Could Bitcoin be a solution for the raw milk market?

[Herodes]

I looked at the movie farmageddon, and I saw many unebelievable things. Law enforcement officers holding families at gunpoint while simply stealing their stuff, also lots of lies, waste of tax payers money and so on. I was surprised this was possible, then again I thought it was the USA and I understand, I have never ever in my entire life seen so much stupidity as I've seen in the USA, so it figures. It's really sad though.

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[hashman]

After reading how much puss and fecal matter is in pasturized milk I dont drink it at all.  I hear raw milk is better but just stopped drinking milk completely I've been scarred. 

Most mammals stop drinking milk at a certain point in their childhood.  This is how we were built / evolved. 
A few others are pretty fucked up and drink it all the time despite the obvious health problems that result. 

Humans are, in many respects, unique among the animal kingdom.  We can actually metabolize a great many toxins, and are likely the most diverse animal in this respect.  A great example of this is chocolate, which can kill most predators if consumed in any quantity considered normal to above normal for an adult human.  Basicly the quantity required to give a child a stomach ache is likely to kill a dog without a vet's intervention.  Some things that we sometimes put into a salad are also toxic to carnivores, such as some mushrooms.  Coffee beans are mildly toxic, also.  Other less dramatic examples of commonly consumed foods that are toxic to other animals (and to some degree, humans also) include, but are not limited to, avocados, many nuts and partcularly macadamia nuts, peanuts (which, technically, are not nuts), raisins, onions, garlic, several common spices such as chives, and artifical sweeteners such as xylitol; although it's also arguable that all artifical sweeteners are also toxic to humans, by their very nature.

So the argument that humans shouldn't be drinking milk because it's not natural to drink another species' milk or beyond the age of four is, at best, lacking in scientific support.

I agree, like almost all nutritional claims, this one lacks scientific support.  It's really hard (and most would consider immoral) to do a decent controlled nutritional study.  Also, nobody really cares anyway, we care more about tradition and fashion than nutrition in our dietary decisions.  After all we have health insurance.   

That being said, lactose intolerance is really common and there are a ton of people suffering from allergies, chronic problems, that probably are somewhat lactose intolerant and don't know it.  Casein has also been shown to be a strong factor in cancerous growth. 

Also, you have a good point, the last 10k years have seen these primates adapt to remarkably diverse dietary sources. 
For the record I'll eat anything you put on the table. 

 

[Walter Rothbard]

Don't most of us consume raw milk when we're babies anyway

Actually, human milk is another market that is regulated out of existence.  Human milk has a lot of advantages for infants but in some cases mothers are unable to feed their own children and have to resort to formula or rely on donated milk.  If there were a bitcoin-enabled market in human milk, more children could be fed in this way, and mothers who are able to produce extra milk could be rewarded.

[MoonShadow]

Don't most of us consume raw milk when we're babies anyway

Actually, human milk is another market that is regulated out of existence.  Human milk has a lot of advantages for infants but in some cases mothers are unable to feed their own children and have to resort to formula or rely on donated milk.  If there were a bitcoin-enabled market in human milk, more children could be fed in this way, and mothers who are able to produce extra milk could be rewarded.

Funny you should mention that, for I have a story in this regard.  My wife is particularly well suited to breastfeed multiples, and as my first born was starting to age out of breastmilk, my wife joined a breastmilk donation network for a time.  It was a religious calling for her, and for the next month or so, she laborously pumped, sorted, froze and shipped several gallons of breastmilk in single baby-bottles.  That was the first time that I had ever heard that there was a federal law against deliberately profitting from human sourced tissue or bio-products.  Yet, blood plasma companies work around this limitation by paying the donator labor time, because the donation process is time consuming.

It's also surreal how effective of a weight loss program that a high yield breastmilk extraction activity can be.  Presumedly, it's also pretty effective at sucking the nutrients out of the donator as well.

But I digress...

[Walter Rothbard]

Funny you should mention that, for I have a story in this regard.  My wife is particularly well suited to breastfeed multiples, and as my first born was starting to age out of breastmilk, my wife joined a breastmilk donation network for a time.  It was a religious calling for her, and for the next month or so, she laborously pumped, sorted, froze and shipped several gallons of breastmilk in single baby-bottles.  That was the first time that I had ever heard that there was a federal law against deliberately profitting from human sourced tissue or bio-products.  Yet, blood plasma companies work around this limitation by paying the donator labor time, because the donation process is time consuming.

Apparently in this "capitalist" society, the only value of contributing life saving human-sourced bio-products is Marxist labor value.

[MoonShadow]

So the argument that humans shouldn't be drinking milk because it's not natural to drink another species' milk or beyond the age of four is, at best, lacking in scientific support.

I agree, like almost all nutritional claims, this one lacks scientific support.  It's really hard (and most would consider immoral) to do a decent controlled nutritional study.  Also, nobody really cares anyway, we care more about tradition and fashion than nutrition in our dietary decisions.  After all we have health insurance.    

That being said, lactose intolerance is really common and there are a ton of people suffering from allergies, chronic problems, that probably are somewhat lactose intolerant and don't know it.  Casein has also been shown to be a strong factor in cancerous growth.  

