[Azure]

Some interesting points from the article.

Allan Nation, a grazing expert, offered another explanation: the cows had been eating grass. Grass-fed cows carry a lower number of pathogens, he said. And for a few days in the spring and fall, when the weather changes and new grass sprouts, the cows “tend to squirt,” as Nation put it. But grass-eating cows have become so rare that, to California health officials, they seemed unnatural. The norms of industrial dairying had become so deeply ingrained that a regulator could jump to the conclu sion that all milk is dirty until pasteurized.

Absolutely correct, and I'm not sure why its only a 'theory.' Grass-fed animals very rarely have e-coli problems. It is pretty well known that animals that are raised in feedlots and are fed a 'corn' diet have higher e-coli levels. This has become a pretty big problem. A problem that the FDA is for the most part ignoring.

There are other bacterial opportunists that move in when a cow’s gastric environment is disturbed by a change in diet. Tired cows and ubiquitous feces combine to create conditions that are ideal for the transmission of pathogens. In a 2002 survey of American farms, the U.S. Department of Agriculture found Campylobacter in 98 percent of all dairies and E. coli O157:H7 on more than half of farms with 500 or more cows. When the milk at these large farms was tested, the researchers discovered salmonella in 3 percent of all bulk tanks and Listeria monocytogenes in 7 percent. If that milk were shipped to supermarkets without pasteurization, a lot of people would get sick. Healthy cows with plenty of energy are less likely to take on pathogens.

Biggest reason for this? Their diet.

Fascinating article really. I agree that its not feasible to expect the dairy industry to provide us with dairy products in any other way than pasteurizing everything before it is sold.

But, that is necessary because of the way the animals are raised, their diet, and the demand. Not because 'raw milk', in its pure form is unhealthy.