Alpine intends to crush the beans, extract the protein, and—much like Remilk—sell the ingredient to larger food companies.

Everyone agrees that cow’s milk will be difficult to displace. It holds a special place in the human psyche, and we owe civilization itself, in part, to domesticated animals. In fact, they’ve left their mark in our genes, with many of us carrying DNA mutations that make cow’s milk easier to digest.

But that’s why it might be time for the next technological step, says Richani. “We raise 60 billion animals for food every year, and that is insane. We took it too far, and we need options,” she says. “We need options that are better for the environment, that overcome the use of antibiotics, and that overcome the disease risk.”

It’s not clear yet whether the bird flu outbreak on dairy farms is a big danger to humans. But making milk without cows would definitely cut the risk that an animal virus will cause a new pandemic. As Richani says: “Soybeans don’t transmit diseases to humans.”




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Re: How raw milk became a Republican

Posted by Train Dude on Sun Jun 23 08:46:52 2024, in response to How raw milk became a Republican, posted by LuchAAA on Sun Jun 23 01:40:28 2024.

I guess that's why the left still supports biden. Basically a turnip with arms and legs

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Re: How raw milk became a Republican

Posted by 3-9 on Sun Jun 23 15:45:15 2024, in response to Re: How raw milk became a Republican, posted by Stephen Bauman on Sun Jun 23 07:47:16 2024.

Eh, not holding my breath. Even if they manage to feasibly produce casein, they're are so many milk products that depend on more than that.

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Re: How raw milk became a Republican

Posted by LuchAAA on Sun Jun 23 19:20:38 2024, in response to Re: How raw milk became a Republican, posted by Stephen Bauman on Sun Jun 23 07:47:16 2024.

Interesting article.

It's definitely the direction western nations are going in with dairy.

A combination of health concerns, animal welfare, and global warming are working against the industry.

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Re: How raw milk became a Republican

Posted by Stephen Bauman on Sun Jun 23 20:32:24 2024, in response to How raw milk became a Republican, posted by LuchAAA on Sun Jun 23 01:40:28 2024.

I used to enjoy non-pasteurized cheese. Its taste was definitely better than pasteurized versions of the same cheese.



One of NYC's better cheese stores was able to smuggle it in during the Johnson Administration. They were no longer able to bribe customs, after the Nixon Administration took over.

At that time I spotted the very same package in a Paris grocery store. I told the proprietor that it cost about 5 times more in New York.

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Re: How raw milk became a Republican

Posted by Stephen Bauman on Sun Jun 23 20:44:47 2024, in response to How raw milk became a Republican, posted by LuchAAA on Sun Jun 23 01:40:28 2024.

Homogenized milk may be a health risk. I was once acquainted with the head of cardiology of a major Connecticut hospital. He suggested a correlation between the postwar introduction of homogenized milk and the later rise in coronary heart disease.

There may be something to it. Milk isn't homogenized by shaking the milk up really hard. The fat globules attract each other, reform and float to the top. They force the milk through screens with very tiny holes. The fat globules won't attract one another, if the globule size is very small.

Consider what happens in the intestine. The small fat globules may pass through the intestine wall and into the blood stream, while the larger globules might have passed through the intestine without absorption.

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Re: How raw milk became a Republican

Posted by LuchAAA on Sun Jun 23 21:51:02 2024, in response to Re: How raw milk became a Republican, posted by Stephen Bauman on Sun Jun 23 20:44:47 2024.

I think you might be right about homogenized milk.

Lately I have been buying non-homogenized brands. Ithaca Milk or Family Farmstead.

Yes, it's slightly lumpy but not a reason to not buy it.

You have to shake it well or the fat sticks to the sides.

They come in a 1/2 gallon container. One day I used 3 cups. Next day I drank 1 more cup and noticed a ring around the previous line. Now I shake non-homogenized milk hard for consistency.

Biggest lump I had was maybe a 1/2 teaspoon.


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Re: How raw milk became a Republican

Posted by Stephen Bauman on Sun Jun 23 22:24:52 2024, in response to Re: How raw milk became a Republican, posted by LuchAAA on Sun Jun 23 21:51:02 2024.

I think you might be right about homogenized milk.

It's not my idea. It originated with Kurt Oster.



He suggested a different mechanism for how it caused coronary heart disease.

A lot more is now known about the importance of gut bacteria, so we may both be wrong.

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Re: How raw milk became a Republican

Posted by LuchAAA on Sun Jun 23 22:44:04 2024, in response to Re: How raw milk became a Republican, posted by Stephen Bauman on Sun Jun 23 20:32:24 2024.

You're lucky enough to have enjoyed good cheese like that.

Sometimes people tell me that farmers have to do something to make milk last longer on shelves. Something, as in processing like pasteurization or homogenation.

A former farmer in the Poconos told me this. She was raised on a dairy farm there, until about 1958. She thinks that the raw milk sold in Pennsylvania is minimally processed as much as they can get away with and still say it's raw. Her point is that the milk would go bad fast if it wasn't.

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Re: How raw milk became a Republican

Posted by LuchAAA on Mon Jun 24 02:10:27 2024, in response to Re: How raw milk became a Republican, posted by Stephen Bauman on Sun Jun 23 22:24:52 2024.

Interesting. I geek out for this stuff.

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