This reminds me of another point.  Lactose intolerance in adulthood is a relatively uncommon occurance in humans, which is why it's considered a medical condition.  Whereas, every other mammal loses the ability to properly digest milk of their own species shortly following infancy, including actual dairy cows.  Lactose intolerance in human infants is far more rare than in adulthood, also.

This also implies; both from a scientific/evolutionary model and from a religious/creationist model; that humans are generally evolved/designed to consume dairy products, for the inability to do so in adulthood is abnormal.

[notig]

I've read the great old rockefeller was given in old age  breast milk. Would be a nice way to go hahaaaaa.
People say we weren't designed to eat raw milk... that's debatable. But if you ferment it then it's not even worth discussing since fermentation is basically predigestion.

[velacreations]

lactose intolerant folks or people with milk issues usually do well on goats milk, which I have always found interesting.  Another interesting point about goat's milk is that it is naturally homogenized, which makes it hard to separate the cream.  So, if you want goat milk butter, you need a cream separator, you can't just let it sit like cow's milk.

Pigs digest milk just fine (they have a similar digestion system to us).  It is common to feed pigs milk or whey as a protein additive to grain.

[Beepbop]

How about "Mega Milk" as a store name for humane milk products. Perhaps if Kim Dotcom gives his blessing, there could be some cross promotion with his Mega site. "Milk Road" sounds a bit like a pun to me, and I don't like how it emphasizes the long transportation distance. When dealing in raw cow's milk and lady's milk, you want as close delivery as possible - maybe even pick it up yourself.

[Sukrim]

Pigs digest milk just fine (they have a similar digestion system to us).  It is common to feed pigs milk or whey as a protein additive to grain.

^^^ This. Humans are NOT carnivores (and as much as vegans would like it to be, also not herbivores) - we're omnivores and can eat and digest quite a wide range of things.

Still I didn't really see solutions to the 2 main issues:
1) Raw milk that's older than ~12 hours shouldn't be sold and if it's older than 24 hours it shouldn't be consumed (except if you cook it beforehand). Getting around that (freezing?) is hard and probably not safe in larger quantities. Large quantities does not mean just a few 1000 liters by the way...

2) It seems to be illegal to sell raw milk in some states of the US. No matter how you try to get around that ("But I only gave a tip!", "I paid for the gasoline he used!", "I pay for membership of the milk club!"), this stuff won't hold for long in court - why do you think prostitutes (probably also something illegal in some states in the US) don't sell monthly memberships to the BJ association?! Maybe you can rather make sure to have a deal with some farmers + local dairies to have "premium milk", "raw quality milk" or whatever sounds good to still have that local touch + charge a premium on high quality milk, but that's safe to drink and store, because it's pasteurized (but comes from happy, healthy, grass-fed cows)? It's also possible to only pasteurize, but not homogenize milk so the product would "feel" the same (and taste as well...) but can be shipped, stored, sold in local markets and so on.

[01BTC10]

This reminds me of another point.  Lactose intolerance in adulthood is a relatively uncommon occurance in humans, which is why it's considered a medical condition.  Whereas, every other mammal loses the ability to properly digest milk of their own species shortly following infancy, including actual dairy cows.  Lactose intolerance in human infants is far more rare than in adulthood, also.

This also implies; both from a scientific/evolutionary model and from a religious/creationist model; that humans are generally evolved/designed to consume dairy products, for the inability to do so in adulthood is abnormal.

Most mammals normally become lactose intolerant after weaning, but some human populations have developed lactase persistence, in which lactase production continues into adulthood. It is estimated that 75% of adults worldwide show some decrease in lactase activity during adulthood.[5] The frequency of decreased lactase activity ranges from 5% in northern Europe through 71% for Sicily to more than 90% in some African and Asian countries.[6] This distribution is now thought to have been caused by recent natural selection favoring lactase-persistent individuals in cultures in which dairy products are available as a food source.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance

On another note I wonder why buying raw breast milk is legal in the US?

[MoonShadow]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactose_intolerance

On another note I wonder why buying raw breast milk is legal in the US?

It's not.

[auzaar]

If you guys want to die of food poisoning, that's fine with me.

brainwashed!, ignorance is bliss

[Beepbop]

MegaMilk.com is potentially for sale through GoDaddy's brokerage service. MilkRoad.com is registered in China, and doesn't seem to have a website on it at the moment; I have less success with Chinese domains.

Would anyone be interested in starting up an actual business? I have some experience with off shore hosting in Japan and Malaysia; as long as it's only controversial and only illegal in some US states, and not something blatantly illegal like drugs etc. we don't really need to make it an Onion site.

If you know me from other threads, I'm not interested in bitcoin as an investment vehicle in itself, but as a facilitator of trade, and I think there's a market here that deserves to be fulfilled.

[velacreations]

If you know me from other threads, I'm not interested in bitcoin as an investment vehicle in itself, but as a facilitator of trade, and I think there's a market here that deserves to be fulfilled.

I agree.  I think there might be potential, here.

I think the key is that the site is the facilitator, and through that role, you might be able to get around the regulations.

Step 1 needs to be research state laws on raw milk commerce.  See where the loopholes are.  Can you gift milk?  Can an owner consume it?  If so, use those to your advantage.

Once you have a model, seek legal advice on how everything will fit together.

Then, start by talking with the market, getting input from farmers that already sell raw milk and from customers that buy it.