A1 vs A2 Response from Organic Pastures

Organic Pastures Dairy Company LLC

Explanation and Position on A-2 Milk and A-2 Milk Testing

First of all, we love and respect Joe Mercola deeply, but there is a deeper
story on A-2 testing.

About five years ago, OPDC attempted to have the A-2 Corporation test all of our
cows for A-2 genetic traits. At that time the "A-2 Corporation" was doing
business in the Upper Midwest in the USA. The A-2 Corporation refused to test
any cows unless all the milk was branded under the A-2 Corporation brand. They
also required that all A-2 Corporation milk be pasteurized.

Because OPDC is 100% organic and never pasteurize our raw milk….that was the end
of any A-2 testing idea for OPDC. The A-2 testing mandates and ideas broke all
of our rules.

About a year ago, OPDC again attempted to contact the A-2 Corporation in an
attempt to have its cows tested for A-2 Genetic traits. It was discovered that
the A-2 Corporation had gone bankrupt in North America and had just skeletal
operations in New Zealand. It took months to get an email through or contact via
phone. The answer from A-2 was that they were not providing the patented test
to anyone at that time and that perhaps in the future that the test may become
available.

As of March 2010, the A-2 Corporation is not providing tests to American
Dairymen.

There are some people in the raw milk movement that say that they have a way to
get cows tested for A-2 traits, but it is questionable whether these tests are
actually the original A-2 test and these people want lots of money to do the
test.

It is also still very questionable whether the claims made by A-2 are accurate. 
The authors of "The Devil in the Milk" book claim that cows made a genetic
split about 5,000 years ago and that Holsteins and some other breeds were more
domesticated because of calmness and other traits ( they were to become more A-1
dominant ). We have no way of knowing that this is true or not. No other
research confirms these historical concepts. Also…it is claimed that A-2 cows (
Jerseys )produce milk which is far better than cows that are tested and found to
be A-1 genetics.

We disagree with this analysis and remain unconvinced of its value. If the split
occurred 5000 years ago and A-1 is the source of modern heart disease and makes
autism worse….then this does not match up with other researchers at all. Modern
diseases began with grain feeding and confinement just 75 to 100 years ago.
Modern diseases are much more likely to be associated with modern processing of
milk and lack of grass feeding etc.

When evaluating the "67th amino acid" differences in A-2 milk, we ask a much
bigger question, when pasteurized milk is observed microscopically it is a
massive destruction zone. It looks as if it has been hit with a bomb and
everything is dead, broken and twisted. Everything is in little pieces and
nothing is alive.

How can a slight 67th position nuance of a single amino acid matter at all in
the bigger scheme of massive amino acid changes during pasteurized milk
destruction. This makes zero sense.

At OPDC about 50% of our cows are Jersey and 30% are Jersey-Holstein crosses.
The rest are Holstein.

At OPDC we believe that the cow is a part of the environment and her milk
reflects her conditions and her feed. We feed 100% pastures all of the time.
These conditions will reflect in the raw milk that she produces.

Presently, we are being approached to test our cows for A-2 traits by people
that do not work for A-2 Corporation. These tests are very expensive and we have
no idea what the results would mean or what value they would bring or if they
are actually A-2 tests at all? Who knows what they are.

For now, at OPDC, the jury is out on A-2 v. A-1 cows. We are approached every
week by people that try to sell us something new to make our products better. We
are always open to new ideas….but most of the time we stick with the very oldest
of ideas. We stick with mother nature and grass and sunshine. We are not going
to slaughter or sell off our perfectly good cows based on one book and a concept
which has not been verified by anyone except for the authors.

Both of the founders of A-2 are now dead and no one is verifying their work.

In our calculation the very best milk is raw milk from cows grazed on green
pastures and tested to assure that no bad bugs are present. This is the raw milk
that makes people healthy, rebuilds human immune systems regardless of animal
genetics.

The FDA will not allow OPDC to explain what things raw milk improves medically.

Trust us….Grass fed, tested, Raw Milk is a highly effective medical food.

See www.californiarawmilk.org for details that cannot be explained here.

All the best,
OPDC Raw Milk Team