EXCELSIOR SPRINGS, Mo. — At Be Whole Again Farm in Excelsior Springs, you'll find chickens, pigs and lots of cows.
Those cows go toward the farm's raw milk production, one of the products that they deliver in bulk across Kansas City each week.
Raw milk is milk that is not pasteurized or homogenized.
Rachel Moser, the farm's co-owner, explains they milk the cow, and it goes through a filter into a cooling tank.
"Pasteurization and homogenization damage the milk, and it's not the same product anymore," Moser said. "[It] denatures the milk, changes the proteins and the fats, damages the vitamins and the minerals, eliminates all the probiotics."
Pasteurization was created during the Industrial Revolution after kids started getting sick from the milk.
Cows were being moved into the city, and hygiene practices were not the same as they are today.
"In today’s day and age with refrigeration, with the cleaning chemicals and all those things, raw milk is not more dangerous than any other raw food," Moser said.
However, it continues to be a controversial topic.
Recently, California health officials recalled a batch of raw milk from the company Raw Farm, LLC. after bird flu was detected.
They said no one has gotten sick or contracted the disease.
Be Whole Again Farm has a process in place to make sure things like that don't happen, like testing every batch.
"I see my cows," Moser said. "If I see that she looks depressed or off, or, you know, we’re checking for fevers and things like that. It’s on our radar which each individual cow probably a lot more so than a ginormous dairy farm."
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration does not approve the consumption of raw milk, and says it can lead to serious illnesses.
Moser has a different opinion, and she's ready to bring more cows to the farm to meet the demand.
"We don’t see an end in sight to the natural growth in raw milk," Moser said.
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KSHB 41 reporter Caroline Hogan covers development across the Kansas City area. Share your story idea with Caroline.
