>Cows are exposed less to these environmental chemicals
>because they do not pump gasoline, visit the dry cleaners, use household
>chemicals, etc.
I'll buy the idea that cows don't have the same *kinds* of chemical toxins
in their milk as humans because they don't do these activities, but I find
it hard to believe that overall humans have more toxins in their milk than
cows. Perhaps it depends on how you define toxins, but what about all the
herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers that go into and onto the
feed that cows eat? What about the agricultural runoff in the water the
cows drink? Here in Texas, the dairy herds are free-range -- out in the
pastures, drinking out of the stock tanks, and many of the pastures include
oil wells that leak and spew crud onto the ground, where the rain washes it
into the stock tanks (watering holes), where it can become very
concentrated and so toxic that it kills the catfish that the farmer had
stocked in the pond. Also, the cows get all sorts of growth hormones and
antibiotics, and that there is a huge level of infection in the milk, so
that you can get pus and dead bacteria. All the bacteria/viruses are
killed by the pasteurization process, but just the thought of them being in
there, along with residue from antibiotics, etc., makes me much more
willing to accept human milk over cows' milk, any day. Also, the cows out
in fields can eat all sorts of toxic weeds that make them "loco" and cause
miscarriages in the cows -- can't remember the name of the weed, but it is
a real problem here in Texas.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D. email:
[log in to unmask]
Anthropology Department phone: (409) 845-5256
Texas A&M University fax: (409) 845-4070
College Station, TX 77843-4352
http://www.prairienet.org/laleche/dettwyler.html
***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html
|
