Mother: "Is raw milk really all right for children? My health visitor went white when I asked." Farmer: "What did you feed them first?" Mother: "Breast milk." Farmer: "Did you heat it?" Mother: "No." Farmer: "That was raw milk. Full of antibodies and live proteins that teach a baby's immune system what to ignore. Cow's milk carries the same sort of thing, until it's heated." Mother: "And heating does what?" Farmer: "The legal test for pasteurised milk is that one of its enzymes is dead. That's how they know it's done." Mother: "But does any of it matter?" Farmer: "Germany, Austria and Switzerland wanted to know why farm children get so little asthma and hay fever. They followed over 8,000 of them." Mother: "I'd have guessed the fresh air." Farmer: "So did they. It was the milk. Children on raw farm milk had about 40% less asthma, whether they lived on a farm or not." Mother: "Could be it's just fresher." Farmer: "They checked. Boil the same milk and the benefit goes. It tracked with the whey proteins the heat destroys." Mother: "Mine have had a cold since September." Farmer: "They followed babies as well. A third fewer colds and ear infections in the ones on raw milk." Mother: "So I'm not being reckless." Farmer: "You're asking for what every child got until about 80 years ago. From a herd that's tested every quarter and inspected twice a year." Mother: "Why did nobody tell me any of this?" Farmer: "There's no rep for it. I've a cow and an honesty box." Mother: "Four litres." Farmer: "There's two children. I'd make it six."